This is so great:
Although Vader’s voice could use some work!! Love how the Death Star plays Wham! Would write more, but I am off to a holiday cookie party (no matter what city I live in, I can’t seem to avoid these darn cookie parties… lol).
First ski weekend up north 
AND GUESS WHAT We picked up our season passes!!!!! wahhhooooooooo Please note in both of these pass pictures it was nuking outside before I walked in to get my photo taken, so here I am sporting a bit of a “drowned rat” look. Apparently both mountains let you email your photo in beforehand (which we didn’t know about until we went to pick them up), so next year I’ll have to rock a spiffier look.
We skied one day at Kirkwood and one day at Heavenly. They were both good, although pretty windy both days and lots of lift closures. Still nice snow, though. Met up with my friend Amy for some turns:
Linus got walked in the snow (with his support sling in the back). Earl did NOT want to pose for this picture and was all “hurry up and get over here, my back hurts!”
Linus also had some nice crate rest in front of the fire. I still have a bit of a guilt complex about leaving him in the crate 24/7 except for walks. I feel so bad for him! I wish there was some way to explain to him that we’re doing this for his own good and hopefully resting in his crate for 6 weeks will help him heal.
All in all, an awesome, RELAXING and fun weekend which was exactly what we needed. Excited to be spending lots and lots of time at the ski house this season.
The ULTIMATE way to relax!!
Ahh, sick day
Linus had a followup with his neurosurgeon today. We didn’t get the best prognosis at this point. His recovery is going “more slowly than usual” as most dogs walk within three days. It’s been almost a month and he’s still not walking on his own. He walks with assistance (back leg rear sling support) but can’t really stand on his own and certainly can’t walk on his own. He’s too wobbly and doesn’t have sensation in his back feet.
The surgeon gave us two main options: kicking up our efforts to a more aggressive rehab, or ANOTHER MRI/CT scan and another surgery.
I just don’t think more surgery is the answer. Going through it the first time was SO hard- both on our mental state and wallets, and on Linus himself. He’d certainly lose bowel and bladder control again- and we wouldn’t be sure if he’d ever get them back.
Right now, he’s continent and can poop and pee on his own, but he can’t walk.
Hearing the news at the vet’s… I felt exasperated, deflated, and … annoyed. SELFISH. I am so sick of all this dog stuff ruling my life! All I ever do is think about the dog, worry about the dog, care for the dog. I go to work to pay for the dog’s needs. My entire days off are spent carting him around, bringing him to doctor’s offices and acupuncture, worrying I am carrying him wrong and going to injure him further. Every six hours he gets physical therapy. Every spare dollar we have goes towards his rehab and his care. All this and it’s still not working!!! I am so sick of this!!! ARGH!!
I want to concentrate on my classes, my career, my future, my fitness, my LIFE. I miss when my dog that fit into my life… we would walk to cafes, go jogging together, play at parks, go the beach. Now my life revolves around the dog and none of it’s fun.
Whine, whine, whine.
With that out, I have resolved myself to spirited caregiving for the dog. I know he deserves it, and I know I want to do it. A little bout of selfishness, but it’s over.
Linus is booked to see “the best” canine physical therapist in the Bay Area… she’s over an hour away- up north in Rohnert Park, near Santa Rosa. I think he’ll be seeing her 1x a week for physical and hydro therapy… combining that with acupuncture, hopefully that will be the trick.
Please get better, Linus!! I want to see you run around the beach and play again.
One of the things I learned this morning with Ricky is how much more “mental” deadlifting is vs. squats or bench. Squats and bench you can prettymuch just rely on your own strength to get you there, and make sure you can actually do the lift. Even if you’re not mentally focused, your brute strength can pull you through and compensate so you can get the weight up. Deadlifting, however is a whole ‘nother story.
A week and a half ago I gave myself giant blisters UNDERNEATH my calluses on my hands while doing zillions of deadlifts. It was SOOOO PAINFUL. Then on Sunday, attempting to relieve pressure and pain I very stupidly “popped” the blisters while waiting for Earl at the farmer’s market. That was about the most absolutely idiotic thing I could have done, and it left me not only in HELLA pain, but also with enormous yucky open rips on my hands.
Last week I suffered through having NO calluses on my hands and dealing with ripping open flesh on my palms while deadlifting. Ricky just laughed at me and called me “soft” … I even actually CRIED at the gym (for the first time… and for the record I haven’t puked there yet either) because I was in so much pain in my hands!
It was really frustrating because I was trying to lift a much lower weight than I normally rep, however I couldn’t do it because my hands were screaming in pain. How I finally overcame it was (on Ricky’s suggestion) by SLAPPING my hands together as hard as I could (really whacking them against each other super hard!!) to cause them even MORE pain and then I wouldn’t feel it when I was lifting the weight. So almost a distraction-type pain.
My point is, that it was a rough week for my deadlifts. Then today, when I’m trying to rep what SHOULD be a very easy weight for me (225), I was having trouble. I was getting it up, but my form wasn’t the best and also I wasn’t EXPLODING up as easily or as quickly as I should. I SHOULD be deadlifting about 300lbs now and instead here I was struggling with 225. ARGH!!!!
I think I was “too much in my head” based on my ripped up hands and former pain from last week. I’ve never really had a sport where MENTAL TOUGHNESS really came into play in such severity. Even in Ironmans and triathlons I just kind of bumbled through and kept going. Even in my hardest and longest marathon or triathlon, I never found that I had to really keep my head in check. It was simple- you just kept going until you got across the finish line. Both skiing and swimming I’ve been lucky enough to possess such an easy, natural talent and affinity for that I never had to TRY that hard or overcome mental demons.
