Long Time, No Post

So Hi! How have you been? I'm alright.... It's been awhile.... Did you miss me? I missed you... I've been meaning to write for some time now, I just haven't. I'm a horrible friend, I know.

So what's going on? Well not a whole lot here. Just a few things have changed. Since I last posted (August of last year) my family and I have been learning sign language, I got a job as a special education aide, and Lois finished her masters classes.

If you don't recall my youngest son was born deaf, hence us learning sign language. It is a very interesting, challenging, and literal language to learn. Also the deaf community is amazing. Recently we went to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Conference in Madison, WI. We attended a number of sessions about a variety of topics related to the deaf and H.H. community. But by far, the most interesting and educational part of the conference was just being around the deaf community. When we attended my wife and I had only been learning sign language for about 3 months, but we found that we were able to understand and communicate with so many people there.

We were also able to talk with a number of people who were in the same boat as us (hearing parents, no known family history of hearing loss) and had had a child with profound hearing loss. We were able to connect with them and see how they were handling things. Some of them had decided to go the same route as us (cochlear implants) while others had decided to stick with only signing.

Our oldest son, who is hearing, within the first couple hours of being at the conference made a friend. While this isn't all that uncommon for him, the fact that the little boy that he met and befriended was deaf and he didn't care was awesome! The best part was that the boy, who is only a year older, is from the next city over and wants to come over and play! So next week they are coming over! We are all excited. The mother and the little boy are both deaf, the father and the youngest son are both hearing. It will be an interesting and entertaining night I'm sure.

Speaking of the Cochlear Implants, the little woman and I have been talking about whether or not to have bilateral (both ears) or unilateral (only one ear) implanted. We have finally come to this point. After all the doctors appointments and all the months of waiting we finally have made it to the implant time. We originally decided with bilateral and that is what was sent to the insurance for approval, but now Lois is having second thoughts. While at the conference we met a 15 year old young lady who only had one implant and was very happy with it. She functioned just fine and had made the decision that she didn't want the other side implanted.
This put the doubts into Lois' mind. I on the other hand am still firm on bilateral. There are so many advantages to have both ears implanted. To name a few, sound location will be much easier, comprehension is faster, and it just makes sense to have both ears working. Yes they may come along with technology that can restore hearing, but that technology isn't anywhere near being ready.

Another subject change. My new job. As I mentioned earlier I am now gainfully employed. I work as a Special Education Aide at a semi-local middle school. Although I am not certified to teach Special Education I am working in a special education setting. It is a field that I had previously considered going into. I am really enjoying it. I work with two students every day and each day is a new challenge. My cooperating teacher (for lack of a better term) is a lot of fun. She is around the same age and has the same humor as I do so we get along well. My students have a number of different challenges. Once of them I am slowly teaching sign language too and it really seems to be helping. The other student is one who has some social problems as well as a learning disability. Each day is tiring and frustrating, but when I look at the progress the students are making it makes me so happy that I am doing what I am doing.

Last, but certainly not least, Lois got her masters degree. While this isn't a huge surprise, it's a great moment in our lives. She has been wanting to get her masters for some time now and she was finally able to do it! I am so proud of her. She now has a masters in marketing psychology. She is awesome and I can't wait to attend her graduation ceremony in June.

Well that's really all that's all that's new. I'll try to blog more often..

Superman!

Watching the Weight!

So HI! It's been a while. How have you been? I'm doing alright. My hip is still giving me slight pain, but it's better than it was. Thanks for asking. The workout? Oh... Well... You see... It's just that... Okay, it's like this. I can't do a whole lot because of my hip, I'm unemployed, still overweight, and am taking care of my wonderful boys now during the day. Why don't I workout while they are napping? Well, because that's pretty much impossible. When the oldest is asleep, the youngest is awake. When the youngest is asleep, the oldest is awake. So it makes it very difficult.

