Category Archives: health & fitness

A narrative of my journeys with diet, exercise, and various healthcare professionals

Tue 23 Apr 2013 Leave a comment spondylolisthesis, video

Learning About My New Pal, Spondy

If this were 1998, I would create a new website about spondylolisthesis. I’d include links to studies, and to other websites, and maybe write a few words about why I put the site together.

If I had more time on my hands, and more knowledge, I would create my own spondy blog, or do a podcast about it. Maybe I’d see if I could interview experts in the field, talk to my chiropractor, get some original content to post for the spondy community.

As it is, I have a personal blog where I basically do public journaling. I like being able to search my journal entries for past experiences, and I like being able to share my thoughts with friends and strangers. So, I’ve created a category on my blog for spondylolisthesis, and I’ll be documenting my experiences and discoveries, wins and fails, online resources, et cetera.

This condition is part of my life now, therefore it’s part of my blog. If I can collect some info that helps other people along the way, so much the better.

I actually went looking for podcasts about spondy today, for something to listen to while I walked around downtown during my lunch break. (My chiropractor put me back together yesterday afternoon after I tweaked my L4 on Friday during my very first spin class, and I’m still recovering. I needed that walk more than I needed today’s Weight Watchers meeting.)

While I didn’t find a dedicated spondylolisthesis podcast, I did find an episode of eOrthopodTV in which the host, Dr. Randale Sechrest, interviews spinal surgeon Dr. Nitin Bhatia about the symptomology and treatment of spondylolisthesis.

I felt like I needed to listen with prejudice — the interviewee was a surgeon, after all, so I expected him to promote surgery over the more conservative and non-invasive methods of treatment. Which, of course, he did. However, being a surgeon, he also explained the procedure(s) much more thoroughly than I had previously read, and made them seem much less scary. That said, I’d need to live with this level of pain for quite some time before I’d be willing to go under the knife to relieve it.

Other things I learned or had reinforced:

Spondylolisthesis will not paralyze me. It’ll just make life considerably more uncomfortable.

I also learned that I’ve developed this problem much earlier than most. It tends to crop up in older people — think fifties or sixties — although they did mention that women tend to be more susceptible than men.

Allow me to repeat this year’s mantra: I’m 37! I’m not old!

Mon 8 Apr 2013 1 Comment spondylolisthesis

MRI Results: Same As It Ever Was

I went in to see my chiropractor last Wednesday about the results of my MRI. I’d looked at the images that the technician had given me, but I’m no medical professional, so I had no idea what they really meant.

Dr. Smith gave me a copy of the findings, which still needed some explanation. Bottom line? Nothing too bad. If I keep going to the chiropractor and take pain meds and anti-inflammatories as needed, I’ll continue to live relatively pain-free… until I don’t.

Details:

  • 50% narrowing of the disc space height at L5-S1 (the MRI didn’t go up past my thoracic vertebrae, so the M.D. who did the analysis had no way of knowing about my extra transitional vertebra — technically, it would be L6-S1).
  • 1-2mm of bulging at L3-4.
  • 1mm of facet fluid seen at L4-5 and L5-S1.
  • The alignment of the lumbar vertebral bodies is preserved.

My chiropractor patted herself on the back for my vertebrae being in alignment, but it turns out that an MRI will not properly show spondylolisthesis in all cases, due to the nature of how it’s done (having to lay supine, on one’s back). I did a little research into what the hell “facet fluid” was, and came across an article: The correlation between exaggerated fluid in lumbar facet joints and degenerative spondylolisthesis. In this article, the authors explain that degenerative spondylolisthesis is not always identifiable using an MRI, since the patient is laying down and the vertebrae naturally re-align themselves (to a degree). The presence of excess facet fluid — which “is the result of degeneration of the synovial joints” — has a positive correlation with spondylolisthesis.

In layman’s terms: the fluid is another way of showing that my vertebrae are out of alignment when I’m standing upright and the joints are going to shit.

