One Step at a Time

So it's Update time again!

I'm going to be seeing a doctor tomorrow evening after work about my knee and see what he has to say. I'm hoping things will work as I've heard this doctor can be hard to understand because he has a very thick accent and occasionally has trouble reading certain English documents as he's not from Canada. So I'm crossing my fingers that it'll all work out the best that it can.

As for how my knee is actually doing, it's kind of a hit or miss situation. Some days it hurts so bad I'm in tears and use a crutch to go around and other days, I can walk totally fine and only get occasional stabs of pain. Some of it depends if I do a lot that day. Like, am on my feet all day, or try to run, or anything else that involves extra work for the knee. But if I sit and rest it a lot, then it does better.
This also means that I'm not doing any exercises as it gets painful for my knees if I trying doing so much as a squat. It sucks, but that's how they're doing at the moment.

And as much as I hate to admit it, I haven't really adjusted my eating that much so I haven't really lost anything in the last bit that we spoke. But I'm starting to get my cravings under control again. It's a bit of a hard process, but I'm getting there. I was also starting to get sick but I've taken some Echinacea pills and they're really helping to fighting it off before it could turn into anything serious which is awesome.



So ya, that's where I'm at currently.
I'm also going to be leasing out my one horse since I don't know when I'll be able to ride again and it's not fair to let him just sick in a paddock and not get the exercise he needs. So that's something I'm looking at doing. My younger boy is fine to sit longer without any real work cause even though he's 3 very soon, he's still growing and hasn't had any serious training that I have to worry about reteaching later on.

I also don't have any recent pics since I haven't taken too many considering I haven't been able to spend much time with the boys, so here's a pic of Jack from last summer about 2 months in from when I first started working with him. I honestly can't wait for summer again which is getting closer every day.

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I wouldn't worry about exercising, Ann. At this stage, letting your leg heal is the important thing. It sounds like you have not gained any weight & that is good.
 
Hey Ann, always good to hear from you!

Cate is right maintaining rather than gaining is a good thing, do you have a diet plan going forward?

As always I appreciate the horse update and pictures. Now keep on posting!
 
Nice to hear from you again Ann. Hope your visit with the doctor is productive and you can figure out next best steps for your knee!
Thanks as always for the pictures--they always make me smile!
 
Not gaining when you're injured, frustrated, and unable to move is hard enough! Maybe try and concentrate on getting plenty of nutrients in to make healing as easy as possible but otherwise don't worry too much.
 
Give your knee time to heal as best you can, Ann! As much rest as you can manage. Is it for work that you're doing so much standing, and trying to run? Can you talk things over a bit with your employer, about how things can be rearranged to give you more chance to heal?

I agree with everyone else - that just maintaining where you're at is an achievement when you're injured - let alone that you need to be doubly sure that you're getting good nutrition to heal. I'm glad you're taking echinacea - I think it's pretty good myself! :)
 
So the doctor visit went well I think.
The doctor did come from a different country so his accent can make it a little hard to understand what he said at times, but I believe what he said was that the inside of my knee/the joint itself is fine. It's more the soft tissue and muscles around it that could be damaged and need strengthening. But just to make sure there is nothing else going on, he is sending me off to get an MRI scan done just so we know for sure there's nothing surprising going on. And he's also going to be getting me in to physio so I'm just waiting on a call from them about that.

My back is also quite out of place. It's been getting worse and is unrelated to my fall/injury but I definitely need to go to chiro and get that fixed up. Thankfully I get that covered by my benefits at work so I just need to schedule it sometime. Can't wait to start feeling better again.


For my health plan, I don't have anything crazy. I'm considering trying the 17 day diet. A book came in about it and it's a cycle of 17 days a few days break, then another 17 days and so on. By the 4th cycle it's more about maintaining than losing weight. And each cycle focuses on something a little different but builds on the previous one. When I have the book on me, I can take a pic or explain the cycles a bit better.
But that's still just a thought. I haven't committed to it yet.
Otherwise the general plan is just to make sure I'm in a bit of a calorie deficit to encourage weight loss, but nothing too dramatic.

There was also a knee brace that came into work so I'm thinking I may try that out and see how much that helps with my knee during work to prevent being in pain later when I get home. And if it helps with that, I may try to do a tiny bit of work with my youngest horse. I'm pretty sure I found someone to lease out my older guy, but I'll know better by Monday if it's a for sure thing or not.

