recovery

[Lallafa]

Guess who's back

I used to have a thread here, but stopped keeping track.

Since I've been gone

• my left patella was traumatically dislocated. doc Martin heel vs knee cap. don't recommend.
• became unable to run due to extreme pain and discomfort
• limped around at work for a long time
• after a year, had a knee surgery
• stopped smoking
• shortly after the knee surgery, turned yellow. had some liver issues
• lost 10 pounds in a week, 160 -> 150. goal weight! didn't feel good. had literally 0 appetite, didn't eat at all
• admitted to the hospital. recovered with the aid of rocephin, but still had messed up labs.
• MRI, ultrasound, biopsy, the works. diagnosed with "mmm, maybe just a random infection? weird."
• became a vegetarian (mostly... it's hard to give up fish, but I only eat it every once in a while). maybe more of a flexi-pesci-vegetarian.
• gained back 15 pounds over six months while pushing at pt to recover the knee function
• got back to work on the bus
• started smoking again

I've been back on the truck for about a month now. It's going okay. Was feeling rusty at first, but doing better now. I was hoping to have used the knee recovery period as a kinda sorta sabbatical but it wasn't as relaxing as I was hoping. It's getting close to the time when I think I'll be able to run again. I miss running so much. Surgeon said once I can do one-legged squats on the bad knee, I'll be safe for running. I'm probably gonna follow that advice, although one-legged squats on that bad knees seems awfully ambitious.

Let's consider this my eye-of-the-tiger recovery thread. I've been keeping up with the monthly challenges (sometimes adapted for the knee). Feeling ready for a program I think.

Not quite 40, but close enough. Plus I like dumbbells. Gonna start with the new and shiny SOMA.

MONDAY 05 AUG 2024
off work!
Dog walk around the block, just a half mile
SOMA Day 1 Strength Level I
Left off the weights for the Reverse Lunges. Left knee still not thrilled with body weight lunges. Weirdly, the weight-bearing is (mostly) fine; just a bit shakey. It's when I'm lunging on the right and trying to lower the left down to the ground where it hurts and my brain gets weirdly panicky. I wonder if that's a mobility thing instead of a strength thing.
Otherwise: Calf raises 9kg/db; bicep curls 9kg; lateral raises 5lbs/db; chest rows 5 lbs/db
Exercise of the day 30 sec side plank
Stomach Vacuums Challenge Day 5
Better Balance

 

[Fremen]

Welcome back

 

[aku-chan]

Welcome back!

 

[Lallafa]

Thank you @Fremen and @aku-chan And everyone else for the likes. Happy to be back.

TUESDAY 06 AUG 2024
Work. Carried all of the equipment up some stairs to a second-story bedroom. Lifted an average sized person with my partner. Stair-chaired him down. Carried all the equipment down the stairs. Moved a very big person (350lb+) to and from the stretcher with my partner (and some nurses at the hospital), readjusted her periodically during transport. A wee bit of lifting today.
SOMA 40+ Day 2 HIIT Level I
EotD 60 sec tree pose
Stomach Vacuums Challenge Day 6
Daily Legs Level I
An evening doggie walk around the block, ~0.5 mi.

 

[graoumia]

welcome back

 

[MadamMeow]

Welcome back!

 

[Lallafa]

Thank you @graoumia and @MadamMeow And everyone else for the likes

WEDNESDAY 07 AUG 2024
EotD 30 calf raises
Stomach Vacuums Challenge Day 7
Work. Very busy. A lot of walking around in the heat and moving people and stuff around.
SOMA Day 3 Strength Level I; squats and squat holds done with 9kg; tricep exts done with 5kg
spinal twists and general on-ground stretches before bed


THURSDAY 08 AUG 2024
Work. Another busy busy day. We're apparently fully staffed. Which means there are no spots left open to hire people for the county. However, it's been consistently every day several instances of level 0 for months and months. Hopefully this gets reviewed in the city council session soon, because I'm tired of running running running, and still seeing strokes and other emergent calls holding because there's no trucks available. I guess all the stats for "fully staffed" are from 10 years ago or something, when the population was less. We also need another ED in the county, because we're on bed holds at almost every hospital, because they're just out of space, and especially the main two in the city. Idk. I'm tired. Happy I'm off work this weekend.
SOMA Day 4 Breathing and Stretching
Stomach Vacuums Challenge Day 8
EotD 30 crunch kicks
WotD Stakeout (full body stretching)


