One of the things that keeps happening since we've been doing the low carb thing is that somehow, inevitably, it comes up in conversation. And then, to get past the "all you eat is bacon" comments and the "that's so unhealthy" comments, you have to have a stab at explaining the whys and wherefores. Now, I am an economics babe, not a science babe, and I am just terrible at explaining anything that involves cells and blood and metabolic functions. Doesn't stick in my head well. So I decided to write myself a cheat sheet, and in the process I had to look at things that other people have written... which is a long way of saying that I think that THIS is a great way of explaining all the important stuff in few words.
Yesterday was a totally lousy day... Michael was sort of ok in the morning but by the time I got home was just depressed to the point of nearly comatose. Not a good thing for either one of us. And as a result of that, I didn't get a chance to post this week's weight results, which were pretty damn good. I haven't worked is out exactly, because my hard drive crash destroyed most of my carefully kept records for the last two months, but I seem to be down about 3 lbs. for the week, and Michael's down about 7. Yay! Sort of inaccurate because both of us were bloaty last Monday, but great nonetheless. Magic 500 approaches.
The single biggest issue of the moment is the continued pain in Michael's right leg, and I both don't quite know what to do about it, and am very concerned. About a month ago, he did something unknown and started getting major pain down the outside of his leg. I searched around a lot and finally concluded that it's most probably an ITB injury... the band of muscles on the outside of your thigh/knee. Common in runners but also fairly common if you do a lot of squats... and getting up and down is pretty much a squat, if you're heavy. If I'm right, it's a slow injury to heal, and there's not that much you can do in the meantime (and if anyone knows anything else, please tell me). We're going to go to the doctor, but it's pretty hard to do that until mid-May... and what's he going to do anyway? Best case is probably just confirm that I'm right about what it is, and that we're treating it right (rest/ice/compression). But I'm very worried about this, in part because it's the big thing that really getting him down and totally restricting his mobility, and partly because if it doesn't clear up, we're not going to be able to get into the pool this summer... or go to Maine, for that matter. The pool is my big hope for exercise, and I was so hoping to be able to go home this summer. We'll see. But I wish I has some really better ideas. Keep searching, I guess.
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2 comments:
Good morning Nina,
Congratulations on your great weight losses this week!! It's so wonderful that you two seem to have figured out the right eating for you for now.
Have you ever considered a chiropractor, or an osteopathic doctor who still practices manipulation, for checking out Michael's leg? All of us here go to a chiropractor fairly regularly...and our PCP is a D.O. I go to the chiropractor for manipulation more often than the D.O. because his charges are less and manipulative treatment is not covered by my insurance.
Several years ago, while doing water aerobics at a gym, I felt a pop in my knee. I could barely crawl out of the pool when we were finished and it hurt like heck to walk on. In fact, I started using crutches that I already had to take the weight off the knee. Icing it and taking pain meds did not help much, so after a few days, a friend recommended that I go to her chiropractor. (I had no health insurance and no regular PCP at that time.) After an exam, and while I was laying on the table, he just fairly casually took my lower leg and kind of loosely played with it back and forth a bit... then he gave it a good yank and I suddenly felt my knee pop back in. I had been trying to walk on a dislocated knee for over a week!
My grandson injured his shoulder in PE a few years ago and the same kind of thing happened. The ER doc gave him meds and said to ice it, etc. After a couple of weeks of that not really helping, I took him to the chiropractor and a similar thing happened... the shoulder bone was not seated properly in the socket.
Perhaps Michael has torn the meniscus in his knee and there's probably not much to do for that except arthroscopic surgery, but it might be helpful to at least check it out with some x-rays.
However, personally, I would probably go first to the chiropractor to see what his findings are. You can tell I'm a fan of that kind of less-invasive treatment.
I've thought a lot about a chiropractor... we went to one for a while in the UK, and I absolutely loved it; my back has never felt better. But because of Michael's size, he really couldn't do that much with him.
I don't know. We know that he does have a meniscal tear in his left knee, or at least that's what the ortho guy thought without doing an MRI (a whole other issue, sigh...). This recent stuff has all been right knee, and it doesn't seem like a meniscus thing, although is could be in addition to whatever else. It's very worrisome, especially since it really doesn't seem to be getting appreciably better. I've got to make an appointment at least with the GP, but it somehow didn't happen this week, and I'd hoped to hold out to the end of the semester when my schedule gets easier, but I'm not sure that's going to be possible.
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