first physical therapy appointment

This will not be long because my hands are tired from the little I did today.  PT wasn't that bad today because we just did a lot of measuring of my strength and sensations at this point.  Although we did not do a lot I didn't realize how hard the simple things (like just turning my hands over and making a fist) would be. My physical therapist is really nice and I am confident that she will get my hands where I need them to be in just a few weeks.  I know the real work will start with my next appointment, December 26.  Here are a few pictures from today's session, but please excuse my hair (that isn't really what I was thinking about ---- I was just trying to remember to breathe)! 

 

 

 

 

 Excuse my face in this picture, but bending my hands was not the most comfortable thing to do.

 The two pictures above are the tests to see how my sensation in my fingers is at this point.

 This is how my hands looked after they took off the original bandages.

These are my new dressings, and are much more comfortable than the bulky ones from before.

a few days post surgery

The surgery went really well.  I have been in quite a bit of pain, but I hate taking the pain meds because they make me really tired!  I was overwhelmed with the amount of texts, facebook messages, and prayers people sent to me!  I am truly blessed.  Thank you all!  I have my first physical therapy appointment on Wednesday and I am hoping that when they take the bandages off they will be amazed at how well I am healing!  I haven't been allowed to take the bandages off so I have no idea what anything looks like but I feel like it is going really well.  I have stuck to my diet so I am hoping that swelling will not be an issue!  I have been so blessed to have a family that has taken care of me and has cooked me food that follows my diet.  I haven't really been able to work out because I have been sick since the moment I got to Texas, but I am hoping that I can do a bunch of sit ups and squats tomorrow!  I feel very blah since I haven't been able to be active.  I have gotten in trouble by my family because I have tried to do too much with my hands!  I am just way too independent and don't realize what too much is!  I have slowed down some because it does actually hurt when I do simple things like open a bottle of water, buckle my seat belt, open the refrigerator, or even turn a door handle.  It is very frustrating to me but I don't want to try and over do it!  I will let you all know what happens on Wednesday, but please pray for really good news!!

day before surgery

I spent the day with my sister shopping at Trader Joe's and Central Market for things she can fix for me while I am recovering at her house.  She is so sweet!  She had looked up some recipes she could make and even had a cookie recipe!  We got a lot of good stuff like butternut squash for some soup, spaghetti squash, fish, hamburger meat (grass fed), almond flour, almonds, coconut milk, coconut oil, some berries, and BACON!  I am really lucky that my family is supportive enough to not only take care of me after my surgery but to also cook things that I need/want to eat. 
I will have bilateral carpel tunnel surgery tomorrow.  I have to be at the hospital at noon, so who knows when I will get out of there!  This will probably be my last post for about a week or so.  I have my first post-op and physical therapy appointment next Wednesday.  I am hoping that I will be able to recover faster than they think and will be able to get back to Crossfit (although I will be limited with my hands) ASAP! 
Thank you all for your support.  It really does me the world to me!  I couldn't have gotten this far without your support!  I am truly blessed! 
Talk to you all very soon!!!

clothes shopping

I usually hate to go clothes shopping!  Nothing ever fits and it is always just a frustrating experience!  I haven't bought any new clothes since I started Crossfit or did the Advocare 24 Day Challenge. To date I have lost 40 pounds, so buying some new clothes became a necessity!  I got my sister to go with me today because she is probably the most honest person I know.  The women might be the only ones that really get this first part. :) We started at the mall and decided I would go to Victoria's Secret just to get fitted for a bra (because I needed one really bad)!  When they fitted me and I tried on the bra and it fit....I had to buy it!  I can't remember a time that I fit into a Victoria's Secret bra!!!  That made my day!  Then we went to Old Navy so I could get some inexpensive jeans and a few shirts.  We started at the size I thought might fit, but when I put them on they were way too big!  I ended up going down 2 sizes from the jeans that I had walked in the store wearing!  Sarah was convinced I needed skinny jeans, and I am not sure how she convinced me to try them on or buy them...but I did.  I was just really excited that it all actually fit!!!  I never thought this was possible!  Not for me.  I am so glad that I found Crossfit and Advocare!! This was the best shopping trip of my life!

playing catch up!

