Knowledge is Power in Everyday Ramblings

Quintessential Portland July, dry and full of glare.

It is still pretty green out there but drying fast. I was able to meet up with Mrs. Sherlock for the first time all week and we hiked on Sunday instead of our usual Saturday.

We had a good time, hiking on the narrow and relatively quiet second growth forest trails up above my place. My feet were unbelievably dusty when we got home. I was wearing my trail sandals that are almost worn out and poor Frida was panting even though we gave her water twice.

Yesterday afternoon my brother-in-law Most Honorable came up and after playing with the cats and chatting we took the bus downtown so I could teach my class. I was not supposed to do any exercise for 24 hours before the Sports Performance Test, which is why we took the bus.

He had never been to my yoga class before and he was a little nervous about it, which I understand generally but the prospect made me laugh because I have tried all sorts of things out on him before I teach them over the years.

It was very hot.

I didn’t expect many students and was surprised when I had 9 besides him. I sat on a stool and directed the class by talking. No wandering around, no demonstrating, no sharing in the movement. It was a huge challenge and I cheated at one point and got up and showed hand placement.

We were focusing on wrists in particular, and forearms, and shoulders. It is a good practice and I look forward both to fine-tuning it and demonstrating the movements! I pulled it together from a variety of sources including the PT I am taking class from and a doctor who teaches yoga for arthritis.

Afterwards four of my students took us out to dinner. Most Honorable was a good addition to the group. We had fun but I was so distracted I had left my glasses at the studio and we had to go back for them.

This morning I had the test. It was quite elaborate and very high tech. They measured my breathing first, plastered heart monitor patches all over my chest (I was wearing a sports bra), took a history, and did blood work. Then they put me on the treadmill with a mask on, it was this whole head Velcro contraption that once we got fitted properly wasn’t too bad.

Most Honorable was able to watch all the screens with my breathing and heart rate and they took my blood pressure periodically.

As they were getting ready to start the treadmill, a sports doctor came in. The thing I really didn’t expect on the treadmill was that they kept seriously amping up the incline.

It all got progressively harder. Everybody was watching intently, my breathing, the readouts from my heart, my blood pressure. I kept thinking I need to keep going even though this is getting really hard but after about 10 minutes I sensed they were okay with me stopping.

So we stopped. They took more blood.

I ate a fig bar. (I’d had no food or anything but water for about 12 hours at that point.)

The results are all good news with some inconclusive parts. The best news is that my oxygen transfer is in the good range for a person my age and sex.

There was an anomaly they were seeing with my heart and so they want me to have another stress echo test where they actually look at my heart. It’s been 7 years since I had the last one.

The doctor wasn’t worried but they want to rule out a few things.

My blood work was in the normal ranges but both my blood sugar and blood pressure were a little high. I was anxious about the test, which explains the blood pressure reading.

But right now the frustrating thing is that they don’t have an answer. There may be something with the lactate (lactic acid build up, which certainly spiked with the effort).

They recommended that I work on aerobic conditioning in a very narrow heart rate range and lift weights twice a week instead of once.

I still don’t have “THE ANSWER” to why I can’t do the things I want to do and other people can.

But I am closer. And what a privilege it is to have been able to have this test.

Most Honorable, who is an avowed metrics geek, exclaimed at the end of the test, “I want to have one!”

And I am not going to say a word about the treasonous behavior of, well, you know who.

Last updated July 17, 2018