And if I do work with the horses, I'm thinking of just doing a little bit of bareback riding. This way, I don't have the saddle or stirrups to put my leg into an uncomfortable position so basically, my legs can hang loose while bareback and it'll just be my upper body strength doing most of the work.
But I haven't really commited to that yet either. First I have to see how the knee brace does and if it actually helps or not.


And a pic of my big guy, Sam, looking so scruffy/bad cause he's shedding out his winter coat lol.
Oh, and the new barn cat got stuck up in the rafters and he's only been here a total of like, 3 days. He got help coming down though so it's all good.

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Oh, poor silly barn cat! Cheers for the kindly person(s) who helped him down!

I'm glad there's no structural damage (as best I understand it) to your knee. Be careful with the chiropractor - I mean, be careful to choose a good one. Backs are so important for just about all movement. And while you're healing "nothing too dramatic" for weight loss sounds like a good idea.

And I really like the sound of you being able to ride bareback, to take it easy while giving the horses just a bit of work - I hope it works out! :)
 
Alright, so things have drastically changed over the last week and a half.

As of yesterday, I am officially laid off of work due to the Covid-19 situation. I did manage to get a doctor appointment before all that which I made it to and today got blood work done. On Monday, they don't want anyone coming into the clinic unless it's absolutely necessary so instead, I'm still going to have my doctors appointment, but it's going to be over the phone instead. So that'll be interesting.

Thankfully where I live, in Canada, we get EI which is Employment Insurance. So through this, I will still get paid a certain amount every month to help with expenses. They don't pay the full amount your work did, but a portion of it. Considering I made over minnimum wage, I'm hoping that my portion will be higher than if I had purely worked at the min wage level. So it'll be nice to have a bit of income there to help with bills, groceries, and gas. I also may be getting my first ever real commission in regards to my art which may lead to bringing in royalties for a certain amount of time and that'll really help in this situation too. Nothing is for sure there yet though, but it's exciting to even be considered.


As for health, well I'll find out some stuff on Monday if something more is going on with me or if it's an easy fix which may affect my weight depending on if I have to go on certain pills or not.
Also, considering I'm stuck at home now, I'm going to do my best to set aside time each day to do some stretches. Plus I still have my horses to take care of so I'll be able to get in some fresh air and exercise that way too.
Food wise, I don't have a bunch of super healthy foods, but I don't have the worst either. A lot I have frozen right now like some meat, some frozen dinners, and such. I'm saving those for last though as I want to use up my fresh stuff first and we'll see how things are before I dive into the frozen section. I want to keep the frozen stuff as an emergency supply as long as possible so that if there's another panic wave of people buying out everything, then at least I have something still at home. Same if I get tight on money at some point too since it sounds like things may be like this till fall or something like that.

So instead, I'm not going to worry about what I eat, but rather how much of it I eat.

I hope you guys are all doing well in this situation we're in as well.

And to finish things off, some more pics of my boys who brighten my day and are going to be lifeline through this trying time.

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Jack wanted attention so badly that he had to stick his head over Sam's back to reach me xD
 
AnnSparks said:
I also may be getting my first ever real commission in regards to my art which may lead to bringing in royalties for a certain amount of time and that'll really help in this situation too. Nothing is for sure there yet though, but it's exciting to even be considered.
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That´s so cool! Fingers crossed something will come of it but I agree the idea in itself is pretty exciting.
I´m the same with fresh/frozen/shelf stable items: I want to eat fresh for as long as I can and I want to not dig into my "will keep" reserves too much in case we do get into more trouble. Also: horse pictures lovely as ever.
 
I am so glad that you have decent insurance. So many countries don't. I will keep my fingers crossed that something comes from your art. That is really exciting! We're hoping to stock up our freezer a little but keep eating fresh as long as we can. They are trying times, but we hopefully get through them & learn some valuable lessons & look out for one another more. Unfortunately, the good stories are too rare at the moment. Take care, Anne.
 
