Respecting the Pain

Oh - haven't heard those words in a while, have you? Respect the pain. Dave's famous "last words" to me when I was discharged from PT. I'm in pain this week friends.

I called the doctor's office first thing Monday to tell them the anti-inflammatory he prescribed was causing some weird side effects, like being super sleepy and slightly dizzy. (I looked and feeling dizzy was an "expected" side effect, as I say, but feeling tired/drowsy/whatever was a "concerning" side effect where you're supposed to call your doctor if you experience it.) As always, the office was amazing and called me back right away to say Dr. Buchanan was now calling in a pain patch to wear on my skin instead. I asked, and I was supposed to be able to put it over my scars and also take over the counter pain meds (Advil, etc.) as needed. So I picked up the patches today, and they are a lidocaine patch. This essentially numbs pain - great! - but I'm unclear on how it is anti-inflammatory, which really is the bigger problem. Why do things have to be so complicated??

So for tonight I have cut a pain patch to fit the main areas on my ankle. It's hard to keep it on because, you know, my ankle is curved and moves a bit. Sorry - I'm just frustrated with this today! I am seriously limping around a lot, and I wasn't even on my feet that much today and I wore my Danskos. I should not be limping. I'm willing to give this a try and see how it works. My other complaint about the patches is that I can't use my scar gel and cocoa butter lotions on my scars or the patch won't stick. *sigh* I guess this is more important right now.

Yesterday Betsy and I went swimming. Swimming two days in a row for the first time (in a VERY long while) was difficult to say the least. One of my other fears (I have a lot of those, don't I?) came true - my shoulders are starting to hurt.
*For those who don't know, here's a brief history of swimming injuries to my body (because swimming's such a "gentle sport" right? WRONG people-who-aren't-real-swimmers-but-think-they-know-everything-and-say-that) I was a breaststroker in high school until I messed up my knees. I had serious knee problems by my freshmen year of college and had to switch to training distance freestyle (to be fair, this wasn't entirely new). By my senior year of college my shoulders became very painful and they both had bad tendonitis in them. They were EXTREMELY painful as the season went on that year, but the doctors told me I would not damage them further, so I finished swimming my senior year, and then hung up my suit and goggles for a while. My shoulders finally got better after lot of rest from swimming.*
So, I constantly have worried since then that my shoulders' tendonitis will get bad again, especially if I don't strengthen them well enough before getting back in the water, or I push it too hard to quickly. I think it's safe to say the first scenario happened this time. So I'm backing off a bit and respecting the pain in both my ankle and my shoulders, because otherwise I'm just going to be a sad body in the water who can't use her legs OR her arms. And I realize there are some amazing people out there who do swim without the use of arms or legs or, on rare occassion, both. I'm not that person. I'm lucky enough to have those limbs, and I'm lucky enough to just have to wait until they are strong enough to use them the way I want to again. So why am I complaining? I'm lucky enough.

I think this is about what I swam... It's sad this is happening this week because the pool is empty since the kids are on spring break, and it is glorious!

300 swim (every 4th back)
some backstroke
some treading water
a little pulling/sculling
500 my weird version of "IM" (50 back, 25 breast w/ fly kick, 25 free)
maybe a 100 warm down?

Yep, this is a far way away from the days of 10,000 yds. in a 2 - 2.5 hour practice!