In that regard, I’m pretty stoked because powerlifting is presenting me with this new challenge and problem to overcome. I think I’m going to do some reading about mental focus and toughness and how that plays into weightlifting in the next couple of weeks. Try harder to “get in the zone” before my lifts.
The competition is coming up (January 9th!) and I’d love to be able go up there and give it my 100% best… mental issues aside! To borrow a phrase from triathlons, to “leave it all on the course.” Here’s hoping!
Watching the Dodger’s List educational DVD tonight!
Educating ourselves on IVDD recovery and options. It’s super helpful. We’re so happy to have found Dodger’s List (in fact, someone reading this blog commented and pointed us over there- thank you), it has been a life saver. Everyone on the message board is so informative and caring. Even though there’s an obvious dachshund bias around those parts! 
We are in the process of IVDD-proofing our home. Heading to the mattress factory to get SOMEONE an expensive memory foam mattress for his dog bed tomorrow. Now… let me just rant that E and I have an old crappy mattress for ourselves… meanwhile nothing but the finest for the Four Legged Moneypit!!!! Maybe I should develop rapid onset IVDD myself… would that get me a nice fancy new bed?
… says Earl.
I was decorating the tree last night and found Lucy’s elf costume. All cats should have an elf costume
Can’t you tell how much she just LOVES wearing it? heh heh
The funniest part of her wearing this is that immediately after I put this on, we both went downstairs and got distracted doing something else, so poor kitten ending up wearing an elf costume for about three hours. Lol. She was curled up in an disgruntled ball with her back to everything when we found her!
Both trees are up, and the stockings are hung. I haven’t hung any outside lights yet, mainly because it’s been raining, raining, raining almost every day here (or, at least raining on all of my days off!), so I may have to skip the light hanging this year. I’m a little freaked to climb up on the roof and be nailing stuff into the house if it’s at all slippery… give it another week and see if I can find a nice sunny day to attempt.
Behold, our fabulous Christmas present to each other (and most everyone else) this year:
It’s a new back for the dog!
Old dog, new back. There goes the Christmas budget… and then some. Like his new spot under the tree? That’s where he lives for the next two weeks as he rehabs. Crate Rest ONLY. They are very strict about this over on Dodger’s List. No couch cuddling, no floor cuddling, no long car trips. We’re a little worried about his psychological state, however are more happy that his back seems to be doing better. He’s peeing on his own now which is a HUGE RELIEF. He had acupuncture today. I’ll post some photos in a few days.
Cheers And merry merry.
Just a quick update- Linus is “walking” around in his sling. He still has lots of residual weakness and loss of feeling in both feet- for example he still won’t “flip” his back paws around if he lands on the top of his feet instead of the bottom of his pads.
HOWEVER, these are some awesome improvements nonetheless! For example- he wagged his tail (nub, really) the other day!! WHOOO WHOOO We were doing cartwheels of joy around here over that one.
He also was using his back legs to scratch his ears, which was verrrry exciting.
So slow, but steady gains. He also has control of his urine output and bowels, which increased our quality of life (for every one of us!) substantially. The rehab process is long, slow and arduous. It’s not about quick and easy fixes… it’s a lot of hard work for small little gains over drawn out increments of time. Three yards and a pile of dirt, as my dad would say. Still doing physical therapy on him every six hours, and also taking him to acupuncture once a week. He has a meeting with his doggie neurosurgeon tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll have a nice progress report.
I think the biggest thing that’s an issue now is both of us being super paranoid we are going to kill him, or break him, or hurt him further. We have to carry him up and down the stairs a lot since he can’t do them himself. And he’s a 30lb dog! Imagine doing this surgery with a great dane or something. Imagine if I still lived in my former NYC 5th floor walk up! Shesh Carrying him is always a mental worry now… neither of us are certain how “stable” his back is at all. It’s very nerve wracking!
Here he is walking through La Mission on a rainy San Francisco Saturday:
GO LINUS, GO!!
Thank you all for the love, kind words, thoughts, encouragement and support. It means the world and really helps
<3,
cj
This morning at group workout with Ricky, we did deadlifts, deadlifts and more deadlifts.
12 sets of 10 reps, all on top of a warmup that was …. DEADLIFTS. I was repping at 185lbs for the first half, but then was losing grip strength in my right hand and couldn’t keep the bar even. It’s funny how the weakest part is always your stupid hands and grip strength! SOOOOO frustrating!! And you *know* we are not allowed to cheat with the grip straps, since as Ricky put it “we lift raw.” I finished out at 135lbs and by the 12th set even that was killing me. Right now my hands feel totally dead. I couldn’t even hold and grip my KEYS well to open the door when I got home.
Ohh!! Guess what! Yesterday I signed up for a powerlifting competition! It’s in Pleasanton in the beginning of January. Not really feeling like I’ll be ready for it, but going to try it out nonetheless. A bunch of people I train with at Body Mechanix are doing it, so at least there will be some group support, and we can have fun cheering each other on. I’m really stoked to have something tangible to train for.
The powerlifting competition is only three exercises: squats, deadlifts and bench. I’m not out to hit any goals except have fun. Here is the humiliating part- we have to wear singlets for the competition. They’re basically a spandex outfit with shorts and a bib.
^^^ Yiesh!!
So… more motivation to eat clean until the competition!
Kind of looks like my old Ironman outfit:
although I doubt I could just wear that, because the triathlon outfit has padding in the butt for the bike ride.
Update on Linus coming later today. Thank you again everyone for the thoughts and well wishes. He is doing MUCH BETTER and I will post some photos (and maybe even a video of him “walking” in his sling) later today.
Ceej
The End of Overeating by David Kessler
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