an ER trip

For the past week and half I have been dealing with some mild stomach aches. They would come and go, I'd notice them more after eating something. I paid attention to my diet but nothing in particular would stick out as the culprit. I didn't take it serious as I thought it really had more to do with what I am eating than anything else, and admittedly my diet in the last two or so weeks hasn't been the best. Than as quickly as the aches came, it was gone. I spent an entire 24 hours with no issues and I thought the problem resolved itself. I couldn't be more wrong though. Come Sunday afternoon while running errands with Aaron I found that old familiar ache resurfacing. Again I began to think about what I ate, hoping something will stick out. While Aaron was trying on some shoes I found myself unable to stand up straight, the pain was getting a bit too intense for me. I sat down and distracted myself with Facebook on my phone. Once we left the store I had no desire to go anywhere else and so Aaron took me home. I figured if I lied down for a bit, drank a little water, it'll pass. I have to say the pain I began to experience was like no other pain I had ever felt in my life. For the next 12 hours I would go through waves of intense pain, each time the wave would hit it would be that much more intense. I opted to sleep on the couch to not disturb Aaron and was holding out for the morning to get in to see my doctor. By 2 am I have had enough and could not take the pain anymore. I was beginning  to fear that it was my gallbladder causing all the discomfort so I decided to go to the ER. Immediately they took my blood pressure, temperature, drew blood, and asked for a urine sample. I was taken back to a room almost right away and the doctor was already there waiting for me as he feared it was my gallbladder as well. After a quick chit chat he decided to rule out something else first, and so I was required to drink the god awful GI Cocktail of Malox with Lidocaine. Now anyone who knows me well know weird I get with texture, so imagine how hard it was for me to swallow something that was slightly chunky. I felt like I was taking a shot of wet snot, seriously! I had to fight not to throw it up and I was forbidden to drink any water. I was greatly frustrated and wanted answers. And to my surprise almost immediately the pain began to subside, along with my tongue and throat beginning to numb out.

So the outcome? Well this instant relief meant it was NOT my gallbladder which was a great news. The doctor asked me a few more questions and we talked about possibilities and where to go from there. What he believed was going on is that the lining of my esophagus and stomach had become irritated. I had begun to feel it mildly and it finally got to a point where it needed attention. The cause is unknown but my bad diet may have not helped it much. The course of action is to take a prescribed medication for two weeks. If my symptoms persist or get worse I am to go back in ASAP, otherwise I need to go see my PCP for a check up in about a week.

I am thankful that it was not something as serious as my gallbladder but somewhat frustrated that it is something that is without a definite explanation of cause or reasoning. I hope my prescribed medication will be the key to healing and being back to my normal self!

Take care of yourselves!

one on one: day one

Today I began a new one on one session with one of my CrossFit coaches, Joon. Together we plan on strengthening my weaknesses and accomplishing some objectives from the list he had me make a week or so ago. He called today a "light" day, a sort of "consultation." If today was light, I'm scared to see what is in store. Honestly though, I loved every sweaty minute of today's session. Today's session reminded me of my days in high school during volleyball practice, when we'd warm up and go through drills sweating like crazy, and I never wanted practice to end. I kind of didn't want my session to end, it felt good to really have something catered to me.

So this is what he had me do today:

Warm-up: 500m casual row on a low damper
2x: Banded Walk 10m
      Reverse Banded Walk 10m
      Lateral Banded Walk 10m
Than a Clean Warm-up:
      10 Deadlifts
      10 Hang Cleans
      10 Push Presses
      10 Back Squats
      10 Good Mornings

2x: Dumbbell Complex Left- Clean + Press x6
      Dumbbell Complex Right- Clean + Press x6
      Deadbugs x6

3x: 1 min Airdyne
      1 min Medicine Ball throws (forward and backwards)

Finished off with: 80 Barbell Push-ups, for every time I released the barbell I had to do 10 Dumbbell Bicep Curls.

