One Month Out

I left Seton hospital a month ago… seems like a blur now! I catch myself thinking, “Was I really part of one of the biggest evacuations of the past half-century or did I hallucinate that?!” And now I'm just trying to get my body and brain back into shape...

I finally dug out my roller-blades, and enjoyed a 5-mile roll, which felt so amazing! The fluid motion of skating uses different muscles than running, though I’ve had almost no soreness, because I stretch extensively each day. I’m also lifting weights again, working slowly back toward my previous routines. I’m running a few times per week, and have reached two miles – though sometimes I have to walk in between. My body appears to need more water, and more rest afterward.

With apologies to everyone, friends & strangers alike, who emailed me recently…I was visiting family in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and am only now catching up. Some Q&A for newer messages:

Just about everyone I know from everywhere asks: How is the rehab going? Are you still in a lot of pain?
Yes and no on the pain thing. Exercising isn’t the chore it was at the beginning, but I’m still stiff first thing in the morning. It takes less movement to shake it off now, but I notice I must be careful about sitting or lying in the same position for too long. For instance, I used to sit in front of my PC all day with little effort, but now my neck and back aches after only a short period. I’d have to say, though, that the only genuine PAIN I have recently felt was after putting on high-heeled shoes and attempting to walk in them. I’ve done that twice… once just to see if I could and once to go out with friends. It was a less-than-smashing idea.

Chris Fuhs of Nebraska asks: Take care of yourself. I think this has been harder on you physically than you let on in your blog?
LOL, yes… I refrained from writing about it regularly because it would unintentionally sound like a litany of whining. “My back hurts, my knees hurt, my feet hurt, blah blah blah.” I tried not to dwell on it, because I knew it was temporary, and I’m a very disciplined exerciser. Now that the rough part has passed, it’s easy to look back with blithe dismissal, since I was forewarned about everything that would happen to my body while simulating spaceflight.

The worst part was the fatigue. Actually, “fatigue” isn’t even the word for it… this was a kind of exhaustion I have never felt before, not even during bouts of flu. I’m sleeping deeply, and napping (now that I can!), but every now and then I am overcome with a combination of drowsiness and muscle-weariness that is debilitating. Sometimes it comes on suddenly, and I just have to sit or lie down quickly. My fitness goal is become even stronger than I was before, in both mind and body, but sometimes fatigue can interfere with motivation… I’m just trying never to let that happen for more than a few hours at a time! When all else fails, I just charge out of the house and walk, run, walk, run, walk, run.

Karyn K. of Austin, TX asks: Be honest now, so are you just watching TV?? You are glued to CNN and the debates, aren’t you.
Tempting! ;) But no, I don’t have any channels at home. It was nice to have them for awhile on the ward TVs, but now I only see news at the gym for short periods. At home, I watch DVDs, and I did finish up the “Twin Peaks” series I'd been watching at UTMB. Also, hockey season just started, so I go to my brother’s house a few nights per week and we watch Sharks games on Satellite.

Featured on NASA Web

While in the Spaceflight Simulation Study, Devin and I were both interviewed by a NASA Education Writer of the Marshall Space Flight Center, Heather R. Smith.

From the main page, http://www.nasa.gov/ click the top left link For Educators. Under Educator Features and Articles, click View Archive and scroll down to the 09.23 feature entitled Lying Around.

I missed it's appearance on the "front page" but now it's part of the archives! The direct link is: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/lying-around.html



This was so well-written, and unlike some other "in the news" experiences, no one attempted to sensationalize or trivialize. Our quotes were woven into the prose precisely as given, so I truly enjoyed this one. The author concentrated on the mechanics of the study, added the element of how we felt during certain phases, and further included "study value" comments by scientists Joe Neigut and Ronita Cromwell -- among the last people to leave Galveston on evacuation day after ensuring we would be cared for.

Never in a million years did I dream I would share a square-foot of print with Peggy Whitson! Now why couldn't THAT have happened before my 20-year high school reunion?? ;)

The Mile Mark

After an exhausting week, I'm pleased to say I walked a mile for the first time today! I've been building up to it, trying to move a further each day around my neighborhood. I exercise first thing when I get up, so there's no avoiding it (otherwise, I think I'd just give in to the fatigue and sleep all day!) I've also revved up into a run a few times, but stop almost immediately due to nausea.

