Too long since last post. So the news won’t be surprising.
Many family members were sick in the days leading up to Christmas. Me, I got sick a couple days later, and have been fighting it ever since. When I went to urgent care that Sunday after Christmas, I tipped the scale at 499. (Big wakeup call. I’m down to 493 as of this morning.)
In October, after several weeks on a higher dose of Vyvanse, I found some obsessive behaviors creeping in, including a serious difficulty leaving work. All-nighters, near all-nighters. Annoyed my wife and lead, and myself. After one, I woke up with serious swelling in my left leg. Well, more than usual – and an angry crimson, from the ankle almost to the knee. After giving it a few days to get pale again, I was sent to the emergency room to rule out blood clots. Those came up negative, but I was diagnosed with a nasty case of cellulitis. I also learned from a cousin that I have a gene that increases the likelihood of blood clots, which was news to me.
Long story short – from October to now, I’ve been almost continuously on antibiotics in one form or another. At least one of them I learned I was allergic to. I was also put on a non-generic blood thinner, which was ridiculously expensive, but fortunately only prescribed to get me through our planned vacation to Ireland. I worked a lot of days from home, and I tried with mixed success to keep the leg sufficiently elevated to promote drainage. As of now the leg is still discolored and waxy, but the swelling is down – more than it was most of last year – and I’m more conscious of when I need to be up and moving. But it’s had at least one flare up since, after we got back from Ireland.
I suspect it’s related; the swelling was so harsh that I think some of the muscles and/or ligaments got injured. I was limping through our vacation and right up to Christmas, when I finally gave in to my aunt’s increasingly strident recommendations and went to an acupuncturist. Whether it was that or the 800mg Motrin my doctor gave me, or a combination, the turnaround began in earnest after that first treatment. Enough that I made it to the pool a couple of times. I’d been a time or two before the treatment, and it was a big difference. at the moment the joint is much more flexible. I probably need a chiropractor visit – one leg feels shorter – but I’m walking with less pain and more of a stride than a waddle/lurch.
I weighed this morning a 493. I gained a lot of weight this year; months on my back contributed, but bad eating and not exercising when I could have also played a role. I know i’ve mentioned that 450 pounds is one of those thresholds for me – below it, I feel relatively unshackled. Above it, things are tougher to do. Well, 500 pounds is another threshold. Get around there, and standing for more than a few seconds at a time is a challenge. I’ve heard that losing 10% of your body weight will make an appreciable difference. 500 pounds to 450, I definitely notice. I didn’t quite take that second 10% off, whether you start from 450 or 500, but in that 410-420 range i felt downright mighty. When I had worked my way down into the 380s I felt like an athlete in a fat suit – which in many ways I was. I knew where my abs were.
Watching Biggest Loser, it’s interesting to watch the athletes as they lose weight – you see most of the change from the top down. Slimmer face, bigger shoulders, then pecs. The ratio of chest to gut begins to shift, and the gut rises from knees to closer to the hips. I haven’t lost enough in recent decades to see the end result of that transformation, but in the low 400s I could see the impact of the underlying muscle. I could flex, and it showed. But most importantly, there was a spring in my step. My favorite backhanded compliment: “you don’t walk like a fat guy.” My least favorite, but still important: when I’m not called “ma’am.” (at a certain weight, I know women who are mistaken for men, and vice-versa. I don’t like beards, but I’m never more tempted to grow one than after hearing that.)
I’m not going to go big on resolutions this year, but I do want to address what I know are major concerns: quality/quantity of nutrition, quality/quantity of activity, and quality/quantity of sleep. I want to institute a better morning routine.
I’ll let the plans come out in other posts.
Main thing: 2015 was a rough year, but not without highs. As many physical issues as I had, I made it through close to 40 hours of airport/airplane travel, ten days traveling in another country, and I made strides to getting various things better managed. That is ongoing. My ADHD treatment is still a work in progress. My nutrition is stabilizing a bit after months in free fall. I’m almost done with the last bit of antibiotics so I can start coaxing my gut bacteria back to life. As humiliating as it is to be going back to the gym weighing almost as much as I did before we spent thousands at the fancy clinic, nearly 90 pounds heavier than my recent low – we have been going, and the world didn’t end.