Friday, March 26, 2010

Musical Ouch

It recently dawned on me that all those long term ouches I've been struggling with are slowly but surely fading away.

When I first started out it was the terribly painful calf problem. Took lots of crazy painful sports massage therapy to sort it out, and I still have to be hypervigilant about them.

2 years ago it was tendinitis in the left wrist... PT resolved that, but babying the left wrist caused it to flare up in the right wrist.

Couldn't get treatment for that - insurance was maxed out. So I spent a whole year without full use of my right hand because of the intense pain in my wrist.

Then, of course, was everybody's favorite game show, Fun With Plantar Fasciitis. That started 2 years ago, shortly after Bear was born and I tried to get back into running too soon, and with the wrong kind of shoes.

It's kind of like I spent the last 3 years with someone secretly playing music chairs with my aches and pains... the music stops and they move to another body part. But until now, it appeared somebody had forgotten the bit about taking chairs away.

So imagine my utter surprise and delight yesterday when I realized that - after my run workout 2 weeks ago... and my rollerblading last week.... and my trampoline jumping this week... NO. PAIN.


Just been so darn busy I didn't have time to notice the pain wasn't slowing me down any more.

I'm not limping to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I can put bra on without cringing. I can wear cute shoes again. Even the funky thing trampoline jumping does to your calves hasn't been a problem.

Of course, it wouldn't be Musical Ouch without new pains.

Well, a new old pain. The shoulder I messed up 3 years ago - the one I was in PT for when I found out I was pregnant with Bear - it's giving me a helluva time lately.

Doc told me then it was impingement syndrome. It had been fussy on and off lately, then I picked up Bear a couple of weeks ago and felt it kinda... go. Now it's mad all the time. Makes it hard to sleep, get dressed...

But at least it's currently the last musical chair standing. Not gonna lie - had so much chronic pain the last 3 years I was starting to think my tri days were over. But now I've got renewed hope and 2 races in my sights for 2010.

I'm hoping to get in with my doc soon. I want see if he can shut off the music on this shoulder problem so I can enjoy my first pain free season in years.

Bear's jump therapy is a blast for both of us!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Getting to Know You

That is so totally the song that was stuck in my head just now.

My brain was singing it to my hip flexors almost immediately after embarking on what I'm pretty sure was my first solo inline skating mile EV. AH.

Back in school, I only ever went with my roomie. And now I've only gone the one time, sticking close to home, supervised by WH. Going by myself was, frankly, totally scary.

And I totally set up a safe call with my BFF. And then sent up a shout out to the FSM requesting that if I DID happen to totally wipe out, could it please not crush the phone I brought with to call for help in case I totally wiped out?

It was tough. It was mostly into a stiff breeze. And most of it hurt my legs in fascinating new places. Some of it hurt enough to make me want to quit.

But I sucked it up and I went twice as far as my original goal! (OK, going around my supersized block isn't the biggest goal there ever was, but still! I doubled it!)

Way too warm today for my cool weather tights, but I wore them because road rash isn't my color. It's gonna be a long time before I feel confident enough on wheels to wear shorts.

But holy cow does this use different muscles than running - if I manage to cross train with skates and the dreadmill, my legs are gonna look HOT!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Bruised for Bear

My little gymnast's new trick is to flip over the back of furniture.

He thinks it's hilarious. Me thinks he's going to break his cute little neck.

Few days ago he was bouncing on the couch (because the two trampolines he has for this purpose are apparently not good enough) and from across the room I could actually see the thought bubble forming over his head...

He was SO. GOING. to flip over the back of the couch.

Until now it's been chairs on carpet, when he gets out of our sight and we can't stop him - thankfully the soft landings haven't hurt him. But the couch backs up to the kitchen's hardwood floor.

I dove across the couch and grabbed his foot just as he started to go for it. Managed to catch him, but my leg slammed against the frame of the couch and I got this for my efforts...


The bruise is about 8 inches wide and 4 inches high. Whole left thigh is still a bit stiff and sore, but after a few days of healing I managed to get in a 20 minute run and a tentative 10 minutes on my shiny new rollerblades.

He's really starting to get good at pedaling his bike. Next post like this I'll probably be in a body cast from diving in front of a bus...

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

27 Months

My little Bear is 27 months old. And he finally, FINALLY, started calling me Mama.

It's not that he didn't pronounce the syllables before, but they were always nonsense sounds, buried in a string of other nonsense sounds. Usually when he was angry, or hurt or tired.

That it took so for this simple thing that so many take for granted drives home for me that I really do have a special needs child. But I cling to the fact that his needs are manageable, and if I do my job his challenges can be mitigated.

Finally hearing my baby call me Mama makes everything else - the special concessions for his neurological triggers, the 4 times a week therapy appointments, the fears about the problems he could encounter at school, the daily struggle to fill the bottomless pit of his therapeutic needs - EVERYTHING. Just a little bit easier.

Now, when I come home, the first thing I hear when I open the door is his precious little voice yelling "MAMA!!! YAAAAY!!"

That's worth everything.