Today, I had my second physical therapy appointment. The first thing I did was show her a picture of the dog bite bruise. I figured you can say so much but a picture gives it more justice. After seeing it, she could tell how it definitely caused some damage. 
After that, my PT asked how my hamstring was and whether I went running this week, how much, and whether I was planning to run this weekend. I was honest with her. I did scale back a little, however, the look on her face said she was disappointed. Or maybe it wasn't disappointment but rather just being unhappy with me. I told her I hoped she wasn't going to say I couldn't run. She said that she wasn't but never really finished the thought. Darn, my feelings of doing everything else right kind of went out the door. I had been very vigilant about doing all my pt exercises, stretching a lot, icing, etc. this week.
I did some exercises today and had someone do deep tissue massage. My PT asked how I felt afterwards. Nothing really changed. I felt the same, my leg still hurt, etc. All I said was I was a little sore, but I'd get a better idea after doing things. Apparently, my PT had planned to do a lot more things today but since I was so sore, she decided to just keep everything the same. My next appointment is on Tuesday and Thursday next week.
This got me thinking. I feel really conflicted. Part of me knows there is always a chance of completely tearing or rupturing the hamstring. However, another part of me still wants to run my usual amount of mileage. I've been in positions like this before. It's not easy. I usually push myself to the breaking point. I know my pain tolerance is high, so it's easy to just keep pushing ahead.
I think this is also tied into eating. Running gives me a sense of "control" in a way. I don't know if it is that when I run, it's okay for me to eat or it just feels more on schedule or what. I know I don't need to "earn" food, I deserve it, but by exercising, I just feel like I'm not thinking about it so much. I know this is all warped. I need to let go of this feeling. I'm just not sure how right now.
Moving to a different topic. Dogs and cognition. Intelligence has always been a difficult area of research when it comes to animals. Besides animals like a chimp and a parrot who have speaking capabilities, others in the animal realm have to find other ways to show their cognitive abilities. Researchers at the University of Vienna have been looking at the cognitive abilities in dogs. Their most recent study looked at how well dogs could categorize pictures and transfer them to new situations. The dogs were shown photographs of landscapes and dogs on a computer screen. When they nose-touched the dog, they received a reward. They did this with new photos as well. The dogs aced the tests. The researchers also placed photos of dogs within the landscape and again the dogs accurately chose the dog. The conclusion to the study is that the dogs formed a concept of "dog."
I think this is really cool. I've always thought dogs recognize dogs and their own breed. This is just more validation in that. Some may remember that this group of researchers the University of Vienna also had a study on dogs and imitation back in the summer. It's another fascinating study.
It's pretty amazing what these four-legged creatures can do. Everyday, we learn something new.
Personally, I am not a big salt fan. With the exception of a few foods (kimchi, asian noodles, wheat thins), my salt intake in a day is fairly low. I remember once asking my dad what the rationale behind eating a lot of foods with salt in them. He said that the idea is that you will consume enough liquids to pass the salt through your body. Hmmm, okay. So I guess if you don't consume enough liquids, you just retain the salt.
Out today, an article about possible new regulations for salt intake. I definitely think in general most people consume more salt than they really need. Some of those pre-packaged meals are just loaded with unnecessary sodium. The bad thing is that it is virtually impossible to not consume salt products. Everything has salt. I think even those who monitor their salt intake could easily go over the recommended amount of 1 1/2 tsp. It'll be interesting whether this takes into effect and if so, whether there will be a change in Americans and their diseases. For now, stay tuned and keep your salt intake within recommended amounts.
Here's an interesting article on the new nutritional labeling happening next year. Although it's a good thing, people have a hard time reading nutrition labels as it is. Plus, half of them are incorrect when you do the actual mathematical calculations. Perhaps, it will be helpful, but I am not holding my breath on it.
