Rooks - Tracking the Daily Grind...

[Sylvaa]

I had a similar promotion thing happen. It is the worst! There is nothing more disheartening than knowing you can do the job and being passed over. But sitting down with your boss and discussing it is a great idea. I hope good things come from the meeting.

 

Re: the IEP - that's awesome! I had one through school and it was super helpful. 

[Rooks]

 

Leave it to Wendler to post something that hits close to home and (I hope) starts to get me out of my funk.

 

So last few weeks have been more of the same for me.  I'm prioritizing work over my fitness at the moment.  I'm still not sure I agree with that philosophy, but I can't seem to break the habit for the moment.  But I'm making progress I think.

 

Sunday, I decided to get down in the basement and do some squats.  Was going to work up to a single at 275, then some sets at 185 or 225.  Whatever felt right.  Well, things felt good at 225.  Did a triple.  Then put on 275 and as soon as I came out of the hole, major low back pain again.  Same as I had back in February.  So whatever tightness I have down there is not healing with time. Mobilized Sunday night and came to the conclusion that I probably can't touch a barbell for a few months.  Not totally sure what the criteria for getting back to it will be, but it just leads to pain every time I use one recently.  

 

Tuesday, I did hit up the "gym".  Did the GB Middle Split stretch routine.  That routine hits my adductors so hard.  It's crazy how tight they are.  I actually felt DOMS from this stretch routine.  I think that means it's working, right?  

 

That said, I haven't done anything since.  I'll be leaving work a bit early today to go hang out with my pastor's family and some other people from church, but I'm hoping to get a workout in each day this weekend.  *crosses fingers*

 

What else.... 18 days into my 2nd Whole 30.  So far it's going fine.  I had a really rough time on days 3 through 7.  Had a dull headache non-stop and was just hungry and cranky.  It's gotten better as I've gone just like last time, but it was much harder this time around.   I will also add that I wouldn't have a prayer of getting through this without my wife.  She's such a rock-star.  She really loves cooking and half takes the Whole 30 as a challenge to prove she can still kick out delicious food with limited ingredients.  She succeeds almost all the time.  She's a champ.  

 

Taking that a step further, it really hit home while looking up the "Beer Yoga" thread in Sylvaa's thread, how much my appearance has change negatively in the past 2 years, despite not really getting that much heavier (probably up 10lbs to 220).  I think it might be a good time to finally try slimming up.  Not sure if I'll keep the Whole 30 going past 30 days or go back to Macro tracking or what.  My wife and I have tentatively thrown around the idea of only drinking on Saturday and Sunday (excluding night's out with friends).  That would be a major calorie saver and honestly, would be good for both of us.  We just drink too much beer.  So yeah... we'll see what happens there.  

 

Finally, I'll throw in the book review I posted over in my yearly quest thread.  One down, nineteen more to go for the year.  

 

Just now, Rooks said:

Book #1 of the year completed.  Becoming the Iceman by Wim Hof and Justin Rosales.  

 

Review:  So Wim Hof has been gaining steam lately with people like Kelly Starrett and Brian MacKenzie in the world of performance and some of the things he's been proving with the use of scientific evidence.  His primary mantra is how cold exposure can be a huge health benefit.  I've been intrigued with his work since hearing about it.  Honestly, a lot of it seems like hocus-pocus mumbo-jumbo when you listen to him talk about it (IMO, Wim has a tendency to exaggerate), but the fact he keeps willingly submitting himself to experiments and proving that what he says is true is pretty astounding.

 

Anyway, I decided I'd give his a book a read.  Sadly, I wasn't too happy, mainly because it's not really Wim's book.  It's Justin's book with a few tidbits of Wim here and there.  The book splits chapters between the two authors probably about 60/40, but Justin's chapter are longer.  Justin was a young college student who became interested in Wim and the book chronicles his journey of meeting Wim and his journey with cold training.  Wim's chapters more or less chronicles his going-ons during that time and eventually the stories merge up.   

 

The first real beef was that the chapters don't really tie together at all.  It seems to be done sort of chronologically, but I honestly can't be sure that's true.  Second beef was the writing quality was low.  Most of Justin's story telling was really arbitrary.  It had tons of facts that didn't tie in.  I think there was a section about how worried his parents were that he was traveling in every chapter.  It wasn't surprising to learn that the book was edited by Justin and his girlfriend, Brooke.  A lot of the reviews on Amazon have stated the same conclusion I drew.  The last 20-30 pages are the real meat where they cover how to begin training using the cold, and really most of is covered for free if you just look up Wim on the interwebz and/or just use common sense (put ice in a bucket, put your feet in, remove them when it starts to hurt, gradually over time go longer and longer, etc.).  

