Overview of 2010 and hopes for 2011

A reminder of the 2 weeks of deep snow and freezing weather conditions of this December. It's a little Blue Tit just outside the patio doors, wishing he had a bit more branch to perch on!

I can't believe another year of 'rehab' has gone by....

This time last year, my body/muscles weren't capable of swimming. The most I could do was lie on my back and do flutter kicks for a short time (1-2 lengths). My frozen/dysfunctional left shoulder made it impossible to do any arm strokes (coupled with the fact that my shoulders were generally very weak and unstable). The weakness in my hips/core made me susceptible to injury if I attempted anything too vigorous or complex with my legs. I had to be careful and deliberate in all my movements.

Yesterday, I was at the pool and swam 20 lengths (10 backstroke, 10 breaststroke) (500 metres). Initially, nothing hurt, which was wonderful! After about 10 lengths, I was getting pain in the front of my left shoulder and battling cramp in both feet. But, there has been clear progress to get this point at the end of the year.

Below is the graphical summary for this year.

For the first 7-8 months, the average daily exercise continued to increase. However, I was still getting a lot of niggling pain/injuries. For the latter part of this year, I opted for a "less is more" approach and reduced the avg daily exercise to allow my muscles to grow/recover/repair between activities. I think it was important that I spent a good 18 months getting my body to do more and more - I guess it was essentially about getting my muscles/nervous system etc back 'online'. Now, I seem to be in a new phase where I can do less and concentrate on actually developing more strength.

Below is a graph showing the trend for the average daily exercise for the past 2 years. It clearly shows the steady increase until the peak and, latterly, the reduction to allow for muscle growth/repair.

The biggest issue through all of this rehab has been how to manage injuries and pain. There are a number of chronically problematic areas: the LHS lower back; left glutes/hip; right upper thigh/groin/hip and left shoulder.

I had hoped that by the end of this year the hip/back problems would have settled down but that's not the case. However, I am learning to manage them better. In particular, I think I've finally found the perfect stretch to target the LHS lower back tightness/pain:

Since I started using this stretch, the back pain has become more manageable (and, dare I say, is decreasing in frequency/intensity?!).

I definitely have more range of motion in my left shoulder now although it's still restricted and painful on abduction, in particular.

So, for 2011....let's put down some hopes/aims even if they evolve into other things...

• Be able to swim 1/2 mile (32 lengths)
• Get to a point where the back and hip pain are essentially gone
• Get full range of motion in my left shoulder without pain
• Continue to gain stability and strength in my shoulders and hips

Finally, this year, I have relished the involvement in table tennis and always felt like it symbolised tangible progress. Here's hoping 2011 has something of this tangible progress in it too.

Labyrinthitis

A week yesterday afternoon, I had this sudden episode of intense vertigo (feeling like the room was spinning) which then waxed and waned through the afternoon/evening. At the time, I put it down to tiredness and not sleeping well when I had a guest staying. On the Saturday, I took it easy, not wanting a repeat experience. Sunday, I went out for a great walk, 4.5 miles, which felt like a real achievement (although it aggravated and hurt my right upper thigh/hip/groin).

Anyway....by Wednesday, I'd developed further symptoms all connected with my ears. They felt blocked but my hearing was hyper sensitive. I was still getting short but regular experiences of vertigo and difficulty visually processing sudden movements especially on the TV. It kinda felt like my eyes would suddenly be spun around in my head and I'd have to wait until they stopped spinning. I made an appointment with the GP for the following day.

Thursday, my ears still felt blocked and my hearing was acutely sensitive. Every sound produced in my ears the sensation and shock of shattering plate glass. I'm having to whisper when I speak because the sound of my own voice is too painful to hear. Boiling the kettle, flushing the loo, every sound feels like it is hitting the raw nerves in my ears. The waiting room at the GPs was virtually empty but what noise there was was almost unbearable to process and it was the impact of the sounds in my ears which made me feel nauseous and dizzy just sitting there.

