Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
649848 tn?1534633700

Sunday Weigh in December 25, 2022

Good evening, I decided to post the Sunday Weigh In this evening in case things get hectic tomorrow.  I also wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings.  

This past week has been kind of odd for me - not one of my best, for sure.  I saw the foot doctor on Wednesday.  It was my first visit with him and he's very nice, knowledgeable and explains things extremely well.  He'll answer whatever questions you have and spend as much time as he needs to.  That's wonderful, but all that does take time, so my 5:15 pm appointment turned into a 7:00 pm appointment.  Of course, he was just as diligent at answering my questions and explaining things as he was everyone else.  I've never gotten home from a doctor's appointment at 8:30 in the evening!!   Quite an experience.  

Anyway, I've mentioned that I have a ganglion cyst and some split tears on a couple of tendons in my foot.  The doctor isn't going to do anything with the ganglion cyst right now because he doesn't think that's causing my pain.  He thinks it's the tendon tears that are causing the pain.   Unfortunately, the walking that I've thought was so good for me, was actually causing the damage.  Yeah, because the muscles in my calves got too tight and put pressure on the tendons in my feet.  That's caused from not doing stretching exercises before/after I walk.  Who'da thunk??

The treatment for that (split tendons) is immobilizing the foot, so I'm in a boot for the next 6 weeks.   The boot is big and clumsy... totally uncomfortable and needless to say it's making my neuropathy flare like crazy!!  But I'll wear it because if my tendons heal, as expected, I won't have to have surgery on that foot again.  

I also saw the hand surgeon yesterday - rather the PA, who was very nice and knowledgeable.  She confirmed the diagnosis of carpal tunnel, in both hands, put forth by my primary care physician.  She also added a diagnosis of Cubital Tunnel Syndrome - which involves the ulnar nerve that threads through the elbow and goes down the forearm.  The median nerve, involved  in Carpal Tunnel, branches off from the ulnar never.  The median nerve controls movement in the thumb, index, middle and 1/2 of the ring fingers.  The ulnar nerve controls movement in the pinky, other half of the ring finger and the front of the hand.   Both of these conditions are caused by these nerves being pinched/compressed.  The ulnar nerve gets compressed at the elbow, usually from being bent too much.  The median nerve gets pinched from repetitive motions.  

In addition to the Carpal Tunnel and Cubital Tunnel Syndromes, I have muscle wasting in my thumbs which makes the very weak and it's hard to grasp things.   In testing my fingers, it was determined that I also have a "trigger finger"... it's the ring finger on my left hand.  A trigger finger is one in which the nerves don't move smoothly in the sheath, so the finger bends, but then doesn't straighten smoothly - it's sort of "pops" as it straightens.   That finger has behaved that way for years - I thought it was something like "double jointed", etc.  Nope, it's not a good thing.  

So - I'm going to have to go through some nerve conduction tests to determine the extent (mild, moderate, severe) of the Carpal and Cubital Tunnel Syndromes.  If the results are anything other than mild, surgery will be required on both hands to release the median nerves, as well as my elbows to release the ulnar nerves.  This is not something I really want to deal with, but if I don't, loss of nerve function, along with muscle wasting can make my hands unusable.  At this point, the nerve function can be reversed, but I'm not sure if the muscle wasting can be.

I did get a steroid shot at the base of my trigger finger... oh my - how painful can it get??   The trigger finger is still "sticking", but the shot seems to have helped the pain in the thumb on that hand.   IDK how long the relief is going to last and if the shot doesn't help the trigger finger, they'll fix it when they do the CTS surgery on that hand.  

Being the Christmas holiday, they weren't able to set up appointments for the testing that needs to be done.  They're supposed to do that on Tuesday.   We go from there.  Although the PA seemed to think surgery on both hands is inevitable, it looks like it could be March or April before anything will happen.  

All that said - I've been a bit disturbed all week and not eating as much.  I've lost 1.6 pounds since last week.  I'm happy with that, but assuming it's coming from not being as hungry and dragging this big ole boot around.  

Anyway, I know some people have a lot of holiday parties to deal with, that can often lead to weight gain.  I hope you have strategies to deal with those and look forward to hearing about your experiences.

~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week ~~

Happy Holidays to everyone.
1 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
134578 tn?1693250592
That's quite a bit of undesirable news, Barb. I'm sorry you're going through it but glad you have a good doctor. It's interesting to hear about needing to stretch before walking, I've sometimes noticed that my legs ache with what seem like pretty small amounts of uphill walking, and wonder now if that was the problem. I sure hope they get you on the schedule quickly. What a (literal) pain to have to wait.

I weighed yesterday and am down more than a pound, a surprise because of all the baking and sampling of Christmas cookies. We went to a family Christmas gathering yesterday, and I was able to fob all of them off onto the people there. Alas, most of the food at the party was sweet -- when we came home we were dying for a regular meal, and so ate scrambled eggs!.