 

Honest opinion would be to forego this book.  Look into other Wim resources.  

 

[The Most Loathed]

Your plan for talking to your boss about the promotion sounds spot on. 

[Rooks]

15 minutes ago, The Most Loathed said:

Your plan for talking to your boss about the promotion sounds spot on. 

 

Oh yeah... I never did give an update on that, did I?   I started out my 1:1 shortly after that post with the question "What can I do in the coming year to get to a promotion to Lead?"  He seemed a bit shocked that I was interested in a promotion.  At some point during the last year (and honestly I don't even remember the context), I apparently said I was perfectly happy with my job and how much I made.  He apparently took that to mean I wasn't interested in promotions.  I thought that was a slightly odd mindset to have about any employee.  I guess in my head, if the employee deserves the promotion, give it to them.  Either way, he told me I should keep working on my development skills and if I get that done, I should be in line for a promotion next year.  Sucks that it's now a year off, but again (and much like TML's opinion on his job), I get paid a lot of money for what I do, plus they give me a load of flexibility with my schedule which is huge with my kid's treatments at the moment.  So I'm happy here, but if I can get a promotion (and frankly, I believe I deserve one compared to other people on the team), I'll strive for it.

[Rooks]

Alright... so let's quick re-cap the weekend.

 

Friday, Jan. 20th, 2017

Got through work and decided to swing up to Rockler (Woodworking store) in Minnetonka.  Needed some new coping saw blades and some more wood glue.  My daughter got a hand-me-down gift for Christmas that is these little wooden blocks.  Well they started falling apart all over the place, so I'm slowly but surely gluing them back together.  Anyway, that was a quick but fun stop.  Got to look at all sorts of really cool wood, like purpleheart (it's wood, but it's freakin' purple naturally), that they had in stock, plus a bunch of cool tools.  Priced out some clamps I've been thinking about buying then went home.  

 

We had been invited over for dinner at our Associate Pastor's house in Robbinsdale, so we cruised over there for a dinner / game night.  Worked out well as there were 8 other kids there and they kept each other occupied so the grown-ups could chat, play some games, and just in general feel like grown-ups.  Plus they were familiar with the Whole 30 so felt comfortable doing Whole 30 potluck.  Worked out fine and it was fun.  I thoroughly stomped him in cribbage.  That was entertaining.  Hopefully, we can visit more frequently as I'd like to get know that family more.  

 

Saturday, Jan. 21st, 2017

I went off and did a platelet donation at 6:45am.  Red Cross has been hounding me (and I assume others) about some platelet emergency.  They offered up a $30 gift certificate (I believe it's pretty open ended) if you do 3 platelet donations by the end of February.  I'll probably try and get it done.  Platelets suck because it takes like 3 hours total and since there is an IV in both arms you are pretty limited in what you can do.  Most people watch movies.  I listened to a whole slew of podcasts.  The hope with having that early of an appointment was that I'd get out of the house before kiddo woke up and she'd sleep in.  Yeah... she woke up at around 5:45am, so all was lost for my poor wife.  She handled it like a rockstar though.  

 

I got home from my blood donation, and we went off to the local library to check out a "Family Story Time".  When it stated, we were the only family there.  Another mom and daughter showed up about 10 minutes in, but the daughter was probably about 2 and didn't have much interest in the book, so kiddo got lots of attention from the librarian (first name, Larry.  Yep.... Larry the Librarian).  It was a pretty fun, so I have a feeling it could become a routine thing assuming we are around on a Saturday.  Rest of the day was pretty bland.  Normal hang out on around the house, clean, keep the kiddo alive, etc.  After she went to bed, I did get in one of the 45 minute GB stretch routines.  Front Split, I believe.  It felt pretty good.  

