Achievements and setbacks

Well I have to say, I'm rather pleased with myself right now. I've been going to crossfit for just on 3 weeks and on Thursday I did this- twice;

Pictured; not me

I'm pretty happy with 2 full rope climbs, although I do wonder how much my years being a pole dancer helped ;)  It was intense and very tiring, especially in my forearms (they felt so pumped, so full) but I managed to touch the rafters on both attempts. Considering my upper body strength is shit and I'm scared of heights I reckon that was quite an achievement. I also scored some wicked bruises and a little bit of rope burn but it was so worth it.

So that was the good. Now the bad;
My surgeon is going away on sabbatical for 6 bloody months in the 2nd week of June and he might not get to me in time. That means my surgery that was supposed to be done by June might not happen until freaking January ;_; And because of the progressive nature of OA (osteoarthritis) there's a good chance that my hip may no longer be healthy enough to be saved by a PAO (periacetabular osteotomy), which is news I'm really struggling to deal with.
There's a lot of reasons I don't want this surgery done in January of next year- it's the height of summer, it's tourist season, it's 9 fucking months away and puts off my recovery until the middle of next winter, when I'm turning 42. I don't want to wait another year and a half to start my life again, I want to do this now so I can get on with getting well. And the idea that I might ruin my hip in the meantime scares the living crap out of me... I am so scared that they'll open me up next year only to find that my hip is beyond saving and that I will have to get a THR (total hip replacement) instead. So yeah, this is bad news. It also means I might have to shelve training too, as deadlifts, squats, olly lifts and so on all put incredible stress on the hip and it could hasten the OA. On the other hand training helps me to manage my depression, so I'm really caught between a rock and a hard place right now.
I've also had to back off the paleo eating as it's just too expensive for me to maintain. I know people go on about how much they save by not eating out but I never do that anyway as I can't afford it (and I have no social life). People also say stuff like "but think how much you'll save in the long run with your health!" umm, dude, I can't put petrol in my car to get my kid to school if I eat like this. In other words, I don't think these people actually understand what it's like to live on the poverty line.
I am, however, very interested in the I.F (intermittant fasting) approach to getting lean as it sounds similar to the way I like to eat- I was told for so many years that I needed to eat breakfast or I'd ruin my metabolism so I forced myself to eat, even though I really struggled with it, and here's a method that advocates doing what I did instinctively. It also allows grains and so on which would also suit my financial situation better than paleo too. So we shall see...
And just to prove that age is no reason to quit, here's a lady who is still a bad ass, blue rinse and all;

 awesomesauce

Here we go again...

So, I'm blogging again. I love my livejournal blog but I kinda want to keep that life separate from this one, for now anyway.
This blog is more about my journey back into fitness, exploring crossfit and paleo and documenting my upcoming surgery.
I'm not sure how long I will be able to attend crossfit at this point in time as I am scheduled to undergo a  PAO or Peri Acetabular Osteotomy. 
Unfortunately, in part because of my age, my surgeon is expecting me to be on crutches for around 12 weeks, using a cane for a further 2-3 months and not being up to training or working for anywhere between 8 to 12 months! I am a house painter by trade so carrying ladders, climbing up and down ladders, squatting, lugging around tins of paint and so on are obviously going to put a lot of stress on the hip socket so I suppose that is part of the reason he has forewarned me that I might be unable to go back to work for such an extending period. I am hoping that I will be able to start some upper body exercises maybe 3 or 4 months post surgery, because sitting on my arse for the next 6 months will drive me crazier than I already am.
I reckon one of the cool things about the surgery is how mad the x-rays look;

Plus my femoral head is pretty wrecked so they might also do this;

Told you the x-rays look full on! Who needs a terminator when you have this much metal?

When I found out I needed the surgery I guess I got scared as I stopped training- I was really frightened of making things worse and ending up having to have a THR (total hip replacement) instead. And even though the PAO has a much longer recovery than a THR it's a better option in the long run as I won't have the sorts of physical restrictions placed on me that come with a THR.
Mind you, I have been told that my right hip (the one that actually gives me all the pain) may blow out due to the extra weight bearing it will have to do while my left hip recovers, and I have been warned that I will eventually need a THR on both sides, but if things go well I can postpone this for 5 or 10 years. But hey, at least I have these options under our public health system, so in that way I consider myself to be very lucky.

As to how this will effect my foray into the world of crossfit, well, I guess I won't be doing it for long, but I am hoping to get back into it as soon as I can post surgery and I'm aiming to go into this operation in as fit a state as I can manage over the next 4-6 weeks.

Tomorrow is my first full crossfit session and I assume I'm going to be feeling similar to how I did when I trained at PTC (power training centre) - the people there are very heavy lifters- Markos and his wife are full on, she uses a 90 kilo freaking kettle bell ffs!  When I trained there Markos snuck the weight up to 80 kilos during my deadlift set, which isn't huge but is a fair bit when you haven't been back into deadlifting for more than a few weeks ;) The next day I had to hold on to the shelves at the supermarket when I went to get letric salts... I was so bloody sore, I have never experienced DOMS like that before. So I'm kinda expecting a similar state post crossfit, at least at first.

Anyway, this is getting ridiculously long, so I'll end this for now.