I left My Wallet in El Segundo.

Yup thats right... I'll be an El Segundo Resident as of 12/15.
That's all for tonight... boo ya...

A Mile a Minute

I was asked to do the following over the past few days:

-Find a new place to move to from my current place
-Be the captain and figure out and organize our centipede team in the electric run this Friday
-Organize a Christmas party and Bachelor/Bachelorette party
-Schedule my appointment with physical therapy
-Schedule an appointment to get an MRI for my right knee
-Babysit my nephew
-Organize all of my clothes, shoes, accessories, and sports related equipment to donate to Goodwill
-Figure out what to buy for the Bride and Groom for their wedding gift
-Book a hotel room for the night of the December wedding
-Babysit my Nephew
-Plan and figure out our CrossFit Christmas Party
-Write all FB invitations to the Box Jump happening in the OC
-Write a blog about the box jump
-Figure out what I'm coaching tomorrow/this week in CF
-Figure out Christmas presents for my family (went shopping today and found nothing)
-Buy and Write Christmas cards
-Do laundry
-Decorate a Christmas Tree



The only thing of my concern now, (as I did get a majority of this stuff accomplished by 9:30pm today)
is that I get okay to move into the Studio apartment that I applied for on December 15th. (And that the apartment that I walked into earlier which was dirty and not cleaned, is now spic n span clean and fixtures fixed)--> I hope I LOVE it!

I also hope my 9-5 job just keeps getting better and better. I've hand some challenges, but I feel like it has become much better... I just hope that it continues to go that way.

okay... now i just need need to thank God for the blessings that I do have and live gratefully tomorrow!

I have to take it day by day...


While I was texting some friends today, I just realized how much I have going on and sometimes everything seems to just go off at once in my head. I'm going a mile a minute.

What really made me think.. was when I got the response of "okay you're overloading me right now." When I looked back at several texts, I didn't realize how much I needed to slow myself down.

btw, to the friend who told me this today.. Thanks. I needed to hear it. I really need to take some time out for myself and know that I shouldn't be expected to do everything, nor should I think that I'm only a success if I finish everything on that list, or that I'm only a success if I can organize an event and it goes off without a hitch.

I guess it's my bedtime now..... time to try and relaaaaaaax...

Attention Please!

"Wow, you injured yourself doing CrossFit huh? I hear there is a high rate of injury in that sport."

I get a lot of the comments above when they ask about what happened, what's up with the knee brace and why I walk the pimp walk. 

(Hmm maybe I should walk with a chalice and have a cane as well hehe)

Just so I am clear, this injury was not due to CrossFit. Mine was due to me not taking care of a problem I had for quite some time.  With me being pretty active my entire life, it was never an issue. The pain that we endure in our workouts and when we "tweak" something, is USUALLY pretty temporary and goes away after a certain period of time.

For me, it was clear that I had sustained a grade 4 chondromalacia, (in short arthritis) and a pretty severe one at that. A piece from the surface of the femur bone had chipped away after a trauma that occurred years ago. Now, about that trauma that happened? Not really sure when that was, but it seems as though it involved the tearing of the lateral meniscus, possibly while snowboarding and running, and just living life. I didn't know about it or rather never paid attention to it and now I have a knee of an 80 year old oba-chan (that's japanese for grandma).  

Now my knee isn't like an ACL, MCL, or even PCL tear and hopefully will heal quickly, but here's what I have to preach. And preach I must because I think it's really important.

Maybe it's really 2 points that I need to make:

1. CrossFit is a sport of fitness. In any sport where you move your body, people get injured. It just happens. There are a ton of football, basketball, soccer, tennis, you name it, injuries that happen on a regular basis. I know more than a few people who tore their ACL because they stepped down on their foot incorrectly, or there was a dip in the sidewalk and their knee just gave out. All because they were WALKING. Am I going to tell someone to stop walking? 

I hate people automatically just assuming that CF causes injury and harm to the body. But this also brings me to point #2.

2. Pay attention to your body. Listen to what it's feeling and react accordingly. Maybe it's not even to be reactive, but be proactive about it. And I don't want to sound like I know what I'm sayin,' but in my experience, I know that I should have paid more attention to what my body was telling me. 

We all know that CrossFit is amazing! I love it, and I will always love it for what I've gained from it the past year and 8 months or so. Actually, not only CrossFit, but in all the sports that I participated as a kid---> to the sports that I enjoy playing now. 

Our workouts are tough. By tough, I mean that a lot of people would run the opposite way if they were ever asked to do it. You all have experienced the "SUCK" in a workout, where you just don't think you can do one more rep and make it out alive, but you grit your teeth and do it anyway.