It's not like I'm a completely lost cause. I take the boys for long walks at least two times a week and I have to go to physical therapy twice a week. So I'm still getting some sort of workout. Besides not working out, but kind of working out Lois and I have begun Weight Watchers Online.

Now as you have probably figured out from previous posts I am no good at dieting. I am a picky eater and I like to eat junk food. Needless to say I was nervous about this. I didn't want this to be a waste of money. (Luckily the P90X was free.) So we started the program last week Monday. I was given a total of 35 points for the day. (For those of you that don't know how Weight Watchers works here is a quick 411. Based on your weight, your goal, and other various items your are awarded a number of points that you are allowed to use each day. You are also given extra points for the entire week. Usually you use these points so you can splurge every now and then. You also gain points for various activities that you may do throughout the week.Your points do not roll over from week to week or day to day.)

Well I was given only 35 points for the day and also 35 points for the week. I had NO idea how I was going to do this. ONLY 35 POINTS!! Turns out it's a lot easier than I thought. Each day I would struggle trying to actually spend all of my points. It was great! By the end of the week I had earned an additional 24 activity points. So when Sunday rolled around I had my normal 35 points, plus 4 extra points, plus 24 activity points to use. That's a lot of points!!

Well the first weigh in came today. I feel absolutely no different. I don't think I look any different.

I set the scale to 0.

I stepped on the scale.

I read the scale.

I stepped off the scale.

I checked the dial to make sure it was at 0.

I stepped back on the scale.

I read the scale again.

219.

I LOST 10 POUNDS!! IT'S MY FIRST WEEK AND I LOST 10LBS!

Let's hope the following weeks keep this up. 19 pounds to go to get to my goal!!

I'm An Invalid!

Well, today was my surgery. I had right hip arthroscopy and femeroplasty. Basically they poked a bunch of holes in my my right hip, shaved off part of my bone, and tied up a lateral tear.
I went in at 5:45 in the morning and was in surgery by 7:30. The surgery lasted about 2 3/4 hours. They went in and looked around to make sure that everything was good and found the tear. What was happening was that my cam lesion was beginning to tear my muscle. This was something that I was warned about so it didn't come as a big surprise to me. It just meant that it was going to take a little longer during surgery.
I woke up from the anesthetic around 11:30 and was home by 1:00pm. I am now confined to my couch for the next couple of days. The only time I am allowed to get up is to go to the bathroom. As of right now my upper half of my leg (where they actually did the procedure) is numb. It's weird. It aches, but it's numb to the touch. I am not able to move it on my own. I have to have help getting my leg off the couch to get up and then get help putting it back on the couch.
Honestly, I HATE being taken care of. I HATE having people do everything for me, but I am very thankful to my wonderful wife, Lois, and her mother. They are stuck waiting on me, hand and foot, for the rest of this week. Besides having to take care of me, they also have to take care of our 2 1/2 year old and our 2 week old boys. Having Lois is wonderful, but having her mom over for the next couple of days is excellent. She has taken the time to come and help take care of me.  What would I do without them?

Surgery!

So yes, it is set. I will be having surgery. On June 8th I will be having my very first surgery. I met with my doctor yesterday and he looked over my CT scan and my MRI scans and decided that yes in deed I do have a CAM lesion on my right hip.
The surgery should only take about an hour to an hour and a half. He will be doing an arthroscopic surgery. First he will put my right leg in traction so that it doesn't move around during the procedure, followed by my left leg for good measure (to balance it out). Then he will drill anywhere from 3 to 5 holes in my right hip and leg to have a look around. Once he can assess the extent of the damage, if there is any besides the lesion, he will shave off the lesion and that will be that. It's that simple.
After the surgery I will be put in a post-op room to wake up and then they will assess my level of pain. If it's not too extreme and I can manage it well I will be sent home (usually 4-5 hours after). If it's not manageable I will have to stay overnight.
Once home I have to stay off my leg for 48 hours. This should be easy to do with a 2 1/2 year old and a new born. After the two days I will be on crutches for the next 2 weeks. After the 2 weeks are up I should be back to walking unassisted. During this entire time and for the next couple of months I will be required to do physical therapy.
My doctor seems pretty cool. He wanted to get my surgery in early enough that I would be off the crutches by the time I needed to start summer school. Which is something I was worried about because if I couldn't do summer school I wouldn't have any income. If I didn't have any type of income this summer we would be out a couple thousand dollars. So this seems to have worked out well. Thank God summer school is only half days though.