FRIDAY 09 AUG 2024
SOMA Day 5 Strength Level I 5kg/db all exercises. Subbed out single-leg RDLs for the regular RDLs, so that I could justify not pausing to change my weights.
EotD 30 squats
WotD Core & Balance Workout Lower Body Strength & Tone Level I
Stomach Vacuums Challenge Day 9
Doggie walk around the block, ~0.5 mi


SATURDAY 10 AUG 2024
Doggie walk around the block, ~0.5 mi
SOMA Day 6 HIIT Level I. My high knees are not very high right now. Tried to keep them as up as possible without feeling the knee buckle. Hopefully this is something which will improve soon. High knees is a good tester for preparedness for a couch to 5k attempt.
WotD 20 side to side lunges with toe point. Attempted, but failed. The left knee is still not capable of this yet. Subbed for some half side lunges. Again, to the point where the knee was near wobbling, but not quite.
Stomach Vacuums Day 10
Feeling a bit covid-y. Tired, even though I didn't do much today. Had a lot of exposures over the past couple weeks. Lots of people wanting to get checked out at the ED for Covid symptoms. Guess how many people with these complaints wore masks... If you're guessing more than 0, you're wrong. People are the worst.


SUNDAY 11 AUG 2024
SOMA Day 7 Yoga
Stomach Vacuums Day 11
WotD Ladybug Full Body Yoga
EotD 40 side kicks
A long doggie walk around the neighborhood, ~1.5 mi
Not ready for work tomorrow. It hasn't felt like enough time off.

 

[Lallafa]

New week new post. An on-week for work, so might not update daily.

MONDAY 12 AUG 2024
Work. So busy. All the covids. There was one adult man that my partner and I lifted.... it was mostly my partner. She's a beast.
SOMA Day 8 Strength Level I. 5kg/db for all, except for the lat raises which were 5 lbs/db.
EotD 10 Hop Heel clicks
Stomach Vacuums Day 12


TUESDAY 13 AUG 2024
Work. Another day, running all Covid-related symptoms. Another day, no patient wearing a mask upon our arrival. Everything today started either this morning or the day before. Everyone's vitals were stable, with complaints ranging from "nausea" to "I don't feel good." Yes, they all went to the ED. The EDs are all clogged up. It was like a Covid groundhog day, the same call over and over and over. We got a late call too, but honestly I was just so happy that it wasn't another not-that-sick Covid. I know it's the job, but it's not fun being an uber for people that are more than capable of driving themselves, or only need to try drinking water and getting rest. Anyway, the late call guy had a bleed from a surgical site, on thinners. Hemostatic bandages weren't working, but direct pressure did the trick. By the time that we got the ED, he was only oozing without pressure. It was about a 20-25 min ride; that's a workout there, holding pressure on a fella's head.
SOMA Day 9 HIIT Level I. Honestly more of a Lazy Intensity Intervals than High Intensity, but still done.
Stomach Vacuums Day 13


WEDNESDAY 14 AUG 2024
SOMA Day 10 Strength Level I. 10 kg for the one-leg RDLs and squats. 5 kg/db for hammer curls. 5 lbs/db for chest rows and lat raises.
Stomach Vacuums Day 14
EotD 30 W Extensions
Walk around the downtown, ~1.5 mi
Had a lovely date night. Walked about. Found somewhere with some outside seating and live music and had a beer. There's nothing nicer than sitting outside and listening to music in the summer.


THURSDAY 15 AUG 2024
Halfway through Auggie Doggie. How is it going so fast?
WotD Abs, Please. Abs Strength/Tone *** Level I
EotD 30 sec superman stretch hold
Doggie walk around the block, ~0.5 mi
Stomach Vacuums Day 15
SOMA Day 11 Breathing & Stretching
Took my stray cat to the vet today, and he was a Very Good Boy. He's very sweet. I named him Jamon, because he's a ham. Jamonito when he's being cute. Not surprised that he did well, but still happy it went smoothly. He even loaded himself into the cat carrier when it was time to go. I'll try to get a photo loaded for the cat tax when I can.