AnnSparks said:
. I also may be getting my first ever real commission in regards to my art
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That's wonderful! Congratulations - and it's pleasant that it'll help on the income front, too.
Love the four pictures, especially of Jack, so eager for attention that he poked his head over Sam's back! They must indeed brighten your day!
Best wishes on the health front. :)
 
As of Monday afternoon, I got some pills from the doctor to see if they'll help with my moods. My blood work came back totally fine so I'm healthy in general. Could just be my brain isn't making enough chemicals or hormones or something like that so these pills should help with that. So I got enough pills to use for 3 weeks and depending on how I feel after that is if I'll stay on them for a bit, switch to something, or if the dosage needs to be changed. So it'll be interesting to see how this goes.

Also, I'm finding my stress is going down a lot since this quarantine thing has started. So far, every day I get up with fresh energy and inspiration and motivation to do stuff. I've finally gotten around to cleaning up some stuff I kept putting off. I've gotten a lot more art drawn up and still feel motivated to keep drawing where is I'd be too tired in the past to draw much other than weekends. I'm also feeling a lot more motivated to go out and actually work with the horses and I've started doing stretches throughout the day too to help with the fact I'm sitting to draw a lot. Plus I'm getting also to the point of wanting to walk or exercise more too so pretty soon I'm going to add those into my day as well.

Honestly, it feels great not to have to worry about work. I don't have to set alarms, though I still tend to get up between 5 - 7 am. I just feel overall refreshed and energized and quite happy/content.


Anyway, today I spent time with the horses again, but worked them a bit and even rode Sam around a bit which was my first ride since my knee injury and it felt so good to get up on him again. Though it actually took me 2 attempts to get up on him since my muscles were a little stiff/sore still from it but even now, my knee isn't bothering me at all like it when I would work. But I also only rode him around at a walk so it's not like a whole lot of stress was put on my leg anyway.

So ya, that was my fun exercise for the day and I can't wait to do more of that.
And of course, pics of Sam from our ride. I love how red he looks in the sunshine :D

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And cause you guys seem interested in the horses, I'll add in a pic of Jack in the process of loosing his two top teeth and them getting replaced by his adult ones. My young guy is growing up! and the pink on the bottom is his tongue, just for clarification. Might as well toss in a little prance from Jack too cause why not? xD

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AnnSparks said:
So I got enough pills to use for 3 weeks and depending on how I feel after that is if I'll stay on them for a bit, switch to something, or if the dosage needs to be changed. So it'll be interesting to see how this goes.
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Don´t fret if you don´t notice a difference at all at first, depending on what you got it may need quite a while to start having an effect.
AnnSparks said:
Also, I'm finding my stress is going down a lot since this quarantine thing has started. So far, every day I get up with fresh energy and inspiration and motivation to do stuff. I've finally gotten around to cleaning up some stuff I kept putting off.
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Same. Nice to see this whole thing has SOME advantages. Also: you being able to rest your leg more seems to be extremely helpful as well. I love the picture of prancing Jack!
 
Well, today I managed to spend nearly 4 hours with the horses so I think it's safe to say I got my exercise in for the day haha.

Did training with Jack and some things were new to him so there plenty of spook moments so that resulted in me having to move with him literally all across the arena at times. Even jogged around with him a bit as well so I definitely got a decent workout with that.

With Sam, I worked with him with new things as well, but he didn't take me all over the arena though. And I finished it off with about 15 - 20 minute ride at both a walk and a trot and riding burns more calories than just walking around.

So I think it's definitely safe to say I got a decent workout. But it was a lot of fun and I made so much progress with the boys and I love having all the time in the world to spend with them. I didn't even pay attention to the time at all so it kinda surprised me when I got in my car that pretty nearly 4 hours passed. I'm excited to keep this going and hopefully I'll be in good shape by the time this quarantine is over.


Pics from my session with the boys today

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I also braided Jack's mane for the first time ever and absolutely love it. Howevever, since it's so insanely thick, by the time I was done working with Sam, his mane was already coming out of the braids ><

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Also, braiding a horses mane works the upper arms A LOT more than you'd think. my arms were burning a little by the end of that so I even got an arm workout today!
 
LaMaria said:
The braided mane looks spectacular. You´re sounding great at the moment! What did your knee say to the whole thing?
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I'm feeling pretty great too! And my knee ached a bit but only enough to remind me I'd hurt it and nothing more than that. Didn't need any pain meds or anything since it was just a minor ache. So I think that's progress :)
 
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