Sounds awful.

My cat is ~17 lbs. Yeah, he's a natural killer. I saw a show a while ago that had a list of the worst killer animals. House cat was #1 on the list. They are only sweet and lovable to us (usually) because we are a lot bigger than they are.

Thanks!

I think whatever infection there is/was isn't too bad. It takes the antibiotics a little while to kick in. I do think they are working. Swelling is down a bit more today.

Yes, that really does sound bad. Glad the swelling is going down. Hope you recover soon.

Thanks. I just had a doctor friend look at it. He says it looks better. Its going the right direction, but it is infected and will take some more time.

Don't open these if the sight of blood bothers you.

Wednesday night^

Today it looks somewhat better^

Looks gnarly; hope you keep healing up well.

Our cat (real Monte) is getting up there in years (13+), and is a sweetheart except for insane anxiety around the vet (he drools so much he gets a Santa Claus beard of saliva and needs to be drugged to get examined). Luckily he's never shredded me like that.

Thanks.

Yeah, never underestimate what a cat is capable of when its riled up. They move quickly and can do a lot of damage.

Lolcats. Dog lover checking in.

My uncle had a poodle that was incredibly gentle, had never hurt anyone in like 6 years of living. One day he was holding him up close to his face and kissing him and the dog bit him so bad he had to get stitches on his nose. Sometimes animal gonna animal.

how's your relationship with your pussy now Cha?

has he been 'apologetic' since the incident? Not sure I could fully forgive my cat if it went for me like that..even if it was the heat of the battle.

I love dogs. I had several. Then I found out I am allergic to dogs and not cats.

That being said, my ex got bit three times (broken skin each time) by a dog we had before we got rid of that dog.

Yeah, they are animals.

He's back to normal. He's always normal when the other male cat is not around. He rubs up against me, "talks" to me, sleeps next to me, etc. I remind him frequently that "YOU DID THIS TO ME" but I am sure he has no idea what he did to me.


Two doctor friends of mine know all about this incident and how its healing. They both told me that since there's some swelling (which has gone way down) and redness around the wounds (that is not good), I needed to go back to the doc and get more antibiotics, so I went yesterday.

The doc I saw said that the redness should have been gone by now, so she put me on two different antibiotics that cover basically any type of bacteria that could be trapped inside me. I brought my daughter with (pharmacist) and the doc asked her if she agreed with what she was prescribing. My daughter said yes. She was telling me before the appointment that the doc should do this.

Doc said I can exercise, but don't do anything that hurts it. Cool. My grip is fine. I can DL.

By coincidence, I got a new used DL suit yesterday. I tried it out.

4/13

raw conventional DL from floor
225x5x2
326x3
416x2

suit, no briefs (this suit is tight - its a Titan Ultimate Centurian, conventional)
506x1x3
The first one, didnt feel right. Everyone watching said it looked good. Luckily, I had my wife record it. My back was rounded at the start of the pull. I figured out how to set my back better and get into good starting position. The 2nd and 3rd pulls went well.

I had planned to deload this week anyway, but not this light and not skipping a workout, but this might not be as bad of a break as I was thinking it might be.

The new suit should probably be altered a bit if I am going to use it in a meet though. Its too tight around my upper torso/lats.

Good news on the shoulder during the heaviest (still light though) pulls. I had been doing sumo rather than conventional because of the arm angle making my healing shoulder feel wrong. This was because the arms angle away from the body a bit more conventional than sumo. I had no such feeling last night, so it seems I should be able to pull conventional at nationals if I choose to.

I still dont know if I am stronger sumo or conventional yet.

4/14

shoulder rehab

Buchberger stuff

pushups from floor, full range

pushups on blast straps, almost full range

blast strap fallouts

PNF D2 flexion

cable rows, moving cable higher up each set

face pulls

4/16

DL
conventional
225x5x2
326x3
416x2

size 40 blue 3 ply Predators and size 38 2 ply Fusion suit
536x1
616x1 - Form & bar path were ok. Too slow for this weight. Felt relatively bad setting up and starting the pull. This combo of briefs and suit doesn't feel good for conventional.

size 38 black 3 ply Preds & size 40 1 ply Fusion
616x1 - Form & bar path were ok. Too slow for this weight. Setting up was less bad than the previous suit/briefs combo, but I ought to be pulling this with a lot more speed/ease. I decided to try sumo suit and see how that felt.

size 38 black 3 ply Preds & Leviathan Ultra Pro squat suit (a lot of good lifters pull sumo in this squat suit)
616x1 - nope. I couldn't get into a good starting position. This is a great suit for me to pull off high blocks, but it sucks for pulling off the floor for me.

size 38 black 3 ply Preds & Metal King Pro sumo suit
616x1 - This was the best pull of the night. It was not great, as I let my chest dip a bit when the weight was a few inches off the floor, and the right side came forward an inch or so, but it felt better and moved faster than the convetionals did.