Another bit of knowledge I found while doing some research has led me to sign up for spin class this Friday. I discovered this great page, A Patient’s Guide to Spondylolisthesis, which goes into much greater detail than I’d ever have time to do with my chiropractor. It explained a bit more why I have the pain I do (although Dr. Smith did clear that question up recently, too), and it gives even more examples of non-surgical ways to relieve the pain — such as increasing flexibility in the low back and hamstrings (Dr. Smith prescribed me yoga for that), and use of a stationary bike to help open up the spaces where the nerve roots exit (hence my sudden interest in spinning). It also details the surgical last resorts, like removing part of the vertebrae to stop them from pinching the nerve, then fusing the vertebrae together so that no further slippage can occur. (Yikes.)

At my appointment with her, Dr. Smith told me that it really boils down to me seeing her once a month from now on, doing yoga from now on, continuing to keep my weight down — basically, keep doing what I’m doing, but do it forever.

This isn’t going away… but it’s not getting worse, either.

Thu 4 Apr 2013 Leave a comment braces

Operation Braceface: Day 141

It’s been nearly five months since I first got my braces on, and there’s already a remarkable difference.

My top teeth are just about in alignment now, apart from a couple of them still needing to be rotated a smidge and my overbite adjusted. Well, and the gaps from my extractions still need closed. OK, I guess they’re just a lot more in line than they used to be. And that poor little bottom tooth that came up behind the rest is finally going to be tied into the archwire with the rest of them next time.

I already had chains on the bottom teeth to help close the gaps, and I had a coil in front of my reclusive bottom incisor to help open up that space. Today we added chains to the top teeth and rubber bands. The plan is to start moving those eyeteeth and not so much close the gaps entirely as shift them around. The spaces between my teeth will be a lot more visible from the front as the gaps close, but, as my orthodontist said, it’s temporary.

Anyone who’s had rubber bands knows how they work: I’ll be wearing them all the time, except when I eat and brush my teeth. My configuration is Class II — hooking the upper canine to the lower second molar.

I’m super stoked about my bottom incisor coming up to join the gang, though:

That tooth. That damned tooth. I have oddly vivid memories of biting into a hot dog as a child, then looking at the imprint my chomp had made on the end of the dog — a little square wave, a butte, a sticky-outie part where a normal person would have just seen a bite mark.

No more.

You can see from the pictures (sorry for the poor focus, but I was taking them while wrangling a small child) that I opted to go back to the normal silver color for my o-rings. Colors were fun, and perhaps I’ll do them again for the holidays, but I don’t need to have a technicolor mouth year-round.

My friends and co-workers have continued to notice my teeth moving into position, which feels good. I mean, all I’m doing is paying money to a professional and letting him do things to my mouth that make it hurt, but it feels good to have it noticed, all the same.

I might feel differently tomorrow when I’m eating soup for lunch, but for now… braces are awesome.

Mon 1 Apr 2013 1 Comment spondylolisthesis

My First MRI

At my February chiropractor visit, I complained to Dr. Smith about a numbness in my left leg, especially when sitting on the floor or laying on my left side to sleep. She told me that I should call her for another appointment in a week if it didn’t get better after my adjustment.

It didn’t really, but I opted to see if I could just deal with it. I mean, it wasn’t painful, exactly, just uncomfortable. Stiff. Numb. Weird. I learned how to adjust my hips a certain way when I laid in bed, and I stopped sitting on the floor to play with Connor. Problem solved, right?

When I went in for my March visit last Friday, she asked (as she always does) how my lower back was feeling. I had to tell her that the leg was still going numb at times. So, she flipped through my chart to see what I’d been complaining of in the past months, and saw that the leg thing was a relatively new occurrence. Kind of a red flag. She’d been thinking about having me get an MRI from the beginning, she admitted, but now she was sure. She assured me that I’m doing all the right things: doing yoga to stretch and strengthen, getting my weight down, and (although she didn’t say this out loud) no longer running.

