No more physio for me!

I'm being discharged from physio! The physiotherapist decided that my progress was good enough that I'm ready to be on my own. Friday is going to be my last day. When I exercise on a treadmill it will no longer be considered 'physiotherapy' and will simply be 'exercising.'

It's kind of a terrifying thought. Not that I don't think I'm ready, it's just a lot easier to maintain a exercise program when I have to be accountable to a physiotherapist. One of the main reasons I went so regularly was that if I did cancel, I had to call in and be grilled by the physiotherapist as to why I wasn't showing up that day.  "I'm tired" was never a good reason for them.


As part of the discharge spiel, I was told that each week I should aim for at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise, two days of weight training, and two days of good full-body stretching. Apparently I'm now going to become a gym rat. Have I mentioned before how much I hate the gym? Although I have been going pretty regularly for the past year and half so maybe I've somehow secretly turned into a gym lover without realizing.

The fun exercises like cycling or swimming won't be difficult to do but seeing as I can't swim yet due to my wound and the weather isn't consistent enough for daily cycling, I'm still going to have to rely on treadmills for awhile.

I just need to find something that's as motivating as avoiding an awkward telephone call. Being accountable to Isaiah doesn't work either as I have no problem saying no when he nags me to exercise. I'll have to find some way to reward myself if I make it out for 150 minutes of exercise a week. Exercise = starbucks treat!

Or perhaps I should try negative reinforcement which I've read actually works better. The theory is that you set up a third party member who donates some of your money to a charity you hate if the goal isn't reached. 150 minutes of exercise a week or my money goes to a charity to save the precious pigeons.

Perhaps I need to keep brainstorming ideas.

Goodbye treadmill room!

Queen of Puddings #3

I tried the queen of puddings dessert one more time when Mom and Dad were visiting and it turned out! Third time is a charm!

This time I added the breadcrumbs and didn't bake the custard which meant it set on its own. I guess that's the difference between custard mix and making it from scratch. I also put on loads of sauce which surprisingly didn't run everywhere. Success!

Set custard with loads of rhubard-strawberry sauce.

Fresh from the oven!

A sign it turned out is that it disappeared in minutes.

A good long clinic day.

I had my brain MRI scan to check to see if everything is back to normal post-seizures at 5 am this morning which meant a very early start to the day.  I thought the booking person was mistaken when he kept saying '5 am' after I kept responding with 'really, 5 am?'

Apparently it could have been worse though as when I complained to the nurse practitioner, she shut me up by saying she once had one at 230am. Turns out they do the MRI scans pretty much 24 hours to cut down the waiting list. It does explain how I was able to get an appointment so soon after the neurology consult.

It wouldn't have been so bad if I could've come right home but of course I had to stay afterword for bloodwork, wound dressing change,pfts,  x-ray, physio, and clinic.

While the rest of the day was long, it was all good news from clinic. The doctor decided that while I still have some medications that need adjusted, my lungs are stable enough that I don't have to return for an entire month. A whole month! What will I do with my time!!??

Of course I still need blood work at least twice a week and regular lung function tests but less clinic days will cut back a lot of hospital waiting. Anything beats the 18 hours I spent last week at the hospital. I was starting to feel as though I had a part-time job in hospital appointments.

Today during my part-time job of hospital waiting, I remembered to take my knitting and actually managed to knit 3/4 of a toque. It was better then watching the stupid local news channel repeat the same five stories all morning. I finished it up when we got home while crashed out on the couch. It's 7:30 and I'm ready for bed. It's been a long day.

I shall dub this one my hospital hat.

Return to pottery

I started up pottery class again last night! Yay!! I really debated both with myself and Isaiah about whether or not to sign up for this spring session but in the end, my desire to have a structured weekly artistic activity won. I tell myself it's my therapy.

I went in with zero ideas on what to make and felt somewhat aimless during the three hours. I had an idea that I would use these 8 weeks as a way to work on my skills and not worry so much about the outcome. I still like that idea but I realize that I need something to attempt in order to work on my skills. Next week I hope to go in with a better plan.

I did managed to hand build a weird leaf vase and added some underglaze that I think will look cool after firing. I also spent some time on the wheel working with what I considered to be small pieces of clay but my shoulders are still sore today. It was still as fun and messy as I remembered it to be.

Vase and the two mugs I made on the wheel.

Vase again, I'm nervous the petal thing may crack. I'll find out next week!

Physio update

I'm was back to 3.0 mph on the treadmill today! With a slight elevation and everything. Yes, my legs were screaming at the end and I'm planning a long epsom-salt-infused bath but it puts me back to almost where I was pre-transplant before the hospitalization. Now that I'm almost where I was 6 months ago, I hope I'll be able to surpass it and get myself to a new 'post-transplant' level of awesomeness.

It isn't about to happen this week however, as I still stumble whenever I attempt to jog to catch the bus. For whatever reason, my body can't seem to remember how go any faster than a brisk walk. Not that I expect to be able to sprint around town but I had been able to make a short push to catch a bus. It's a muscle memory that doesn't seem to be returning anytime soon.

My current barrier is my left knee which is not a fan of all the walking and cycling I've been doing. Today the physiotherapist told me to take a break from the exercise bike for a week to see if that helps. It's the same knee that has hurt in the past while cycling so perhaps she is right about resting it. However, she wasn't letting me off the exercising hook and told me to do the extra cardio time on the treadmill to make it up.

My arm and leg weights are also improving slowly, I am now up to 5lb and 7lb respectively. I went to the gym in the building the other day and felt inspired to try a push up and almost fell on my face. Clearly I can't start slacking in the weight department.

All of the physical improvement is helping my lungs get stronger. My pfts have also been slowly improving. I don't really notice a change from day-to-day but when I charted out my numbers from last month, it is encouraging to see a 0.5L improvement.

March's daily lung function log.