Maybe the next day you're sore. Like in my fundamentals class, I totally remember the 2nd day where I literally had to grab the walls to lower myself down onto the toilet to go pee. haha. I think most people have experienced muscle soreness. If that soreness doesn't go away after you've rolled out and stretched out or if there is a high amount of swelling in your ankle, knee, or shoulders, pay attention to it. If you hear something "Pop" in your joints, pay attention to it. Monitor your recovery. If things don't get better, or if it gets worse, go seek a professional. 

Never think that you're too good or that you don't want to feel like a wuss because of the pain you are experiencing. Pain is real. It's your body's way of telling you that not everything is functioning correctly or normally. 

Maybe if I had paid attention a bit more, this may have been a simpler issue to fix and if it was detected earlier, I possibly would have been able to fix the issue with physical therapy.

Listen to your body, treat it with respect and I promise that it will be good to you!

Let's get CLEAN!

Left Knee:
Complete subtotal menisectomy
(Chondroplasty)
Abrasion Arthroplasty
(Microfracture procedure)
Physical Therapy 3x a week for a month
Have to rest lower body for at least 3 months

Right Knee:
Doc is almost positive that the lateral meniscus is torn
(MRI to confirm findings)

What I'm most happy about?!

I get to take a REAL shower tomorrow after almost 2 weeks.
It's the little things. :D

RECOVERY- STITCHES REMOVED and BRACE OFF!

Like the title, the good news is that they took my out of that gross cumbersome leg immobilizer today. Also, they removed my stitches.

                       
                                          

Before: Stitches

After: Stitches Gone!

Now that it's off, the doctor explains exactly what they saw when they scoped my knee...

anyways, the was just a part of the explanation behind what they did surgically.

Owls

I haven't painted for quite some time, but today I finally decided to paint something for my nephew Luca. I had actually sketched it on a canvas a while back, but didn't touch it until today. So after coming back from the wedding in Temecula and after mulling over what I should or should not being doing on a sunday, I started laundry and decided to paint while waiting. I was totally happy with the way it came out, so I may do a few more to fill up Luca's room with brightly colored art! Instead of owls, maybe I'll do different animal pairings. Suggestions?

It only took a few hours, but I took some step by step pics:

It all starts with a sketch

Painting the background

 Rough painting of the owls and tree branches

Filling in the details

Finished product on the wall of the new Nishii Residence and above Luca's crib

RECOVERY- FULL DAY 10

This weekend was full of fun events all the way around.

Friday 11/09- Kevin Corrinet's B-day at Gasser Lounge

Saturday 11/10- Mina and Craig's wedding in Temecula.

Sunday 11/11 (Veteran's Day)- Came back from the wedding and chilled/laundry/painted

It was super fun and I was really happy to have finally gone out. Obviously I haven't done anything and have been laying around since the surgery. These are the things that actually make me quite happy; being around family and friends that are supportive and there for you.

RANDOM SIDE NOTE:

By the way, I take showering for granted. I have literally gone a full 11 days without taking a REAL shower. Yup pretty gross I'd say. However, I did think of a way to make it work. I take a trash bag and put a hole in it. I proceed to put my leg in it, then wrap the bag around the brace. I take packing tape and tape the trash bag to my leg on the top and bottom to create a watertight seal. 

I hop in the shower and have to stick my leg outside my shower tub. And this whole process takes about 10-15 minutes just for the tape wrapping, etc. Luckily, I'm praying that the doc clears me tomorrow and I will be able to actually wash my filthy little left leg. I JUST HOPE...

Back to the weekend. Here are some pictures!

Me and Jelly @ Gasser Lounge 11/09

Me and Princess @ Gasser Lounge 11/09

Me and Marysol @ Gasser Lounge 11/09

Birthday Boy and part of the crew @ Gasser Lounge 11/09

Mina (the bride) and high school reunion @ Wiens Family Cellars
Temecula, Ca

VEGGIE DIET

Oh and forgot to mention, forget the vegetarian diet. I'm already over it, and it's only been a week.

I need good sources of protein dangit! I like fish.. maybe I stick with seafood instead.... I do know that I would like to clean my system of meat just for the time being.

I think a veggie diet would work for me, but it's just really hard to gauge how things would be based on  the fact that Im completely sedentary and I just feel unhealthy because I haven't stepped foot in a gym for nearly 3 weeks and haven't really worked out HARD, since this injury first happened. This was the end of August. Over 2 months ago.

Not going to lie, it's getting me a bit depressed and I can physically see my muscles turning into jello.

Ugh. But I'm trying to keep positive. We'll see how the next week holds up.