 

Sunday, Jan. 22nd, 2017

Went to church in the morning, followed by grocery store trip, followed by lunch, followed by GAME TIME!  Unfortunately, it was a bit of a butchering (for those that don't follow football, the Packers lost handily to the Falcons).  On the bright side, Atlanta was just better so it wasn't very stressful.  The game was pretty much over by the 2nd quarter.  My parents came up to hang out with kiddo, since they will be spending the whole month of February in Arizona with my mom's sister.  They stayed for dinner, and my dad even had a beer!  That was pretty wild.  Sadly, I couldn't join him as we are still on the home stretch of the Whole 30 (day 21 nearly complete as of writing this).  But, it was good chatting with my dad, and my mom loves hanging out with kiddo.  It was a good night.  I'm finding I really like having my parents around these days.  Funny how things come full circle, isn't it?  

I had planned on doing another stretch routine, but I decided against it as I wanted to read some of my 2nd book, Rogue Warrior.  

 

Monday, Jan. 23rd, 2017

Pretty normal day at work.  Nothing crazy.  Mostly just waiting for long running tasks to complete.  I got into the gym.  Honestly, really really wanted to do Overhead Press and Overhead Squat.  I'm such a sucker for barbell movements now.  Stuck with doing a "Zombies, Run!" mission.  Ran for solid 8-9 minutes straight at around 7MPH, then did 3.5MPH at an incline for awhile, then finished up the last couple minutes with a 3.0MPH flat walk.  Then did GB Core Day workout which is just 6 exercises in rapid succession.  Pretty straightforward.  A new co-worker has been telling me he wants to join me if I start working out over lunch again, so hopefully I can use that push myself to get down there more.  

 

Here's to the start of a solid week.  May it continue on in the days to come...

 

"Discipline equals freedom."  -Jocko Willink

[The Most Loathed]

I'm really intrigued by the idea of a Whole 30 potluck. 

[Rooks]

On 1/24/2017 at 10:21 AM, The Most Loathed said:

I'm really intrigued by the idea of a Whole 30 potluck. 

 

Yeah.  Sadly, it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped.  One person showed and said "I made a Whole 30, but just couldn't help myself and added maple syrup to get a little sweet in the soup."  Another showed up with ice cream (I don't think she really understood Whole 30 at all).  It was fine as we just ate our own soup (a shrimp coconut soup similar to this).  That said, I also get it.  I did openly state to all attendees that they shouldn't feel imposed by our diet choice to follow ours, so I sort of encouraged it.  

 

Tuesday, Jan 24th, 2017

Honestly, it was a pretty speedy day in which nothing really stands out as getting done.  I was able to finish up a Mini Server Rack setup I've been working for 20-30 per day for awhile.  It's more of a display unit to prove that our test racks can be setup in ways that don't look like utter garbage.  I really like the idea of cable management but I'm far from an expert at it.  So when the boss gave me the green light to spend some money on a nice setup, I jumped at the chance.  Far from my normal job, but it was a fun side project and I don't think I did half bad.  Spoiler-ed to spare the non-tech nerds.  

 

Spoiler

 

Tuesday night, again.  Nothing extraordinary.  Picked up the kiddo, went home, ate a delicious dinner of this cracklin' chicken recipe that has become a staple of our Whole 30 (and really everyday life).  I highly recommend people give this one a go, even if you aren't Whole 30.  Got the dishes done, gave her a shower (she recently learned about showers and they are "so much fun" which we are more than happy to switch to since baths were a challenge sometimes), and put her to sleep.  After I got her done, I went downstairs and did the Middle Split stretch routine, or as I've now nicknamed it Adductor Hell.  Only good things can come from continually doing this routine though since my straddle position can't be more than 100 degree angle when it should up at around 130 or 140 I'd wager.  

 

This GB programming is enlightening me on just how inflexible I've become.  

 

Wednesday, Jan 25th, 2017

Writing this at around 1:30pm today, but whatever.  No real big plans after this.  Just got back from the gym.  

• Zombies, Run! Mission - 2.3 miles in 30 minutes.  Again, all running was done at 7.2MPH or higher.  Loads of walking, but more running than on Monday.
• GB Foundation - Lower Body Routine, Step 15
• GB Foundation - Upper Body Routine, Step 1

It was sort of funny as I was showering, I couldn't help but think of this scene.  

 

 

Feels more and more like this is how my 2017 is going.  Except mine is more like this:

 

Quote

You want a 2000lb Super Total, but your back is screwed, so lower body work is out.  You need a solid bench, but your left bicep hurts on heavy bench so that's out.  What we need is to go back to basics, what started your fitness journey way back in high school.  Running.  Old fashioned, simple, get your ass on the treadmill and go until you feel like puking running.  Yeah... let's get back to making you strong.

