Thu 12 Feb 26: Knee felt great going to bed... getting up, not so much. Think the sleeping position may've allowed meniscus to slip into one of its old pathological positions, as the stiffness and pain haven't returned w/ vengeance, but is unfort'y familiar. Treating the splinting ham helped quite a bit... and at end of laps did feel better. Nothing like the previous week, tho... Laps (R1): --- Lap 1 - 5 -- can cover all of them in 15 secs; rest day so did dial down pace due to the tweak. Thought at the time I'd dodged a bullet... but that'd turn out slightly optimistic. Driving and getting out is again 1 min walking to warm before it feels normal. Gotta get a handle on what during the night could've caused the knee to regress this much
Fri 13 Feb 26: Knee still a bit cranky this AM -- got a strange rating from the CPAPualung on the wakeup: a 35; said I'd broken seal 30x and only slept 0.4 hrs Checked it again literally seconds ago... the s/w dev equivalent of 'oh... never mind'. Full (99 - 100) points, of course Slept good that I remember, no idea why the Die Machinen decided to brain fart. Only neg was I still had the knee tweak. Laps (R2): --- Lap 1: 4:37 -- pretty typical R-day starting lap Lap 2: 3:45 -- wait, wut? Stopwatch doesn't lie tho... no idea what took 47 secs out of L1...? Lap 3: 3:56 -- am I in the f***ing Matrix? How is this possible, when this lap felt better than last...? And knee's ache-y, not amazing Lap 4: 3:51 -- feels okay now but still no idea why this isn't over 4 mins as past Rs on sore knee were Lap 5: 3:51 -- guess the weird wasn't satisfied yet. Felt faster (for an R day) over L4... but not according to my wrist Machinen --- 'Tf is going on Guess the fates have deemed 13 Fri as a real head scratcher today. Most times it weren't, historically... ime this phenom mostly applied on mainland in past, around people who believed in it (much like the now-very-obvious change on and around 31 Oct), just wasn't a thing here. But the hoards of mainland transplants now dominant at least 2 generations calling themselves 'Locals' have apparently changed the air The only explanation for the jump in L2, could be a thought experiment I were doing after the split on L1 --> L2, where were looking at the brick floor on the upper mall level, and seeing if my steps could stay within 3 brick widths (100mm L x 50mm W bricks, so trying to follow a 150mm line of these zigzag pavers). But if anything that'd slow me down, not speed things up? Weird
Addendum, Fri 13 Feb 26: Quite an odd, if not unpleasant day on the table. As before, not sharing possible identifying info about the client or session (will mention their stories later in recollection, to prevent clocking story to date)... but suffice to say two of the day's clients were rather unusual for this gig... Lesson from the first: a reinforcement that every client should be treated as individual... and my policy of explaining what's happening and reasons why in length that often stops the session, should and will continue. Getting the conscious mind to grasp at least the cliff notes of the work, helps the subconscious mind accept the frequent and often intense pain to come -- and prevents feeding fear, which directly fights progress and depth. Lesson from the second: you must cater the work to the client always, as above... but esp when comes to age. Children don't yet have the life exp to face and process pain (often not until they set out on their own, removed [a proper] parents' well-intended protection), so you as prac must not sow trauma in their delicate, open fields of a mind. Elderly have much thinner skin, atrophied muscles, and often grossly-ignored adhesions... which with too-aggressive, ham-handed pracs can lead to simple non-resolution in a young adult... but crippling, debilitating -- and permanent -- weakness, paresthesia, and pain in those over 60. In addition, injured athletes w/ large areas of joint scar tissue, victims of burns or other catastrophic damage to connective tissues or organs, often need bodywork far from the average client's care, into the weedy median. Let's hope your work has proper cable barriers to catch the odd mistake sending your work into it. But unless medical needs contraindicate deep-tissue work, every client has an area / range / point where pain and suffering can be reduced; one just has to have the skill to first find and identify it, then have the tools to do something about it. Have it, get that in return. Lack it, may as well send them home, but at least in the direction of those who don't. The realist life of the bodyworker
Valentine's Day, Sat 14 February 26: Had to cut P1 laps short due coming down w/ a cold, so no times. Got steps in anyway... just not there and not interval stuff. What a bonkers day this is been. May be need to add this holiday to the list of bad-luck days on Maui -- lots of angry / stressed / both people everywhere, esp on-road. Mostly males -- not one bit surprised Knee does feel a bit of the interruption of routine, stiff mostly. Had to sit in a doc's office ~ an hour today to make sure it wasn't something other than a cold (wasn't, no worries Not sure why, but traumas admitted but triaged non-critical are flooding the clinic today -- man, is the holiday that bad nowadays...? What the hell do people expect it be and why does it make peeps bash heads / damage GI tract / get organ failure, today of all days? Or am I just seeing a 1-day sliver of what happens all the time? Hope y'all are having a good VD (will never get over the irony of that acronym ). May your clinics (and ERs / A&Es) be quiet as a mouse
