Bell's Palsy Update

February, 2016
The neurologist said that whatever movement has come back might be as good as it will get. I can finally close my eye and not wear a patch anymore! The movement is not all the way there though, for example I can't raise my eyebrow at all, or pucker my lip on that side to whistle for example.

August, 2015
My eye barely started closing by itself a little bit, after a number of weeks of acupuncture. My face started being able to move a little bit, too. I still have to wear the eye patch at night to keep the eye shut all night long.

March 25, 2015
As of today, some new things have been happening, but the short story is that:

1) my ear pain is mostly completely gone, and
2) I still can't control my facial muscles at all.

That means I have to continue to wear the patch, all the time. TO wear sunglasses, I stick some gauze under the lens to hold me eye shut. That's how I did the entire motorcycle trip.

Days 21-30 - Unicycling

Notes:
- I've been unicycling randomly from 2/4 - today, 3/25. So the third set of 10 days have been interspersed over a period of 50 days. First I took a week off, then tried to get better and healthy from being sick, and after 70 days of starting to ride unicycle, I have finally reached 30 actual days of riding.
- On the days in between, while sick and while the boys were sick, I would just go out and practice idling. I began bringing Unicycle to gymnastics and practicing idling in the gym a little while Christopher did gymnastics. I didn't start attempting distances around the neighborhood again until 3/16 when we rode to Dairy Queen for Christopher's surprise treat for earning magnets. That was 1 mile. Then I rode the mile back with just Nico while Gray took Christopher back in his car. I haven't attempted unicycling while pushing the double jogging stroller, yet.

At Day 30 (March 24, 2015):

Weight - 132.6 (most of this has to do with changing my diet, since most of the weight dropped off while I wasn't unicycling)

Stamina - I can ride 6 miles, while holding onto the stroller (with some breaks). Basically, 6 miles in 2 hours. haha. But I can do it! At 2 mph! But I cannot idle to 100, yet. I need to be able to do that. I can do 30 with my right foot, and 10 with my left foot.

Clothes Fitting - I can fit in my leather pants I have never worn, and they are already a little too baggy! I finally went and got all my clothes back out from before pregnancies.

Strength - My legs don't burn while just going down the block anymore, since doing two long-distance rides. They burn while going downhill for prolonged periods of time, but not so much that I have to stop. I think my arms have stopped getting stronger, except for when I hold onto the stroller. My left arm has got to have taken some beating. And holding onto the seat while hopping is going to get my hand grip stronger.

Muscle Tension - I just feel sore muscles in my thighs now. My neck is much better.

Family Climate - 8. Gray has shown me so much support, and acts so proud of me! It shows when he brags about me on FB. It's hard to compete with his Wolfpack and Duke posts! I don't know if we'll be able to fit Unicycle in the car for our beach weekend, but I know Gray will bust his butt for me trying. Staying active and figuring out how to get both boys outside with me on the unicycle is so refreshing for us all. Nico especially loves it, and Christopher has made it 1.2 miles now on his balance bike! We get so many comments. I never know what exactly they're commenting on, Christopher on his bike, my pirate patch, or the unicycle. I guess not Nico in the stroller. But when it's just me and Nico out, I've started responding. When they say, "That's real talent, I'm impressed!" I point at Nico and say, "I know! He's getting good, isn't he!"

Emotional Well-Being - I just like that I can do something else besides take a walk. When I was pregnant it was so depressing to think getting exercise meant either going and taking a boring walk or doing floor exercises. Riding my bicycle takes a little more effort because I have to get the trailer ready, and Nico in the iBert seat. Even though this is almost as slow as walking, I wouldn't trade it! If I ever get muni-cycling (mountain-unicycling), I doubt I'd want to go back to regular mountain-biking much, just because of what a challenge this is. I just don't think this will ever get boring. I know it is slow. I don't care. If I want to go fast I'll ride a motorcycle.

Conclusion: Will I keep this up? Absolutely! And YOU should, too! I have been transformed and am officially a unicycler. I won't do it every single day now, because I want to focus on my next blogs, but I will practice enough to continue building my strength and stamina until I can hop over obstacles and do u-turns and play flag football.

