On Wednesday, I planned to paint. Instead, I wound up in Urgent Care with glass in my foot.
At the beginning of September, I received the test results of some lab work they did after drawing 7+ vials of blood. Evidently I'm incredibly deficient in Vitamin D and my thyroid hormone levels are low (aka "hypothyroidism"). I'm still waiting on the results of a lab test that breaks down your body's adrenaline production levels (cortisol, norepinephrine) before I can go back in for my official diagnoses. Initially, my doctor suspected adrenal fatigue due to my symptoms. In either case, I'm tired of being tired and miserable and unable to get back to a healthy weight (notice I didn't say "skinny).
The week afterward, I made a promise to myself to get my act together. For 30 Days, I'm doing a Healthy Eating Challenge that involves 3 things:
- Workout EVERY. DAY.
- Eat super-healthy & take Vitamin D supplements
- No alcohol
That last one sucks. I love my red wine. In any case, I can't remember the last time I went 3 days without a glass of wine. So I partied it up over labor day weekend as a last hurrah (Uh, you heard the Episode 17 MWAH podcast, right?) before I sat down and changed my routine for the better.
For my daily workouts, I chose Insanity Max:30. It's... well, absolutely insane. You jump around with kicks and lunges and luckily I can do this in the privacy of my own home because I look like an idiot flailing about in my uncoordinated sweatiness. I huff & puff and gasp for air because I'm so out of shape but no matter-- I'm committed! So there I am flailing about and jumping around like an idiot without my shoes (they were holding me back) and I'm doing this cross-jumping-jack-arm-punch with all my might and *OUCH* my leg buckles. What the... what did I just step... OH NO THAT'S A LOT OF BLOOD! I freaked out. I'm hobbling to the bathroom so I can wash my foot to see what the heck is in it and call Other Half who's on his way home from work like "I need your help! There's blood everywhere!" (By the way, don't do this to people. You may just give them a heart attack)
Fast forward 30 minutes: many tears have been shed, minor surgery has been performed (I was considering having him use my miniature tweezers) and this big-ass piece of glass comes out of my foot:
It's hard to tell the scale, but it's about half the size of my fingernail and it was DEEP in my foot. My foot won't stop bleeding and I'm worried there's still shards of glass in my foot that broke off from this piece. So we drive to Urgent Care and they clean the deep puncture wound and take X-Rays to make sure there aren't any more dangerous pieces of glass embedded in my foot. They think there may be some more really tiny pieces, but luckily, I'm told my foot should heal just fine and push them out eventually (say what?) with minor risk of infection. They also needed to give me a Tetanus Shot, just in case. Great.
So here I am $300 later with my foot and pride wounded, and my arm super-sore from the shot. I requested them to put the shot in my non-dominant arm so I can still paint this weekend. I was planning on visiting some family since it's both my Dad & sister's birthday this weekend. However, the left half of my body is basically useless. I've even been trying to do some yoga that keeps me off of my heel so I can still get my daily workout in. I'm also proud that despite the minor trauma of the evening, I didn't give into the temptation of wine or junk food. Day 2 of my Healthy Eating Challenge was a success! I'm just telling my co-workers I'm training to be a ninja! Next week, I work out with caltrops!
I haven't decided if I'll be traveling this weekend, but I know I can hobble to my painting desk and get some painting done tonight. While I can't do much else, I know I can still do my part in recording a Models Workshop After Hours podcast tonight-- they usually post on Sundays. I think we'll be talking about "Who to Break out of Painter's Block" this week as well as highlighting a current Kickstarter that people may be interested in. Stay tuned!