Active or Bust

The last few years have been tricky for me.  If you read really far back, you’ll see that I was super active in the beginning of the blog, and then I started getting all these horrendous injuries in a row, and we never really figured out why, until I was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.  I’ve always been active my whole life, though I went through a patch when I was first sick with POTS and we didn’t know what it was, where I was stuck in bed forever unable to move much.  It was awful.  But, I’ve always been told that when I got injured, I’d have to just take time off of working out and rest until the injury was healed.  Now that I have EDS, that’s not going to really help (unless it’s a broken bone, or a severe muscle tear requiring surgery, crutches, or something like that).  In general, I’ve just got to keep going.

It has taken us a while to figure out that basically the only way I can keep/gain any sort of muscle strength is to keep going.  Rest isn’t going to really help me.  If I have an injury that’s moderate, I show and tell Master Pravus about it, and he makes the final decision on whether or not I should scale back activity (because I’m generally going to want to push myself further than I should be going, which is really not all too useful, and something I am working on.)

So, basically, this whole month has been about us moving as much as possible.  There are only two times so far this past month where I was forced to skip an activity, and it was yoga both times.  The first time my left knee was subluxing on and off for a couple of days, and Master Pravus didn’t feel comfortable with me going to yoga with it like that.  The second time, I was at the local rec center, and the slide had a lip that I stepped my foot down hard on, because I didn’t know it was there.  The ball of my foot was super swollen, and I was limping, so I skipped out of yoga that day too.  But, both days we either went walking or swimming so I still got some activity in.

Master Pravus feeling on the matter is:  “We’ve tried resting your injuries, and that does nothing.  I think that subluxes and dislocations, and sprains are just going to happen – and we just gotta tape you, or brace you, and keep moving.”  And I completely agree.  In fact, I feel so much better just being able to do the things which make me happy, and feel like my life has reached some semblance of “normal” again.

So, our weekends have been much busier than they have been in the past year or so.  We have been spending a lot of time at the zoo, when the weather permits (too hot is just not good for kitty).  Master Pravus even got me to climb this hippo sculpture.  I was scared I’d fall and hurt myself, but I was okay.  =^^=  He even caught me when I slid off at the end, so I wouldn’t get hurt.  <3  We have been enjoying nice, long walks at the zoo, because the Denver zoo is just amazing.  Since we have passes we can get in whenever we want all year, and they have little picnic areas so you can bring your own lunch.  <3  It has become one of our favorite places to go during the day and all the walking has been helping me regain leg strength and endurance.

It’s not an easy road, but I’m glad we’ve finally reached the “just keep going” stance, because sitting around is boring as Hell, and we are big fans of doing things.  It’s just nice to not feel like I’m on the sidelines anymore.  <3