She called in a prescription, I guess you’d say, for an MRI at a local medical imaging firm, and told me to come in a couple days after my MRI to discuss the results.

Today was the MRI.

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Thu 14 Mar 2013 Leave a comment weight loss

My DietBet Epiphany

My weight loss journey has been slow going. I lost a shit-ton (about 50 pounds) fairly quickly on the Atkins Diet about ten years ago, and only gained back a small fraction of that. Almost five years ago, I joined Weight Watchers to take off the few pounds I’d put back on, and to get the momentum going again, since I still had about 40 pounds to go to reach my goal weight.

Diana at Waikiki

In the five years I’ve been on program with WW, I’ve gone through a few up and down cycles. I lost 15 pounds in three months when I first joined, and that was the steepest loss I’ve seen since. After that, I took six months to lose five pounds, then gained back ten pounds in eight months, then re-lost those ten pounds over the following year. Then I got pregnant, and lost a relatively quick five pounds in that first couple of months before I realized I was expecting. My post-pregnancy weigh-in actually wasn’t so bad — then I gained five pounds and didn’t lose it for a good six months. I’m finally back down to my lowest weight (not counting the pre-pregnancy baby hormone bonus weight loss), but it’s been really, REALLY slow going.

So, when my favorite diet and fitness blogger, Roni Noone of Roni’s Weigh, announced that she was hosting another DietBet game, I decided that, this time, I’d jump on board. Maybe what I needed was some incentive. Maybe I’d have that extra oomph if I had the promise of a payout at the end for losing 4% of my body weight in a month. I realized that losing seven pounds in a month was a big stretch for me, looking at my track record of weekly half-pound losses in a good month, but i figured I’d give it a shot, anyway.

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Thu 14 Feb 2013 Leave a comment braces

Operation Braceface: Day 92

My second adjustment! Today, we added chains to the bottom teeth.

And, yes, I opted to go all St. Patrick’s Day with my “colors.” I wasn’t sure what I’d think of them, but I figured I should have fun with them at least once. So far, after six or seven hours, I’m not sick of them yet, so that’s a good thing.

I think the orthodontist’s assistant was a little weirded out when I told her that I’d been looking forward to getting my chains put on. After I explained that I’d done some research and found an online community of adults with braces, she did note that adult patients tend to be more interested in the mechanics of the braces: how the teeth move into place, how the wires and chains and coils do their thing, all that good stuff.

A couple of my friends and co-workers have already noticed that my top teeth are starting to straighten out. I think it’s because I show my top teeth when I smile, but my bottom ones stay hidden. My bottom teeth have actually moved pretty well themselves.

Yeah, they’re still kind of gnarly. But! There’s a lot more space in front of that middle tooth now, and the spots from the extractions are visibly smaller. There used to be a couple that were overlapped and turned funny, too, but now they’re pretty much in a line (except that one, of course).

See the coil in front of that middle tooth? That’s a stronger coil than they put on last time — you can actually see it bowing outward. They also changed my bottom wire from a 14 (I think) to an 18, which means it’s stronger and will more aggressively pull my teeth into alignment. The chains on the sides will pull that gap closed on either side, too, giving that little tooth even more room to join its friends in the front row. Maybe I’ll get to have a bracket put on that one next time…

During today’s wire and coil change, one of my bottom brackets popped off! The assistant said she hadn’t had a bracket pop off in years. That added a bit of a wait to my otherwise no-nonsense adjustment — my half-hour stretched out to 45 minutes or so.

So, there was a lot of attention paid to my bottom teeth, but not so much to the top. No wire change there, just colors. Sounds like Dr. N. is focusing on the bottom teeth right now, since there’s more remediation still to happen with that one overlapped tooth, and going slow and steady with the top teeth. The assistant noticed that my one top tooth still hasn’t rotated into place yet, and it seems that we’re going to let it very slowly do its thing. The orthodontist might be more assertive with that later; he hasn’t really given me any future details about what’s happening when. (Assumedly because he won’t be sure until he sees how my teeth move from one visit to the next.)

