andreadaile
Cathlete
This past week was huge for me.
I did FOUR workouts from LITE.
I have had the LITE set since it first came out, and had attempted a couple of workouts from it, but I struggled mightily and hadn't been able to complete one until this week.
Some backstory-
I've been doing Cathe workouts since 2005, and have pretty much the entire collection short of some of the early ones like the Get in Shape for your wedding and also I don't have CrossFire/To the Max but I think everything else. Anyway, I had been doing her workouts for years, completed STS, was able to do that insane x10 workout, you name it, no issues. Then in 2015 we moved across the country and had to go from a good sized home to a 2 bedroom apartment and I just started doing yoga as that was easy in a small space. We never were able to get the house we thought we'd be buying, and after a couple of years in the apartment we got a good opportunity and moved back across the country. OK. Now we got our house, I have space, I keep ordering what she's put out in the meantime and...I can't do the workouts. ICE comes out, it's too difficult for me. LITE comes out, I'm excited, and it's too difficult for me. I start doing Jessica Smith Walk the weight off in January of 2020. Those are challenging but I can do them until my shoulder starts talking to me. After a few weeks the doctor tells me to stop working out for a while. My shoulder freezes up completely. I cannot work out. Not Yoga, not Cathe, nothing. I'm taking 2-3 Aleve daily, Tylenol too, going to PT 2-3 times a week, getting acupunture, massages, spending all my money and this shoulder is just stuck. My dog passes away. Covid lockdowns begin the following day. I am one sad, pathetic, out of shape mess. I'm fatigued. My hair is falling out. I hurt everywhere, especially this strange right hip pain.
By July of 2020 I was doing a bit better and found Classical Stretch. It was just what my frozen shoulder needed and it started to improve, and my hip felt better too. I did the workouts almost daily, but was still taking a lot of Aleve. In October I had my yearly doctor appointment and was found to have a very, very slight anemia. I work in a hospital lab and am kind of obsessed with my lab results, but this was so slight I didn't give it a second thought. Luckily my doctor did, had me come back in for more testing, and it was discovered that my Ferritin levels (iron storage indicators) were extremely low (8.2. Normal is 50-150 and optimal is really closer to 200).
Thinking that I must have some internal bleeding, she referred me for a colonoscopy and an upper GI. Not wanting to go through ALL THAT, I assured her that I wasn't having any GI symptoms, I was sure it was just the Aleve making my stomach bleed, how about we just hold off while I take some iron pills and stop the Aleve. OK, we'd try that. In December I got my levels tested again and my ferritin was up slightly to 16. DOUBLE what is was so it seemed like quite an improvement! She said continue the pills and we'd check again in March.
One thing about the iron pills was that they really caused issues for me- to the point that I carried spare underpants. I was still absolutely, freaking exhausted, even worse than before. My hair had fallen out to the point that I just cut it all off. I could barely get through my day let alone even think about working out. The Classical Stretch was even too much sometimes- and it's just 22 minutes of easy, gentle movement. When I got my levels checked in March, they were right back where we had started, Ferritin was 9, I felt awful, so I agreed to the colonoscopy. Also I started getting weekly iron infusions which absolutely helped.
I went into my colonoscopy on April 6th just ready to get this overwith and get on with my life. The infusions had me feeling better and I was just sure they weren't going to find anything. WELL...guess what happened. They found something. At 49 years old, before insurance would even pay for my screening colonoscopy (they just changed that to 45 by the way), they found a tennis ball sized tumor in my right colon that had been growing for maybe 10-20 YEARS. It was bleeding. It was right in the little bowl created by my right hip. It was causing me all sorts of problems. It was CANCER.
I had surgery on April 21st to have half of my colon and a little bit of my small intestine removed. Pathology revealed it somehow, magically, was Stage 1. No chemo. I felt better IMMEDIATELY. I began walking as much as possible after surgery and doing Classical Stretch as soon as I could. I did a little bit of Jessica Smith. I did some FIRM workouts. I did some of Cathe's beginner step and weights workouts. And then, this week, I decided I felt better. I busted out the LITE workouts.
Sunday was Cardio Party. SO MUCH FUN!
Monday, Upper Body Stacked sets and you know what, my shoulder felt great!.
Tuesday, Lower Body Stacked sets. WHAAAT I was able to do a Cathe lower body workout without dying?
Wednesday I was sore so it was a classical stretch day and a walk.
Thursday, back on it with Pyramid Pump upper body. I used 2-5 pound weights but you know what? It was a challenge and felt amazing.
Friday, Rev'd up Rumble. I am so happy and proud of myself at this point!
I'm now 17 weeks out of surgery, 17 weeks out of cancer. 17 weeks of sheer gratitude for amazing doctors and 17 weeks of taking great care of ME. I can't wait to see where I am in 17 more weeks
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. And, if you haven't done it, get that colonoscopy scheduled!