After the dental appt., my mom and I did a little shopping in town. She had brought down a full size bed for me on Friday. Ever since I've lived here, I've always had a twin size bed. Well, when you have three large dogs, that can be tough to find space for yourself. Actually, Baxter and Hank are usually the only one that sleep consistently with me. Daphne sleeps on the sofa but I do catch her on the bed in the mornings when one of them is off.
As soon as my mom put the new mattress on the bed, the dogs tested it out immediately and thoroughly enjoyed. Since I did not have the proper size bedspread for it, they have easily been taking off the covers of my bed for the last two days. Needless to say, this does not make me happy as I do not like dog hair in the bed. On the cover on top of the bedspread is okay though. I can live with that.
Today, we found some pretty sheets and bedspread. I got some new pillows to replace my old, raggy ones. Then we just shopped for miscellaneous items I needed or she wanted. In mid afternoon, I had my first physical therapy appt. There, I got scolded, because I was not wearing shorts nor my actual running shoes. The physical therapist assigned to me ended up being the one I had talked to last week wanting information on the physical therapists. It was ironic since I was not fully prepared. Oh well.
She did a lot of strength assessments for my legs. I was really surprised, because my legs were really weak. There was a significant difference in my right leg which is where the hamstring strain is. She made the comment to me that she couldn't believe I was a runner, because my legs were so weak. It was truly bizarre as I've always thought I had strong legs, but they did feel very weak in general today. Hmmm. She had me do some exercises and showed me ones to do at home. There are like six or seven of them to do everyday. Yippee! But I think of it this way, it's better to be able to strengthen some muscles around my leg than face having a hamstring tear. She also said I could not run hills. This is a toughie as I am surrounded by hills here. I told her I'd try to do the flattest route possible. I also promised to wear my shorts and my running shoes at the next appt. which is on Friday. Overall, I liked her though.
After that, my mom and I came home to check on the dogs. It rained off and on all day. That means that all the dogs had to be wiped off, including their paws which is just my rule to any dog who lives in my house even if only as a guest. Jake, my friend's American Eskimo dog, however, was not thrilled with that one.
Later, we went into town and dropped off Jake and Foxy. They were happy to see their dad and vice versa. My mom and I went to a few stores. It was weird, because when I was trying on some running gear, my cell phone rang a few times. First, it was a friend of mine. I called her on Sat. when I was in excruciating tooth pain asking her if she knew how much medication I could take without causing an overdose. She felt bad for not calling back, but I was just glad to hear from her. We basically agreed that yes, I took a lot of medication and could possibly be in trouble. All day, I had waves of upper right quadrant pain, aka liver pain presumably. I did think acute liver failure but I wasn't having those type of symptoms, so I think I just inflamed and enlarged my liver a bit. The second call was my dad just checking up on me. I do admit, it was a little difficult trying on clothes and talking to them at the same time, but I did manage to do so.
After all that, my mom and I headed back home, and went out to eat at an Asian Buffet place where we had take out two nights ago. It was nice overall, though I still had my waves of pain. Hopefully, that will clear up as the pain medications all go out of my system. My tooth, however, is still sore, especially since it's been over 12 hours since I've had any pain medications at all. I hope the antibiotic kicks in soon and nips this infection in the bud. I really hate being on antibiotics, and it seems like I've been on them a lot the last two years. But at the same time, I don't really have a choice here. Out of all the various ailments I've had, tooth pain is the worst. I guess maybe I'm a wimp, but I just can't deal with it well as it effects everything. This also means that I have not run since Thursday due to the tooth pain and my mom's visit. I'm itching to go run tomorrow even if the temperatures are cold. I hope my tooth just holds up.
Okay, so that's the nutshell of the weekend. I hate feeling like I'm complaining, but I was pretty miserable with this tooth pain. The one good thing out of all this is that I did continue to eat. I could have easily not, but I did make sure I ate okay, still not enough but decent.
I hope the rest of the week goes off without a hitch. Heading off to bed now.
