Things I Hate Thursday

OK, today I'm taking a break from inundating you with heart rate information, so on to my favorite day of the week...

Oh, and thanks so much for all of the feedback on my heartrate series.  I find it super interesting, and it's good to know some of you do too!  Or you're just playing nice... either way, I'm cool with it. 

 For those of you that missed it, you can find Parts 1 and II here and  here.  Parts III and IV coming soon!

I hate those stupid word verifications you have to type in to verify you're not a computer or whatever.  In fact, I hate them so much, I tried to find out what they were called to see if other people hated them too.  After ten minutes of fruitless Google search terms ("scrambled up letters to verify identity", "mixed up letters to prevent spam", etc) the search term that did it was "stupid letters you have to type".  I love Google.

Anyway, turns out they're called CAPTCHAs (did everyone know this but me?), and it stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart".

I was delighted to learn that there are whole websites devoted to funny ones.  One time I got "dicks" as a CAPTCHA, but failed to recognize the glorious ScreenPrint opportunity.  Luckily, other people have had the sense to immortalize the funny ones they've seen:






and my personal favorite:












Well, how bout that ladies and gentlemen?  This would be the first time T.I.H.T. turned into something good.

Lying to the Teacher & Things I Hate Thursday

For those of you that are lucky enough to have escaped the evils of physical therapy, let me explain something to you.

It's like being in school.  School where they hurt you.

You have homework, tests, lectures. 

The homework is my stretching, strengthening, foam rolling, icing, etc.  The tests are all of the crazy things he makes me do during my appointment to test my range of motion, pain (which is great fun), and flexibility.

The running is like... a science fair project.  It's really awesome, and I just want to work on it all the time by myself so I can be done with it.  And then I can start running however I want to.   Er... science-fair-projecting however I want.  Here's where the analogy starts to fall off a bit.

Anyway, today, the teacher is going to want to know how my science fair project is going.  Well, honestly, it's not going great, but do I want to tell the teacher that?  No!  I want him to think it's going awesome so I don't have more homework, and have to stay in class over the summer... and so I can RUN!  Are you guys still with me here?

Yeah, my ankle hurts.  So does my shin, my calf.  My ankle actually hurts to the touch, which worries me.  Although I'm not entirely convinced it's not due to the frostbite I sustained a few weeks ago.

But seriously, I don't even want to tell this dude, because my runs are going to get chopped down, and I'll be in PT for the rest of my life.

Since I know how much you guys love hearing me kvetch this early in the morning... it's time for..........

I hate it when I'm cruising on a medical website, reading about what to do if your kid happened to eat a bag of the silica gel that comes with shoes and stuff (just an example, that probably didn't even happen), and the most DISGUSTING pictures come up on the side of the site.  Seriously, who needs to see a disgusting yellow toenail all curled up and gross... or a close up of a brown recluse spider bite.... or an avulsed eyeball, or any number of disgusting skin infections.  Seriously!  I'm shuddering just thinking about it.  Ugh.

You're welcome for this pleasant post. 

It's a good thing they're cute... and Things I Hate Thursday

Because they really put a hurt on my running!

Well, it wasn't really the pregnancy that caused my issues... it was the surprise C-section that did me in.

This is what my PT told me:

I sustained some nerve damage during the surgery.  Boo.

Well, time out.   I did know this because about a week post-partum I literally couldn't get out of bed without crying out.... this led to my OB performing a "trigger point injection" - a HUGE needle attached to a HUGE thing of saline that she repeatedly stabbed into my incision area - (side note, when your doctor asks you to lie down for a procedure and then gets two nurses to come hold your hands, you know you're in for a very un-fun experience)

ANYWAY.  The damaged nerve(s) apparently supply my right quadriceps... and because they got all funky, it caused my quad to atrophy.  So actually my right quad is about 2/3rds the size of the left one.  Not sure how I never noticed this. 

So because my quad is puny on that side, I don't have proper shock absorption when I run, which leads to my foot/ankle/lower leg taking a POUNDING.  This caused the posterior tibial tendinitis, which in turn caused me to become whiny and mopey for a few weeks of no running.

Weird, right? 

This is why I love my PT.  I hate going to doctors because they just treat the symptom and don't address the underlying problem.  This guy takes time to figure out the root of the issue - he said that 90% of the time, whatever the symptom that people come to him with is not the actual problem.  Super interesting stuff guys.

So not only did I get stretch marks, crappy eyesight, bigger feet, and pigmentary demarcation line of pregnancy (look it up, it's funny), but nerve damage too!  ha

I'd do it again in a heartbeat.. have you SEEN how cute my kids are?  :)




And now...

I hate when you're talking to someone, and they keep glancing right above your head.  Does anyone else get that terrifying panic that there's a big spider descending on your head?  ugh.  I can't even count how many times I've done that involuntary freak out move... you know, the duck down, while simultaneously backing up, covering your head, and looking up to see what is attacking you.  Try explaining that maneuver when you meet your future father-in-law for the first time.