Category Archives: Working it out

Working it out, Dec 18, 2015

No sessions this day: the horrific gut pain that began the night before continued into the daytime hours. I had been starting to feel a bit better, but another attack popped up to stab me under the ribs and made virtually anything beyond just sitting very still an agonizing experience. More Tums. More meds. More trying not to have to rush and have an intimate session with the toilet by kneeling on the floor and heaving my guts up. Fuck you, cancer, I’m still not going anywhere just yet.

Working it out, Dec 17, 2015

Another day at the ranch. The morning, overall, was not bad: treadmill, shower, breakfast, and off to have some blood drawn in advance of one of my doctor’s xmas gift to me – an MRI on xmas eve of my brain, to show us all there’s nothing there (ha!). I also managed to get almost all of the remaining tabascos, cayennes, and jalapenos picked in anticipation of a possible freeze Friday night.

The afternoon, however, brought with it a terribly painful gut issue. Based on the position, just under the right ribcage, my fabulous accumulated medical knowledge that I had no idea I would acquire in my pre-cancer life, told me it likely was not appendicitis, but either some kind of ulceration/irritation in the duodenum (where the stomach empties into the small intestine) or possibly a bout of pancreatitis (acute versus chronic), given that I felt like puking, but luckily only did some dry heaving.

So, I crushed up and downed a Tums, followed by my now-usual gut meds, hoping it would go away. In the meantime, since any movement just aggravated the pain, no afternoon session of walking on this particular day. This is the way it goes sometimes when your body betrays you: deal with it as well as you can, then go to bed and get some rest for whatever the next part of the battle in life is going to be.

Working it out, Dec 16, 2015

My oldest dog – the one who is mostly blind, deaf to anything but the loudest of noises, and generally a cranky old man – keeps getting me up in the very early morning hours so he can get outside and do his business. That business includes what seems to be a routine early morning poop, and if I am not quick enough to the door to open it, it becomes my business because he’s certainly not going to pick it up himself. This is relatively new behavior, as he would generally be able to hold it for the hour or so later I would be getting up anyway, but as I say, he’s an old man and it seems his body is no longer up to that task. I say this only because he woke me u on this particular day after I’d had about two hours of sleep thanks to a server issue that took me to the NOC in the wee hours. Luckily for me, there was no bonus poop round to start my day. There was also no early treadmill session, as I went back to bed for a bit, finally giving up on the sleeping attempt when I awoke just shy of two hours later.

In the evening, I had a rather bad round of reflux/indigestion, the kind that makes you feel as if you’re on the verge of throwing up or dying (or both), but got some meds down successfully and only dry heaved once or twice before recovering. I thought I might pass on the evening treadmill session, because I didn’t feel like it at all after the day that had passed. I did it anyway, and it wasn’t terrible. There’s a lesson there I should take to heart for my writing.

Working it out, Dec 15, 2015

A regular-ish morning, with a walk, breakfast, and a quick trip to the store. The afternoon, though, came with a rather late delivery from Fedex at around 2:30 of a couple of servers that needed to go into production immediately. That left me a choice: slap the installs on them, haul ass to the NOC to get them racked and then try to make it back through rush hour OR wait until after rush hour when the Construction That Never Ends on the highways would result in lane closures and detours no matter what route I chose, as quite literally, every route between here and there is under construction.

I choose the first option. I figured – incorrectly, as it turned out – that the crews would not start shutting down lanes until after the rush.  So, off I went, with a stop for gas, and I saw this across the road from the station (at Yellow Water, for those familiar with this station):

Chickens grazing

The guy with that plot of garden is usually growing something all the year round except for the couple weeks where it gets too cool even for the coolest of plants. It looked like lettuce, and the chickens were grubbing and pecking around his single group of plants there. His chickens? Who’s to say? This is the country, and seeing chickens wandering around unfenced is not unusual.