The assistant who worked with me today warned me that my mouth will be sore for the next day or two. So far, it’s no more sore than usual, but that might change. Every time my teeth hurt, I remind myself that this is what I signed up for, and that the end result will be worth it.

And I’m not just blowing smoke. I’m genuinely still excited about having braces.

Thu 3 Jan 2013 Leave a comment braces

Operation Braceface: Day 50

My first adjustment!

I had my “fours” (aka my first premolars) extracted on Day 22 to make room for the rest of my teeth, and I had intended to blog about it… but I didn’t. So, the Reader’s Digest version of that experience: my entire mouth was numb for about five hours. I had to pulverize my Motrin and shoot it with a glass of water, because I couldn’t really swallow. The bleeding stopped on the second day, and the holes closed up within a few days. The pain wasn’t really so bad; I only took Vicodin to sleep, and only for the first two nights.

The photo above is to show off my new hardware: full archwires, bumpers, and a coil. The bumpers (the gray rubber bars) are to keep the long stretches of wire from irritating the inside of my cheek until that big gap closes up — or until I get chains put on, instead. The coil is to gently coax those front two teeth apart to make room for the one that’s behind the rest. It’s definitely adding some new pressure.

My mouth is sore, yes, but not as sore as when the braces first went on. I don’t think. Maybe I’m just getting used to it. I’m remembering what it was like when I was a little kid with no front teeth, and I used to bite hot dogs with my molars. Eating is kind of like that right now.

Oddly enough, I’ve been showing off my new tooth gaps to anyone who will listen. You’d think I’d be self-conscious about it; instead, I feel like I’m showing off a new upgrade or something. “Look how awesome my mouth will be in 2+ years, compared to now! w00t!” I think it’s partially because I’ve browsed the forums and gallery at Archwired.com and have realized that other people started with waaaay worse teeth than I did.

I get my routine cleaning in a couple of weeks, and I’m curious about how different it will be with all this hardware in my mouth. I’m trying to keep everything clean, but I know I could be more vigilant. Flossing daily and all that, despite how tedious the process is now. (I bought myself a water flosser, but I have yet to figure out how to use it without making a giant mess of water on the vanity and making my gums bleed to boot.)

Even with the discomfort in my mouth, I’m liking having braces so far. It feels like I’m doing something for me, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Something that will totally be worth it in the end.

Mon 3 Dec 2012 Leave a comment running, spondylolisthesis

Race Report: 2012 Jingle Bell Run 5K

Wait, you’re saying to yourself. Didn’t she say that her chiropractor made her swear off running?

Technically, yes.

But the 2010 Jingle Bell Run was my first-ever 5K, and the 2011 Jingle Bell Run was my triumphant return to running after having a baby, so the 2012 Jingle Bell Run felt like a necessity. It’s my runniversary.

Because I’d been so carefully following my chiropractor’s advice, and hadn’t actually been out running since July, I’d gone out running with Sheryl once a week for the past month, just to make sure I still had it. The race would be the proof of my functional fitness — do I really have a 5K in my pocket when I want it?

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Mon 26 Nov 2012 2 Comments health & fitness

30 Days

My friend Stephanie set out a challenge on her website, Live and Tri:

Christmas is 30 days from today. Feel free to panic.

Done? Alright, now I will tell you of my plan for the next 30 days.

My eating habits have been a bit off the last month. Between travel, the husband travelling for work, and the Thanksgiving holiday, there has been a lot of eating out, eating excuses, and overeating. Nothing major, I can’t say that it’s bad. It’s just that I want to refocus for the next month before the holidays.

So, here’s the plan. The challenge, if you will. 30 days meeting 3 goals each day.

…

I fully intend to keep myself honest, and be obnoxious on Twitter about it.

