Yesterday was my first workout: walking 0.8 miles around the block. I
live on the side of a pretty steep hill, so that's not completely
trivial.
On the steepest part, I wanted to stop, but my old athletic training kicked in: do anything *but* stop, because it's worth it to get the hill behind you. So I moved forward less than one foot-length at a time, giving the sick feeling in my chest enough ease to pass. (At least I know it's not a heart attack. One of the wonders of chronic CRPS is, your physical experience of life has changed so much that words don't exist to explain it. But I know for sure it wasn't a heart attack.)
Today was my second: the same distance, but noticeably better – on the steepest part, I could maintain something close to a walk, and I never got that sick feeling in my chest.
Wonderful progress!
Today was also my first lesson in biofeedback. I thought I was hot stuff, because I can knock 10 to 12 points off my blood pressure at will. Today, though, we measured galvanic skin response. It's much more subtle, and a lot harder to finesse. I got compelling evidence that the physiologic back pressure of this disease is pretty much as bad as I've ever said it was. I won't go into that, because it's depressing.
I've been thinking about a blog entry on breathing, the simplest and most profound of our daily actions. I have to absorb today's lessons first… I really see why I haven't been able to put it together yet, even though it's been on my mind for weeks. Breathing, like living, is so fundamentally simple that I have to think it through very carefully before I try to put it to words.
On the steepest part, I wanted to stop, but my old athletic training kicked in: do anything *but* stop, because it's worth it to get the hill behind you. So I moved forward less than one foot-length at a time, giving the sick feeling in my chest enough ease to pass. (At least I know it's not a heart attack. One of the wonders of chronic CRPS is, your physical experience of life has changed so much that words don't exist to explain it. But I know for sure it wasn't a heart attack.)
Today was my second: the same distance, but noticeably better – on the steepest part, I could maintain something close to a walk, and I never got that sick feeling in my chest.
Wonderful progress!
Today was also my first lesson in biofeedback. I thought I was hot stuff, because I can knock 10 to 12 points off my blood pressure at will. Today, though, we measured galvanic skin response. It's much more subtle, and a lot harder to finesse. I got compelling evidence that the physiologic back pressure of this disease is pretty much as bad as I've ever said it was. I won't go into that, because it's depressing.
I've been thinking about a blog entry on breathing, the simplest and most profound of our daily actions. I have to absorb today's lessons first… I really see why I haven't been able to put it together yet, even though it's been on my mind for weeks. Breathing, like living, is so fundamentally simple that I have to think it through very carefully before I try to put it to words.
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Superb progress hon, wow! To notice a change in two days is phenomenal. I'm all for the breathing route of investigation. I found that calmness and calm breathing helps with my fight or flight silliness. I can't seem to do anything aerobic without setting it off though so I'm sooo glad that you can push that side of exercising a bit further. Amazing stuff hon, whatever comes out of this it's gonna be useful stuff :-)
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