Those first steps out of bed are still the toughest. Everything I loosen and stretch the day before just stiffens up again, and I get shooting pains through my heels and calves. I take a few moments to straighten my spine, and stomp around until it's gone, but it's frustrating how long it's hanging on. Sounds screwy, but picking up the feet and setting them down very hard actually helps. Our physical therapist actually had us jumping off steps directly onto our heels -- I guess it helps convince the body that we are using our legs again, and strengthens the bones.

Makes sense, right? But why does the body need re-convincing every day?! That pretty much sums up my first week at home: two steps forward, one step back. I'm also having depth perception problems. I keep swiping walls and door knobs in my house, because my eyes misinterpret how close I am to solid objects.

While Googling articles on gravitational effects, I found something which explains a lot about why I feel so disoriented:

ZeroG Makes Astronauts Dangerous Drivers

Some interesting excerpts:
"low gravity adversely affects ability to judge size and distance... suggesting that astronauts' perception problems are a physiological issue, not a result of adaptation to enclosed environments."

"Study of the impact of microgravity on spatial awareness and movement is going to become more important as we try to land on Mars or on the Moon after very prolonged space flights."

"NASA has long suspected something goes wrong with visual perception in space. Apollo astronauts reported difficulties judging distance while on the moon, for example: far-off rocks and features seemed closer than they really were."

I heard from Devin, and he made it to Georgia to pick up his motor home, and is now headed for Iowa to see his family! He also mentioned in the middle of the afternoons he "keeps falling asleep." LOL... glad to know I am not the only one!

Road Trip! (Houston)

Direct Sunlight!

So there we were, loose in Texas, free to roam... or rather, forced to roam. When we were preparing to leave UTMB, the Wyle folks arranged flights for each of us to get back home. Since we were transported to Austin via ambulance, I was close enough to have my family fetch me, but Devin had a few wrinkles. He lived in Iowa, but had driven to the study and left his truck with relatives outside Houston. We didn't figure we'd have much trouble, since we weren't trying to enter the city itself, but we underestimated how much the damage had affected all of southern Texas.

We set out from Georgetown, but were advised not to take the main highway toward Houston, which is US Route 290. So we headed north toward Hearne, and planned to go down through College Station... mostly to avoid any road closures. We played tourist briefly at the Bush Presidential Museum & Library, to exercise our legs and see a space display with a model of Shuttle Atlantis.

Space Exhibit, Bush Museum

It was smooth sailing into Navasota, but on Highway 6 we saw signs flashing "Do Not Attempt To Reach Houston" and "All Brazos County Shelters Full." Any time we pulled off at a stop or a junction to change roads, we ran into traffic caused by dead stoplights.

We increasingly spied debris, work crews, and empty gasoline stations that had been closed due to power loss (some had gas but no way to work the pumps). Even a good 100 miles north of Houston, lights were out, water was off and the one fuel attendant we spoke to said he expected a supply truck that day, but there was no telling when they would show. There were over 100 cars lined up, just waiting for a CHANCE that gasoline might arrive. And we were nowhere near where the greatest force of the storm had struck! Inside the mini-marts, shelves were picked clean and the coolers had defrosted, giving off a watery, metal odor -- but the worst was the "sour milk" stench from all the melted ice cream.

Buzzy swamp bugs and mosquitoes were everywhere, and we had to keep shooing them out of the car each time we stopped to stretch or walk around to keep our bodies from becoming stiff and sore. We finally made it to Devin's family ranch in Magnolia, passing numerous crews clearing trees from power lines; water pools still blanketed much of the ground... yet more breeding grounds for bugs! We truly could not believe the devastation, and it made me shudder to think of what the coast must look like, because I had the sinking feeling I was seeing the absolute least of what Hurricane Ike had wrought.

We drove alonside a train at one point, with Devin filming and waving, then laughed when the engineer caught sight of us and blew the whistle. They were towing many tank cars, and we speculated as to whether they were trying to get gasoline to the south, given how difficult it was for trucks to get around.

The trip back wasn't too fun, since I had to drive myself the entire way. Devin headed to Georgia to pick up his motor home, and I headed back to Georgetown. I was pretty tired by then, and had to stop many times because my legs were constantly shaking. Even with cruise control, I was surprised how much it took out of me energy-wise just to drive! I got home around 9:00pm... and I'm pretty sure I've been asleep since then. What day is it????