 

Sure, that's doesn't cover the added GB work I'm doing to restore a lot of the movement quality I've lost, but it sounds cooler.  And yes, I realize running doesn't really build strength, but right now I'm building habits again.  I need to do something while I fix myself.  So far it's working.  

 

Few other tidbits.  I've started trying to do at least 3 minutes under cold water every shower.  One bit of info I gleaned from Wim Hof's book.  He says in that cold showers alone will lower your resting heart rate.  I'm curious to see if it's true.  He claims his normal resting heart rate is in the 30s.  That seems crazy to me.  My phone sensor (no idea how accurate that is) reads mine at around 60-65 normally.  So I figure I'll work up to doing 5+ minutes in a cold shower plus working on my making it colder and colder.  Not the most fun experience every, but it's at least rejuvenating.  

 

Also, I've got an annual physical scheduled for Thursday.  I'm hopeful my physician will agree to a comprehensive blood work panel I'm bringing in.  Otherwise, I think I'm looking at around $200 for the tests I'd like to get done.  I built my list mainly off what Stan Efferding recommends on his website (which is a Vitamin D test, plus the "Male Athletic Anti-Aging Panel" from privatemdlabs.com which comes in around $400 from that website).  I looked up quite a few things outside of that in terms of recommend blood work and cut a few things out that seemed like overkill for a non-athlete like myself.  Either way, we'll see what my doc says.

 

Finally, something that occurred to me today while hopping out of the shower.  Despite having the knowledge of what healthy is, it's amazing to me how easily I blatantly ignored all the signs that I wasn't a healthy guy anymore.  This is what I look like today (spoilered as I'm shirtless).  That's not a healthy body.  Honestly, I think the Whole 30 has begun to snap me out of this funk that I'm still a healthy guy even though I haven't worked out much or cared about my diet in 11 months.  So far, 3 days in a row of something.  Here's to keeping the momentum going.  

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[The Most Loathed]

3 hours ago, Rooks said:

Spoiler-ed to spare the non-tech nerds.  

 

  Hide contents

 

 

Hey Rooks, nice rack.

 

 

sucks that the whole 30 didn't got awesome. It was still a good idea. 

[Sloth the Enduring]

I bet most people have no idea what a Whole30 is. I'm pretty hazy myself.

[Rooks]

15 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Hey Rooks, nice rack.

 

Server rack jokes never get old.  Hehe....

 

15 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I bet most people have no idea what a Whole30 is. I'm pretty hazy myself.

 

True.  I forgot that although it's a wildly popular diet, in the grand scheme of things, it's not widely known.  Oddly enough though, the Whole 30 potluck wasn't our idea.  It was the person hosting.  Said he was familiar with it and wanted to be conducive to our diet.  Whatever... the night went great.  It was fun, we stuck to our diet.  What more can you ask for?

[Sylvaa]

Just now, Rooks said:

Server rack jokes never get old.  Hehe....

 

I had to look at the spoilered picture to see which rack he was talking about.... 

[Rooks]

Thursday, Jan 26th, 2017 & Friday, Jan 27th, 2017

Got busy with work.  No workouts.  I did have my annual physical on Thursday and my doctor was actually very cool about the concept of more blood work.  His first reaction was complete surprise that I had done research on blood work.  "What is your profession?  Why are you interested in this?"  I explained I was interested in learning more about my overall health and looking at blood work to get a better idea on ways I could improve my long term health.  He countered with "Eat healthy and exercise" and smiled.  Then, we walked through my requested tests.  He did push back a bit on some of the tests I wanted, but he gave very logical reasoning on why he didn't feel they were necessary.  It was actually great to have a positive conversation with a health doctor, given all the negative experiences I've had so far in my life (even in very limited experiences).  Definitely reenforced that this doctor will be my continued choice.  Once, we had the finalized list, he ordered them all up (still not sure how much if anything will be covered by insurance), but whatever.  I'll figure that out later.  Then decide if after-market options are a cheaper / better alternative in the future.  Scheduled the blood draw for the following Wednesday since I wasn't fasted, and went home.  