Made it to the NOC, hauled the forty pound servers in, got them racked, hooked up to the network, and hurried back out. As it turned out, it took me one hour and fifteen minutes to travel the 35-ish miles back to the ranch. Two disabled vehicles, one accident, and one closure of the center lane on the interstate, although there appeared to be no construction going on. I had a lot of music to keep me company, and used the time to flesh out some of the works in progress in my head. I also saw this guy hauling an incredibly heavy load on the trailer he was pulling.

Heavy load

Yes, that is a toy Tonka dump truck.  A definitely chuckle-worthy sight in the stop and go traffic.

After I finally made it home, I got my second treadmill session in and then went right back to work. Such is life when you own the business.

 

Working it out, Dec 14, 2015

Back in action today with two sessions on the treadmill, complete with trying to convince the puppy to stop playing with his ball and knocking it under the thing. I don’t think this will stick with him – after all, dogs have the attention spam of about four seconds, which is why they’re so absurdly pleased to see you when you just walk out to the car for something and then come back in.

Thirteen minutes this morning, just under fifteen late this afternoon, and more reading done. It’s interesting, reading a book in increments of 10-20 minutes at a time. I read very quickly, though, so it doesn’t take me forever to get through something while I’m putting one foot in front of the other to get to the end of my time or distance. It’s already becoming a habit and our (the dogs and my) routine is working out rather nicely. The only hiccup is when it will have to be done to work around medical appointments, including the xmas gift I’m getting of an MRI on my brain so they can see nothing’s there. Har Har.

Working it out, Dec 13, 2015

Got up this morning at 6 AM only to realize I had a horrible migraine and my guts were rolling, so the pups and I went back to bed after they’d done their business. After a bit more sleep, we got ourselves up and moving, but every step was like someone driving a nail into my head, so I opted for advil and caffeine. No treadmill session this morning. I did, however, get in some time late this afternoon, as the migraine had receded – and I wanted to keep the routine going, so it will just be another (better) habit. Soon, it will be time to add some weight workouts to the mix. For now, though, the med change/supplements/walking plus the assorted minimum outside stuff is what it is.

Took a stroll to the beeyard, and they were out on another gorgeous day. Alas, the day turned cloudy and it began raining this evening, so no Geminids meteor shower show for us at the ranch. As our only connection to the vast intarwebz is via satellite, that also means no live cam monitoring at Slooh. Bummer.

Working it out, Dec 12, 2015

The joys of satellite internet some days: bouncing in and out of service, even on a brilliantly clear day. Maybe I should hang some sunglasses on the dish out there. This should have posted last night but didn’t.

Both walks completed successfully today, and a new best for the second: one mile, 20 minutes on the dot. I am very slowly gaining incremental speed and time, and I’m fine with that: none of this weak, shaky stuff happened immediately overnight, and it won’t be resolved overnight, either. With the adjusted meds, plus the iron supplement, things are improving on an overall basis.

Current reading for the treadmill sessions: Silent Voices by Ann Cleeves (#4 in the Vera Stanhope series). For whatever reason – I’m guessing here that it’s because the original publication in the UK – the first three are not available on the kindle. It looks like they aren’t even available new at amazon, at least, either. These things happen when you come across an author late. Vera seems to be a rather crusty older gal, which is a nice change of pace.

Working it out, Dec 11, 2015

I went to bed at about 4 AM this morning, slept for a few hours, and got back up to begin another day. Both treadmill sessions done successfully today, the second for almost 20 minutes, something I am absurdly pleased about. During today’s sessions, I also finished the book I was reading (review later).

The treadmill I use is an older one – so old that it has nothing fancy on it, and no spot for an e-reader of any sort, or an iPod, or anything else that the modern workout warrior generally has with them. Just a belt and a way to change the speed and incline level. That’s enough: one foot in front of the other, twice a day, every day. I may never move out of that room physically with all that walking, but I can get some reading done, or just muse on a storyline or two, or think about what seeds I need to order. We are only two weeks or so out from the time I will be starting flats in the barn for spring transplanting. The point? Doing something that doesn’t require a lot of concentration but a lot of repetitive activity can really help free your mind from the mundane and let it ruminate on other things.