Cat tax:




FRIDAY 16 AUG 2024
Work. Busy again.
SOMA Day 12 Strength. 10 kg for the lunges. 5 kg for the overhead tricep ext. 5 lbs for tricep extensions.
EotD 20 jumping lunges. A very soft jump. Still counting it!
Stomach Vacuums Day 16


SATURDAY 17 AUG 2024
Work. We had a very busy day. Started out with a 95-year-old female throwing hands at my medic student. We used some verbal judo on her to convince her to walk out to the stretcher with us, but before she sat onto it, she tried to push her rollator into the cops that showed up on scene. I shouldn't have found a homicidal memaw adorable, but she was. Hx dementia, just a little meaner than normal per family. We also worked a code. And ran an anaphylaxis with multiple patients on scene. And some others. I don't remember them all. Glad that Covid streak broke. It was very hot today.
EotD 50 side leg swings
SOMA Day 13 HIIT Level I. I was glad that it was cardio today. After a busy day, nothing clears the mind like a little cardio. I miss running so much. Slight improvement on the high knees.
Stomach Vacuums Day 17


SUNDAY 18 AUG 2024
Work. I guess the Covid cloud broke, and the combative dementia patient cloud rolled in. We had another one. He managed to land some hits, pulled my student's hair, and spat in my partner's face. Luckily, no bad damage done. The nursing home called us out initially because he had hit another resident; they said this is normal for him. So I guess now he'll be living in the hospital, because I really don't think he'll be going back to the memory care unit.
WotD Rhapsody Full Body Yoga ***
EotD 30 sec elbow plank hold
More stretches
SOMA Day 14 Yoga
Stomach Vacuums Day 18

 

[Lallafa]

MONDAY 19 AUG 2024
Feeling very tired today.
SOMA Day 15 Strength Level I. 10kg for all except for the chest rows and lat raises which were 10 lbs.
EotD 30 second single-leg hops. More of a rapid calf raise on the left leg. Knee not quite up to hopping yet.
WotD Overdue. Cardiovascular/Vo2 max High burn/streamline * Level I.
Stomach Vacuums Day 19


TUESDAY 20 AUG 2024
SOMA Day 16 HIIT Level I
EotD 30 leg raises
Stomach Vacuums Day 20
WotD Keep Defender Upper Body Strength/Tone *** Level I

 

[Lallafa]

Wheeewwwww, it's been a busy stretch of time. For workouts, I skipped one day, but it was very social and busy, and we still walked a 10k, so I'm still counting it in the daily exercise streak. I'm going to try again to keep in the habit of updating this log... I finished the stomach vacuums challenge, although towards the end I was not able to keep that much weight in that position on my bad knee, so I modified the position slightly (bad leg extended). I'm sure that changed the full benefits, but my knee was getting so achey over the whole next day in the original position. For the SOMA days, I was mostly using 5kg dumbbells, although lat raises were usually 5 lbs/db.

WEDNESDAY 04 SEP 2024
Work. Of course busy again.
SOMA Day 30 HIIT Level I
One Thousand Squats challenge Day 4; 25 sec squat hold
EotD 30 plank leg raises
WotD Stand & Deliver; Full body / High Burn Streamline / ****; Level I; A very soft jump squat and jump lunge.

Thinking about what to attempt next... Ronin? I've got a handy bokken... Ronin + running? I'm considering doing the couch to 5k challenge next. If my knee gets too bad I can always stop. It's not like I'll be sprinting in any case. The weather's too perfect to not run. Runner Prime is almost what I'm looking for, but it's a few too many running days which I worry will be too much for the knee. Maybe Pathfinder? I could add in extra running days to hit a walk/jog/walk/run three times a week for the weeks where there's not enough running days. Is that going to be super disheartening if my knee gets bad and I have to stop for rest days? Maybe Unbound + running? At least I could keep going forward with Unbound if the running becomes too much. Maybe I should do another 30 days of strength training before testing it. My surgeon said I should be able to do a one-legged squat on my bad knee before trying running, but I'm mostly there? Just a little assist, and it's been almost 8 months since the surgery... I really don't want to mess the knee up, but I really miss running. I just don't know. We'll see how I feel tomorrow...

