The Scope Guy

I had an appointment today with my friendly, family orthopedist, Dr. Z. He has treated three of the four members of my family on multiple occasions - all for general klutziness. Everything started out alright. He asked about "the baby", and I explained that he was a wild and crazy string bean these days; he said I looked good (always get bonus points for that!), and I told him about the running and general adherence to exercise; and then he pulled up my MRI.

Dr. Z's tone changed slightly and after scrolling a bit through the images chose to poke, prod and twist my hip and leg to determine the severity of the "ouch." Fortunately there wasn't too much. Like running, the poking, prodding and twisting doesn't actually hurt that badly. I just can't sleep later, or cross my legs, or drive a car for long distances... After the assessment, he went back over to the images and explained that yes, I have the labrum tear, but I also have a cyst, which is most likely caused by the tear and is partly responsible for the pain.

So he is sending me to "The Scope Guy" in the practice to talk about what needs to be done. My appointment is May 23rd.

Happiness

My house is a wreck. The car is disgusting. There are toys and finger prints in every direction that I look, and when asked about future home projects, the list of things that I need and want can be rattled off like a machine gun. But today, I'm happy. Like... really, REALLY happy. Alone in my house with a smile on my face happy. I don't have amazing news to share. Didn't win the lottery... no exciting life changes to announce... I'm just... happy.

My day in review at this point includes:

Making it through two doctor appointments, Target, and a 4 yr-old birthday party without one major tantrum from my son.

The scale at the doctors office telling me that I have gained 9 lbs in the past week since I finished my elimination diet (to which I didn't have any obvious symptom relief and have rebounded by welcoming too much coffee, wine, and chocolate into my hands). I checked this with my scale at home. Neither are exaggerating. Whoops.

Being surrounded, and thus confronted, by mirrors at the birthday party and realizing that I hate my long hair again and should cut it.

Hearing my son tell me that he "is going to go get a new Mommy." After asking him for details on that idea, I now understand that new mommies can be found "at the Mommy station. That is where they are." Apparently he'll be looking for one with black hair. I hope she's nice.

But...

It is gorgeous outside and that always makes things good.

I got to see a friend today and made a new one.

My husband and daughter are spending the day together in DC visiting the Jefferson Memorial (she just finished a school project on TJ, and he is finishing a biography that I gave him for Christmas), the Building Museum, the Capital, and who knows what else.

AND

I feel healthy.

I have energy to tackle the mess of the house.

I have people in my life that are fun, kind, compassionate, understanding, motivating, and share similar interests as i do.

The half marathon was last weekend, and it rocked. I can't wait to do another one. Tomorrow our wonderfully amazing babysitter is coming over again so we can get it another long run - JUST FOR FUN. I've registered for more events this year, and I am very lucky to have great friends who want to join me.



What makes YOU happy today?????

Born to Run

My daughter has been heckling me lately about writing a blog post. I've told her the truth - that I've just been busy. Between work, her activities, her brother's never-ending energy level, feeding the family, doing a modicum of house chores and fitting in exercise, I'm sort of tapped out and brain dead by the end of the night. She really likes that I write this blog, and I think she has gotten a lot out of watching me turn my life around in the process of writing it. I recently asked her if she wanted to write a post about perspective of the past two years. She told me she was too busy.

There is one thing though that I want really do want to share. Knowing that I loved reading John Bingham's book, An Accidental Athlete, one of my closest girlfriends put Christophper McDougal's Born to Run in my hands last fall. She knows that I am a reader, and she knows me very, very well. Still, when she handed me the book, I thought that there might be some mistake. Remember? I'm just like the Accidental Athlete?! How could I also be Born to Run?!! The juxtaposition left me wondering and a little scared. I assumed that B2R was for die-hard runners only. People who loved running as kids, teens and adults - who plan vacations around running and the thrill of pushing themselves to the very limit. In other words, NOT me. Granted, I now run occasionally for fun, and some of my runs have felt really fantastic, but plenty of them are still really, really icky. I had to take a class to learn how to run for goodness sake! (Which by the way was EXCELLENT. The instructor Bruce couldn't be a nicer guy, the class size is kept small, and it is FREE. Just another reason to love my local running store MetroRunWalk!) But c'mon. Everyone knows that I am not a natural born runner.