We had an ice storm on the 22nd/23rd, the temperatures had been low for several days (like, 20 degrees) and then it rained through a warmer air belt aloft and into the cold, so it froze. Everything got glazed. Continuing precipitation in a freezing-rain event can coat branches and wires so heavily with ice that it brings down whole trees and even power poles, but luckily it didn't continue to that degree, it just stayed cold. At the beginning of the freezing rain, I saw a minivan slide down a hill (sideways to the street -- it would have been funny except in real time, it was scary). Unable to stop, the van slid right out onto a highway in the face of oncoming cars. He was lucky, got honked at but not hit. As the storm got more severe, no one went out at all for 36 hours, you couldn't walk on any surface without falling down, and it was impossible to drive. (Not to mention, all the stores were closed.)  We had been able to get the food we needed in advance of the storm, and (luckily) didn't lose power, so did OK. Things have warmed up since, and were melted enough by Christmas morning that we were able to make the family party. I think some more cold is coming, though.

This is our last week of winter vacation, which has been welcome. Hope everyone has a great week!



Helpful - 0
2 Comments
Well, I just spent 30 minutes responding to your message and almost ready to hit "send" and lost the whole thing... I'll try to re-create a "short version"... lol

You're absolutely right about the bit of undesirable news, but, as usual, I'll get through it - complaining all the way... LOL  

I think I'm going to find that the stretching exercises are a lot more important than, even the doctor, indicated.   Just climbing a step stool to get the porch windows closed for the cold weather made my legs/feet hurt.  I've decided that whatever stretching exercises he tells me to do, I'll do every day, whether I'm going for a walk or not.  It's bound to be helpful   I'm also back to:  I need to start doing yoga every day - it centers on stretching, breathing, etc.  

I'm glad to hear that you've dropped a pound in spite of baking/sampling the cookies.  Maybe you didn't sample as many as you thought?  Or the simple act of doing the baking worked off the calories - that never works for me... lol  I'm glad you were able to foist them off to others, though so you didn't have to take them back home.  

We used to get ice storms when we lived in Iowa.  One time, the ice was so heavy, it broke tree branches and power lines .  The wind was so strong, it snapped power poles like they were toothpicks.  We were without power for a little over  a week.  I'm glad you didn't have anything like that.  

The van sliding down a hill sideways sounds pretty scary.   I'm sorry the poor guy was honked at, but glad no one hit him.  "(Not to mention, all the stores were closed.)"  No point going out if the stores are closed, is there?  :-)

I'm glad you were able to make it to your family gathering, though.  

It's been below freezing here for the past few nights.  My walking partner says it was warmer in OR this  morning than it was here.  Now, that's pretty sad... lol   I don't think it's supposed to get quite as cold tonight as it has the past few nights and we're supposed to start warming up so by the weekend, we'll be in the 80's for highs... That's too drastic all at once, but of course, we'll take the 80's over the low 30's.  :-)

Have a good week.  
Yeah, the van was pretty terrifying. It's one thing to see videos of people sliding in cars, but another to watch it happening live right in front of you and know there is nothing that can be done to save the person if a big truck had been coming on the highway and crashed into him.

It did warm up here, we even hit 50 degrees today but oh, rainy like a monsoon, and very windy. There are 100,000 people out of power in the Portland area. We went to the farm to check things out, and the hundred-year-old six-story-high ponderosa pine in our front yard was leaning at least 15% off normal because of the wind. (The wind was blowing away from the house, or it would be much more worrisome. If it fell, and if the root comes out of the ground, it might take out the front walkway, but not the house. Going that direction, the tree would lie across the road until someone could be found to cut it up, a big job by itself but not as bad as it could be.) We used to hire someone to thin that tree every few years to reduce the likelihood that it would be like a sail in high winds. It's time to do it again, (given that it makes it through the winter. Usually ponderosas grow in a forest, and they protect each other. This one stands alone, and is therefore a lot more susceptible to wind.)

I don't think I held back from sampling the cookies as much as I simply didn't eat a lot else when I was baking. One of the kinds I make has a lot of walnuts in it, probably I got some protein, and since sweet, fatty things fill me up pretty fast, I probably just stopped eating them relatively soon and wasn't hungry for anything else. Today we made up for it by eating very healthily (I had ceviche for lunch). But I do think it was a lucky thing I didn't plump up -- it's been known to happen! lol

Have a great week.
Have an Answer?

You are reading content posted in the Weight Loss and Fitness Community

Top Healthy Living Answerers
649848 tn?1534633700
FL
Avatar universal
Arlington, VA
Learn About Top Answerers
Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
14 super-healthy foods that are worth the hype
Small changes make a big impact with these easy ways to cut hundreds of calories a day.
Forget the fountain of youth – try flossing instead! Here are 11 surprising ways to live longer.
From STD tests to mammograms, find out which screening tests you need - and when to get them.
Tips and moves to ease backaches
Here are 12 simple – and fun! – ways to boost your brainpower.