Life got kind of hectic right before I was getting ready to leave Montgomery.  This post is going to play catch up from last Wednesday.  One of the reasons I didn't post on Wednesday was because I was really frustrated with my performance that night!  I had hurt my knee on Monday and it was still pretty tight on Wednesday.  Wednesday's WOD was 5 rounds max reps of burpees, wall balls, body rows, push press (55#), and step ups.  I started out on wall balls and I couldn't even do the first one!  My left knee and hamstring were killing me!  I almost started to cry because I knew this was one of my last workouts before I left Crossfit for about 6 weeks and I couldn't even do the first exercise.  Travis told me I could just do push ups instead.  I knew I couldn't even do regular push ups because my leg hurt just doing those.  I did the push ups with my knees on the floor.  I did the first round with push ups instead of wall balls, but on rounds two and three I wanted to try squats.  Once that didn't hurt too bad I decided to try wall balls again!  I actually decided to switch it up halfway through round four.  I guess my knee had loosened up enough at that point that it didn't hurt nearly as bad!  Even though I did end up doing wall balls in this WOD I was still very frustrated that my body was not cooperating with me!
Thursday was a completely different day!!!  I went to my doctor to get my final labwork done for my surgery.  He wrote a letter for my surgeon.  When I read it I almost started to cry!  My doctor said,  "She is without a doubt in the best shape of her life." Seriously?!  I have been working my butt off and my doctor actually noticed!!  I couldn't wait to get to the box and show Travis!!  I was basically jumping up and down when I took the letter to him!  I think the best part was when he realized what it said because he got this huge smile on his face and gave me a big hug!! He was just as excited as I was!  I had been worried about the WOD for Thursday, but after reading this letter I knew I could do it!  It was three rounds of 500m row, 10 deadlifts @ 185#, and a 200m run.  I asked Travis what weight I should do on the deadlifts. My 1RM is 235#, so I wasn't sure I would be able to do 185# ten times in a row!  Travis said I should at least be at 145#.  When he saw me warming up with 145# he said 165#.  Eventually it worked itself all the way up to 185# (which was RX).  I really wasn't sure that I was going to be able to do it, but I would sure as heck try.  When I was on the last round and was running back into the box from the 200m run Travis was standing there cheering me on.  I don't think I have run that fast in a VERY long time!  All I could really think about was that letter from my doctor and how I was going to prove it right!!!  It was an absolutely amazing night!!!  I finished in 17:49, but the time didn't even matter!  I was just really really happy with how I did!!!
On Friday I did a very similar WOD to the one I had done on Tuesday.  It was 5 rounds max reps bench press and body rows.  The big difference being that I did 115# on the bench press instead of 75#! I ended up doing 32 bench presses and 48 body rows after 5 rounds. 
Saturday was my last workout before I left for surgery.  It was a really tough one because I didn't get nearly enough sleep and was just feeling kind of drained.  It was a 20 minute AMRAP of 1 power clean, 2 front squats, 3 push presses @75#, and 200m run.  I was in a group with Stephanie and Rachel.  I am so glad I had them because I don't know if I would have finished without their support! I struggled through the lifts, which was disappointing, but I did get through them!  It was sad to know that this was my last workout at Crossfit for about 6 weeks.  I told everyone goodbye and basically ran out of the box where they wouldn't see me cry!
 

some of my inspiration

Someone posted this on facebook a while back and I put it as my background on my computer.  Everyday I read this and it makes me remember why I changed my diet and why I go to Crossfit everyday that I can.  I want to get to that point and thank myself everyday for the rest of my life!! 

Pretty satisfying night!!

In my post about last night's workout I neglected to mention that I somehow hurt my left knee. I did a lift wrong and felt something pop, but it didn't really hurt at the time so I finished the WOD. I woke up around 1:00 this morning and my knee was killing me!  I limped around most of the day at work. I iced it and put Biofreeze on it but it didn't seem to do anything. I had already seen the WOD for tonight, which included a whole lot of lunges, and knew that was probably out of the question. Somebody at work told me that I should just take the day off and rest. That was not happening!! Saturday is my last workout at Crossfit2l2q for the year and I am not taking any night off between now and then!  I knew Travis would come up with something for me to do. I was frustrated that I wouldn't be able to do what everyone else was doing. When I got to the box I was frustrated and feeling kind of defeated. I told Travis what was going on and he said he had another WOD I could do that would let me rest my knees for the night. I ended up doing 5 rounds of max reps in bench press and body rows with a 2 minute rest in between rounds. I did 75# on bench press.  I counted how many I did of each thing in each round. I am going to focus on the bench presses because I wasn't doing so great at body rows tonight (I think the most I did in one round was 11). I wasn't sure how I was doing throughout the WOD because I had no one else to compare it against. I felt like I wasn't doing as well because I didn't have other people around to push me. At the end I counted up all of my bench presses. I had done 75 at 75#!  When I asked someone if that was pretty good they looked at me like I was nuts for asking (they said that was great)!  After we did the skills I decided that I wanted to try and find my 1 rep max in bench press. I knew I was a little tired from the other 75, but I really wanted to see what I could do!  I started out at 105#. Clinton was spotting me and said that I needed to add more weight if that was so easy after doing all the other lifts tonight. I ended up lifting 140#!!!  At the end I made a comment that 140 wasn't that bad and Clinton said no that was really good!  It makes me pretty happy when I can lift weights!  I wanted to see what I could do tonight because I want a place to work towards when I get back from surgery. I was so mad about my knee tonight, but it was just a blessing in disguise so I could do bench presses!

tough night

I was so tired last night that I fell asleep before posting my blog.  It wasn't a bad night of workout but I was definitely not as focused as I should have been.  We did 7 rounds of 1 Hang Power Clean, 1 Front Squat, and 1 Push Jerk.  I struggled with the hang power cleans the whole time, but I did pretty good on the front squats and push jerks.  I worked my way up to 110#.  Then we did "Heavy Elizabeth" which was 12-9-6 of Power Cleans and Ring dips and then a 400m sprint.  I did 85# on the power cleans and a black band on the ring dips.  This is the first workout that I have ever done ring dips, and I was pretty nervous about it.  I ended up using the black band (which makes the ring dips the easiest they could probably be) to get through it.  I finished the 12-9-6 in 2:54 which wasn't too bad!!  We did the 400m run (I rowed) after everyone had finished the power cleans and ring dips.  My arms are pretty sore from the workout, but I think I could have done more weight if I had more focus.