Feel free to join me, set your own goals, and commit to a healthy pre-holiday month!

I’m going to take her up on this. While I haven’t been precisely bad lately, I also haven’t exactly been on my best and healthiest behavior. I always used to joke with my Weight Watchers buddies that I’ll be great at Maintenance, once I finally reach my Goal weight, since I seem to be so good at it now. And that’s what I’m doing right now. Maintaining. Not actually gaining any ground.

So, here are my four goals, of which I will be sure to meet at least three per day:

  1. Track everything I eat, every day. My current plan of choice is Weight Watchers, and I have no excuse not to track, since I have eTools right on my iPhone (which virtually never leaves my person). I have a tendency to track when it’s convenient (during the week, when I pack my lunch) and freeform it when tracking isn’t quite as convenient (on the weekends, or when I go out with my department for lunch, or when I have an evening snackie binge). Accountability is the key.
  2. Exercise every day. I spend lunch on Tuesdays attending a yoga class with my girl Sheryl, and we spend lunch on Thursdays lifting weights like the badasses we are. On Mondays, I’ve been running with Sheryl, but that will soon return to either walking or hitting the elliptical. Every other day is currently a “rest” day — but no more. If nothing else, I’ll be doing 20 minutes of yoga after Connor goes to bed. Weekends, too, although I think a nice brisk walk around the mall with the fam would count.
  3. Lights out before 11:00pm. This is my downfall. I get caught up in whatever I’m doing after I put Connor down, whether I’m twiddling on the computer or on my phone, and I totally lose track of time. Then when I finally get up to bed, I take more time to play on the phone before I turn out the lights and try to sleep. I need my beauty rest. (Especially this month, when I need to go in to work early to offset leaving early so that Aaron can leave early to go to his work.) I’ve been using the Sleep Time app this past month to track my sleep habits (as recommended by blogger Foodie McBody), and it’s definitely been helpful in identifying what helps me wake feeling more rested… including getting to bed at a decent time, so I get some quality cycles in early in the night.
  4. Eat at least one serving of fruits or vegetables with every meal. This seems like a “duh” sort of thing to anyone who’s familiar with the Weight Watchers plan, I’m sure. A big part of Weight Watchers is eating fruits and veggies, so much so that in the current incarnation of the plan, they’re “free” — that is, zero PointsPlus. I’m supposed to be eating at least five or six half-cup servings a day, but sometimes I only manage to rock a banana for my pre-workout snack and a snack cup of applesauce with lunch. I’m going to be sure to eat a full serving of fruits or veggies with every meal for these 30 days: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I’ve been spamming Twitter with my #thankfulproject Instagram photos this month, so hopefully my tweeps won’t mind another 30 days of dailiness. An accountability-based challenge may be just what I need to get myself into gear.

Let’s do this!

Mon 19 Nov 2012 Leave a comment braces

Operation Braceface: Day Five

Today was kind of a big day: I scheduled my extractions. After December 6th, there’s no turning back.

My orthodontist, Dr. N., told me during my initial consultation that I’d need to have four teeth removed. After doing some research online, it seems that these teeth (the first bicuspids, or “fours,” as the orthodontic staff call them) are fairly common extractions for adult braces.

Of course, after getting my wisdom teeth extracted a couple years back, I was initially fearing the worst: twice as much pain with getting four teeth extracted as for two. I took some time during a break in my work today to Google “tooth extraction braces” and discovered a site that’s going to be a go-to resource for me in months to come: Archwired.com. Specifically, Archwired’s guide on Getting Teeth Extracted for Braces. If my experience is like other adults’, this should be no big thing — not nearly as bad as getting my one over-erupted and one impacted wisdom tooth removed.

So, I have my extraction scheduled for Thursday, December 6, 2012. I’m leaning on my faith in Dr. N’s knowledge and experience, since he won’t have seen me since the braces went on, and so won’t have been able to determine how I’m responding to treatment so far. He’s just done this enough that he knows.

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