I got Bell's Palsy

I took a week off from unicycling from being sick and got Bell's Palsy. My 30 days of unicycling will just have to be spread out.

My ear filled with fluid from a cold. I'm on steroids. There's no infection, and it's not numb. I can feel everything, I just can't MOVE it.

I can't close my eye.

If you thought unicycling got people staring out in the neighborhood, you should see what it's like with a patch. "Hey you can do that really well! And with one eye, too!"

Day 1 - I went to the doctor for ear pain and my face paralyzed after I got home, then I went to urgent care. My eye and lip had been twitching for 3 days already and I hadn't thought anything of it. It was sinus trouble from a cold that blocked my eustachian tubes and got the left one inflamed, and then it activated my face nerve and shut it down.

Weight - 146.0

Stamina - N/A

Strength - I feel tired because of the pain. The steroids kind of jack me up, though.

Muscle Tension - My neck is completely sore! I would need neck and head rubs every day if I could get them.

Family Climate - 8. My face not moving doesn't affect much now that I got control of my eye. As long as nothing hurts, I'm fine!

Emotional Well-Being - Kind of stressed. Both boys have been on antibiotics for ear infections and I didn't expect to be that sick.

Conclusion: What the heck???



Day 2 - Struggled getting a way to keep my left eye shut with tape because even under the tape my eye would open and get dry and hurt. Got Genteal drops and an eye patch, then wrapped a bunch of gauze up in a wad and taped it together, then taped that to the inside of the eye patch. Finally it was keeping my eyelid shut and not rubbing on my eyeball anymore!

Attempt #1

Attempt #2

Attempt #3

Day 3 - Went and taught German at school and played guitar on stage and sang all the German Fasching songs I could with Rosi helping me! Everyone felt like my pirate costume was appropriate and I told them it wasn't a costume. Completely changed my diet. No sugar, no dairy, no wheat. Lots of kale and spinach smoothies with apple, ginger, lemon & banana, and lots of carrot juice with ginger.

Attempt #4 finally works

Day 4 - (Continued with Day 22 of unicycling)

Day 5 - Stayed cooped up at home.

Day 6 - Went sled riding with the kiddos because you can't just stay cooped up at home.

Days 7 - Today is the 5th day of the high dosage of steroid, and now for 5 more days the dosage tapers off. Still experiencing ear pain at night and sounds are still super loud; I simply can't tolerate high pitched screams from the kids or pots and pans clattering when Nico gets them out. The sounds reverberate in my head SO loudly, and it is just SO painful. My ear tissue also hurts in my left ear, like a bruise. Some gland is really swollen under my left ear.

Day 8 - Same.

Day 9 - Same.

Day 10 - Same. Went and taught again today.

Day 12 - Last day of steroids. Gland not so swollen anymore, but still experiencing pain.

Day 13 - Snow!

Day 15 - Last day of 7 days of ant-viral medicine.

Day 16 - Kept working up a sweat all day long because I noticed the pain went away as long as my heart rate was up. Wore me completely out.

Days 17-21 - Pain came and went. I tried to stop taking ibuprofen but had to go back on it sometimes when my ear hurt so bad I couldn't sleep or take care of the boys. By day 17 I stopped and just kept doing Sudafed. STILL CAN'T MOVE MY FACE.


By Day 21:

Weight - 136.6. I dropped 10 pounds from changing my diet. I did it before I was planning on changing it, because I need to boost my immune system NOW. Steroids makes it weak, and I have to be as healthy as possible to get over this, I think.

Stamina - N/A

Strength - I feel tired now because I'm getting such terrible sleep at night since the pain wakes me up around 5 and the eyepatch doesn't always stay on.

Muscle Tension - Neck still completely sore, and head too.

Family Climate - 4. This makes family life extremely hard at home. I've had to call Gray in the middle of the day to come home twice because I couldn't handle something with one eye and one hand, and then the pain was too great and I couldn't get Christopher from school once. I asked my dad to come from 6-8 one evening just so I could get some supper on the table, because I couldn't carry Nico around when he cried. I crave the moments when I can rest in some calm silence, or if I'm in pain to get on the unicycle and get my heart rate up till it doesn't hurt anymore. When the boys scream it hurts my ears so badly I feel afterwards like I've just been through some torture and I feel my stress level rising significantly. When it doesn't hurt all of a sudden I just sit there and revel in how awesome the feeling is of it simply not hurting like crazy.