 

Saturday, Jan 28th, 2017

Drove up to see my wife's step brother-in-law.  A few weeks before, out of the blue, he had setup a FB auction to sell off a used snowblower his company had got their hands on.  All money went to us (he wanted to do something for us due to my daughter's tumor).  Super nice gesture even if money isn't really a concern at the moment.  So we drove up, and hung out at his shop for awhile.  He let kiddo and I cruise around for awhile in a golf cart which was fun for her even if it was a bit cold.  After leaving there, we cruised down to the local library for our 2nd straight week of Family Story Time.  We were the only family there this time.  I think the librarian was really excited to see someone come 2 straight weeks.  It's a win-win since he seems to enjoy it, and kiddo loves it. 

 

Workout

• Front Split GB Stretch
  • Love this one.  Mainly since I can actually get through it.   That said, it still hits things quite hard.  Nothing like being winded from just stretching.  

Sunday, Jan 29th, 2017

Church.  Then had some friends from church over to hang out.  Their 12 year old daughter loves our kiddo so she basically babysat while we chatted.  Their 10 year old son is autistic so he just rocked out on the couch with his iPad.  It was good to just hang out and get to know them better.  

 

Workout

• Thoracic Bridge GB Stretch
  • This one sucks.  The last 15 minutes has the participants using Stall Bars, so I've got to figure out some sort of replacement for that since I'm not getting a set of those any time soon.

Monday, Jan 30th, 2017 & Tuesday, Jan 31st, 2017

No workouts to report.  Work has been keeping me quite busy and I keep prioritizing that over working out.  I'm beginning to think I may need to start trying to wake up at 5:30am in order to beat my daughter awake so I could workout before work.  Not sure if that work or my daughter would just waking up at 5:30am then. 

 

In other news, Tuesday was the 30th day of my second Whole30.  Dropped from 222.8lbs on December 27th down to 211.6lbs on morning of February 1st.  So 11.2lbs in month.  My wife and I both dropped over 10lbs, which is pretty good considering that the diet isn't really focused on weight loss.  It's simply "eat a lot of the good stuff and NONE of the bad stuff".  Going to have a celebratory beer with my wife tonight, but I think our overall approach for the coming month is to stick with Whole30 eating Monday morning through Friday afternoon, with some extra flexibility around eating out with co-workers and friends on the rare times those come up.  My goal is to hit 199.9lbs by my birthday (March 12th).  Would be excellent to knock that yearly goal out in the first quarter.  

[The Most Loathed]

cool conversation with your doctor. I'm glad you had someone who was willing to talk. It seems like most docs are either very restrictive because it doesn't fit their standard panel or just do whatever the patient wants to pay for. I had a doc who would do the same but I had to leave his office when I changed jobs (he only worked at a clinic inside the companies walls) and I've yet to seek out a new on. I'm pessimistic that I'll find another as good, despite knowing a lot of doctors personally and liking them as people.

 

[Ryuu1011]

On 2/1/2017 at 5:09 PM, Rooks said:

Thursday, Jan 26th, 2017 & Friday, Jan 27th, 2017

I did have my annual physical on Thursday and my doctor was actually very cool about the concept of more blood work.  His first reaction was complete surprise that I had done research on blood work.  "What is your profession?  Why are you interested in this?"  I explained I was interested in learning more about my overall health and looking at blood work to get a better idea on ways I could improve my long term health.  He countered with "Eat healthy and exercise" and smiled.  Then, we walked through my requested tests.  He did push back a bit on some of the tests I wanted, but he gave very logical reasoning on why he didn't feel they were necessary.  It was actually great to have a positive conversation with a health doctor, given all the negative experiences I've had so far in my life (even in very limited experiences).  Definitely reenforced that this doctor will be my continued choice.  Once, we had the finalized list, he ordered them all up (still not sure how much if anything will be covered by insurance), but whatever.  I'll figure that out later.  Then decide if after-market options are a cheaper / better alternative in the future.  Scheduled the blood draw for the following Wednesday since I wasn't fasted, and went home.  

 

Saturday, Jan 28th, 2017

Workout

• Front Split GB Stretch
  • Love this one.  Mainly since I can actually get through it.   That said, it still hits things quite hard.  Nothing like being winded from just stretching.  

Sunday, Jan 29th, 2017

Workout

• Thoracic Bridge GB Stretch
  • This one sucks.  The last 15 minutes has the participants using Stall Bars, so I've got to figure out some sort of replacement for that since I'm not getting a set of those any time soon.

So Just started following you for another GB friend, but not going to lie just skipped to the last two pages since 40 pages is quite a book you've got here hahaha.  Question on the blood work, what exactly did you get done? I've been thinking about getting some done myself to kind of get a good baseline but don't really have any idea where to start or what to get. 