The one thing I did not try last night was the new Titan conventional suit. I had the wife try it and it was not good for her. The legs fit her ok, but the suit is too long and it just doesn't really work for her as well as her other suit does - its too big. Its a little too small and tight on me and a little too big on her. I cannot get it on with briefs and I like pulling in briefs, but one thing I did like about it the other day when I pulled 506 a few times in it was I was able to get into good conventional starting position twice with it and those two pulls felt pretty good, aside from my lats being choked.

I think I will give conventional another shot in the Titan suit. I will need to have it altered if I am going to use it long term. The area of the suit around my mid & upper lats needs to be wider than it is currently. The guy who I got it from is overall about my size, but my upper body/lats are way bigger than his are, and he got it sized to fit him tight. I like DL suits a little looser than this one is in the upper body, but I do like how tight the legs are in this suit. This suit still might be an option. I need to see what it feels like to pull heavier (low to mid 600s at least) in it before I give up on it.


I was not feeling energetic after these pulls. I did not feel beat up, but I didnt feel strong or like I wanted to do much else. I think all these antibiotics are wearing me down. I forced myself to do a few sets of single leg RDLs. Those went well. I need to do these more often.


As far as the cat wounds go, some are completely healed. Most of the rest look much better and are nearly gone. The big gash is a lot smaller, but its still pretty bad. Its healed quite a bit, but I can see the infection. Yesterday the infection looked awful when I removed the bandage in the morning. Today, the infection looks less bad and the wound has gotten slightly smaller. I think its going in the right direction, but I know its not as good as my medical people were expecting. There's still a slight chance I might need IV antibiotics and/or a very minute chance I might need surgery. Hopefully it keeps improving every day.

thoughts and prayers. Hopefully the infection is gone and the arm healed within a week

Thanks. It looks somewhat better today. I showed my daughter and she said it looks a lot better. Its going to take more than another week for this gash to be healed, but the infection part does appear to be significantly improved.

Ugh. Sorry to hear/see that wound. I hope the infection completely goes away and everything else heals up smoothly.

Thanks.

Its still improving daily, and the infection looks less bad every day, but the infection isn't gone yet. Its going to take a while for the big wound to heal completely.

The antibiotics are kicking my ass. I was way more sore than I should have been for a few days after doing what I did Friday.


4/18

Since I was still very sore from doing what should have been a pretty easy workout two days prior, I figured I should probably do little to make myself more sore. I did shoulder rehab stuff, some pushups and some light pulling, along with more time on the treadmill and spotting and loading.

Body weight the past two days was 241.6 & 241.8. These are the lowest figures I have seen on a scale in about two years, maybe longer, and the first time I have been under 242.5 in that time. I plan to get a bit under 240 and stay there.

4/20

DL - conventional
236x5x2
326x3
416x2

I tried the red Titan suit again
506x1 - This felt fine
606x1 - This went slow and felt way heavier than it should have
636xf - weak off the floor and right hip/psoas was fired up.

I am done with the thought of pulling conventional at nationals.

sumo
black briefs and Metal sumo suit
596x1 - this was ok, but felt heavier than it should have
636xf - weak. I have lost some strength. Some of it could be due to losing weight, but I think most of it has to do with the effects of two weeks of broad spectrum antibiotics and my body fighting off the infection from the cat attack. I hope my strength comes back in time for nationals.

1 leg RDLs


4/22
shoulder rehab stuff, pushups, light pulling, etc

4/23
DL off 3" blocks
236x5x2
326x3
416x2

Wife was feeling very sick. I went to check on her and she was laying on the bed doubled over in pain. Her friend has had bowel obstructions before and she thought that might be what was going on. Doc friend listened to her belly with a stethoscope and said there was no gurgling sound which could indicate an obstruction. He said she needed a CT scan. It was around 6:30pm. I called a local urgent care that advertises that they have a CT scanner on their web site. I confirmed with the moron who took my call that they do indeed have a CT scanner. When we got there, we found out that their CT scanner only is in operation until 5pm.

