Update from last post

 It was an interesting weekend. 

Turns out my knee pain was very temporary. On Friday morning I put some Voltaren on them and then took Mavy for a walk. By the afternoon they felt fine. So that was just a temporary setback. 

My arms/hands are a whole story in themselves. I mentioned they would go numb but it was far more than that. Especially my left arm. My hand would go numb and then it would feel like it was on fire. I could not figure out a way to hold it where that wouldn't happen. Sometimes if I stretched it out, it would be better. Sometimes if I kept it slightly bent, it would be better. But nothing lasted for long. It would always come back. Friday night, Hubby asked if I wanted to sit in the hot tub. I said yes, because I thought that might help some. I was seriously wrong, it actually made it worse. But I did discover where the pain was emanating from. It was coming from the inside of my arm, right above the elbow. I could press there and be in excruciating pain. At least now I knew where it was coming from. Which started me thinking. If it was coming from that far up my arm and my hand was going numb, a nerve must be being impinged. And further, it must be my muscle that is squeezing the nerve, there's really nothing else up there. Hmmmm. After the hot tub it was much worse and I could not even lay in bed, it was too painful. So I got up and sat in the recliner with the arm resting on a chair next to the recliner. Then Hubby suggested I put some cold on it. We have this cold thing that is rice or something and meant to go around your neck. He got me that and I put it on my upper arm and OMG!!! It felt wonderful. The pain and numbness went away and the arm felt completely normal. Once that warmed up, I thought of the Cryoderm that we use. It is a cold therapy. I slathered my arm in that and it too felt wonderful. It burned like crazy on my upper arm - which we have noticed it tends to do if that is where the problem is. So my upper arm burned like crazy but my hand was not numb. I stayed on the recliner until about 1 am, but really couldn't sleep. Then I went into bed and managed to get some sleep. I was up around 4ish. The more I thought about the whole arm/hand thing, the more I came to believe that I had some muscle soreness. I had worked out on Wednesday and Thursday night. I believed that what I was experiencing with the arm was sort of what I get when I overwork the legs. When I work the legs too hard it becomes difficult to sit down and stand up because of the lactic acid build up. I believe that is what was happening with my arm. There was a ton of lactic acid build up, the muscles were swollen with it, and it was squeezing a nerve. When I used cold things on it, the muscle would contract due to the cold and the pain went away. So I spent yesterday keeping the Cryoderm on it and taking Naproxen for the inflammation. And it worked wonders. I felt pretty damn good all day yesterday. Not perfect, but I was not in pain the majority of the day. That was nice. I got my clothes all sorted away and straightened out. It felt good not to be in pain all day. 

So, while I was walking Mavy, I was trying to figure out what could have caused this. I did workout Wednesday and Thursday. And Thursday was strength session. So I thought back over what we did and tried to narrow it down. The only thing I could come up with was, in Wednesday's session we did these things where we just held a really heavy dumbbell for 45 seconds. Initially I wasn't going too heavy, but by the 5th round I decided that I could go heavier. I picked up two 45 lb dumbbells and stood there for 45 seconds. I think that was where it happened. I think I went too heavy and I think I pulled that muscle a little bit. So, lesson learned: Don't go really heavy, take your time to build up to id. 

I'm just glad I figured out how to deal with it, because honestly I was worried that there was something seriously wrong. So I'm glad I figured out how to deal with it and I've learned my lesson. Go Slow!!!