Book of Jamez

55 y/o malcontent, something of a writer

Category: Health

  • Hobbling Around

    I made a decision to try to get back to the gym. I hate the gym, really not a fan at all, but I was giving it a shot anyway. I enrolled at Vida and the membership started August 1.

    Monday I started my new routine by going to Spinning Class which was hard, but it was day one and I know it gets better with practice and routine. I still managed to strain my right knee and for the rest of the day and half of Tuesday I was kind of limping around.

    Wednesday morning I thought I would try Step class as I really don’t mind that or spinning so much. The class attendance was small – just three of us, I guess maybe people don’t like Step anymore or like other things more. We had just gotten started, I stepped up and down numerous times and had my knee up a repetitively here and there.

    As I stepped down from a step to the left I knew I had stepped wrong and I heard/felt a “pop/snap” and knew that was going to hurt. I tried to stretch it out but I couldn’t and hobbled my way home. At home I called in sick, iced and raised my leg and just sat there mostly. It’s hard to do much of anything hopping around on one leg.

    Thursday came and it was still pretty painful to walk on it, but I took a cab to work anyway. At the office the boss and other folks convinced me to see a doctor – I’m stubborn and hate going to the doc. I saw a doctor at around 3:30 and he said I’d likely strained my gastrocnemius muscle. Yes, it sounds like a stomach thing but it’s really a leg thing.

    From Wiki:

    In humans, the gastrocnemius (pronounced /ˌɡæstrɒkˈniːmiəs/ or /ˌɡæstrəˈniːmiəs/) muscle, meaning ‘stomach of leg’ (modernLatin, from Greekγαστήρ (gaster) ‘stomach’ and knēmē ‘leg’, referring to the bulging shape of the calf), is a very powerful superficial pennate muscle that is in the back part of the lower leg. It runs from its two heads just above the knee to the heel, and is involved in standing, walking, running and jumping. Along with the soleus muscle it forms the calf muscle. Its function is plantar flexing the foot at the ankle joint and flexing the leg at the knee joint. In a 1967 EMG study, Herman and Bragin concluded that its most important role was plantar flexing in large contractions and in rapid development of tension.

    The gastrocnemius is located with the soleus in the posterior (back) compartment of the leg. The Lateral Head originates from the Lateral Condyle of the femur, while the Medial Head originates from the Medial Condyle of the femur. Its other end forms a common tendon with the soleus muscle; this tendon is known as the calcaneal tendon or Achilles Tendon and inserts onto the posterior surface of the calcaneus, or mountain bone.

    Deep to the gastrocnemius (farther from the skin) is the soleus muscle. Some anatomists consider both to be a single muscle, thetriceps surae. The plantaris muscle and a portion of its tendon run between the two muscles, which is involved in “locking” the knee from the standing and posterior tibial vein and the tibial nerve. Since the anterior compartment of the leg is lateral to the tibia, the bulge of muscle medial to the tibia on the anterior side is actually the posterior compartment. The soleus is superficial midshaft of the tibia. Frequently there is a sesamoid bone called the “fabella” in the lateral head of gastrocnemius muscle.

    So they gave me crutches and I was wheeled out in a wheelchair to the taxi stand where I took one of those home.

    Friday I had a pre-scheduled eye exam as I had broken my glasses during a recent trip to Wisconsin. Gary was kind enough to drive me there and after my appointment I was wheeled to the Metro. I applaud Kaiser for having people available to wheel the mobility challenged to and from public transportation.

    What I found once I got on the Metro to work was that Metro didn’t plan ahead for people who are mobility challenged. The accessible entrance (elevator) for Union Station was at the very end of the platform and the one at Takoma was in the middle of the platform. As I thought about the different stations that I usually use I can recall some that are at the complete opposite end and some staggered along. This makes hobbling along on crutches or rolling along in your wheelchair harder than it has to be. Fortunately for me I wont have to go to the office on until Thursday and can avoid the pitfalls of Metro’s broken escalators, elevators and long distances between elevators.

    I also thought about my meetings and the long staircases that I would have to climb to go to my regular meetings and I just don’t see it happening. I’m going to pop in a few AA speaker CD’s and soak in what I can and make other arrangements with my sponsee so I can avoid his stairway too.

    Anyway, I should only be hobbling around for a week or so and I hope to be traversing DC’s sidewalks like the streetwalker I am before you know it. 😉

  • Over Not Under

    I have peculiar habits – I assume most people do. For instance when doing my daily dental activities I

    1. Use the Waterpik (which if you don’t have one I highly recommend)
    2. Rinse with Plax (it loosens up the existing plaque before you brush)
    3. Use my SonicCare toothbrush (love this)
    4. Rinse with ACT

    For some people, that might seem like a lot and for other people they’d be shocked to hear I don’t floss also. I do all these things because I really have no desire to let Dentists mess up my teeth or even fix up my teeth unless it’s absolutely necessary. (On several occasions I’ve had huge panic attacks while in a dentists chair, usually before they can even say “Hi how are you today.” )

    It goes OVER!