We went to the nearest hospital ER. As the ER nurse was getting her checked in and getting her blood pressure checked, she barfed three times. Her pain went from ~9 to ~2. They told us it would be ~2 hours to see a doc. We figured she probably had something other than a bowel obstruction at that point, so after waiting ~20 minutes, we left. We figured out that the cause of this was probably some bad turkey lunch meat that she ate for lunch. She's ok, but that killed my workout for the day.


4/25
shoulder rehab ****
3 board bench press
45x15
95x10
135x10
185x5
225x5
275x5

I put on my loose fitting rehab shirt
315x3
335x3
Shirt felt like it was just getting in the way, so I took it off.

275x5
295x5
315x3
Shoulder felt like something was still not quite right at this point. It was not painful, just not feeling the way it should, so I stopped and moved on. I think maybe 275 is the best weight for me to work with for rehabbing this thing for the time being.

Teammate said my form looked perfect for basically all my presses. The weight moved very fast too.

PNF D2 flexion
cable rows
cable pulldowns
face pulls

4/27

DL off 4.5" blocks
225x5
326x3x2
416x2
506x1
596x1
646xf - I got forward
646x1 - this was good
686x1 - harder than it should have been. Right hip was a bit sore, so I stopped.

single leg RDLs

Last time I did 4.5" blocks, I pulled a couple singles with 706. I might have been able to get there last night, but I am not sure, and I am not sure if trying would have been helpful or not. I need to get fully recovered from the antibiotics before I push too hard.

4/28

shoulder rehab
blast strap pushups
cable rows from various heights
PNF D2 flexion
blast strap fallouts


4/30
sumo DL
236x5x2
326x3
416x2

Metal sumo suit & black Preds
536x1 - decent form and fast
626x1 - no doubt it was going up, and it didnt look slow, but it felt a bit harder than it should have
626x1 - basically the same as the previous 626

I keep getting into not quite perfect starting position with heavier stuff and as soon as the bar starts coming up, I dip my chest slightly. I need to do better. I also need to get my strength back. I feel slightly better than last week, but the cat attack/subsequent 2 weeks of antibiotics really kicked my ass.

ssb box squats off ~17" box in briefs
260x5
350x5
400x3
440x3
490x2
The last set felt slightly challenging. Everything prior was fast and pretty easy. The right shoulder and upper back felt fine holding this weight.

5/2

shoulder rehab stuff

3 board bench press
45x15
135x10
185x8
225x5
275x5
315x3

new used Overkill 2 ply shirt
365x3
405x3
Everything felt pretty easy, but as I was setting up, my teammate kept telling me my right shoulder was out of position. I didnt feel it, but I am sure he saw something I need to work on.

chaos pushups
10, 12, elevated feet - 12, 12, 15

high band pulls with arm straight down to side

seated cable rows
160x15
220x10
260x8

machine pulldowns
2 sets

machine rows
200x15
250x10
300x8

face pulls
50x15x2

5/4

6" block pulls up to 736
missed 766 twice. weak.
ssb box squats

5/5 shoulder rehab, pushups and pulling and core stuff


5/7
DLs up to 636x1 and 646x1
TBDLs - 451x5, 541x3, 631x2, 721x1

Strength is coming back a little. I felt like my form was ~8.5/10 good. Strength was not as good as it was a month or so ago when I pulled 676, but I feel like I have at least 656 (WR) in me right now. I am hoping to at least get back to where I feel confident pulling 675+ again before nationals.

5/9
shoulder rehab warmup
bench press
2 boards
45x15
95x10
135x10
185x5
225x3
275x3
315x2

blue 3 ply SDP
3 boards
405x5
455x5

chaos pushups

several different kinds of pulling exercises
Back/rowing strength is not where it was five months ago, but its about as good as its been since the PRP procedure in January.

7 day running body weight avg has been between 240.8 - 242.2 from 4/23 until today. That's close to optimal I guess, since I really dont want to cut at all right before the meet to get under 242.5.


Personal note: My daughter is officially a doctor! She got her PharmD degree yesterday after eight years of hard work in two universities. I am very proud of her.

wowee - congrats baby Cha and family !

Thanks!

That's awesome!!

Thanks!