Sleeping In

I consider myself a "morning person". I tend to get up and moving early, and I seem to think best in the mornings. I am no good in the evenings, and I retire early.

During my work years I learned to get up every day at the same time. I read somewhere that if you do that, then it is not a struggle to wake up on weekday mornings because you've slept in on the weekend. Every day the same. Lately I've broken with the tradition.

Yes, being retired has its advantages. I can choose when to get up unless I have an appointment or class. I do, however, like to get things out of the way. Thus I wake up early enough to get physical therapy out of the way so I can have the rest of the day to myself. And I wake early on Aqua days, even though the class starts at 10:30 am, because I like to have time to myself to get going first.

OF late, though, I have been sleeping in. I wake up and just want to lie there longer, fall asleep again. The pattern that has emerged is that I get up early to feed the cats, bring the wet food for one cat back to my room with me, shut the door on the others (they all want his food), and go back to bed. I then get in another hour's sleep, sometimes even more. Yesterday I didn't get out of bed until after nine. This, for me, is very late. Will it be ten next?

I think one reason I have gotten this way is that for many months after surgery my knee, my calf, some part of my leg would hurt in the morning. Nothing I did would ease it, so there was nothing for it but to get up and get moving. Now, however, I don't feel that pain. Lying in bed is so wonderful! I love it and I want to enjoy it.  So in a way this sleeping in is a good sign. On the other hand, another reason I like lying in is that getting to sleep at night is often very difficult. Sometimes it is my mind, racing around, not willing to stop. Other times it is my body, unable to get comfortable. I think if I can solve this problem I will also solve the other, and will again be greeting the day early and well.

Treading Water

It seems that I am treading water now. I am not progressing but neither am I regressing, best as I can tell. When I was sick for a couple of weeks, away from the gym, I was able to tell the difference in my aerobic capacity and endurance when I returned to Aqua classes. So I know I am doing something. But it isn't much. At times I feel discouraged.

Today I went to the gym early because I have sewing class soon, and I was simply in pain the whole way through. I wanted to quit. I didn't. How long can I keep on feeling this way?

Up From Pain and Slipping at Times

After my few days of unusually bad pain  I went back to a "normal" that isn't so bad. I have managed to get around without a whole lot of pain, my times on the treadmill have generally not included pain, I have felt well enough to get up and do some cleaning and shopping. Not all wonderful but better.

There are times that I do slip from the path. Last night, for example, I just watched television and did not do my nighttime exercises. If I do not get them done earlier in the evening chances are I will not do them at all. I forgive myself. I am human. It doesn't happen often.

Also, yesterday morning I got started later than usual and skipped the resistance band exercises at the gym, along with the left arm stretches with the wooden stick. These are all exercises that I could skip one day a week, really, considering that I do similar moves in Aqua and that my arms and shoulders are doing much better than my knees and hip. I planned to pull out the bands at home and do them after sewing class anyway, but I didn't do it.

This blog is as much a confessional as a record of pain and progress. I am not looking for advice unless it relates to what I am doing. I am not looking for cheerleaders or coaches, telling me to buck up, get going, don't ever skip an exercise. I know what I need to do and I am doing it. If sometimes I slip that does not mean I need anyone standing over me reminding me that I need to keep this up. Do I not know that?

Getting the Strength Back

I was sick on my trip. The first three days I was too sick to even think about exercise (although I continued to do my PT* routines). Then I started feeling better and better. I drove home Wednesday, three days ago, and I am now working on getting back where I was. I've been back to the gym three times, twice doing my weight machine routine and once to an aqua class. I have backed off the weights for most machines both times, and even then I felt tired. But I did them! I keep remembering one tip from the Arthritis Foundation: keep on doing the exercises even when you don't feel tip-top. Thing is, we arthritis folks don't tend to feel tip-top a whole lot, or at least I don't. So if I let the little setbacks throw me I'd never get anywhere.

I came home to find my gimp placard in the mail. So I have been enjoying driving up to the front of the gym, not having to hike in from the farther reaches of the parking lot.



* PT: Physical Therapist - see this and this.

Later that same day

I left the gym this morning glad that I had done it but feeling not much different. Stiff, my right hip hurting, heaviness in my legs. From there I went to a facial waxing appointment, where I got to lie down for a while, and then limp out. And so to home.

I felt so drained that I lay down for a while, napped, later got up and turned up the heat. Maybe this is just me, this tired thing.