 

Also your description of the Stretch Series is spot on >_< waaay harder than I thought it was going to be, but I'm sure it will be cool to see where I'm at a year from now if I can keep it up. I also like how he is always like "if this is too easy" and I'm practically dying and needing to drastically modify each stretch just so I can attempt it lol. For the work on the Stall Bars I just use my cork yoga blocks to help me step up and then just put my feel on the edge of our couch and that seems to be working ok for now.

[Rooks]

On 2/3/2017 at 7:55 AM, The Most Loathed said:

cool conversation with your doctor. I'm glad you had someone who was willing to talk. It seems like most docs are either very restrictive because it doesn't fit their standard panel or just do whatever the patient wants to pay for. I had a doc who would do the same but I had to leave his office when I changed jobs (he only worked at a clinic inside the companies walls) and I've yet to seek out a new on. I'm pessimistic that I'll find another as good, despite knowing a lot of doctors personally and liking them as people.

 

 

Yeah.  I ended up seeing this guy by sure luck awhile back.  I had a stomach pain for a few days a few years back and went in to get it checked out.  I just scheduled an appointment with the first available doctor.  He seemed knowledge and polite so I decided to keep seeing him even for my physicals and I've yet to be disappointed.  He seems very rationale about things, and very open for discussion.  Also, he seems like he gets the idea that "more medication" isn't the answer.   For anyone in the Twin Cities area that can go to Health Partners and who's curious, his name is Salahudin M. Maalim, MD.

 

On 2/3/2017 at 11:07 AM, Ryuu1011 said:

So Just started following you for another GB friend, but not going to lie just skipped to the last two pages since 40 pages is quite a book you've got here hahaha.  Question on the blood work, what exactly did you get done? I've been thinking about getting some done myself to kind of get a good baseline but don't really have any idea where to start or what to get. 

 

Also your description of the Stretch Series is spot on >_< waaay harder than I thought it was going to be, but I'm sure it will be cool to see where I'm at a year from now if I can keep it up. I also like how he is always like "if this is too easy" and I'm practically dying and needing to drastically modify each stretch just so I can attempt it lol. For the work on the Stall Bars I just use my cork yoga blocks to help me step up and then just put my feel on the edge of our couch and that seems to be working ok for now.

 

No worries about skipping the last 40 pages.  For blood work, Stan Efferding's Youtube channel / webpage is what got me onto the idea.  He recommends some $400 package through a website that I'm sure he gets kickbacks from, but I used it as a baseline and then compared it to the top few results for "recommended blood work" in Google.  

 

I ordered a set of cork yoga blocks and simple bands yesterday so I'll give your suggestion a go the next time I hit up the stretch routine. 

 

Wednesday, Feb 1st, 2017 & Thursday, Feb 2nd, 2017

Busy days at work.  Our team is in a complete transition phase right now as we are essentially be shifted to a whole new product that we are working on.  I'm not really sure how it's going to go.  We are being asked to shift from being a Java based web development team to a firmware development team using C, C++, and Python.  The languages doesn't scare me, it's more that I have a feeling we are going to get pushed for results faster than it'll take us to get up to speed and feel comfortable with the platform.  Anyway... it's work problems.  In the grand scheme of things (see Friday's update), it's doesn't even register on my radar.   No workouts.

 

Friday, Feb 3rd, 2017

I'm going to spoiler this since it's very personal.  It's about my daughter.   Didn't get a workout in.

Spoiler

Had what we think is our 9th MRI today for my daughter.  Tumor is once again bigger and now there is concern that it's starting to impact her (brain ventricles seem to be enlarged which potentially means cerebrospinal fluid is not draining properly).  It's been something our doctors have warned us about.  The doctors aren't quite sure what to do at this point, so they are having a summit next week to figure things out.  She has seemed more tired lately, and she randomly threw up on Tuesday and then again yesterday (after we got home from the MRI).  Needless to say, my wife and I are having loads of emotions.  She wrote up a post on our CaringBridge page and I wrote up this Instagram post.  Sorry for the feels, but yesterday was brutal.  

 

 

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

There's obviously nothing I can say, but I am so sorry she has to go through all of this.

[Elastigirl]

Praying  for you all. So sorry your little one has to go through this.

[The Most Loathed]

Wish I could say anything intelligent or helpful about your daughter. Just, best wishes, we're all pulling for you guys.

