Monday, October 8, 2012

Doctors, yoga and exercise

I had my check up after 3 weeks of IV antibiotics almost three weeks ago. At that time, I was definitely feeling better. All of my symptoms - including my pesky low oxygen numbers! - had come back up to a reasonable place. My pulmonary functions, however, were not as cooperative.

Below you can see how my PFTs trended up over the course of my IV treatment from Aug 29 to Sept 18. (I started keeping track of some of my medical stats in a google spreadsheet and it allows me to easily make nifty graphs like this.)



My doctor was a little disappointed but I wasn't surprised at all. As you can see, I had been tracking my PFTs pretty closely at home, and what I scored at clinic was on par with what it had been - which is still more than 20% below my baseline. *sad face* The course of action was to keep my Prednisone at 20mg for a prolonged period of time, and exercise exercise exercise. And go back in one month.

I have been keeping up my end of the bargain! I have exercised 11 of of the 17 days since my appointment - swimming, walking, elliptical, even yoga! And I have done so in a mindful way with respect to my back issues, which will always be with me creeping up from time to time.

So yes, last week I went to yoga class for the first time in about a year and a half. It was a huge milestone for me. And I went to another one tonight at a new studio. Both of the classes were restorative classes (also called yin yoga), which means mostly passive positions to let your muscles and soft tissue release tension. Very relaxing and, well, restorative. It's a far cry from my cardio-workout flow yoga classes that are my real love, but you have to start somewhere. Baby steps. I used to hate baby steps but I am seeing their value in my wise old age.

2 comments:

  1. Lol I agree "baby steps" have their place for sure. I've been doing Yogo with a private yoga therapist and it's strengthened my lower back so that's not hurting as much and I've regained some leg muscle. But very much through baby steps. I didn't realize you haven't been your yoga for THAT long - wow. I know you love it! Glad to hear you're back at it - no pun intended.

    So with your 20mg prednisone, are sleepless?

    Sounds like everything is going in the right direction for you right now. I hope you keep getting better all the way through the holidays and new year! Wouldn't that be nice?

    xoxo
    cowtown

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  2. Hey Kelly, the Prednisone doesn't affect my sleep at that dose, but it does affect my blood sugars. Fortunately I have it pretty well worked out where I can adjust my pump to compensate.

    Yes, it has been SO long. There have actually been a few months that my PT said I could get back to it, but I didn't feel stable enough with my back to try until a couple of months ago. I showed up - class was cancelled! I sat and stretched but that definitely didn't count. Then came Montana, the end stages of Roger's cancer, my back going up and down again (according to how good I am), and trying to find an easy enough yoga class was also a challenge - until now. So yeah, long time.

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