Peeking into the rock

Friday I decided that, since my blood counts were so close to normal, I could probably stop cowering before my exhaustion. I could spend less time napping and lounging in bed, and try to work up my stamina gradually (of course, this may be obsolete as of the first taxol infusion on Wednesday, we'll see). So I decided to dance more than I had the Friday before (seven dances instead of four, oh well, it's still more). And also to walk more. Yesterday in the late morning I took Zluta to Antonelli Pond and we walked almost a mile, which is not much but I'd been turning around way before that and we both had more fun. Then in the evening we went on the old rehab route around the soccer field, which is also almost a mile. And this morning! We went to Pogonip, met up with a Bernese mountain dog and her nice man, and walked to the place where the spring runs over the Spring Trail. Round trip: 2.8 miles. And I am no more tired at this time of day than I have beem, though my calf muscles are trying to get me to agree that they have been mighty today and deserve a medal (to which I reply, no you have not been mighty, you have been normal, all you get is this nice bed we're sitting on).

So I think I was correct in my assessment that I had reached the point where more resting was counter-productive. It's always a question with tiredness or pain: "does this need rest or exercise or both? How much does it need?" The most common answer, I think, is "both." And I think also, that with exercise, if it's not making things worse, it's making things better.

Meanwhile Blue Shield and Sutter are up to shenanigans again. A year after my first knee surgery I get a bill from Sutter saying that Blue Shield has paid everything they're going to pay and now I owe 400 dollars. Of course I don't have 400 dollars. Even more to the point, last year I paid every bill I was given, and Blue Shield said I had hit the limit of what I had to pay in that year, so there's no reason for them to refuse to pay, and no reason for Sutter to expect me to poay instead. I've Twitter-shamed them both,because that worked before,  but since it's a weekend, they might not see it. So I may reply to my Twitter chain on Monday to make it new again.

Another nice effect of the morning's walk is that the Bernese mountain dog played with Zluta on the way and now Zluta is willing to crash. She coughed kind of a lot on the way back, which I attribute to dust on the trail.She's had this particular cough as long as I've known her. She doesn't cough often but when she does it's always the same kind of deep, honking cough that moves her whole body. She never seems to slow down after coughing like that. The vet thought when I first got ZLuta that the cough would be self-limiting and didn't indicate a bigger problem. I'll bring it up when we see her again, but I think it's functional, not easily treatable, and it doesn't seem to bother her except while she's actually coughing.

And now for some more writing!

So I don't have to figure these things out again later. Unless otherwise described, all distances are loops or out and back. It's not like I really need to know these things, but it's nice to have a comparison.

Complete circuit of the field at Long Marine Lab: 1 mile
add cliffside spur, another .3 mile
shorcut version: .6 mi

Levee from credit union to Soquel bridge and back: 1.5 mile
to Broadway Bridge and back: 2.1 mile
to Water Street bridge and back: .9 mile

Short version of Frederick St Park clockwise around the end of the yacht harbor: .9 mile
widdershins to half-way down the harbor: 1.3 mi
to Aldo's: 1.5 mi

Arana Gulch to the yacht harbor gate: .75 mi
to Aldo's: 2.34 mi

Around the Felix-Blackburn block: .4 mi
around the Blackburn-Myrtle block: .5 mi
around the Felix-Walti block: .6 mi
to the end of Depot Park the back way, without Laurel: 1 mile
to the end of Depot Park, by way of Laural and Center: 1.2 mile
high school loop: Laurel, California, Walnut, Chestnut, Jenne: 1.3 mile
California-Bay Street-Depot Park loop: 2 miles

Meder Street-University Terrace-Moore Creek-Grandview Street, if I could ever get all the way down there without getting lost in the housing project at the end: 2.1 there and back
this route as I actually do it: 1.5-1.8 mile (it's not clear on the map where my actual turnaround is)

Antonelli pond, as we do it: .6 mile

Lighthouse Field, common loop: .75 mile


can't do Henry Cowell, the path does not show on Google Maps, in map or satellite view, can't even guess. Well, I only go there when I am in the mood.
Google pedometer

why yes, I'm back to doing my physical therapy exercises, and walking more, and the difference is dramatic and quick. I am so, so very lucky: most people with as little cartilage as I have, and as sedentary habits as I tend to have (at least when I am upset or preoccupied) do not get off so easily as this. I don't use pain relievers at all, even when it hurts, because they don't seem to work on me anymore, but exercise does.I wouldn't expect this to work for everyone, but I would urge anyone with any kind of chronic pain or disability to give the physical therapy strategy a few good tries. Even if you need drugs and/or surgery, the exercise can support those things.

This summer I was sure I was going to get my knees replaced, and I continued with the physical therapy in order to prepare for surgery. Even before I lost my health insurance I had decided not to have the surgery any time soon because the improvement was close to total. I do understand that most people who have nearly no cartilage in their knees would not get the same kind of results, especially with how inconsistent I can be. I understand I am fortunate. But even the unlucky would most likely get some improvement.