[Sylvaa]

I saw your Instagram post. Echoing the statements above. 

[Rooks]

On 2/3/2017 at 11:07 AM, Ryuu1011 said:

Question on the blood work, what exactly did you get done?

 

I realized I never actually answered this question directly.  Here's what I ended up getting which probably isn't as descriptive as you'd like, but at the moment, I can't break it down more.  When I get a chance, I'll gather up all the results of my tests and post them.  

• Basic Metabolic Panel
• Complete Blood Count - No Diff
• Hgb A1c
• Lipid Panel and Direct LDL (if needed)
• Liver Panel (Hepatic Function Panel)

 

On 2/4/2017 at 1:08 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

There's obviously nothing I can say, but I am so sorry she has to go through all of this.

 

On 2/4/2017 at 1:14 PM, Elastigirl said:

Praying  for you all. So sorry your little one has to go through this.

 

15 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Wish I could say anything intelligent or helpful about your daughter. Just, best wishes, we're all pulling for you guys.

 

1 hour ago, Sylvaa said:

I saw your Instagram post. Echoing the statements above. 

 

Thank you everyone.  This weekend's only gotten worse and kiddo threw up and a lot and was complaining about headaches a lot.  We ended up back at the ER for some emergency tests and now we are back in long term stay in the Oncology ward while a plan is developed.  Not really sure what we are going to do at this point.   Either way, won't be posting much for the foreseeable future in regards to fitness.  I may end up doing some push-ups in the room just to burn off some nervous energy but that's about it.

[Ryuu1011]

Thanks for the specifics about the blood work and I can't imagine what you are going though with your daughter but I hope everything works out well, and like TML said we're all pulling for you guys. 

[Rooks]

Created my blood work spreadsheet today.  Will use this going forward.  Actually found that interface for my health provider has a decent interface for comparing previous results, but I figured this will give me everything.  

 

For anyone who really cares to see what my blood work results were, feel free to click the spoiler.  

 

Spoiler

COMPONENT	STANDARD RANGE	3/17/14	6/9/15	9/1/15	2/1/17
HEMOGRAM/PLTS
WBC	4.0 - 11.0 k/ul	7.4	9.9	7	6.2
RBC	4.5 - 5.9 M/ul	5.35	5.54	5.16	5.69
Hemoglobin	13.5 - 17.5 g/dl	16	16.6	15.3	16.7
HCT	41.0 - 53.0 %	46	46.5	43.4	47.3
MCV	80 - 100 fl	86	83.9	84.1	83.1
MCH	26 - 34 pg	29.9	30	29.7	29.3
MCHC	32 - 36 g/dl	34.8	35.7	35.3	35.3
RDW	11.5 - 14.5 %	12.2	12	12.4	12.9
Platelets	150 - 450 k/ul	280	258	242	262
BASIC METABOLIC PANEL
Sodium	135 - 145 mmol/L	-	-	140	142
Potassium	3.5 - 5.3 mmol/L	-	-	4.5	4.2
Chloride	95 - 106 mmol/L	-	-	99	105
CO2	22 - 30 mmol/L	-	-	29	27
Anion Gap (calc.)	7 - 16 mmol/L	-	-	12	10
Glucose	70 - 180 mg/dl	-	-	93	84
Calcium	8.4 - 10.2 mg/dl	-	-	9.2	9.2
BUN	7 - 20 mg/dl	-	-	17	20
Creatinine	0.66 - 1.25 mg/dl	0.99	-	1.16	1.05
GFR, Estimated	>60 ml/min/1.73m2	-	-	>60	>60
GFR, Est., If Black	>60 ml/min/1.73m2	-	-	>60	>60
HGB A1C
Hgb A1c	4.3 - 5.6 %	-	-	5.1 %	5.1 %
LIVER PANEL (HEPATIC FUNCTION PANEL)
Alkaline Phosphatase	40 - 150 U/L	-	-	-	52
Bilirubin, Total	0.2 - 1.2 mg/dl	-	-	-	1.4
Bilirubin, Direct	0.0 - 0.5 mg/dl	-	-	-	0.5
ALT (SGPT)	0 - 55 U/L	42	31	-	26
AST (SGOT)	10 - 40 U/L	-	-	41	18
Total Protein	6.4 - 8.3 g/dl	-	-	-	7
Albumin	3.5 - 5.0 g/dl	-	-	-	4.2
A/G Ratio, calc.	>1.0	-	-	-	1.5
LIPID PANEL AND DIRECT LDL
Hours Fasting	-	12	-	12	13
Cholesterol	0 - 199 mg/dl	190	-	193	170
Triglyceride	0 - 149 mg/dl	77	-	56	69
HDL	>40 mg/dl	41	-	38	35
LDL, Calc.	0 - 129 mg/dl	134	-	144	121
Non HDL Chol, Calc	-	149	-	155	135

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

I feel like I could clone you now.

