17 Hours Later

I feel mostly caught up on sleep. I actually feel pretty good, now, so I guess it worked out in the long run. I'm pretty beat up from the unexpectedly tough practice yesterday on top of a pretty decent run, though. Today is going to be nice and quiet, and I'm going to eat a bunch to make up for the meals I slept through yesterday.

3:45. Seriously, People?

3:45am, I am awakened by the inexplicable sound of water running through the pipes. (My bed is right on the outside wall next to the laundry area and building hot-water heater, so this isn't an unusual sound at less god-forsaken hours.) Then the washing machine starts up. "Seriously?" I think. "No, really, seriously?"

So I had a bunch of caffeine today.

Week One

So we're seven days in to the new year. I have two pages of notes on how everything is going, but the short version is: fine. It's been a pretty steady week, pain-wise - a little higher than I'd like but not problematic. I've done all the physical activities I planned to, and they didn't seem to affect my overall pain level at all, which is fantastic. I was on a steady dose of prednisone all week, and at this point I feel ready to drop down again tomorrow.

One of the hardest parts is ratcheting my plans for the future down - I keep wanting to add all kinds of exercise and do drastic things to my diet, etc. Hopefully with concentration I can rein that in and stick to stuff that I can actually go through with.

I Keep Forgetting

I just want to remark that I always forget how much better actual food tastes. I made bay scallops with garlic butter in about five minutes instead of my all-too-common post-practice Taco Bell run, and I ate them in about five seconds. So tasty! And so healthy!

Grocery Shopping

Among other things, I'm trying to live on a fairly tight budget right now, so I took more than my usual care grocery shopping. I pulled a couple of recipes I wanted to try, stopped off at my local mini Asian market to get some of the more obscure items, and went to the regular HEB for the rest. Lots of vegetables, a huge package of chicken thighs (I have roasted a couple whole chickens lately but the thighs are my favorite, and damn they're cheap) and some ground beef. I really wanted to take advantage of the eighteen-pound bag of locally-grown oranges for $5, but I just can't imagine eating all of them before they go bad, so I settled for the four-pound bag for $2. What a crazy markup!

The first thing I did when I got home is make Masaman curry with the chicken thighs - it's supposed to be better the second day, so I cooked it up and then portioned it and stuck it in the fridge. Initial tastings are promising.

I'm definitely slightly stiffer than I have been. It's pretty rainy, and I expect I'm still adjusting to the lower dose, so I'm not really worried yet. This is where having a spreadsheet is really handy - I can see that last time I dropped my dose, it took about five days for the pain and stiffness to level out, and the third day was the worst. So I'm not trying to change anything else right now, because my body is behaving as expected.

Today will be my first day back at karate since the holiday break. I'm looking forward to it, although my quads are still complaining from Sunday. My quads are unduly whiny.

Recovery

I'm predictably sore today, but in the good way. My joints are actually feeling pretty good - maybe a little irritated, but no big deal. I think my plan is to go to karate tomorrow and Thursday this week - going today seems like it might be a bit much, with the soreness and the run this morning.

I had a really funny moment on the scale this morning - the first reading was 10 pounds down from yesterday. I'm still not sure what happened, exactly, but, nice as that would have been, I'll have to settle for a pound and a half.

Pumping Iron

Wow, I have missed lifting. My Crossfit Total trip to the gym was a complete success - I was able to lift a pretty respectable percentage of previous maxes, and while I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow, I didn't have any pain while actually lifting. I'm going to keep an eye on my hands in particular, though. I really don't have any way to spare them stress when lifting heavy, and while it's not impact, I am not certain how they'll handle it.

Despite yesterday's pronouncement, I dropped another 5mg of prednisone today. Looking at my spreadsheet seemed to justify it. Off-the-cuff extrapolation - Tuesday will suck. Let's see what happens!

Happy New Year!

I'm starting the new year feeling pretty good. I didn't overdo last night, so I got my run in at a reasonable hour and with some success. My joints seem to be tolerating the running pretty well, even if my calf muscles still resent it. The real test will be next week when I try to run and go to class a couple of times.

I did have a touch of heartburn last night. This has been cropping up lately, and it's somewhat worrying. Unfortunately, it could be caused by either of my medications, alcohol, caffeine, or a variety of foods, or any combination thereof. It's been pretty sporadic, so I just want to note it when it comes up.

Today will be a very light day, food-wise. I ate plenty of good, rich food last night, and I'm not remotely hungry yet. I think it'll probably be a soup-and-leftovers day.

I'm going to hold on at this dose for another two days at least, and see what Monday's practice does. My fingers are crossed. I'd like to be off the prednisone by the end of the month, but I need to be really better.