Emotional Well-Being - SO stressed. So worried that I am not able to take care of the boys well enough, and that I run out of patience too fast because of pain.

Conclusion: Pain is bad.

Days 11-20 - Unicycling

At Day 20 (February 4, 2015):

Weight - 146.0 (Still!)

Stamina - I can make it down the block one length before turning onto the next segment.

Clothes Fitting - They're getting baggier

Strength - Legs, butt, arms, abs all way stronger

Muscle Tension - sore, perhaps even more. Could possibly have an injured knee. I also jammed my pinkie finger.

Family Climate - 7

Emotional Well-Being - I am happier...

Conclusion: I am definitely going to keep this up.

2/6/15
Today is day 21, and I wanted to add an updated video including the second 10 days. So during days 11-20 I've been working on a few things. I figured out how to get on by free mounting (no hands), but then I watched a couple YT videos showing a bunch of ways to do it and none of them were the way I was doing it. So I decided to start learning those ways so I'd at least seem legit around other unicyclers.



Benchmarks:

- I worked on going down the driveway without falling, and then up the driveway without falling. I got it, although I can't do it every single time, yet.

- I mastered free mounting with my right foot back, and it is pretty solid. Still takes about 10 tries to get on cold, though.

- I rode around the block once by myself, taking lots of breaks, getting off maybe a total of 7 or 8 times. Then I tried to ride around the block with Christopher riding his BMW balance bike, while pushing Nico in the little Cozy Coupe car. That didn't work, because Nico kept dragging his feet and falling off the seat, so I tried pulling him backwards but it was difficult to steer that way, and I almost never was riding my unicycle the whole time.

- I tried to get over bumps. This is still not accomplished. In order to get over even a little bump, I realized a few things. 1) I'm going to have to hop while holding onto the seat with one hand. 2) I can't ride while holding on with one hand, yet. 3) I can hop, but only if my right foot is back and left foot forward. This won't always be exactly how my feet are every time I get to a bump. I'm going to have to practice hopping with my feet in every position and master that, before I can ride over a bump/root. I dreamed that someone told me hopping like that is called "advancing". haha. 4) I'm going to have to practice how to keep going after hopping, which I can also not do, yet.

- I thought if I'm going to be ambidextrous with getting over bumps and hopping no matter where my feet are, I'm going to have to feel ambidextrous enough to get on with my left foot back also. Otherwise my muscles never really will be trained enough to be in control no matter what position they're in. So I practiced that on day 18 and got it pretty much right away!

- I don't consider myself competent until I can also ride backwards in order to stay up and not fall off. You know, do little 3 point turns, and be able to do u-turns. This is something I just started working on.

- From now on, I need to practice what they call idling, or rocking: rocking back and forth with one foot going in a boat shape motion on the bottom. I need to be able to do 100 of these per foot. I got 10 so far with my right foot, but on day 21 I got 26!

This is a picture someone took of us while trying to make it to Starbucks. THIS is why I do this. Christopher never went out of the driveway on his little bike before! His awesome, orange, BMW balance bike!!!

Days 1-10 - Unicycling

In the beginning:

Weight - 142.6

Stamina - Cannot even get on the unicycle yet

Clothes Fitting - Clothes seem to be a little snug still

Strength - weak, very weak!

Muscle Tension - sore neck & shoulders mostly.

Family Climate - maybe a 6

Emotional Well-Being - Sort of depressed

Conclusion: ??

Day 1 - Barely could hold on to the house while trying to get 2 feet on the pedals. Realized that pulling the pedal back automatically puts the wheel underneath you!

Day 2 - Same thing for about 30 minutes. Unicycle went flying most of the time. Really impossible to get that second foot up onto the pedal! Bought two 2x4's and went to urgent care to remove a bad splinter from my thumb that I got while trying to sand them. Gave up unicycling for about 6 months.

Day 3 - (6 months later) Got up while holding onto 2x4's on both sides. Unicycle still went flying most of the time. Wore gloves so I wouldn't get splinters. My legs got really sore after just one day of practicing! Gave up unicycling for a couple months of bad weather.

