By early afternoon, most local transit was running again (after the latest large snowstorm), and I decided to keep my appointment with Emilie at the gym. The trip was a little annoying, because of slush at intersections, but not bad otherwise; the air temperature was around freezing, and the trains were running well. The gym was (no surprise) less crowded than it has been lately, though far from empty.
I did a bunch of cardio, and then a reasonably good session with Emilie. In the course of conversation, she said that she had been unsurprised when I told her that after months of slow progress and some reversals, my knees had suddenly gotten a lot better: this is something she's seen before and expected, but she didn't predict it because she had no idea of how long it would take, and didn't want to set me up for disappointment. Nonetheless, this took long enough that I had been starting to think that while we were doing nice things for my balance and posture, it might not fix the knees, and that I might be looking at a relatively small but lasting disability. I am still being cautious: I took some elevators and a ramp at different subways stations. But I also used the stairs down on my way into two different stations today, both because I wanted to get indoors and out of the slush sooner.
Cardio, 18 minutes, top heart rate 138
Rolled out the IT band, then did a calf stretch
Hamstring bridge, 4 sets of 7
Crunches lying on physio ball, 2 sets of 10 (which is a lot for me, of that style, and Emilie said I had done them well)
Squats with ball, 3 sets of 15
Calf exercise with ball, 2 sets of 15
Balancing on the foam roller; trickier, because the floor we were working on was smoother than the one we had used in previous weeks. (I had discovered yesterday, working here, that it was a lot trickier on the wood floor than on my exercise mat.)
Then we did an exercise for my shoulder muscles, which involves me pulling carefully downwards, over a fairly short range, on handles attached to a machine; this time I stopped near the end of the second set, because I need to be careful of the shoulder.
One where she loops something around my wrists, and I then pull gently away from the midline (this is done standing, with my forearms straight out from my body).
Rowing on the physio ball, 35 pounds, 2 sets of 15, then 30 pounds, 11 or so (stopped because my elbows said enough, as they had with the previous exercise). I had felt the second set as a bit of a strain, so took the weight down for the third.
This morning around 9 I noticed a faint rash near one ankle; I made a note to ask![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cattitude to look when he got home, and see whether he noticed anything, and what he thought. By the time I headed out to the gym (4ish) it was more noticeable. By the time I changed into my gym shorts, it was noticeable on a significant amount of that leg, and a bit on the other. Emilie commented on it; it was clear that I would be asking Cattitude what he thought, not whether he saw anything. It's not looking as bad now as it did at the gym, but it still doesn't thrill me (and the light there is better, which might be relevant).
The rash is apparently out of nowhere; I am suspecting that it may be an allergy to Keflex (an antibiotic I've been on for the last week because of a skin infection, which it seems to be taking care of), mostly because I can't think of anything else that has changed. (I haven't eaten anything new, or even any familiar thing but from a new place; I have no new clothes, and we haven't changed laundry detergents.)
I have taken a Benadryl (antihistamine) on the theory that it might help and is very unlikely to hurt.
I did a bunch of cardio, and then a reasonably good session with Emilie. In the course of conversation, she said that she had been unsurprised when I told her that after months of slow progress and some reversals, my knees had suddenly gotten a lot better: this is something she's seen before and expected, but she didn't predict it because she had no idea of how long it would take, and didn't want to set me up for disappointment. Nonetheless, this took long enough that I had been starting to think that while we were doing nice things for my balance and posture, it might not fix the knees, and that I might be looking at a relatively small but lasting disability. I am still being cautious: I took some elevators and a ramp at different subways stations. But I also used the stairs down on my way into two different stations today, both because I wanted to get indoors and out of the slush sooner.
Cardio, 18 minutes, top heart rate 138
Rolled out the IT band, then did a calf stretch
Hamstring bridge, 4 sets of 7
Crunches lying on physio ball, 2 sets of 10 (which is a lot for me, of that style, and Emilie said I had done them well)
Squats with ball, 3 sets of 15
Calf exercise with ball, 2 sets of 15
Balancing on the foam roller; trickier, because the floor we were working on was smoother than the one we had used in previous weeks. (I had discovered yesterday, working here, that it was a lot trickier on the wood floor than on my exercise mat.)
Then we did an exercise for my shoulder muscles, which involves me pulling carefully downwards, over a fairly short range, on handles attached to a machine; this time I stopped near the end of the second set, because I need to be careful of the shoulder.
One where she loops something around my wrists, and I then pull gently away from the midline (this is done standing, with my forearms straight out from my body).
Rowing on the physio ball, 35 pounds, 2 sets of 15, then 30 pounds, 11 or so (stopped because my elbows said enough, as they had with the previous exercise). I had felt the second set as a bit of a strain, so took the weight down for the third.
This morning around 9 I noticed a faint rash near one ankle; I made a note to ask
cattitude to look when he got home, and see whether he noticed anything, and what he thought. By the time I headed out to the gym (4ish) it was more noticeable. By the time I changed into my gym shorts, it was noticeable on a significant amount of that leg, and a bit on the other. Emilie commented on it; it was clear that I would be asking Cattitude what he thought, not whether he saw anything. It's not looking as bad now as it did at the gym, but it still doesn't thrill me (and the light there is better, which might be relevant).The rash is apparently out of nowhere; I am suspecting that it may be an allergy to Keflex (an antibiotic I've been on for the last week because of a skin infection, which it seems to be taking care of), mostly because I can't think of anything else that has changed. (I haven't eaten anything new, or even any familiar thing but from a new place; I have no new clothes, and we haven't changed laundry detergents.)
I have taken a Benadryl (antihistamine) on the theory that it might help and is very unlikely to hurt.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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I haven't forgotten the shocking grinding sound one day as I did a 60kg squat press. I've never seen my trainer move so fast. But as he took the weight off me, all prepared to deal with agony, I looked at him, and said, stunned, "my hip doesn't hurt!". Ten years of whatever it was had just come unhooked.
Other things have been slower, but that was a moment to treasure.
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I'm not sure I ever explained what was wrong with my knees: last spring, the left knee had started hurting some on stairs, and then I stepped wrong and put all my weight onto it for a moment, and it started hurting worse. I saw my doctor, who diagnosed a bit of arthritis, and sent me for X-rays, which found nothing.
Simultaneously, I had a free trainer session at the gym. I told the manager that I wanted someone who could deal with the knee thing, and my bad shoulder, and wasn't going to assume I wanted to, or should, lose weight. He sent me to Emilie, who had some time ago noticed that I was walking oddly/off balance in subtle ways. And who thought this was connected to the knee thing. So we've been working on balance and positioning, and improving my proprioception (or maybe my use of that information). Also on building up knee strength, once things started to feel a bit better.
For most of a year, I have been avoiding stairs as much as possible: that meant not doing certain things, and shaping other things based on which subway stations have elevators or ramps. (And, for a while there, a lot of crosstown buses to reduce walking.*) It seemed to be getting very slowly better, and then suddenly seemed almost entirely well.
*Taking a crosstown bus in rush hour does not save time.