a Taj MuttHall Dog Diary: Health Update and looking ahead to Tuolumne

Friday, July 12, 2013

Health Update and looking ahead to Tuolumne

SUMMARY: Dogs and humans.

Tika's eye: Three days of ointment and the redness had nearly vanished. After the full week's course of three-times-a-day ointment, not only did her eye look good in general, but that weird lump in the inner corner completely vanished. Interesting.

Boost's itching: Itching itching itching. Still using hydroxyzine after checking with the vet that it's OK to do so. If I stop it, she definitely itches more, but it's not so bad either way that I want to use prednisone to knock it out.

Human mom: What a mess! But in some ways, not so bad!
  • Left foot (diagnosed as capsulitis in 2nd metatarsal/phalangeal joint): Got a cortisone shot two weeks ago. Made it worse for a couple of days, seems to be typical. Seeing a massage person to work on that by recommendation from some agility folks. I think that's helping; following it up with homework that he gives me to work on it myself. Didn't bother me all weekend except for the rare turn in certain directions, can't quite pin it down. Whole foot, actually both feet, seem sore to pressure, once we went through and evaluated them more carefully. Interesting.
  • Lower back: Not good. Sciatic nerve pain comes and goes down right leg and some in left leg, tells me that the disk problems are definitely acting up. But the muscle pain all across the lower to middle back is what's really getting me. Still not sure about whether that's a side-effect of the disk issues or a separate issue. Had no problem running all weekend, but found myself walking carefully because, again, certain twists or movements really hurt. Didn't lift much of anything, ever, and crated out of the car so didn't have to set up or tear down. Monday and Tuesday were miserable indeed.  (As in 2000/2001, sitting is the most painful thing.) On tuesday, doc put me on a short course of prednisone to try to knock out the worst of the inflammation.  MUCH better on Wednesday, although clearly not fixed. Starting physical therapy next week.
  • Knees: Well, ha ha, funny knees have felt fine all through this (as long as I don't try something silly like kneeling). I felt good running all weekend, and in class last night I felt great all over, nothing made painful by running at all, even my cardiovascular endurance seemed good which makes no sense given how little exercise I've been getting. But I'm not complaining. Hope it keeps up through this weekend's CPE trial.
I really miss hiking and long walks, I'm realizing. Really really miss it. It's so tempting to just go do them and the foot pain be hanged. I think the foot is marginally better than when I first went in to see the doc, but not majorly.

And, way down deep, I think that a lot of the issues are aggravated by the fact that my weight is up to the highest it's been since 2001. Harder to tackle it if I'm supposed to be not using my foot.

Oh, and I'm going to Tuolumne** Meadows (Yosemite) in a mere 3 weeks, and had hoped to do some hiking! I'm going to be SO not ready for primetime. But at least it should be beautiful, and going with good friends, so that's all good. Haven't been up there in, wow, maybe 20 years, who ever thought it would be that long? There I am in 1970. Still have the hat, not the shirt, which was a huge favorite and perfect light-weight, quick-drying long-sleeved for backpacking or hiking.


I love this photo from wikipedia, maybe I can get some of my own like that! If my lungs can quickly acclimatize to 9000 feet (2743m) elevation:



Now you can keep images of the gorgeous high Sierras in your mind as you go about your weekend.



** Tuolumne, pronounced TWA-lum-ee, or too-Ah-lum-ee.

4 comments:

  1. Man I hope your pain gets better soon. I had back pain this past week and sitting was torturous . But walking and running felt fine. Weird. It finally went away after a few day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad that your back pain went away quickly. I like the example that you set for my back!

      Delete
  2. Oh wow, that's great news about Tika's eye!

    Somehow I'm not surprised that you still have the hat. And, um, is that shirt tie-dye blue and purple? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL about the hat! And the shirt is not tie-dye, it's giant '60s flowers, but yes, primarily purple with blue & yellow flowers. How did you know? ;-)

      Delete