"I wanna quit the gym"

said Jeff, shortly after our first workout on Tuesday. LOL Poor boy!

Yes, we finally joined the Y on Monday. We would have joined last week, but I was struck with a nasty bout of sciatica which left me unable to walk without severe pain in each step for several days last week. I didn't think they'd be too keen on letting us join the gym if I limped in with my face all screwed up from the pain, so I waited until it subsided enough that I wouldn't look so gimpy when we went in to join. When we were filling out the membership application, the fire department's medics showed up to treat someone. Jeff asked how often that happened. The girl at the desk said, "you don't want to know." Jeff's apprehension increased...

We went for our first workout on Tuesday. I quite enjoyed it, Jeff overworked himself and therefore announced that he wanted to quit. I was amused, and gave him some workout education on Wednesday, optimum heart rate, you don't need to do 30 minutes on the elliptical your first time at the gym, etc. We went back on Thursday, and I think he had a better time. He admitted that it was good for us. We're shooting for three trips to the gym a week for starters. We meet with our personal trainers for the first time next week, so we'll see what they think we need to be working on. (Everything.)

I've had this sciatica thing for about a year and a half now. It started in a rather amusing way. Fang was out in our garage sniffing around at something. I had been trying to get his attention by calling his name for about a minute, because it was time to go back in the house, but he was ignoring me. So, I stomped my foot to make a loud noise to get his attention. Pain shot up the nerve in my leg, and it hurt for a couple of weeks after that, and has continued to hurt off and on ever since. Most of the time I either don't have any pain, or the pain is minor enough that it doesn't interfere with life. I'm lucky because it has never hurt in my back - just in my leg and butt. But, once every two or three months, I get a day or two where it's just brutal. Once every six months or so, I get an entire week that's brutal. Last week was that week. Drugs don't help at all (and my doctor and I have worked up to the maximum doses of everything we can think of to try), stretching helps just a little bit, but doesn't give very long lasting relief. I'm hoping that with more exercise I can strengthen my back enough to stabilize my vertebrae so the nerve doesn't get tweaked. Of course, we haven't actually done any medical scans or tests to be sure that that's what's causing it, but it's worth a shot.

In other news, I fear that my apprehension of germs at the gym had merit. I have quite the sore throat today, and had to take a sick day. I rarely get sick, so I'm quite convinced it's something I picked up at the gym. It's all those germy kids running around... :P