RECOVERY- FULL DAY 7 & Picture Time!!!!

Today is the big revealing of my stitches. And because without pictures, it's completely boring and trust me, I immediately would've lost interest from my own blog entries. Yawn. So let's spice it up...

muahahahahaha..

It looks like they cut into 3 different areas. 2 cuts right in the knee, and 1 other cut slightly above (lower thigh area). I have 3 sets of small stitches and it seems like everything is healing really nicely. (Except that maybe the knee no longer looks like a knee, but more like my thigh. so instead of "cankles" I have a "thnee.")

It's not the prettiest, but here goes nothing:

Unstrapping the brace

The bandages look good. Not gonna lie,
I'm a little scared to see what it looks like underneath.

okay, not BAD at all! I've got 3 sets of little stitches.

Just thought I'd give you an UP-CLOSE shot

A few more UP-CLOSE shots

Side profile looks the worst only because you can see how swollen it really is.
But, the bruising isn't even that bad! 

RECOVERY- FULL DAY 5 and 6

I did 100 situps. My left leg was straight out while the right leg was bent slightly. That was the most exercise I've done in the past 2 weeks. Not sure why I wasn't doing this everyday for the past few weeks. Anyways, today starts the new commitment of doing 100 situps a night and maybe 50 pushups as well. Can I sustain it?! Only time will tell. No pain killers for me today!!

Oh yeah, and yesterday was the big election. Obama did get re-elected another 4 more years. I did not vote. GASP! OMG! you say?! Well, At this point, I still have my green card. Yup, I'm a registered alien. I pay taxes, I follow the law, but the one thing I can't do is vote. To be honest, I'm not sure who I would've voted for. I'm part democrat part republican, but I'm also part very ANTI politics and politicians. I had a discussion about this. Being a republic or being a democrat is now associated with pro life vs pro choice laws, pro or anti gun laws, being a Christian or not, etc. and not actually with the policies of how this country should be run. Again, something that can be discussed till we all turn blue, but that is of my opinion. Anyways, let's see if this country changes for the better now that Obama has laid some groundwork.


Once the doc clears me (and i'm hoping it's this coming Monday the 12th) is when I'll hopefully start going back to the gym and when I can start coaching again. I miss coaching. I miss the people. I miss the energy.

I'm taking one of my very good friends out to dinner tonight. He's been instrumental in me getting back into everyday life. Also, my sister in law (despite her giving birth only 7 weeks ago and whom I will now call Sis), along with my little brother, have been incredibly amazing to me as well.

I am so incredibly lucky to have them and everyone else in my life.


So, now that I got the sentimental stuff out of the way, I guess back to my boring life of working, eating vegetarian food, and sleeping. At least for today. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. :D

RECOVERY- FULL DAY 4

I feel nauseous. First time I felt this way since right after the surgery. I actually went almost a full day without taking a Vicodin. But then around 3pm, the achy-ness started to set in and I decided to take it. Well, unfortunately shortly after, I felt like I was going to throw up, and that feeling hasn't subsided since then. (and as I type this) Okay, so my first full day of work was not exactly the most productive. It was difficult to walk and I was slow moving around the office. I also decided not to bring my crutches in because of how cumbersome and annoying they can be. But then during the middle of the day, decided that I probably should have brought them into work. Tomorrow is a new day.

I also spoke to my doctor/surgeon today regarding the next steps. My post op is set for November 12. That's exactly 7 days from now and if you ask me, waaaaaaay too long of a wait. At that point, he'll see how I'm healing up. When I spoke to him on the phone he said he did 3 things in the surgery:

• The main reason for surgery- to trim and cut the bad shredded meniscus (leaving the good stuff).
•  My arthritis in the knee was worse than he thought- so he shaved down the bone.
•  Because of the arthritic knee, he drilled small little holes in the bone to stimulate new cartilage growth.

So until then, he told me to take it easy, and don't drive (because I drive a stick shift and I can't push down on the clutch). I'm planning on getting a rental car for Friday and Saturday so I can drive to work for a meeting Saturday morning and then head over to a wedding in Temecula right afterwards.

The worst part is, NO SHOWER. Uh excuse me? That is not exactly the best news to hear from your doc. But we are all creative and I will find ways to do it. If it means putting a big garbage bag around my leg and sticking it out the shower door, than that is what I will do. 7 more days is just waaaay too long without a shower.

Oh and about this plant based diet of day 1? How about the food is simply not enough. I felt hungry today,  and I even snuck in some extra snacks like an apple, dried veggies, fruits and nuts, but maybe I need to reevaluate how hungry I am during the day. Maybe I actually don't need all the food I've been consuming. (Which is more along the lines of what I'm thinking) Up until this point, I've been over eating and under exercising.