So Yeah...

I suck! I haven't been working out since my last post. So I'm pretty much screwed... I will never lose the weight that I want. I will never be super awesome. I guess I will have to deal with it. I would start up again, but.. who am I kidding I suck. Besides if I start now in about a month I won't be able to continue for a while.

For those of you that don't know I will be having hip surgery. Now, I'm not looking for sympathy (Phoenix), just stating a fact. I apparently have a cam lesion on my right hip.

FAI - Femoroacetabular Impingement

What is It?

• FAI s is a recently understood hip condition which describes a mechanical mismatch between the ‘ball’ and the ‘socket’ of the hip
  
• There are two described types of impingement:
  
  • ‘Cam’ type impingement describes a ‘bump’ on the surface of the femoral head (ball) which jams on the rim of the (acetabulum) socket
    This typically affects younger athletic men (common)

  What are the Symptoms

• FAI often presents as hip and groin pain with restricted range of hip movements.
  
• Symptom onset can be acute, following injury, or insidious after prolonged exertion. It is generally not disabling, except in sporting activity.
  
• ‘Payback pain’ after participating in sporting activity is common
  
• Pain is primarily felt deep in the groin at the front of the hip, more rarely it can be on the side of the hip or the buttock.
  
• Movements can be restricted particularly high flexing and trying to cross the legs.
  
• Pain is often provoked by these manoeuvres, by exercise, or by attempted return to sport and relieved by rest and inactivity.

So I recently had a CT scan and 2 MRIs. I meet with my doctor on Monday to talk about the scans and surgery. My hope is to get have the surgery next month so that my recoup time is only during the summer and then be all set to go when school starts up again.

So yeah that's that. I suck.

I DID IT!!

Alright, after 2 months plus 1 week I finally did it. I worked out! I started over. Today was chest and back man did it feel good. Hard as hell, but it felt good. No more of this whining and just talking about starting I am actually going to do this. It will be done. No ifs ands or buts about it. I may have to take a slight break when Clark Jr. comes along, but that is it.

And Then Life Happened...

So, I suck! My last post was back in January. The last time I worked-out was in January. I suck. I have told myself and those around me that Monday I was going to start working-out again. Well Monday came and went a number of times and here I sit, as not slim and trim as ever.

Before I stopped working-out I think that I was really starting to get results. I wasn't loosing any weight but I could tell a difference in inches and my health. I just felt better. I am still eating better. Not as good as I was, but I have definitely added more fruits and vegetables to my diet.

What made me stop working out you ask. Well I'll tell you. No good reason. When I began working-out I was already a busy person. I had just started student teaching which kept me up late at night making lesson plans and I was a lead character (for the first time) in a musical and had practice 4 nights a week.

So my day normally ran like this. I got up (6:30am), got ready for the day, took Jimmy to the sitter, taught until 3pm, came home worked-out (3:30-4:30pm), made dinner and ate (4:30-5:30pm), spent a little time with the family (5:30-6pm), went to play practice (6-9:30/10pm), came home and worked on lesson plans for the following day (10:30-12/1am).

It was a full day and I started to fall behind in things and was in general just tired from lack of sleep. I didn't always fall right to sleep. So I decided to wait until the play was over to begin the work out again. Well the play ended February 14.

I really don't have any excuse for not starting it since then. I am still student teaching, but I am getting the hang of making lesson plans and it's going easier. I'm still up late some nights working on them, but I still should have time to workout.

So you heard it here. MY WORKOUT WILL START OVER ON MARCH 15! One month after the play finished. Shame on me.