Monday, July 27, 2009

All Talk, No Action

Saturday night, I put my bike in the back seat of my car. I packed up my wetsuit and my race gear and stashed it into my backpack. I set my coffee machine to brew a nice cup o' joe at 4:50am. I mixed all my nutrition into bottles and stored it in the fridge. I even went to bed early.....

...but at 11pm, I panicked. I had trouble catching a breathe. Breathing deeply was extremely painful, if not impossible. My primary care physician seemed concerned, but decided it was likely acid reflux and that I should take a Zantac and see how I felt a few hours later....so off to the store we went to buy Zantac.

By 1am, I had a fever of over 101. And I still couldn't breathe, which totally freaked me out. Walking around made me feel dizzy and nauseous. I spent the entire night on the couch watching Cops!

Obviously this put to bed any hopes of racing that I had, since I could barely stand up...... At 7am, I woke up DH and asked him to take me to urgent care. We sped off and urgent care did an EKG and chest x-rays...... They couldn't do blood tests or anything else, but they were definitely concerned enough to call me in to the local emergency room for further testing. I was showing all the signs of a pulmonary embolism, and that freaked me out beyond belief.

So off we went to the local hospital. They got me into a room pretty quickly, then proceeded to stick me all over the place to get blood and push fluids. I was FREEZING! Poor DH stole a Time magazine from the waiting room and attempted to spread out reading it for 6 hours. He was *so* bored. They took me in for a CT scan with contrast, and that was the weirdest thing ever. It shoots hot dye into your veins and you feel like every part of your body is on fire for a minute. Wowee! I had a horrific fever of about 103, but they never gave me anything for it, so I shivered for hours under 4 blankets. It was horrific.

So at the end of the day, the general consensus was that I had viral bronchitis.

Huh?!

No coughing. No snotty nose. Nothing you would associate with bronchitis. But I am blood clot and pneumonia free.

They sent me home with an inhaler and told me to keep taking Advil and Tylenol to make the fever more comfortable.

Upon further reading online, I've found that a huge number of people taking Macrobid for bladder infections (I had been on it for 6 days prior to this event....took my pill at 7pm Saturday night) that have had my exact same symptoms! Even this many days into use, they complain of the difficulty breathing and the flu-like symptoms. So while the ER doc says it's Bronchitis, I'm still sticking to my guns that this was a very bad reaction to Macrobid, and you can bet I'm putting that drug allergy all over my charts in the future.

I'm slightly better today. Fever is down 2 degrees. I'm not nauseous anymore. I can actually take a deep breath and not feel like I'm going to die. My coloring is better. DH says I'm like a changed woman. Still not going to work today, but at least I am mobile.

So, what a change in events, huh? Within a 2 hour period, my life changed so dramatically..... People who saw me on Saturday even doubted my story, because I was totally normal! I mean, how bizarre? All this heeing and hawing over the Half Ironman, and I didn't even make it to the starting line. I am beyond upset about that, but I'm very thankful that I'm not facing down a blood clot in my lungs or something more devastating.

Life's bizarre, eh? I think I'm done with the surprises for this month, though..... Off to the couch.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Cold Feet

Yeah....so.....3 miles into my purposeless run last night, I thought to myself, "what was I thinking?!" 13.1 miles would kill me, I am certain of it.



I'm not sure what I'm going to do on Sunday now. Or what I'm trying to prove.



I hope I figure it out.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Temporary Insanity

*I* am all clear.

Dr. Asshat said I'm totally recovered. Only 10 degrees of flexion left to regain, but that will come if I really work on it. He said, "Have fun this summer. Don't hurt yourself again."

SO........

I'm going to do something potentially stupid this weekend. Potentially stupid, and potentially impossible. You see, this Sunday is a practice triathlon for the Boulder Long Course. My team is offering 2 options -- the Oly distance and the Long Course. I'm signed up for the Oly, which will be a stretch in itself since I haven't done any of the distances yet in training this summer with the exception of the swim.

But no. That's not the stupid part. The stupid part is I think I'm going to do the 56 mile bike course.

On no training.

Now, before you think I'm crazy, I think it's something I could do. It might wreck me, but I don't have anything to save these legs for. I got denied my chance to do the Boulder Long Course this year, so I feel like I still have a lot to prove to myself. I think if I take it easy, why can't I ride 56 miles?! I'm a strong cyclist. I love my bike. Just give me some buttr and I'm good to go......

But the crazy crazy part? Part of me really wants to do the run, too. Yeah, the run....13.1 miles.....on a long run of 5 miles. With a swelled knee.

Stupid! I know! So incredibly stupid. But when else am I going to have the chance? There will be plenty of other women doing it in 8 hours. Surely I can at least give it a shot? I mean, if I get too tired on the bike, I can just call coach to come pick me up in the Sag wagon. And if I get too tired for the run, I just don't do the run. Or I do one loop. I'll be walk-running it anyway, so what harm can I do?

I imagine this is creating a lot of heartburn right now. But I'm pretty calm. I have nothing to lose. I don't think I can hurt myself because I won't be pushing it. I'm gonna hurt. I'm going to be sore. And I may fail miserably.....but I really, really want to try.

So with that, I'm going to take my slightly crazy arse to bed to dream of 56 miles and what could have been this summer.....

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Getting Back in Action

So, it's been a wild two months. I don't think I expected the whole knee thing to be as painful as it was, but I also cannot believe that I was ever on crutches or even in pain for so long. It feels like a mostly distant memory!

This past week, I've really stepped up the workouts so that I can start to feel like myself again. After our 4th of July trip to Aspen and 6+ miles of hiking, I knew I had no more excuses.

So, 2 days of hour-long elliptical sessions while watching the Tour de France whetted my appetite a bit. Then I hopped on my bike after work and rattled off a quick 20-miler, feeling brilliant the entire time. And then I decided to help my friend run her first 5K *ever* using a 2 min walk/1 min run interval (perfect for my out of shape butt!)..... And yesterday morning, I got up early and drove over to the Gravel Pond for a 45-minute continuous aerobic swim. It was phenomenally gorgeous out, the water was refreshing, and I was so, so thankful to be out there.

Today, I'm trying out mountain biking. Well, trying out is selling myself a little short. I have been off road with my mountain bike a few times, but I am a scaredy cat. I found some open space a few highway exits South, so I'm looking forward to the change of pace. I hope I'm not too much of a pansy!

On the home front, am happy to report that my plot of dirt now has a poured foundation in it! Footers went in 10 days ago, and foundation walls got poured 3 days ago. I expect they'll start framing here shortly, and then the countdown is on. I am starting to get excited, which is bizarre because I really haven't cared so much since we went under contract.

Wednesday is my last appointment with Dr. Asshat. Now, I don't intend to sing his praises, because I do still feel some swelling in the knee, and I do still have a dull pain in the back of the knee where the old pain used to be. It's different now, of course, but it's not gone like I was hoping. Now, I can do more these days than I could before the surgery, but is it possible he operated on the wrong thing? Must run between now and then and see what I think.....

Until then, time to enjoy the rest of the weekend....