 

[graoumia]

congrats

 

[MadamMeow]

Congrats for the challenge!

 

[Fremen]

Congrats

 

[Anek]

Congrats on the challenge!

 

[Lallafa]

Thank you @graoumia, @MadamMeow, @Fremen, and @Anek <3


THURSDAY 05 SEPT 2024
Work. It's never not busy. We did catch a break around noonish and got posted to a FD with some weights. I did four sets of lat raises w/ 10 lb dumbbells and had just moved on to bent-over lat raises and then we got a call.
One-thousand squats challenge Day 5; 40 squats


FRIDAY 06 SEPT 2024
One-thousand squats challenge Day 6; 30-second squat hold
Ronin's Blade Day 1
50 bonus cross chops with the bokken
EotD 20 sumo squats
A wee bit of billiards. I've gotten very rusty.


SATURDAY 07 SEPT 2024
Ronin's Blade Day 2
One-thousand squats challenge Day 7; 45 squats
EotD 30-second boat pose hold
A lot of walking about the local Ren faire! It's still too hot for the costume I got for October, but I still threw on some sparkly makeup and elf ears.


SUNDAY 08 SEPT 2024
A walkabout in the morning, about 2 miles.
Ronin's Blade Day 3; Fight to Kill!
One-thousand squats challenge Day 8; 35-second squat hold
EotD 30-second squat hops on the spot

 

[Lallafa]

MONDAY 09 SEPT 2024
Work.
Ronin's Blade Day 4; You fought to kill.
One-thousand Squats Challenge Day 9; 50 squats
EotD 30-second side-to-side back fists


TUESDAY 10 SEPT 2024
Work. Was with another medic today which was very nice. It was a very ALS-y day.
Ronin's Blade Day 5
One-thousand squats challenge Day 10; 40-second squat hold


WEDNESDAY 11 SEPT 2024
Work. Picked up a princess shift, only 6 hours. We ran calls all six hours. We also managed to move around a 500 lb guy. He was very nice, but dang he was big. We were called out because he was short of breath because he was laying supine. Able to fix it just by sitting him upright. It seems like an uncomfortable way to live. Luckily we were able to get enough hands to move him safely, both at the rehab center and at the hospital.
Ronin's Blade Day 6 + Optional Quest (10 push ups x5 sets)
One-thousand squats challenge Day 11; 55 squats
EotD 30-second bear pose hold


THURSDAY 12 SEPT 2024
One-thousand squats challenge Day 12; 45-second squat hold
Ronin's Blade Day 7; Join the Underdogs
EotD 30-second Superman pose hold
WotD Upper Body Tendon Strength; Upper Body Strength/Tone **
A doggie walk around the block; about a half mile. The weather is so nice. Still warm, but turning into Autumn.


FRIDAY 13 SEPT 2024
Work. Not horribly busy today, but they did try to pop us with a late one.
WotD Star Master; Lower body Strength/tone **
One-thousand squats challenge Day 13; 60 squats
EotD 30 toe taps
Ronin's Blade Day 8; Camping with the Underdogs
Double Trouble; Lower Body Combat Skills *** Level I


SATURDAY 14 SEPT 2024
Work. Very tired. Feeling crispy, crispy burnt. Wish I had a little more time off.
One-thousand squats challenge; 50-second squat hold
Ronin's Blade Day 9; This was the most difficult one so far.


