Yams and Yucks #62

Today's workout session was pretty disappointing.  I could not do 6 segments of my normal routine due to this continuing lower back pain.   Some of the exercises I could have done simply by enduring the back pain.   But I knew aggravating the lower back by doing those exercises was only going to make getting over this that much longer.  I suspect I need to take at least 2 weeks of reduced workouts to keep from stressing or aggravating my lower back any further.  Tomorrow I go to my cardiologist for my check up exam and blood test.   We will go prepared with daily blood pressure readings from the last 6 months.   Hopefully, my test results will lead to a reduction in the amount and frequency in medication I am taking.  We'll see what the results show, and if all of this eating healthy and exercising is continuing to improve my cholesterol and cardiovascular function.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about yams and health benefits, well that information surprised my daughter Michelle.   She had always thought yams were baby Rams, you know like the ones that live up in the Rockies.  I guess she thinks a baby buck is a yuck. And to think I have been going to her for medical advice.

Yesterday I had my cardiologist check up.  It will be a few days before I get my cholesterol results.   But my heart rate was 48 and from checking the daily records Cindy maintains, the cardiologist found several more heart rates that he said were too low.   In the 40's.  So next week I go back for a treadmill stress test.   He also now has me wearing a nitroglycerin transdermal patch.  I will wear one about 12 hours a day until after I have the stress test.  The patch is to reduce the risk of chest pains, increase the flow of blood, allows the heart not to work as hard to pump blood. Do you remember me telling you about my getting tired and exhausted rather easily.  Discussing that and the low heart rate lead to this concern and a nuclear stress test next week.

You know, for as good as I had been feeling and my exercises going so well, the last 10 days has been a bummer for my being active and feeling well.   My back is hurting and has brought my deer hunting to a stop.  It has all but stopped my exercise routine.  I should stop my daily work outs, but I refuse not to try and make the partial effort.  I am doing the treadmill and some simple ab exercises and that is it.  Today I could only do one set of something I normally do 3 sets of.  That shows you how important routine and being consistent in exercising is.  I am really disturbed that my workouts and exercise routine is screwed up.  I have spent 2 years working to get physically to this point, and it can all slid backwards in a couple of weeks.  Plus, I have had a head cold to go along with the back ache, and then yesterday not getting good news at the cardiologist office.  I really expected to leave there being told I was making great strides.  I had a heart echo done and expected that to show my heart was stronger than ever.  I was dumb enough to think my low heart rate would be a good thing, to be proud of. The result of a lot of hard exercise and  kind of like, hey he is physically fit, calm, and under control.   Well, just goes to show, heart recovery  is exactly what we have been talking about....getting and staying healthy is a never ending process.  We didn't need a medical degree to figure that out did we.

I have done something differently with this posting.  It has been more of a daily, as it happened , rather than reviewing and summarizing the last week.   With that in mind, I had my daily workout this morning and still not much progress in the area of back pain...still doing the limited workout routine to not aggravate my lower back.  I had told you I am down to my last weight lifting exercise and decided today to drop it.  The actual movement of lifting the weights did not stress or strain my back, the bending over to pick up and bending to put back on the floor or rack when finished was a back problem.  So I dropped one more exercise today.  I basically am not doing any exercise that requires me to bend at the waist while standing, or sitting.  

This is my second day of wearing the nitroglycerin patch and one of the side effects I am having is drowsiness.  I feel as if I have been drugged.  Hopefully, by my next post, I will have had my stress test and can tell you more.