Tag Archives: news

It’s Happening: Lose Atrophy, Gain A Nerve

After being tossed around (aka referred to) by doctor after doctor, I finally have an official date to fix my entrapped nerve. I shared the details of the long road to diagnosing the reason for my severe atrophy of the right infraspinatus and supraspinatus muscles in this post, and finally found a doctor confident enough to hopefully fix my nerve. I guess you could say, he’s got nerve. eh, eh?

The issue seems to be an inflamed ligament in one of the shoulder joints which is causing an impingement on my suprascapular nerve running through it. This, in turn, is not allowing the nerve to signal any growth to my muscles past the impingement. Hence the atrophy. I already shared a pic of my caved in shoulder blade in the other post, so I’ll spare my three readers a repeat visual. You’re welcome, Gary.

Surgery will commence on June 22nd. It will be a day procedure and hopefully I’ll be on my way to recovery quickly thereafter. Of course, the following onslaught of medical related bills might put both my wife and me under! Nah, we have good insurance, it’ll be more like a little needle prick to draw blood. It sucks, but hopefully it’s for a good cause…..fixing me.

Going Mom is doing good about trying to keep me in good spirits since I know I will lose the ability for a lot of the things I do daily. Playing with Avery or simply picking her up to go potty or play helicopter around the house will be out. And lifting weights? Nope, at least not for 3 months.

It’ll be hard to do lower body lifting since things like squats and deadlifts require the use of your shoulders too. At least I can do lower-only riding on the new Schwinn Airdyne we bought. But again, Airdyne “workouts” with Avery will be out for a while.

I expect to do lots of walking and body weight moves like squats, lunges, karate Ninja Turtle kicks (hey, why not?), and maybe sit ups. We’ll see, I’m sure I can get creative, I’ll drive myself crazy otherwise. I mean, I am Going Dad afterall. What’s going to drive me absolutely nuts though, is the lack of playtime with Avery. So much of what we do when we play involves having a good set of arms and shoulders. Just one won’t cut it for (safely) turning your kid into a helicopter. And going high in the sky while swimming just ain’t happening this summer.

A video posted by RC Liley (@going_dad) on

Okay, after the soon approaching surgery that is. Her laugh is infectious! In a good way.

But like my wife keeps saying, this might be just what I need to actually focus on gaining some healthy weight (it’s been one of my goals for years), letting my entire body heal from day after day of high intensity exercise, and starting fresh. I won’t be dormant by any means, but heavy lifting is obviously out. I’ll admit that I could use the break, and am kind of excited about having the chance to start over in a sense.

As long as I can type, I’ll be sure to share my progress and what I’m finding to keep me sane. With the love and support of my mom, wife, and Avery, I am positive I’ll be good to go in no time. Maybe the help of a physical therapist as well. Oh, and as Avery says, healing hugs and kisses help too.

nerve surgery, atrophy, parenting, dad, toddler,

We have a family beach vacation coming up. Right when we return is when I’m having the surgery, so I’m going to make the most of it and toss that cutie all around. Safely of course. 🙂

I’m a 2015 NuttZo Ambassador!

That’s right, NuttZo has given me the privilege of joining their team of ambassadors for 2015! You will now see this badge proudly displayed to the right of my blog….

NuttZo, ambassador, nut butter

Go ahead, click on the badge above or to the right to go directly to their site to learn about and purchase your own NuttZo. And, since you’re here reading this, I’d like to say thank you and share a discount code to use on their site. Just click here to visit their product page and enter code liley15 to save 15% off your entire order!

With many healthy certifications under their belt lid and being the most delicious, empowering nut and seed spread every, you will find it hard to resist putting the lid back on. Trust me, Avery and I have been enjoying the Crunchy Power Fuel for a while now, and the choice is clear…

Yep, Avery knows to go for the NuttZo every time! Of course, I still need to work on her not just grabbing and getting it all over her hands…….then cabinets, then floor, then me, then….you get the idea. Also need to work on her jar opening skills, or lack thereof.

nuttzo, babies, parenting, nut butter, healthy

I am forever grateful to NuttZo for accepting me into their team of awesome ambassadors who are mostly top notch athletes. I actually first heard about NuttZo from one of their long-time ambassadors, Kristen Stehly, who blogs over at STUFT mama. As a fitness instructor and personal trainer, mom of twin toddler boys, and avid marathon runner, she never has a dull moment and I’ve enjoyed reading her posts for years.

NuttZo is obviously fueling their high-octane athletes quite well, but now it’s time to see how it keeps an active at-home dad (that’s me) and his toddler daughter (that’s Avery) constantly “going” and growing. I may not be a competing athlete, but I train for strength and endurance every day with Avery usually alongside of me.

I can’t wait to share NuttZo recipes, pictures, and thoughts with you here and on my other pages. If you have any suggestions on what recipe I should try to come up with first, please leave me a comment and I’ll do my best.

Right now, I’m thinking an easy homemade Chocolate NuttZo “Jello” and bread is in our future. A healthy organic nut and seed butter jello? You betcha!

 

By the way, it’s National Peanut Butter Day (isn’t it every day?), so why not go above and beyond with NuttZo’s Nut and Seed butter? Remember, use code liley15 to enjoy 15% off your entire order. Imagine, Dark Chocolate NuttZo and your significant other having a wonderful Valentine’s Day in the comfort of your home and not worrying about some elaborate meal when it should be more about time together.

Have you tried NuttZo before?

If so, which one? I’m going to try their 70% Dark Chocolate One very soon…MMMMM!

Why June is “Going” to be Great for this Dad!

Hey there, how’s it going?

Pretty good here, just having more problems than I expected with the new laptop I bought this past weekend. Really, why would anyone expect problems with something brand new? I messed around with the thing for most of Sunday and it put me in a bad mood. Luckily, my sweet wife was there to call me out and get me to focus on the important things; family!

I’m back at it today though, but only while Avery naps and Kelley is at work. I’ve got a lot to keep myself busy this week, and that’s in addition to raising our sweet daughter.

For one, I’m a proud ambassador for Oral-b and have joined forces with many other awesome dad bloggers to promote their new Oral B Black electric toothbrush and show what it means to have the #PowerofDad. This is going to be a great Father’s Day event!

Just looking at it makes my mouth clean!

There’s going to be a Twitter party today at 1pm EST with several prizes to give away. If you can, I’d love to see you join; just search for and use the #PowerofDad hashtag to join in on the excitement!

oralbTwitterpartyV1

That’s not all, I’m also working with Onya Baby for another Father’s Day campaign on cleaning up your neighborhood. I walk around our neighborhood with Avery every day and despise seeing so much junk from new construction sites and careless people. I want to take pride and clean up the trash around my home and hope you will join me. There will be a brand new Onya Baby Carrier giveaway as well, so keep checking back for details!

Trying our new Onya Baby NexStep made from 100% recycled material.
Trying our new Onya Baby NexStep made from 100% recycled material.

On top of this, I’ll be celebrating my 30th birthday and first Father’s Day! And the day before my 30th, I will be running a 5k with Avery in the stroller; our first official race! I’ll share the details on the race soon, but just couldn’t hold it in any longer! Yep, we have a lot going on and I can’t wait to share all of the excitement with you!

What do you have on the agenda for June?