Now, it's Monday (well technically Tuesday). The pain was a little better today overall. I saw my dentist in the morning. She did an x-ray and looked at the tooth which confirmed the infection yet again. I had a similar infection in this same tooth a little over a year ago. Basically, she said I had to have it extracted. Otherwise, it would just be a continuous cycle of infection, getting better wit antibiotics, infection again, etc. On top of that, the infections would be more frequent. I was so not happy to hear this. This side of my mouth (upper left jaw) already has a bridge there which I'm still paying for. I almost regret getting it now and feel suckered into it even though it was the only option at the time.
My dentist wants me to have his done soon, but my problem is my dental insurance won't kick in for any major work until after the first of a the year. I already have another crown that needs to be done as well. I know my insurance is not going to cover the extraction. One of the dental assistants asked me why I don't get the extraction done now? Well, basically because I was in a huge amount of pain afterwards with no pain medication that worked and it's very expensive. My mom paid my last one, and it's just the whole guilt thing there. She spent a lot of money on me this weekend. It was her choice of course, but still I just feel undeserving of it. She told me it was a part of Christmas, so I hope she sticks by that.
Anyway, I will now have three holes in my mouth when I get that extraction done--one hole from my previous extraction, the second from the new extraction, the third from the missing half of my tooth that needs a crown. This is all in conjunction with also needing to redo my bridge on the right upper side of my mouth. This is when I just think ripping out all my teeth and having dentures is the way to go. I mean it would be a lot less costly then.
I tell my parents this news. Neither are happy of course and feel badly for me. My dad replies with "geez, you're not going to have any teeth left. I'm glad you're over that "problem" (meaning bulimia). I'm just sad you have to go through all this tooth trouble." My mom's reply was, "I knew the eating disorder caused some problems. I wonder why you're having such problems?" Does anyone not see how neither connect the dots or something? My reply to my mom was "well, yes, eating disorders cause damage to teeth. It's individualistic with some not having many teeth problems, while others do. I was unlucky I guess."
In the end, it just sucks how much damage can be produced on your teeth due to an eating disorder. Even without consistent damage, the effects can be devastating and continuous. I'm proof of that.
The tooth pain started around Thanksgiving day sometime. It really didn't bother me that much. I just noticed there was some soreness when I'd chew on my left side, so I stopped chewing on that side. However, there were several instances when I accidentally chomped on that side and had shooting pain in my tooth. Crap, I knew this was bad.
On Friday, the pain progressed. Again, not excruciating but definitely painful. By that evening, it was really beginning to hurt. I tried taking some tylenol which helped some. I also began the etodolac for my leg which also seemed to provide some comfort.
By that night and the following morning, I was in absolute excruciating pain. The pain would not stop. I took more meds. That Saturday, I have no clue how much medication I took, but it seemed like nothing would stop the tooth pain. I have had pain in that same area before, but no matter what, the pain is always worse than I anticipate.
On Saturday evening, I called my dentist on her cell phone. I felt horribly bad calling her on a weekend, let alone a holiday weekend, but I was in some serious pain. I took more medication which was very short lived. I remember waking up at like 3:15 AM in horrible pain. The dogs at that point thought it was time to get up. I ended up letting them out but trying to go back to sleep until my alarm went off.
On Sunday, the pain was not much better. My dentist finally called back that afternoon. We agreed it was probably and infection. She ordered an antibiotic and a pain reliever. This is where it gets tricky. I have bad side effects with many pain medications. She decided to try a vicodin-like one, thinking maybe the combination of hydrocodone and ibuprofen would be okay. Well, it wasn't, and i had similar side effects as I normally did. So as of now, codeine, hydrocodone, darvocet, lortab, and tramadol are all scratched off my list for pain medications.
I started the antibiotic on Sunday after my mom went to the pharmacist basically posing as me. She was very afraid they would not give her the meds, so she said my birthdate. That led to a very funny. Plus, if she had the same pharmacist I had from a previous few days who knows me by name, that woman must have really looked at her funny.
By this time, I had really wished, my dentist would have prescribed something that would have knocked me out rather than me feeling desperate to making this damn tooth pain go away!