Day 4 - (another couple months later) Rode between the 2x4's back and forth over and over. Realized that in order to ever get out from between these, I'd have to learn to fall onto my feet and not let the unicycle go flying. Worked on that the whole time. Learned how to roll backwards a little to keep from falling backwards, and pedal forwards to keep from falling forwards.

Day 5 - Got out from between the 2x4's and learned that I get up better with my right foot on the pedal first. I can consistently get my second foot up onto the pedal while holding on, now. Riding any distance without holding on is still almost impossible. Legs around the knee and arms are very sore. Also my abs hurt.

Day 6 - Started realizing that at some point I have to learn to get up without holding onto anything, if I'm going to go around the block with Christopher. I got up twice and went about 4 feet! Still couldn't figure out how to stop falling to the left or to the right. At the end, I realized that turning the wheel hard while flailing my arms and using my thighs to turn the seat, I could turn the wheel and stop from falling to the left or to the right!

Day 7 - Learned that I couldn't go past 6 or 7 feet because that's the longest I could hold my breath. When I started trying to breathe I could go about 10 feet! I also learned that instead of holding onto the unicycle with my right hand, I could balance better and compensate if I held onto the seat with my left hand while my right foot was down and on the pedal. Today is the day I started telling myself to commit, and imagined myself out stranded on the sidewalk with nothing to hold onto. That always made me do better. Committing made me lean forward and try harder to keep my feet on the pedals and balance instead of falling off.

Day 8 - Practiced free-mounting all day long. Didn't get up more than 3 or 4 times. I learned to pull the seat to my left while mounting so the wheel didn't always veer to the right immediately when I got up. I got all the way to the carport! Muscles getting stronger and I feel much more confident balancing now!

Day 9 - Today I could free-mount eventually and ride all the way down the driveway. I fell pretty bad once at the bottom of the driveway and decided that going downhill was scary and needed pads. I also realized that going uphill is very difficult, not to mention climbing up tufts of grass and mud.

Day 10 - Changed my mind about pads until I start mountain-unicycling (muni-riding). I also free-mounted, and rode all the way down the driveway and turned left, and kept riding until I got tired right past Shelley and Andy's house (that's about 3 houses down)! I feel I have officially graduated from a training wheel!


At Day 10 (January 25, 2015):

Weight - 146.0 (ok so I gained 4 lbs... go figure)

Stamina - Cannot make it a block even though I can ride the unicycle after 10 days.

Clothes Fitting - Clothes seem to be a little snug still

Strength - muscles around my knees feel much stronger. My arms, too! From flailing.

Muscle Tension - Neck & shoulders still sore, add feet to that now too!

Family Climate - 7

Emotional Well-Being - Feeling good, like I have something to look forward to every day

Conclusion: ??

Day 23 - Oil Pulling

It's been 23 days because I started on January 8th instead of January 1st. Here is my report:

Overall Tooth Health - My teeth haven't gotten any whiter! They do seem to be less sensitive, though.

Sick - I did get sick one time

(I don't know if hormonal issues were affected because I don't think I had any.)

Headaches - nope

Skin - it is a ton clearer! I am amazed

Weight - 142.6

Stamina - (no idea)

Clothes Fitting - N/A

Strength - N/A

Muscle Tension - sore (not sure it applies)

Family Climate - It has caused some amusement and gentle teasing

Emotional Well-Being - no significant change.

END RESULT: Add to lifestyle?? I think if it cleared up my skin, I will keep this up! Maybe it will improve other blemishes, too.

Day 15 - Oil Pulling

A few days ago I noticed something. My upper arms have always been really bumpy. I've always said that would be the thing I'd change about myself if I could change something. Well, the skin on the back of my arms has literally never been as smooth as it is now! I don't know for sure, but if oil pulling is supposed to clear up your skin, maybe it is doing that! I didn't use any lotions and didn't do anything out of the ordinary. I know the picture doesn't show how smooth it feels, it just looks freckly. Both Heidi and Gray can tell the difference! It's not totally smooth, but let's see if it is by the end of 30 days!

My teeth still seem a little yellow.