The GP confirmed that my middle ear and ear drum were fine and healthy, and diagnosed Labyrinthitis - an inner ear infection. It's viral so I just have to wait for it to clear up. Today, my ears are still blocked and my hearing is still just as painfully sensitive. It seems that the virus is affecting the cochlea portion of the inner ear worse than the vestibular system. I'm trying to make sure I protect my ears as much as possible from experiencing sounds that 'hurt' - I don't know whether my hearing is more susceptible to damage from sound in this state or not?!

(image from Link)

Quiet Week

No bird picture today (the light has been awful) - instead, thought I'd post a picture of my latest creation (?!) from my pottery class. It's hand-built using coils, in red terracotta clay, biscuit fired and finished off with beeswax.

It's been a fairly low-key 10 days in terms of rehab. The weather has been freezing cold/icy/snowy etc so I've not really wanted to go out on long walks. The hospital gym session was cancelled on Tuesday cos the physio was off sick. I improvised at home and felt suitably achy afterwards. Plus, this week, I had a friend coming to stay whilst she did a course in London, which meant I kinda had to save my energy for that.

The LHS lower back tightness/pain has continued but I'm hopeful that it will eventually settle down once the hips/pelvis get a bit stronger. My left shoulder has been particularly achy/painful and is also causing pain down my arm and through the hand. I shall be so pleased to get back to the pool and swimming after Christmas!

P.S. For any Open University friends who read this blog, I have finally been cut off from FristClass access after 2 years of not studying. If you'd like to get in contact, feel free to leave your contact details (email address) in a 'comment' and I'll delete it when I moderate it (all 'comments' remain private until I authorise/moderate them), thanks!

First Hospital "Gym" Session

Well, I survived. I spent yesterday feeling quite nervous about going to the hospital. I really had no idea how my body was going to react to the exercises and I had no idea what to expect in terms of what I could manage. The strength and ability of my body is still so unknown to me.

I made it to the hospital through the snow and ice and was one of two people working with the physio yesterday. He took us around the equipment, showing us what to do and then left us to do it at our own pace (whilst keeping an eye things).

The circuit was as follows:
5 mins on exercise bike
10 reps glute bridges
10 reps 'press-ups' against the wall (I did this with my feet away from the wall, making a 45 deg angle)
2 x 10 reps leg extensions (can't remember the weight lifted)
2 x 10 reps leg press (can't remember the weight lifted)
1 minute on wobble board
10 reps bicep curls with lower back flat against the wall
20 reps step-ups
10 reps hip abduction, adduction and extension using red theraband
2 mins sitting on exercise ball

My LHS lower back was painful anyway yesterday so it was no surprise that from the bike work onwards it was tight/achy. However, I was very careful and caused as little extra pain as possible. I came home and iced it, which helped.

The bizarre thing about all of this is that even doing the circuit, it all felt easy. My brain was telling me 'this is nothing, I could do this in my sleep'. But, in reality, once I was home, I could feel my body had 'worked out' and I was tired. There is no way I could manage anything more demanding or brutal. That was my maximum and yet, that was way below what my brain thinks is do-able. I can't seem to accept or understand that even though my appearance hasn't changed, the internal make-up of my body has obviously changed dramatically. I am a looooong way from being the person who could play county hockey or 2 hours of tennis or not really think about how many reps I did at the gym.

It does seem to me that the scale for recovery is enormous. What I mean is that we're not talking about getting from 0 to 10 in terms of strength/fitness. It's more like getting from 0 to 5000, where each increment of '1' takes weeks and sometimes months to bring about. I'd say I'm at about 1000 for my lower body, a fifth of the way towards reaching normal strength/fitness. For my upper body, I guess I'm at about 500, just a 10th of the way there. It seems that the complexity of the nervous and musculoskeletal systems mean that innumerable mechanisms and architecture need to be brought online, trained, synchronised, strengthened and so on before it's all up and running properly. And, it takes a long time! My shoulders and upper body have quite a way to go yet.

I slept until 10am. I feel ok today. I'm aware my legs worked out yesterday but I'm not really stiff as such. The LHS lower back tightness/pain is 'there' but only minimally, which I'm very pleased/surprised about. All in all, so far, so good....