I did FOUR workouts from LITE.
I have had the LITE set since it first came out, and had attempted a couple of workouts from it, but I struggled mightily and hadn't been able to complete one until this week.
Some backstory-
I've been doing Cathe workouts since 2005, and have pretty much the entire collection short of some of the early ones like the Get in Shape for your wedding and also I don't have CrossFire/To the Max but I think everything else. Anyway, I had been doing her workouts for years, completed STS, was able to do that insane x10 workout, you name it, no issues. Then in 2015 we moved across the country and had to go from a good sized home to a 2 bedroom apartment and I just started doing yoga as that was easy in a small space. We never were able to get the house we thought we'd be buying, and after a couple of years in the apartment we got a good opportunity and moved back across the country. OK. Now we got our house, I have space, I keep ordering what she's put out in the meantime and...I can't do the workouts. ICE comes out, it's too difficult for me. LITE comes out, I'm excited, and it's too difficult for me. I start doing Jessica Smith Walk the weight off in January of 2020. Those are challenging but I can do them until my shoulder starts talking to me. After a few weeks the doctor tells me to stop working out for a while. My shoulder freezes up completely. I cannot work out. Not Yoga, not Cathe, nothing. I'm taking 2-3 Aleve daily, Tylenol too, going to PT 2-3 times a week, getting acupunture, massages, spending all my money and this shoulder is just stuck. My dog passes away. Covid lockdowns begin the following day. I am one sad, pathetic, out of shape mess. I'm fatigued. My hair is falling out. I hurt everywhere, especially this strange right hip pain.
By July of 2020 I was doing a bit better and found Classical Stretch. It was just what my frozen shoulder needed and it started to improve, and my hip felt better too. I did the workouts almost daily, but was still taking a lot of Aleve. In October I had my yearly doctor appointment and was found to have a very, very slight anemia. I work in a hospital lab and am kind of obsessed with my lab results, but this was so slight I didn't give it a second thought. Luckily my doctor did, had me come back in for more testing, and it was discovered that my Ferritin levels (iron storage indicators) were extremely low (8.2. Normal is 50-150 and optimal is really closer to 200).
Thinking that I must have some internal bleeding, she referred me for a colonoscopy and an upper GI. Not wanting to go through ALL THAT, I assured her that I wasn't having any GI symptoms, I was sure it was just the Aleve making my stomach bleed, how about we just hold off while I take some iron pills and stop the Aleve. OK, we'd try that. In December I got my levels tested again and my ferritin was up slightly to 16. DOUBLE what is was so it seemed like quite an improvement! She said continue the pills and we'd check again in March.
One thing about the iron pills was that they really caused issues for me- to the point that I carried spare underpants. I was still absolutely, freaking exhausted, even worse than before. My hair had fallen out to the point that I just cut it all off. I could barely get through my day let alone even think about working out. The Classical Stretch was even too much sometimes- and it's just 22 minutes of easy, gentle movement. When I got my levels checked in March, they were right back where we had started, Ferritin was 9, I felt awful, so I agreed to the colonoscopy. Also I started getting weekly iron infusions which absolutely helped.
I went into my colonoscopy on April 6th just ready to get this overwith and get on with my life. The infusions had me feeling better and I was just sure they weren't going to find anything. WELL...guess what happened. They found something. At 49 years old, before insurance would even pay for my screening colonoscopy (they just changed that to 45 by the way), they found a tennis ball sized tumor in my right colon that had been growing for maybe 10-20 YEARS. It was bleeding. It was right in the little bowl created by my right hip. It was causing me all sorts of problems. It was CANCER.
I had surgery on April 21st to have half of my colon and a little bit of my small intestine removed. Pathology revealed it somehow, magically, was Stage 1. No chemo. I felt better IMMEDIATELY. I began walking as much as possible after surgery and doing Classical Stretch as soon as I could. I did a little bit of Jessica Smith. I did some FIRM workouts. I did some of Cathe's beginner step and weights workouts. And then, this week, I decided I felt better. I busted out the LITE workouts.
Sunday was Cardio Party. SO MUCH FUN!
Monday, Upper Body Stacked sets and you know what, my shoulder felt great!.
Tuesday, Lower Body Stacked sets. WHAAAT I was able to do a Cathe lower body workout without dying?
Wednesday I was sore so it was a classical stretch day and a walk.
Thursday, back on it with Pyramid Pump upper body. I used 2-5 pound weights but you know what? It was a challenge and felt amazing.
Friday, Rev'd up Rumble. I am so happy and proud of myself at this point!
I'm now 17 weeks out of surgery, 17 weeks out of cancer. 17 weeks of sheer gratitude for amazing doctors and 17 weeks of taking great care of ME. I can't wait to see where I am in 17 more weeks
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. And, if you haven't done it, get that colonoscopy scheduled!
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Stay strong!