karlht: Mu the giggling dragon, as drawn by Max Toth in 1992-ish (Default)
Some personal stuff (that isn't my story to tell) happened last week, so I didn't get a progress report out. Quick summary: Within 400 steps of 80k. 63 and a quarter km. Blood sugar was good. Emotionally, the week was up and down. Thursday was a good visit with my cousin, a marvellous walk in SF, and a personal best step-count: 13,800.

For some reason, my phone has not generated a weekly summary for this week. Therefore, this post will not be as numbers-heavy. I did drop below step-count (now at 8k steps/day) once this week, but I did manage to average about 10k steps/day overall.

[Added on Monday: The auto-generated summary was a day late, but did arrive: Total 71.8k steps for the week, for an average of just over 10k/day. Total distance walked: 58.85 km, or 8.4 km/day.]

I had a really bad day on Thursday. That day, plus feeling pretty poorly physically, led me to leave Worldcon early, just for the comfort of sleeping in my own bed. I've been sniffling and coughing off and on since Friday, so I cancelled my trip up to see the family in Point Reyes -- I didn't want to get anyone else sick. I'm also going to stay out of the office(s) this week, until I feel like I'm no longer contagious.

On Saturday my blood sugar was all over the place (low: 65, high: 230) but I mostly kept at it, and was rewarded this morning by a reading of 117. Hard, frustrating, and being sick doesn't help. I need to postpone my therapy appointment because I still feel contagious and I don't want to get my behavioural psych sick, but I also need to get in and talk about this particular confluence of obstacles. I'll try to push for a week's postponement, to next Tuesday the 28th. With luck my lungs will be less funky by then.

Man, have I not missed the wheezy, chesty cough that comes with exercising too hard when my lungs are compromised. I'm hoping this clears up in reasonable time -- it's inconvenient and frankly gives me flashbacks to when I was in much worse shape than I am now.

Still here, still moving. Still scared. But I didn't stay in bed all day today, so that's something.

Onward.
karlht: Mu the giggling dragon, as drawn by Max Toth in 1992-ish (Default)
This was the week of measuring. And walking. And more walking.

Blood sugars holding steady, right where we want them. I have walked every single day this week. The exercise makes a huge difference, both in the way I feel and in my numbers. I continue to be amazed at my newfound ability to walk uphill (slowly) without wheezing myself into an asthmatic state.

This coming week I have a follow-up with my cardiac rehab nurse -- we'll go over my diet and meds. I have had a chat by phone with my cousin the nurse practiitioner; she gave me some useful advice about meds and dosing. Most severe side effect so far is that metformin @100mg gives me diarrhea pretty badly, so we may have to back off a bit. That's what the walking is for.

Yesterday I turned on the step-counting app on my phone, and got in nearly 5,000 steps between 4pm and midnight. Today I am probably going to hit 10,000 steps. I don't expect to keep that level up, but I'm going to gather a week's worth of data and then see where to set my goals.

Mentally and emotionally, I'm still kind of all over the place. My appointment with the folks at Behavioral Health (therapy) is not until a week from Tuesday; we'll see how the situation changes as that day approaches.

Two more weeks of walking every day, morning and evening, without fail. Then the habits will be formed, and maybe I can ease off on myself a little. But for now, diligence. The only way out is through.

December 2023

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