Let's see how day 2 goes. Hopefully a bit better.

RECOVERY- FULL DAY 3

Full day 3 today. It's been good. I only took 2 pain pills today. I rested and hung out with the Ell for half the day today. It was awesome. We went to go eat at this place called "How Do You Roll." A kinda subway for sushi. Well, that might be a wrong sort of analogy, but basically, it's sushi made the way you want it. You choose your wrap; soy or seaweed, type of rice, vegetable, your protein, your sauce, etc. and they roll it up.

Actually, it was quite good.

And then we went to have real Italian gelato. Again, super good. But now I need to seriously watch what I eat because I went from being super duper active, to being completely sedentary.

That said, I decided to start a new eating program. A sort of opposite dietary plan than the paleo diet. Instead of meat and vegetables, little fruit, some fat, and no sugar. I'm going to be eating a ton of vegetables, whole grains like quinoa, and little fruit. I paid for this program through a fellow CrossFitter who follows this program rather than the paleo diet.

Yup, it's a vegetarian diet. It's a diet high in carbs (good carbs) and low in fat. I say again, completely opposite from the Paleo diet, but based on the fact that I am not working out at all and resting, I want to lose some of my mass and lose a good amount of weight. 15 lbs before I start working out again. I think it's doable, but I do have to stay completely focused and not veer away from this plan.  Because this diet is a vegetarian diet, I will be consuming less calories which will in turn help me lose lbs. I did take some before pictures and at this point, I don't feel at liberty to show them. Maybe I will if the results seem pretty apparent in the next month or two.

This will be an amazing experiment. My food was delivered in vacuum sealed packs for whole week.  And labeled per day. I paid for 3 meals a day for 7 days; 21 total meals. The good thing about this is that because I still have not been able to drive, I don't have to think about ways of getting to the grocery store, then determining what I will eat for the next week and then having to cook. So here's the menu for this week.

Tomorrow will be my first day to start this new diet and it'll also be the first day back at work since the surgery. Let's see how that goes.

hugs,
zoo

RECOVERY- FULL DAY 2

Yup, I'm on a full Day #2 of recovery from surgery. It's been good and quiet and a bit boring at times, but all in all probably the best R&R that I've had all year. (Yup, that's kinda sad. It took surgery to get that?!) Today, I was chatting with a friend and took some pictures of my leg.

Day 2: I can hobble around but was told to stay off the leg.

looking familiar? same pics over and over...

I'm kinda going a bit stir crazy of not being out of the house for 2, almost 3 days. I mean I LIVE for being outside and enjoying the ocean and the fresh air. This is definitely NOT what I want to be doing. But I know it's the best thing right now. Luckily today, my friend is going to come and pick me up to go to the box so I could get a change of scenery. The pain is starting to set in a bit. It's just a dull achy sort of feeling, but it's definitely not bad.

10 minutes later, my friend tells me to "start hopping down the stairs." Bahaha. Yup. and hop I did. He sees me walking down the stairs with my big fat sushi roll on the left leg and starts laughing. He then proceeds to take his camera and takes a picture of me limping and gimping across the street.

Oh and Yes, "Gimping" should now be a word in the dictionary. (Oh, maybe the urban dictionary?")

Because I hadn't been outside in 2 days!!

We ended up going to the box. Immediately, I saw my 2 babies (basically they are my good friends that are almost a decade younger than I am) that were visiting from the OC and instead of stepping foot inside the box, I ended up leaving from there and hanging out with them ALL DAY LONG.

(I think if I were to have stayed at the box, I would have cried, well either that, or I probably would've not been thinking, and would try and work out. Ugh, sometimes, I'm not very smart in that sense.)

So guess what we did?! After a few hours of lounging around, eating food and watching lame movies, we decided to make CANDY.  I'm just going to get everyone else fat around me so I'm not the only one gaining the LBS while being extremely sedentary. BAHAHAHA. OK, I'm just kidding people. Actually, it was a lot of fun and we ended up making candy for Mustache Movember. 

Multicolored mustaches. Cute eh?

Mustache Bouquets!

All in all, it was a great day! I love the sun and can't wait until I can start surfing again. Not to mention the snow season being right around the corner! Make it rain people, and SNOW!

SURGERY- TORN LATERAL MENISCUS

I'm on my first full day of recovery after surgery. "Surgery?!" you ask?  well here's how it all happened.

