5/17/2016

No pun intended.

I am now pushing my ROM to 100% of what my non-injured side is capable of. With the Adducted Lateral Rotation I am at a pain level of about 1.5-2, with the Side Lateral Rotation I am at about 3-3.5. Now that’s progress. I have added another stretch to the mix, reaching behind me to touch my shoulder blade with the back of the hand. This has me just above a 6 on the pain scale, but I am not going to back down to a lower pain level. I am going to push hard now as I’m near the end and don’t see it causing any further damage. It’s time to break down those scar tissue fibers.

My next (and only my second) caving trip is on the calendar. June 11th is go time! The first day we will be doing rock climbing, something I’ve never done before inside or out. We will camp outside that night, and I think drive to Blowing Cave/Cushman cave the next morning. I haven’t decided whether I’ll take my hokey little kids tent (it is definitely functional), or if I’ll take my hammock. I don’t have a rain fly for the hammock or a way to insulate the underneath side; plus there is the whole going to the bathroom, checking my blood, and adjusting it in the middle of night. It would be much easier in a tent, but somehow less adventurous.

This is a pretty intense cave, and it looks like the guides are going to split us into 2 groups so that those of us that want to go beyond the waterfall room can do it. The waterfall room took us two hours to reach on our first trip in November, and the guides said we made good time. I’m hoping we go four hours in before turning around to come out. So I’m going to need to work on my muscular endurance and my mobility. I need to make sure my shoulders, wrists, and back are all strong enough to handle the work load; this cave involves A LOT of crawling – close to 80% of the journey.

The goal for today:

– Rotator Cuff Rehab (obviously)

– Neck Mobility

– Flat Footed Squat

– Hanging hamstring stretch under tension

– Integral Strength warm-up

– Stairs – 10 floors x 2

Did I accomplish it?

– Neck Mobility

– Integral Strength warm-up

– Rotator Cuff Rehab – see below

– Legs Passing – 25

– Side Plank Dips – 5

– Elbow Rehab 3lb x30 reps

On the Rotator Cuff Rehab I did the stretches with shoulders forward, serrates flexed, 40 seconds. This was more painful than the other way, much more so for the LR vs the ALR. I would say for the Lateral Rotation I was at a 4-5 on the pain scale. I did lying ALR exercise, 3lb 1×25 reps, and standing ALR 1×15 reps. Did 1 set of side LR x25 reps. I’m thinking next week (maybe this week) I’m going to push the pain level until I can achieve 100% of the non-injured side. I also want to increase my ROM for the non-injured side, injury prevention and all that.

About 2 months ago (maybe more), the spin cycle on my washing machine went out. Since I live paycheck to paycheck, buying a replacement is kind of like sticking my elbow in my ear – not sure how to make it happen. So we have been wringing out the clothes by hand before we throw them into the dryer. What a beating, especially with towels and sheets. None the less I remain undaunted. I am a rock, nothing can break me and nothing keeps me down for long. That is one of the gifts of my faith.

Well I started telling guys at church about it whenever they would ask how things were going. I made it a point to tell them that I view the questions “How’s it going” and “How ya doing” as two completely different questions. The timing of the washing machine going out just makes me laugh (We went a week without a water heater back in November). Turns out a guy (a friend) at church has one in his garage – a remnant of combining households with his lady. Then my mom informs me she found out that my aunt has one in her garage as well. The timing for getting my aunts was better, so I hit up a different (younger) guy from church for help since he has a truck and strong back.

We got the washer (and her extra dryer) on the April 8th, I hooked it up, and ran a test run to make sure everything was kosher and hooked up correctly before I did a cleaning cycle on it. Well, it leaked during the spin cycle. It also spit some weird material all over the drum. It looked kind of like paper does when you leave it in your pocket and run it through the wash. I swept out what I could and then vacuumed it out, but it just kept coming. It was coming out from under the agitator.

So I get out the tools, break loose the rusty bolt, and remove the agitator to give it a good cleaning. Man it was filthy under there. It must have been a decade of fabric softener build up that molded and then dried up once it was put into her garage. First I took the agitator outside and scraped it as clean as I could, then I had to start digging it out of the drain screens in the washer. Once that was done I vacuumed it out, reassembled it and did another test run. This time it leaked during the agitation cycle as well as the spin.

The leak was coming from directly underneath the washer toward the front. My ex-brother in law told me it was most likely the pump. The screws holding the front of the machine on are rusted in, so I just pulled the top up and looked down inside from there. I tried to look, but couldn’t really see where it was coming from. It was only leaking about a pint of water, so I figured I would just put a towel down and soak it up when I did a load. I started it up and threw the soap in to mix. Before I could add my clothes water was coming out from under the machine. It was now leaking full time. So I stuffed towels around the base of the machine like sandbags during a flood and did my load. It completely soaked two towels.

I still consider this progress. Having to use a couple of dirty towels to keep the water at bay in order to do a load of laundry is still better than wringing them out by hand. The spin cycle on this thing works great!