Limits

I have come to the sad realization today that I have my limits. After 3 hours of practice, 5 hours of work, and an hour of swimming not even a mile, I am spent. It is going to be hard to resist pushing myself as hard as I used to. I need to remember my limits, but I'm scared I might forget sometimes.

It helps to remind yourself of what life can still offer, rather than focusing on what it can't. It sounds like life is still offering you a lot, daniellaco! Hang in there.

Thank you.

It is hard to accept our limitations. I can relate. dancermom had a very good suggestion. It's important to remind ourselves of all the things we can do and I suspect it's far more than you give yourself credit for. And if you forget sometimes don't worry. Your body will remind you! And when it does heed the reminder and rest!

Sounds like a hell of a day to me. I’m not even sure I could swim a mile on a GOOD day, let alone with everything else you did.

Limits are meant to be tested. I think the important thing is to not be too hard on yourself. I could give myself crap for not having ever run a marathon, but what good does that do?

Its just that I used to be able to do all of that, and then swim 2-3 miles without even feeling that tired. After I got done swimming my legs cramped up for almost 4 hours. I'm just struggling with this right now.

About a year ago, when my neurologist told me to know and respect my limits, I told him I was learning. At that time when I thought I'd reached my limit, I'd really reached it about an hour before - LOL! I've learned alot since then. Don't necessarily like it and sometimes I just want to cry but I am learning to slow down, relax and rest more often. I'm actually alot more peaceful than I used to be and for me that is a good thing.

Sorry if I came off as nonchalant. I've just always been a bad swimmer, so anyone who can swim more than a mile gets a lot of respect out of me! I can understand, though...I lifted at a certain weight level for awhile before my surgery, and it took a long time to get back to that point when I started back again. It's hard to be patient, but it just takes time to get that energy back. Someone told me a general rule of thumb: however many hours you were under anesthesia during your surgery, it takes about that many months to get back to normal in your day-to-day life.

Do you use the weight room at school for leg exercises? If not, maybe you could start a program to help strengthen your legs. I thought I could switch from lifting to running like it was no big deal, but my knees are aching without those weighted exercises.

I totally understand how you feel! Last year before i had my brain hemmorage I was in the best chape of my life. I was obsessed with working out and was in the process of training for a marathon.

After my surgery for my aneurysm (i was lucky to have an aneurysm and an AVM!) I was exhausted for months but slowly got back to normal. I spoke with my doc this week for my year follow up appointment and he said that if i feel up to it I can continue to do all the things i love doing like skydiving, mountain climbing etc. as long as i feel up to it.

In your case since you have not had any treatment or surgery I think maybe you just had a bad day. before my diagnosis I would ahve days where i had enough energy to take on the world and days where I was too pooped to go for a mile run. But I think that is normal for anyone AVM or not. If you feel tired that is okay. It is just your body's way of telling you that you need to slow down a little bit :).

My doc did say that if I plan on taking on any big adventures like mountain climbing at this point I can do it but that I should train for it and not just jump in without preparing myself.