I'm still here

Yes, I know – bad bad bad blogger.


I have just been feeling like crud lately. Getting over this infection has been difficult. I ended up with a bad reaction to the Septra they put me on and came down with a headache to end all headaches. I HATE going to the hospital for a headache. I seriously may as well just shove an ice pick through my eye. UGH! So I avoided that at all costs – all costs being having the headache for 3 days before finally being given some Percocet and Phenergan to help relieve it. And boy howdy – did it! But the headache has been threatening to come back the past couple of days. I don’t think I have kicked the infection either. I can’t put my finger on why – I just don’t think I have. One of these days I’ll learn to listen to my body. I go to the doctor’s office tomorrow to pee in the cup and get tested yet again. So we’ll see what happens then.

In the meantime – 6 weeks post op is quickly approaching. You know what that means – I can run again. Of course, I feel like crud – so is it really wise to start running yet? Well, if I want to make it to the half marathon in Myrtle Beach in October ………

We’ll see I guess. I may wait just a couple of days to see what happens with the tests at the doctors office and to make sure this headache doesn’t return with a vengeance. But I am really anxious to get back to running.

As a way to keep my mind in the game (if I couldn’t keep my body in it) I have been reading a book called “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougal. For a book I have loved so much – it has taken me forever to read it. But I have loved this book. And it has just spurned me to run again. I NEED to get out there and run again. It’s part story of an amazing race in the Copper Canyons of Mexico, but it’s also part documentary on the theory that mankind was made – biomechanically designed – to run. I don’t agree with many of the evolutionary theories that are touted in this book, but it is an interesting thesis on how the human body is made for running. Even more interesting – how the birth of the running shoe has been the introduction of the explosion of sports injuries. Seriously – almost makes me want to try running barefoot – or at the very least – to invest in some Vibram FiveFinger shoes.  I think every runner or wannabe runner should read this book. It has instilled in me the belief that running is even more about finding the enjoyment in it and running for the enjoyment – the unspoken comraderie between runners of all abilities – to “just do it” and to do it for the love of it. I never believed I would find a love in running – but it’s out there. You can have it to. You just have to let go long enough to find it.

Plan of Attack!

I am now more determined than ever to do the half marathon in Myrtle Beach in October.  The doctor has said that I am not allowed to run for 6 weeks post surgery, but that I can walk as much as I can tolerate.  So I am determined to walk every day - adding a little bit more distance to what I'm doing every day.  Yesterday I was able to get in just under a mile.  For my birthday this year I got new running shoes and I finally pulled them out yesterday and tried them out.  It is still a bit exhausting for me.  Doc had cautioned me that I would start to feel better physically pretty quickly because of the laparoscopic surgery, but that inside there was still quite a bit of adjusting happening as a result of my body getting used to having just one kidney.  So I get tired really easily right now.  But as I said - I'm determined to still do the half marathon in October.  So once I get to the point of being able to run in late July I will have to get very serious about my training plan in order to have my mileage up for that race.