But I smiled and brought the book home. I told my husband that I would read it when I finished the book I was on, which at the time was A Feast for Crows in the Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones) series. So he started reading it instead. And then he started talking about it all the time. Ad nauseum. So in my passive aggressive away, I moved on to the next book in my series. He wanted to talk about B2R so much that I finally told him that I'd have no reason to read it. His reaction was very surprising. Typically I would have expected him to be just fine with that and tell me everything, but instead he looked panicked and stopped talking immediately with the exception of, "well... you just have to read it."

They were both right. I needed to read it, and now I'm a book thumper telling everyone I see that they need to read it too. Everyone. That includes you. Maybe even starts with you. Born to Run is so much more than a running book. It is a book about life, relationships, community, food, anthropology, human evolution, and yes, running too. It's well written, entertaining, and thought provoking. If you absolutely know you aren't going to read it, or if you are just so excited you can't wait and need to know more now, watch Christopher McDougal speak at TEDxPennQuarter 2011.

Thanks Jamie.  Reason #982348 you are a good friend.

Just Breathe… and Eat

It’s been almost two weeks since my sinus surgery/deviated septum fix, and I’m sort of losing it. I opted for the procedure in hopes that my airflow would improve and my migraines might be more tolerable. For the first week I was painfully losing it, followed by several being just completely out of control, and now I’m just a sedentary lump of a mess.

I knew that the surgery would be painful, and so I allocated two days after plus the weekend for my recovery. IT WAS NOT ENOUGH. No thanks to my doctor, who reassured me that this was going to be “uncomfortable” for a few days but “really not that bad”. Maybe I’m a wimp. I asked myself if I was. I’ve certainly had wimpy moments before. So I challenged myself not to be a wimp. No luck. I only ended up hurting and feeling whiny and badly about my lack of pain tolerance.

Six days after the surgery, I tried going back to work. Two and a half hours later, on the verge of tears, I packed up, told my admin, and headed home. … But not straight home. This was the point where I transitioned from painfully losing it to going completely out of control. Because somewhere in my lack of any sense whatsoever, my body told me that the best way to fix the problem was to head to the McDonalds drive thru. And in that drive thru, I, who very proudly doesn’t eat “that”, I ordered the quarter pounder meal. Large. And I ordered a fish fillet. And a southern chicken sandwich. There is really no life vest once you’ve broken through the “I don’t eat that” dam. The drive thru was the tipping point for masochism gone wild. I have no idea how much of the pain over the next several days was caused by the surgery versus the inflammatory substances I consumed.

Daydreaming about running today, which - Three cheers for Holly! - actually happens, I’m itchy to get moving again. My friends at work are going without me. Everyone I know seems to have run some kind of race this weekend. I cheered for, rather than ran with, my daughter during her 5k on Sunday. I have that panicky feeling that it will be hard, and I won’t be able to do it when I get to start again. I can intellectualize it all and see that it won’t be so bad – that I don’t have to wait for too long, but the feeling is there regardless. I see the doctor again next week for a progress report and will hopefully be cleared for more than just light activity. In my mind light activity was supposed to be only a few miles at a slow pace. In his apparently light activity is just my normal life at work and running the family.

Yet I know it will come. I will be okay. Each day is better than the day before. I will start moving again, and every step will be a good one. And in her first official race on her own, my daughter ran beautifully.

All you have to do is ask

I've been quiet lately, and while I'm not totally off the exercise wagon, I haven't been crushing attempting thinking about at all any new goals either. I'm running, going to the gym a bit, and sticking with a fairly predictable and not terribly demanding routine. Part of that is just the time it takes me to get used to a new school year - for myself and for the kids, and in the spirit of full disclosure, part of it is because I've been eating more, drinking more wine, and staying up too late.

And then today my friend Josh told me that he registered for the Rock 'n Roll Half in DC. And apparently that is all it takes for me to go from zero plans to hitting "process registration".

Thanks Josh - you're the best.