Not a Wash Day, Sun 15 Feb 26: Welp, another Sunday w/ bad weather. Looks like the car will go another week w/o a detail Since have a cold, all laps will be R-day. Since the point isn't to challenge splits but just get exercise and circulation in, decided to total the 5 laps and base any observations on changes to that... --- Laps (R w/ cold): 1 - 5: 19:38 -- cold's coming on very slowly; started as a scratchy throat, then aches, then energy sap, then fever. Not flu thank God. Trust that if a vax were available for the cold virus I'd have it 4x a year if need be due to my prox'y to clients often for hours. No such luck, and not going to happen until the rest of the world's basically turned into a Blade Runner x Running Man parody... --- That said... part of the reason I know it's a mere cold, is the weak symptoms -- flus have always hit me hard (esp when idiotically convinced my immune system didn't need them). Haven't had one for probably 15y+ now? Yeah, from pre-WA massage school days, exposed to hoards of others w/ sh*tty stay-at-home-when-sick and other transmissible habits. And given the Year of the Snake's dying corpse is still capable of killing if you catch your arse on its fangs... not at all surprised I'm getting something not had in almost 20y, in the final days of its good-riddance reign Oh -- the supps I'm taking for the cold, are NAC (N-acetyl-L-cysteine, an amino acid) and zinc citrate. Can't take NSAIDs now, esp acetaminophen / paracetamol, due to the liver stress... which is fine as not popping pain-relief pills can help recalibrate dialing down any semblance of whiny b*tch about a damn cold NAC in particular's been super-effective in past for other viral-only infections like styes (which beats hot compresses burning your eyelid 4x a day), and prior to religiously vaxxing, taking it as directed lessened flu symptoms by 2d or more. So far, letting the cold reach the fever point (where it's peaking), then will narrow the intervals betw. NAC doses (allowable is 3x a day; so far only using one). That's worked best ime; have been doing this since 2020, when first learning about it for covid (am not convinced of its effectiveness in killing SARS-COV2 and curbing covid symptoms from the literature, at least not directly. But for flu and viral styes, very effective).
Mon 16 Feb 26: Cold's gotten a touch worse now; congestion, runny nose, y'all presently in frozen winters know the deal. probably got it from tourists from such places, looking for a snowbird-y respite here w/ lows of high 50s. Having paid my dues shoveling snow and scraping windshields many years can't blame 'em for considering transmitting a virulent cold strain, fair dinkum Yep -- probably 20y since catching a cold...? So either cold strains are getting better at unraveling strong human immune systems, or I'm getting weaker. probably a little of both... --- Laps (R w/ cold): 1 - 5: 19:47, pretty typical. Knee feels better at least first 4 laps; probably from increased rest. Resumption of knee issues afterwards proves the regimen's not over-exercise. Keeping the knee moving w/ R laps is paying dividends... --- Skipped the med one dose to allow taking NSAIDs for cold symptoms; will resume tonight before bed. Don't feel the immense fatigue as pre-20y ago w/ colds and / or flu, so not doing that badly. Scratchy throat's annoying but no issues on CPAPualung -- otherwise'd be much worse I reckon. Am glad I know how to prevent fomite transmission from a world event you may've heard of. Actually using old stores of 70% isopropanol from said event, to do this Another rest day off the table, obvi. Only person I've worked today was a barista at Starbies who'd bumped her head and got a sudden neck stiffness. History of car accidents as well, so old whiplash enforcement by the cervical spine. Treated two muscles, recovered. Good to me many years, happy to cover them in time of need
Tue 17 Feb 26: Last day of the Year of the Snake. Man what an end of year / beginning of year this has been... good riddance Cold: still getting over it. But on the backside now, as hacking up phlegm and runny nose is finally calming down. Weird -- haven't had runny noses even when I were still catching cold on mainland, due to a condition surgery corrected beginning of last year. Now in my 50s finally see why people are so irritated by sprinting noses catching cold Still have my appetite and did complete my laps today, so luckily like every time I'm down w/ some virus (the mind goes to dark places then the bouncer's away), this is just a cold. Flus usually enforce lying down a day focusing on how miserable I feel; luckily them're a thang of the paist --- Laps (R w/ cold): 1 - 5: 19:02 -- think the fact I'm cutting the slight fever w/ ibuprofen, is also allowing the knee to stop kneecapping performance (see what I did there?) Almost reaching the 18-min mark w/ no shuffling, means all but the first lap were sub 4-min... --- Even slight pain signals from the knee joint, actively limit joint use by increasing tone on crossing muscles. This constant acknowledgement / correction cycle upon load interferes w/ smooth gait; can feel dramatically how different the two states are. If the 'profen killed all the pain, w/o awareness of what's happening it'd be easily to deceive me into thinking the knee were fine -- the siren song of all narcotics. Reality is, being aware of pain is only half the communication the brain / spine have with peripheral-body joint injury. Oh, and am not taking full doses of 'profen; only half, as am resuming the med. Have a bottle of combo acetominophen / profen pill, if this drags on another day (doubt it, hacking up some green). Felt a bit worse last night but did buzz my head yesterday (which for me, brings down core temp significantly). On the laps, felt okay again. The adage eating easily-digestible complex carbs during a sick, yet seems to hold for me at this age. Have incorporated some purple sweet potato salad from the health food store onto the brekkie salad, then for today a small container of pasta salad (made sure no chintzy ingredients like seed oils or food additives) atop that -- felt immediately better. Apparently giving the body easily-digestible fuel to fight the virus, overrules type of fuel. Still eat a tonne of greens with as the bennies of that need to remain whilst sick (the mineral content, fibre thus bulk, and C / A / antioxidants -- same w/ all cruciferous veg). Have to work a bit harder to digest and absorb whole plant food vs. okayu (Japanese porridge / congee of short-grain rice, eaten by piss-y sick kids in every JA household)... but to me the tradeoffs are worth it, esp since washed plain white rice is pretty barren of nutrition.