[Rooks]

6 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

I feel like I could clone you now.

 

Then, you my friend, need to go into business.  That's some crazy good understanding of DNA to be able to clone me from blood work numbers.  Hell, we could probably cure cancer with that brain of yours.  

 

-----

 

So brief life update.  We got home yesterday.  ER visit at 5am on Sunday turned into an all week stay in the Cancer floor of Children's Hospital.  We finally found a cocktail of medications that seemed to get kiddo back on her feet.  Doctors honestly say they have no idea why it's working.  They have theories, but one of the medications is a diuretic, which seemed key to improving her moods (they tried to drop it on Tuesday and by Wednesday she was back to a zero energy zombie that slept for 20 of 24 hours and ate nothing).  So now, we are on 6 medications (only 1 of which is related to battling her tumor).  Obviously, the hope is most of those meds are short term.  Most of the doctors are still pretty convinced that most of this issue was related to a nasty virus that hit her, but they can't be certain since testing for viruses is next to impossible and like I previously said, they don't understand why some of the medications are helping.

 

Anyway, we were discharged yesterday, and kiddo has already perked way up.  She was super jazzed to be home, but was still pretty sleepy yesterday (got home at 4pm, she passed out at 5pm, napped until 9pm, then was back to sleep until 10:30pm).  Today, she was almost back to her normal perky self.  She's such a rockstar.  My MIL showed up today as she really wanted to see kiddo, so I had some time.  I ended up decided it was time to clean up the gym downstairs.  My wife pointed out that there were some random wall anchors equidistant from each side of the window, and when I looked them over, was pleased to discover they were threaded.  One quick jaunt to the garage to grab some 3/8" bolts and I had 2 new hooks installed on the walls, 1 for all my bands, and 1 for my belts.  But all my yoga / stretch stuff in onto 1 milk crate, and put all my powerlifting gear into a 2nd bin.  Then, ran the vacuum over everything, floor to ceiling (loads of cobwebs down there).  

 

It's look pretty damn spiffy, short of the Adrian Peterson jersey that really needs to go.  It's my wife's and she's basically agreed that we don't want it, but she doesn't seem to want to tackle the project and I don't want to push her on it, since that's how most of her fights start (me trying to convince her that something of hers needs to leave the house).  Anyway, I digress.  We will probably end up selling the old cheap barbell that started the home gym soon.  Also, the wife agreed that we need a pull-up bar that can also act as a mounting point for rings, so I'm pricing out a way to make a black pipe one.  Something similar to this without the tape all over the bar.

 

 

It'll be at least 48" long and I'm hoping to get it about 3-4" below the joists.  With only a 7" ceiling in our basement we need to get things close to the ceiling to work right.  That's the main reason why neither of us like the pull-up bar built into our power rack (that and the stupid people knurled the bar).  

 

Anyway, I was going to upload a cool panoramic photo I took of the new clean gym, but apparently Tinypic no longer will accept my photos.  Best way I could figure out with short notice was to go from Google photo over to Google+, then share that with you guys.  That seems to embed, but doesn't look great.  How do you all do personal photo shares?  Otherwise, nothing new to report fitness wise.  I honestly probably lost weight in the last week as I was eating maybe 1 meal a day.  Just sitting around reading most of the time.  I'll weigh myself on Monday morning to see for sure.  Tomorrow, I might get a stretch routine in, but who knows.  

 

P.S. that wood cabinet thing is leaving soon.  It's a leftover remnant from my MIL that thought it would be perfect for my daughter, except it doesn't fit anywhere in our house.  My wife almost has the MIL convinced to take it back.  Hopefully it leaves soon.  

 

 

[The Most Loathed]

Gym is looking really good. Glad everyone is home and you can enjoy it.

 

Looking at your bloodwork the big question in my brain is, what was going on in September? I could probably go back in your log and look but it's the one set of numbers that are the most different, your recent numbers look more like a return to form than anything else to me.