    I also am a firm believer that the toilet paper goes OVER not under. I have even taken steps in other people’s homes to correct this situation when it arises, which thank the gods has not happened very often. I can’t wrap my head around having it under, it makes absolutely no sense to me. Why? How should I know – it’s just tantamount to blasphemy!. Blasphemy, I say!

    So Tuesday afternoon when I arrived at home I was stunned to see the roll in my bathroom placed in the under position.  Every other Tuesday is when the cleaning lady comes – so I know who did it, and she’s done it before. The last time she did it she replaced the roll with a new roll as it was almost out – I could understand that and thought “Perhaps she was in a hurry and didn’t realize that she put it on incorrectly.” It’s possible… or so I thought, until Tuesday that is.

    See as a precautionary measure I’ve been making sure the rolls are pretty full on the days she comes to the house to avoid this affront to humanity. This time it was deliberate, she actually removed the roll to place it back in incorrectly! *Gasp*

    I was really upset about this and thought it might ruin my whole day – then I remembered that I’m fortunate enough to have a cleaning lady come to the house twice a week for a reasonable fee. I can manage to put up with this little thing and maybe she’ll eventually pick up on the proper way to roll – OVER not under.

  • Testy

    Yesterday, it was all I could do to not smack the happy couple walking in the middle of the sidewalk in front of me – holding hands, smiling, bumping into one another. I did manage to just walk by them and not smack them with my bag… but I was tempted. It’s not only that they were a happy smiling couple, they were in the middle of the sidewalk and oblivious to other peoples needs to get around them… ok, maybe it was just that they were a happy couple.

    I had my annual physical yesterday as well, all is normal: high cholesterol, old man, lose weight, eat better, exercise and get some sleep. Truthfully I have a great doctor at Kaiser who is easy to talk to and doesn’t rag on me to much. I was tested for everything and I’m negative… so were the tests.

    Today I go into the CVS, and granted I’m not smiling and wearing my Harley Davidson Biker boots and just generally pissed off and a police officer follows me in and stares at me until I’m done. Go figure.

    I can’t find anything in my iTunes Library that I want to listen to. Sigh.

    This weekend I’m heading to the Virginia Beach area to spend time with Zanne, that should be helpful. I’ll go to the gym with her a few times, Body Step and crap, but it should be ok… I don’t mind step classes. And she said we could go see Tron – she meant Thor – so hopefully Tron isn’t playing anywhere…

  • Sleep

    I would just like to sleep in…

    1 god damn mother fucking day I would like to sleep in…

    just once a week

    that should not be that much to ask for.

  • Physical

    So I had a physical in November. No reason other than just the annual thing…

    I explained to my doctor, as I do to all doctors/dentists/pharmacists, that I’m in recovery – clean and sober 13 years. And yet at the end of my physical she handed me a document to improve my health that included:

    Don’t smoke
    Moderate alcohol
    No drug use

    If she was deaf, it wasn’t clearly pointed out to me, so I don’t know what her issue is.

    She did notice that there is apparently a growth on my right testicle, something I didn’t notice… but now I can’t help but notice. But I wonder at this point, if she didn’t pay attention to my drug/drinking history.. is there anything to see on my testicle or is she just trying to make me paranoid… which I am now.

  • Why I Hate The Gym…

    Even when I was young, I never had any real desires to exercise. While my siblings would be out in the snow or running around outside playing tag or ball; I would rather be in my room reading a book or watching TV.

    In school it was a little different, I learned to detest P.E. class. Silly exercises that were mandatory, taught by either frightening muscled out hairy beasts or the women that wanted to be frightening muscled out hairy beasts. There was no explanation as to why these were necessary, what they would do for us, it was a ‘chore’. Now, the rest of school was also a chore, but it seemed less so to me. I didn’t mind learning things, just didn’t want any sweat involved in the learning.

    So tonight, I go off to Gold’s Gym and meet with my personal trainer for the last time. I haven’t actually seen her in a few weeks, nor been to the gym. I just can’t drag myself to go, there is nothing of interest at the gym and I find it very boring.

    I guess I’m self conscious too, I often compare myself to others outsides or what I see this guy or that guy doing. So and so can lift this much weight and I can only lift this much weight so why even try. It seems an effort in futility to me.

    What I really need is a reason to go, some kind of motivation or excuse that will inspire me… and I haven’t found that yet.

  • Personal Trainer

    So when I think of Gold’s Gym, I think of heavily muscled men in an over packed gym filled only with barbells and testosterone. My Gold’s isn’t like that, THANK GOD. It seems very friendly, I think they could use more treadmills, but that’s true of most gyms.

    My personal trainer is very perky, and knowledgeable and mean… well, she’s supposed to be mean. I am sore, and grumpy as a result.