What did I learn from all of this today? Well he spotted some mobility issues, some weaknesses, and some strengths. This is how he drew it up:

Essentially a strength of mine is that I am strong and have power, but a weakness I have is muscle fatigue. Well with muscle fatigue comes mobility issues that can effect performance and work capacity. With the banded walks he spotted that I swing my left leg out, I had no idea. And the funny thing I noticed this evening was during a warm-up practice for the Snatch, I saw that when I go into my landing stance, my right foot turns out far more than my left. My right knee is a source of issues for me, typically though not so much lately. Joon has talked to me a million and one times about how important mobility is and how little dysfunctions can set off a chain reaction. And I understand that, and always have, but now actually seeing it on myself and where it lies is a bit eye opening. I really look forward to seeing what else he finds and more importantly experience changes/fixes of my weaknesses. 

I am officially exhausted and I think it is time to retire for the day. But before I go, I just want to say how thankful I am for Joon agreeing to work with me and help me. I have no words to express my gratitude and I am so excited for my future sessions!

"If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you." -Fred Devito

a night hike

Last Saturday night I went with a group of people for a night hike in the Gorge. I have never gone hiking in the evening before but Aaron has done it before and had explained how much fun it had been. So I agreed to join him and friends on their 3rd annual night hike. About four cars full of people met close to 10pm near the head of the trail of Wahkeena Falls. Once we were all set we took off for our hike, which ended rather quickly, at least this portion. You see, it's dark and even though we have headlamps and flashlights, it's hard to fully make out what paths to take. We ended taking another path that leads to the main trail instead of heading on the trail and ended up near Multnomah Falls. Now if you have been to or live in the Pacific Northwest, you know Multnomah Falls is beautiful and can be a bit of a hike for someone whose not in fair shape. We took a vote and decided to head up Multnomah Falls, I was indifferent to the idea but honestly deep down I was dreading it because I knew the hike up would set off my asthma (no worries, I had my inhaler). Sure enough not even half way up I was sucking on my inhaler and taking a breather break. Astonishingly though, I took very few breaks than I have had in the past and this made me giddy.

There were many other unexpected events that happened that night as well, things I had not anticipated. In the cover of darkness with just our individual lights, we got an opportunity to witness the wilderness come to life after-hours. We saw a baby owl yelling out to mom, or dad, from a tree up high. We came across a scorpion on the edge of the path minding his (or her) own business, we oohed and awed. In one of our breather breaks back down we turned off our lights to gaze at the stars and were lucky enough to see a shooting star and a couple of satellites coasting on by. But by far the most amazing thing that I had a chance to witness with my own eyes was seeing the Milky Way. I have seen it a billion times in photographs and video footage but never up in the sky right above me. It wasn't the clearest of nights as we weren't far out enough from the city to get a decent clear look at it but it was a noticeable presence. What an experience!

I am thankful that I managed through this hike unscathed and only had a minor asthma attack. I'm grateful that all my hours I have put into CrossFit is paying off as the hike up Multnomah Falls did not kill me as it has in the past. And I enjoyed speaking to new people and getting to know some of them on our trek back down. I will most certainly join this group again and perhaps even create my own group with friends to share this amazing experience!

Milky Way, not my photograph or one taken on my trip.

and I am back

Spring term ended a little over a week ago and I can happily say I passed all of my classes with big fat A's. Not that I was entirely worried about failing any of my classes, but I know for two of them I was hanging on a borderline between an A or a B. So needless to say, I successfully passed my first full term in the Fit Tech program. With that said, I will most likely only be completing one more term within the program, and probably with only 1 or 2 of the required classes- if that. See, it has come to my attention that I already have or close to having all the necessary credits to receive my Associates in General Studies (AGS). I know that is not the Associates Degree I was after, but if I go the route of the AGS than I can transfer to a 4-year university to begin working on my Bachelor's Degree. I have decided that I want to attend Concordia University and have already applied to begin in January. Now I play the waiting game.

In other news, it's been great getting back to a more regular CrossFit schedule. I definitely lost some of the gains I had achieved prior to the school term. I'm slowly regaining them back but it's been a bit difficult. I've enlisted the help of Coach Joon to help me work on my problem areas and to achieve some goals. He had me make a lost of my strengths, weaknesses, objectives, and future goals. I completed it and handed it in, next week we will begin working on a plan. I will keep you posted on what's to come.

Be sure I will now be posting more regularly again and look forward to making progress again!

This photo was taken from Pinterest.