Late August 2012, I was doing lateral burpees in a workout. I didn't hear anything pop, but afterwards I realized that my left knee was hurting considerably. Because I have a rather high pain tolerance, I was thinking to myself "well, i'll just ice it and see how it goes. If it doesn't go away in a few days, I'll go to the doctor. Well, it didn't get better, it got worse:

My normal right knee, vs. my abnormally swollen left knee.

So then I finally decided to see my primary care physician who diagnosed me as having patella tendonitis or "jumper's knee." He wasn't an expert (duh!!) so he #1. ordered an x-ray and #2. ordered me to go see an orthopedist.

On a side note: let me tell you all that if you have an HMO change it to a PPO right now! Sometimes I feel like the ridiculous back and forth and procedural "crap" that had to be followed was by far worse than the surgery itself. 

My best friend works for one of the best orthopedic surgeons in this country. He is the one that fixes problems that were not able to be fixed by other orthopedic surgeons. He also fixes botched orthopedic procedures. I first gave the x-ray to her to have her doctor look at it and went to go see him as well. he told me that I have severe arthritis in my left knee and because of it had probably injured it before and  didn't know about it. My bones looked like that of a little japanese grandmother. He said i had to change my lifestyle immediately. Limit the weight you put on it. Be careful and don't wear stiletto heels. WHAT?1 i can't wear heels anymore?! NO! and then he said platforms might be okay. I sighed a sigh of relief.

I walked out of there with some instruction and a handicap placard.

I had scheduled my appointment with my HMO orthopedist. He did the knee pulling, pushing, etc. test and immediately tells me that i have a torn meniscus. Get an MRI.
After scheduling the MRI, setting another appointment and after 2 weeks go by, I walk into the office again.

He shakes his head "you're gonna have to get surgery."
Yeah, so care to explain why? "...come and see your MRI and i'll tell you what's going on."
He pulls the MRI up on the screen and tells me that there should be a triangle shaped space in between the femur bone and the tibia bone. That would be the space where your meniscus is. Mine is squished and the triangle shape is no longer there. In short, my meniscus is shredded and a lot of the pain is caused by the non-functioning meniscus irritating the bones and area around it.

So then the surgery is scheduled but in the meantime, I tweak my right knee. YUP, this might not be the only surgery that I have this year. Ugh!

Here we are present day. My surgery was yesterday and it went well!
I checked in at 8:15am and my surgery was scheduled for 10:20, but I didn't get in until around 10:45am. After checking in, I was told to put on a blue paper gown. "Take everything off including all jewelry and put it in this bag, You get a locker with your name on it for the time you are here. We also need a urine sample."

After getting into the gown they laid me down in a sort of "waiting room" gurney they hooked the hospital gown to a hose and it would blow hot or cold air to make sure you were comfortable. You also had your own T.V. with controls.

One nurse came in and we signed some consent forms. 15 minutes later, another nurse came in and put an IV in me. "It's just water and electrolytes." she says.
30 minutes later, I'm feeling quite hydrated.

Some time goes by and my orthopedist comes in a takes a marker and draws incision marks on my knee and a few minutes after that, the anesthesiologist comes in and says: "we're gonna give you something in your IV that's gonna make you "relax" and then after we'll give you something that's going to make you fall asleep."

okay that sounds good to me. A few literal seconds later. I feel AMAZING, and by amazing it's like the relaxation you feel when you don't care at all. Everything is kinda fuzzy. I mean it's true, just like in the movies. They wheel me out into the O.R.  and all I see are bright lights in a very bright room. They put an oxygen mask on me and the nurse says "just relax and breathe" and then "poof" i'm out!

It took approximately 1 hour for the arthroscopic procedure which ended up being the least invasive way to take care of the issue.

I woke up in the recovery room very fuzzy and had a nurse monitoring my recovery. Within another 15 minutes, they wheel me out to another waiting-type room where I was greeted by another nurse asking me if I wanted ice chips or juice, etc. I preferred the apple juice. THE BEST thing since sliced bread at that point let me tell you! Especially because I hadn't eaten anything or had any liquids in 24 hours.

I was then greeted by my sis-in-law and my baby nephew. "how are you feeling?" And from then on, I'm feeling better and better every minute.

I had a partial menisectomy. Did you all know that a meniscus never grows back? You just gotta deal with the hand thats given to you.

Hanging out at my brother and sis-in-law's place.
Emi just had her baby boy Luca, and was taking care of this big baby as well.

As I write and blog, I'll be in this position for the next day or 2 and then I should be fine and start walking without any assistance. I was told minimal weight on the leg. I should be as good as new pending the diagnosis on my right leg. SIGH!!!! Headed for a speedy recovery people! :D

In my room and on my bed, typing away...