Day one post-surgery - hobbling around with a pole.
This record is separate from my regular blog posts, being ‘instigated’ by Sue, my cycling partner and friend. Sue stated that a training diary from my second aortic surgery, correction of a displaced abdominal aortic aneurysm stent graft at the Cleveland Clinic, on December 16th, 2013 to my next Ironman race, would be of interest, and perhaps value, to others going down a similar road.
I am registered for the Lake Placid Ironman (LPIM), on July 27th, 2014, giving me 211 days to train. I am writing this on day 11 post-surgery. I’ll have to deal with a number of critical issues in order to train safely, not least on the bike. I will make an entry for each day, along with relevant comments, goals and objectives. For details of my surgery, go to the related newsletter via this link.
Here we go, backfilling up until today, with a record for each day post-surgery.
We all need encouragement. When I mentioned that I’d like to qualify for the Boston Marathon again, Deb put this medal on the door - Thunder Road, 2008, when a 4:07:59 got me to Boston at age 65.
Post-Surgery Day 1 (Tuesday, Dec 17th, 2013): Hobbled to the hospital cafeteria (3oo yards), wiped me out, took the taxi to the hotel and crashed on pain killers for 20 hours.
Post-Surgery Day 2 (Dec 18th, 2013): Walked around hotel, 200 yards, wrote a one line record of my condition on Facebook for my friends, which was exhausting, then crashed for 15 hours on pain killers.
Post-Surgery Day 3 (Dec 19th, 2013): Walked 3 turns of the hotel, 600 yards, climbed in the truck, and Deb drove us home to North Carolina. Boy, that wiped me out.
Post-Surgery Day 4 (Dec 20th, 2013): Felt like crap, got up for a little while, ate as best I could, took over-the-counter pain killers, felt much better, even wrote my first post-surgery blog post, then went back to bed and slept 20+ hours. Felt like I had the flu - yes, I had my flu shot.
Post-Surgery Day 5 (Dec 21st, 2013): Feeling a little better, went out for a coffee at Johnny’s in Carrboro, short walk with the dogs, felt wobbly and severe headache, took over-the-counter pain killers and crashed in bed for the rest of the day.
Post-Surgery Day 6 (Dec 22nd, 2013): Ready to work out a little. Walked half a mile with the dogs, then went to the gym and tried an elliptical trainer for 5 minutes, felt my incision sites were not ready for this and stopped.
Post-Surgery Day 7 (Dec 23rd, 2013): Didn’t feel too good today, so I just hung out, read and rested - seemed wise.
Post-Surgery Day 8 (Dec 24th, 2013): Short walk with the dogs, getting restless to work out, short cord session at the gym - VERY light cords.
FitOldDog’s old custom Karma tungsten bike will be supplied, with shorter cranks, to reduce hip flexion. Took it to the bike shop today.
Post-Surgery Day 9 (Dec 25th, 2013): First decent walk, 2 miles on trails with the dogs. Wiped me out, and had to sleep for a few hours. Otherwise able to get around town, and so forth.
Post-Surgery Day 10 (Dec 26th, 2013): Pretty well off of over-the-counter pain killers, walked 2 miles on trails with the dogs. Feeling pretty good.
Post-Surgery Day 11 (Friday, Dec 27th, 2013): Strength coming back, completed a 4.25-mile walk with the dogs at a reasonable pace, with intermittent arch walking and shallow squats. Walk made my feet a little sore, showing some loss of conditioning after 7 weeks of almost complete inactivity (surprise, surprise).
Over and out from FitOldDog
Important Note: These posts do not provide medical advice. You should always consult your physician before undertaking or significantly modifying an exercise program.
Copyright © 2010 Kevin T. Morgan aka FitOldDog, Old Dogs in Training, LLC.
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