Working towards a pain-free existence, without need for any mobility assistance.
Can’t believe it: I’m walking more. Not a lot, but I’m walking. Out on the property, out in the world. Very short distances, but walking.
Rio tells me I have a strange gait. My feet splay out to the sides and I rock back and forth. I think it’s from years of walking with a huge belly and while in pain. I’ve been concentrating on my feet and my gait. It hurts when I walk “right. I guess it’s from years of walking “wrong”. I need to retrain those muscles.
But I’m walking!
After yesterday’s walking experience I decided to dabble in the amazing and elusive world of walking. Rio and I took off towards the little park that’s about 100 yards up the street. Up a gentle slop, then a steeper slope up the driveway to the park. My hips and lower back hurt, but not bad. I did not get out of breath. * We set on a bench for a few minutes, then did something I’ve loved to do before: climb on the play structure and go down the slide. Then we walked back.
Sounds simple, but it was a HUGE deal for me to just decide to go for a walk, enjoy the outdoors, and be a kid for a few minutes. I admit I got choked up. I haven’t been able to just go for a walk since about 2014.
So I had a doctors appointment today. It’s a reasonable length walk to get to the appointment because you have to go all the way into the main entrance and go through a Covid check and then all the way back to the clinic and up the elevator, so I generally use my scooter to get upstairs. Within the last six months I’ve been leaving the scooter in the waiting room and walking in to my appointment from there.
Today I got out of the car and started to pull my scooter out of the trunk, and realized that I had left the battery at home on the charger. Either I was going to miss the appointment, I’d be very late, or I was going to walk in. I chose to walk in.
I got upstairs, and my back was sore, but not excruciating. I got through the appointment, walked down to get an x-ray, and walked back out to the car. I am in pain, but not bad at all.
Victory!!
Another non-scale victory: even on meds my blood pressure has been around 140/88 for years. This is today.
You know the drape that the hairdresser puts around you when you get your hair cut? I went and got my hair done today, and my hairdresser said I was now in the smaller side drape. I used to be in the largest drape!
These non-scale victories aren’t huge, but with the weight coming off so slowly, they lift my spirits.
Many of the applications I use at work ask for a picture. I provided a picture when I started at this company 2 years ago. I think I need to change it now, because I look different after losing 73 lbs since joining the company.
I took the trash out today. This may not sound like a big deal, but for many years now, taking the trash bag from the kitchen to the trash cans outside has been a job for the kids or for Rio, because my back hurt so bad to even walk that short distance. Today I chose to take the trash out. It is about 30-40 yards from the front door to the trashcan. Not far, but normally that would cause me enough pain that I didn’t do it. Today I decided to do it because I was having a lower pain day. My back started hurting more right as I got back to the front door. But I did it, and it was another step in my mobility journey.
This is a before-and-after picture of me in the same dress, 8 years apart. Wow.
Weight is slowly coming off. Down 38 lbs since surgery, 72 overall. Amazing.
NSV (non-scale victory) #1. I’ve been in size 13 underwear forever. I moved to size 12 after some initial pre-op weight loss. I’ve continued to wear those, although they’ve been getting looser and looser. I pre-bought some smaller sized underwear months ago. Yesterday I wore a size 9. Pretty cool.
NSV (non-scale victory) #2. This is me, with a towel wrapped around me enough to stay on by itself. I actually can’t remember the last time I could do this. Maybe college?
I guess I should have been taking body measurements all this time, because I am definitely significantly smaller.
Haven’t posted in a while because I’m kind of holding steady. I had weighed in at 248 and then spent three weeks going between 248 and 251: now I weigh in at 246, and I’m going back-and-forth between 246 and 249. The trend is right, but it’s so slow!
An NSV (non-scale victory): went to a baseball game for the first time in two years, and sitting in a regular seat was not horribly uncomfortable for the first time in my memory. I actually fit! Didn’t feel all smushed in! And Rio and I could sit next to each other without feeling like we had to lean away from each other because we were so smashed. Small victories.