SUNDAY 15 SEPT 2024
Work. Dispatch has started giving people calls ever after they've gone out of service for end of shift. We managed to avoid it, but we were just very lucky. I wish we weren't being gas lit by admin about how we're so fully staffed while we're holding calls almost constantly between noon up through midnight.
One-thousand squats challenge; 65 squats
Ronin's Blade Day 10
EotD; 60-second balance hold

 

[Lallafa]

MONDAY 16 SEPT 2024
Ronin's Blade Day 11
One-thousand squats challenge; 55-second squat hold
A little yoga. A few flowy poses for about 15 minutes.
So much cleaning. I tidied stuff up, scrubbed my carpets, wiped baseboards, did a ton of laundry, sweeping, mopping, etc. I still didn't have enough time to get everything done that I wanted to do, but at least when I have another day off for cleaning I'll at least be starting from a better point. It's hard working and also maintaining the house.


TUESDAY 17 SEPT 2024
Work. I picked up a full 12-hour shift today, and I probably shouldn't have. I started today tired, and I'm still tired. My partner and I are friends, but it was still tough, and it felt like a long and slogging day. Mostly nothing crazy, although at the end we had back-to-back emergent returns. We came off 45-minutes late because we were holding on the wall with our second one. They had a hemorrhagic stroke and a gunshot wound to the head come in at the same time (and it was also shift change for them), and so our emergent return polypharm overdose waited in the hall with us for about forty minutes. An email came out today about how the county wants to cut down on overtime hours, so now if anyone want to pick up any shifts, it must be a full 12-hour shift instead of just a 6 or 8-hour shift. I don't know; it doesn't make sense. I suppose I will not be picking up any more overtime. Fine by me. It just sucks that now we'll be even more short-staffed than we already are because people don't want to come in for a full 12 on their days off. Not looking forward to the rest of this week. Thinking about getting my nursing degree and fleeing this end-stage capitalism hellscape of a health care system. I probably just need some time off. Feeling burned out and so so tired.
Ronin's Blade Day 12; fight the shadows.
EotD; 30 calf raises
WotD Side Quest; Upper body strength/tone * Level I
One-thousand squats challenge; 70 squats

 

[Lallafa]

WEDNESDAY 18 SEPT 2024
Work.
One-thousand squats challenge; 60-sec squat hold
Ronin's Blade Day 13; I finally did it. I knew my low ceilings were an issue, but I've been very careful during the prescribed movements, very controlled, especially on the overhead cuts. When I went freestyle for the sparring match, I was going too quickly, flowing, and broke a ceiling light. I won that one with gusto.


THURSDAY 19 SEPT 2024
Work. So tired. Big calls. Late calls.
One-thousand squats challenge; 75 squats


FRIDAY 20 SEPT 2024
Ninja HIIT; After the light fiasco, I got scared to click on Ronin's Blade. I went bladeless today.
One-thousand squats challenge; 65-sec squat hold


SATURDAY 21 SEPT 2024
One-thousand squats challenge; 80 squats
A wee bit of walking around. Maybe a couple miles.
Very busy running errands around town. A fun day, but busy, and social.


SUNDAY 22 SEPT 2024
One-thousand squats challenge; 70-sec squat hold
Ronin's Blade Day 14; Panda modifier. Thanks Panda!
EotD; 40 balance low turning kicks


MONDAY 23 SEPT 2024
Work. Never not busy. Ran all day. Nothing too wild, and a good mix of ALS and BLS, so my partner and I were able to switch calls often. Dispatch looked out for us at the end, so we came off on time.
One-thousand squats challenge; 85 squats
Ronin's Blade Day 15; killed the shadows on day 12, there are fewer of them today.
EotD; 40 side leg raises

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Wow. You have been through the wringer with your knee and then subsequent illnesses. Glad you are back on the horse now and the knee is improving!

Congratulations on completing SOMA and the Stomach Vacuums Challenge!

I am so sorry re: the situation with your work. It is the same here, unfortunately. Healthcare is very understaffed. People say they want better. But then at election time they vote for politicians who promise to lower the price of beer, not ones who want to raise taxes on the wealthy so we can actually afford better healthcare. Pretty serious disconnect there.

My father made use of your services many times during the last few years of his life. (It was so bad one year, we joked about needing to add the local paramedics to our Christmas card list!) My mother too, twice, during the year before she ended up in long term care. Your work is so important. I think you are a hero for putting up with all that you do. I'm sorry your community does not value your work enough to hire enough people to actually fill its needs.

