Friday, September 8, 2017

Hubby's Labral Tear & Calcium Deposits Shoulder Surgery

Lil Pumpkin and I were in Hong Kong with my parents for a short getaway last weekend and on the day we touched down, the boy went into surgery to fix a suspected posterior labral tear & remove calcium deposits in his left shoulder.

There was a nagging pain in his shoulder for the past year or so and a few months ago, he went to get it checked out with a specialist. Calcium deposits showed up in his MRI scan and the specialist recommended just physiotherapy.

But after a few sessions and when the pain seemed to worsen, the specialist ran other tests and suspected a posterior labral tear, which couldn't be confirmed unless they opened his shoulder up. So, the boy opted for surgery to fix that and to remove the calcium deposits too.

Might as well get it fixed fast so that he can finally recover properly and move on from his injury. 

The boy's surgery was from about 8.30am to 10am on Wednesday, and by lunch time he was back in his room and awake, albeit a little groggy.

There a slight numbness and tingling in his left hand, which the nurses said was common and caused by the nerve block which he was given to block the surgery pain. It slowly subsided, and since he was given a loooooot of pain killers, he wasn't in much pain too, just some discomfort ( ◞・౪・)

I took leave that day as well to keep him company and Lil Pumpkin popped by with my parents after lunch to see her beloved daddy...

Oh those two lovebirds... Lil Pumpkin missed her daddy so, and he missed her lots too

My parents help to take care of Lil Pumpkin while the boy stayed over for the night to rest and recuperate. On Thursday, I had to go back to work but went down to have lunch with the boy and help him to discharge.

My strongman looks like the surgery barely affected him haha... he has to wear the sling for at least 2 weeks I think and the specialist said that recovery should take at least 2 months?

That's good, just in time for our family holiday to Japan!!! ( ᐛ )و

The boy said that his labrum tear was likely due to his time in CrossFit when he pushed himself and did lots of overhead snatches and handstands even when it hurt him.

CrossFit has a bad rep for the high amount of injuries caused. But I always think that like any other sports, if you know your limits, and you have a good foundation of the techniques and skills, you can always take care and train hard, without pushing yourself to the point of getting terribly injured.

However, the hard truth about CrossFit is that it is not always easy to just listen to your body & gut feeling, and just stop. It's hard to say "no" when everything about the community, the environment just gives you an adrenaline rush that makes you want to push harder, go further, do it faster. The camaraderie and energy in a CrossFit box is nothing short of contagious.

All you have to do is to step into one to know what I mean.

That rush and love for exercising is far from a bad thing, but the no-quit atmosphere gets problematic {maybe even dangerous} especially when every workout makes you want to push to the edge of every set, every rep, until there’s nothing left in the tank.

The boy has said a few times that he's glad that when I started training regularly, I built my foundation and techniques under good trainers and now I have Superman to monitor my progress and help me exercise through my back injury {not caused by training by the way, but because I have scoliosis and went for a major back operation when I was 15...}. Even when I was doing CrossFit on the side of my gym training, Superman would watch out for me and constantly remind me to not push beyond my limits and mind my injuries... and also chide me when I went too far #oops

If the boy had good trainers when he started weight-lifting 20 odd years ago, maybe he wouldn't have so many sports-related injuries or even go for 2 hernia operations in 2011 and 2014, and now a shoulder operation...

Anyway, I'm not dissing CrossFit as I love doing its WODs too and I still think my hubby is a knowledgeable and experienced athlete. I know that he learns and grows from his mistakes, and admire him for his never-say-die spirit.. Even when he's down from his injuries, he's still doing other forms of exercise like yoga to keep fit and active (/^▽^)/

Thank you all for your well wishes and messages of concern for my hubby. Please continue to pray for his speedy recovery and hopefully, he will not have to go for any more operations anytime soon!


Friday, September 1, 2017

Gym Review :: Dorsett Wanchai Hotel, Hong Kong

We're heading to Hong Kong tonight for a few days with my mum to celebrate her birthday this month and will be staying at Dorsett Mongkok Hotel.

We've stayed there a couple of times, even when it was previously known as Cosmo Hotel Mongkok, but I've never used the gym there since the last time we went was before I started training regularly... think was in 2014?? Anyway I know they have a 24-hr Fitness Studio but not much is written about it on the hotel website or any other review sites.

I thought I could get some info on it to give Superman more time to plan my holiday workout but guess he'll have to design my programme after I reach and check it out. Pretty short notice but not like he's not done it before haha.. 

If Dorsett Mongkok Hotel's gym is anything like their sister hotel, Dorsett Wanchai Hotel, that we stayed at in November 2016, I don't think there's a lot of strength training that can be done though.. don't think I can even train my pull-ups there haha.

Dorsett Wanchai Hotel's gym is more like a fitness room. It is located in one of the hotel room floors and is actually a hotel room converted into a small fitness studio. I reckon about 4-5 pax can fit in comfortably, at most.

Accessible 24-hours a day, you have to use your hotel key-card to enter. There's 1 multi-use exercise machine {20kg - 200kg} where you can do lats pull-down, cable row, shoulder press, hamstring curl etc., 1 bench, 1 stair-climber, and a set of dumb-bells {5lb - 35lb}. In the adjoining room, there's 2 treadmills.

The lack of gym equipment notwithstanding, I like that the fitness studio is air-conditioned, bright with big windows, very clean {daily house-keeping} and well-maintained. There's also a water cooler and towels provided. If you want, you can also take a shower {toiletries provided} after your workout in the en-suite toilet with a bathtub, but then again, you might as well head back to the privacy of your own hotel room to do that haha.

Superman helped me to plan a simple holiday training programme then and this was my morning workout with the heaviest weights I lifted:

A1. Pronated Lats Pull-down, 3-4 sets, 12 reps - 80kg
A2. Supinated Lats Pull-down, 3-4 sets, 15 reps - 80kg
B1. Back-Supported Seated Arnold Press, 3-4 sets, 12 reps - 20lb
B2. Back-Supported Seated Shoulder Press, 3-4 reps, 15 reps - 10lb
C1. Back-Supported Seated Supinated Bicep Curl, 3 sets, 20 reps - 20lb
C2. Back-Supported Seated Lateral Raise, 3 sets, 20 reps - 5lb
C3. Lying Triceps Extension, 3 sets, 20 reps - 10lb
D. Stair Climber, moderate intensity, 20 mins

The reps are higher as the available weights aren't that heavy. If I could, I was supposed to do something heavier then go to failure and drop weight if necessary, instead of doing an exercise with too light weights.

I reeeeeeeally don't like to "climb stairs" on the Stair Climber machine though as the suspension is so weird and ROM so small {I like to climb 2 steps at a time}.

A post shared by Ai Sakura  (@aisakuraharuka) on
Anyway, anything is better than nothing and given my track record of putting on weight during my travels {and my love for yummilicious 鸡蛋仔!!!}.. a little daily exercise, even if just with body weight.. is very much needed hahaha.

☆ Gym Star Rating for Dorsett Wanchai Hotel, Hong Kong Gym
Overall satisfaction: 3/5
Equipment: 2/5 
Atmosphere: 4/5
Cleanliness: 4/5
Accessibility: 5/5
Staff availability: Nil

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