Wed 18 Feb 26: First day of the Year of the Fire Horse! Hope it doesn't punk me as hard as the Snake did No laps today -- last night cold settled into my chest, and even w/ CPAPualung wasn't able to get much rest. Fact my appetite were fading also means the cold was approaching flu-levels of literal kneecapping. Even pre-CPAP wasn't gasping for air consciously Jesus, great time to need a bunch of meds that may impede the progress of one bottleneck med. Have avoided any cold / flu formulations w/ acetaminophen as that's worst for the liver... but any med has to be metabolised out there so the fewer the better (good advice in general for OTC meds). Chose Mucinex for this f***ing hacking cough and Advil PM for nighttime sleep (no generics for either significantly cheaper). Only things that combined these two symptoms, were DayQuil / Nyquil PM and Theraflu, both which have acetaminophen. Gah, hate taking this stuff Knee... feels great today...? Thing is, any more than 2d of this and the muscles will begin to rebel. So if I'm up to it tmw, will resume laps. Spent most of y'dy in bed trying to rest betw. meals, so probably why it feels babied. Thing is, a normal knee would feel fine w/ exercise included -- not like I'm scaling mountains every morning. Miss a normal R knee... and function of every other body part I've crushed, broken, or burnt, whilst we're whinging Little detour in this journal: the Prius needs an oil chg. But since it's going into the shop beginning of March... plan was to hold off spending the cash on it until it comes out (whereupon, the 20K svc is due in mid-April, which does swap the oil/ filter). However, am not confident this oil will last another month+ -- already taking tenths it's not done before... but also have never let the car run on the same oil this long. So fair warning: if you're getting in the mid 60s for mpg now and you live where it either pounds down rain / snow... swap every 3500 - 4K mi, to get that water out of your oil (obvi not as crucial where it freezes, save coastal Great Lakes states where high humidity's still a thing in summer. And case in odd point: Fresno, CA -- over a hundred miles from closest ocean access [San Simeon], but still 75%+ humidity, in winter no less). So will have to swap it once I get the time
Addendum, Wed 18 Feb 26: Am really interested now in a way to avoid needing to top up the CPAPualung w/ distilled water and not have to clean and dry all those fiddly internal surfaces, every time that happens (did they purposely design this tank, not to be cleaned with fingers...? What a PITA). An age ago, ColoradoBoo recommended the CSpring MK3 water chamber tank, which is basically a fancy Igloo cooler that senses and tops up tank water on its own. But also has a silver ion lining on the inside of their tank, to keep bacteria from colonising -- pretty gross slimy feel even after just a couple of days presently (blame the draftiness of this old place blowing dirt and debris in from fields further north). Much like expecting mold on white bread here after a few hours, can't be that much different with a practically-indifferent filter size and capture spec, for air being blown thru it into my head and lungs... Thinking about it, as status quo's having a gallon bottle of distilled water opened every other day, and every time I open the cap on that, what remains in the bottle gets less and less pristine for the same reasons (when you pour out, air gets sucked in to replace it, not a passive process). Been having to spray a lot more hypochlorous acid solution in the hoses and mask just to keep odour down, so bedroom in particular's not the most HEPA place in the world. Have noticed spraying the inside of the tank w/ a small mist of hypochlorous controls this about 75% down from worst case, but leaves breathing air slightly acidic -- which in winter w/ drier air here for my acclimated lungs, means irritation if not done at the right time. Hypochlorous acid denatures into saline and water, so at worst after a few hours you get a very small amt of salty vapour. Best to do after waking up, so at bedtime no danger of active acids being breathed in. The MK3 is defo expensive (three bills w/o shipping)... but even taking up extra bedstand real estate -- again, the size of a small Igloo cooler -- strongly considering one. If can avoid waking up to that smell (and of course not remove the tank to refill)... will pay for itself