 

[Lallafa]

Thanks @Laura Rainbow Dragon. Sorry that your mother and father needed EMS so frequently! Hopefully your mom is doing ok in her long-term facility, and your father's passing was as easy as it can be.

My area was hit heavily by Helene. It was a disaster. Friday morning at 5:55 AM my alarm went off, and before I got out of bed a tree fell on my house. No one was hurt, and the damage didn't seem that bad, no rain leaking in, so I went to work. During the day, my neighborhood became inaccessible by car because of all the trees and power lines that fell. Luckily, no animals or people were seriously injured (although there were many inaccessible/entrapment calls that held for a while in my neighborhood specifically). The entire county was out of power. Our first call was a guy who was breathing bad; even with CPAP and Albuterol and a mag drip, he didn't break 90% O2. The hospitals were on generators. We tried to get to many patients that we just couldn't reach because the roads were trash. Critical calls were holding for hours. Most fire departments sheltered in place during the morning. Luckily my partner and I didn't need them, but a lot of my coworkers got stuck trying to get people out of houses with only what was on the ambulances and the scenes. One of my coworkers said he went to a scene where one male had been killed by falling trees/structures, and they had one female entrapped. He tried to get to that lady with a hatchet that was on scene, because fire either couldn't or wouldn't leave their station, and that's all they had.

At one point, a fire department came over the radio and said they had a priority 1 patient at an MVA, so my partner and I jumped it, even though were on the way to a Breathing Problem. We got to the scene, truck on its side. Our priority 1 patient was walking talking with no obvious injuries, only reporting hip pain. He walked to the truck and we took him to the ED. While we were there, another crew came in working a cardiac arrest that had come out as a Breathing Problem.

A police car became an ambulance for someone that cut their hand off with a chain saw, because we had no available ambulances.

Things have calmed down since the morning of the storm. The line men are working really hard to get everything cleaned up and power back on. (Only two of them have been involved in auto vs pedestrians so far - must repeat the mantra I don't hate people I don't hate people I don't hate people.) My house is accessible by car now, but I still don't have power. A lot of the county still doesn't have power or running water, but the lights are coming back on a bit at a time. We have a coastal county ambulance service up here running calls with us. Never thought I'd see the day that a coastal county came to help us after a hurricane; we're so far in...

It's been... a lot. The burn out is real. I love my job, and truly I have no idea what else I would do, but it's just been a lot.

The calls have varied between truly sick sick people that need us - which feels... good isn't the right word exactly, but I'm not sure if I can find it. A problem, a thing that needs to be fixed immediately and for which I have training to fix. Even happy to be there for sick sick people that I can't fix. An arrest that we work that doesn't get ROSC? At least we tried; we can help the family with next steps. We ran in a lady that had been vomiting for three days, and was severely hypotensive and altered and had some electrolyte imbalances; didn't fix her, but she 10/10 times needed an ED. Thrilled to be there to help. And then we go and run someone that wants to go to an ED because their devices aren't charging (even after we try to explain that FEMA has set up a place with power for them at a local high school). Or a couple that were involved in an "MVA" at a light that doesn't have power because the truck behind them let their foot off the brake and idled into their back bumper, no injuries, ambulatory on scene, no damage to their vehicle, no airbag deployment, vehicle still driveable. A lot of our mantra this week - I'm not burnt out I don't hate people I'm not burnt. It's exhausting, but it does seem like we're on the back end of it for now. Hopefully these next couple storms don't hit us so bad.

I guess the positive is that we finally have the coverage we need now. I wish we could keep these coastal county trucks forever. We're back to our regular call volume now, and we still need them. So hopefully the city council will up EMS funding. I guess time will tell. I have high hopes and low expectations.

/rant.

I've been unable to keep up with Ronin's Blade. I've been skipping the bokken days, and just doing the non-bokken days. Have done a few daily dares and occasionally an exercise of the day. Once I get back into my house and have power back, I'll pick up the bokken days to finish it out.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Glad you are okay at least @Lallafa ! Hopefully you have seen the worst of Helene and repairs/return to normalcy will go smoothly and quickly.

 

[Fremen]