The Next Chapters In On-going Stories

DIO: About 5 days ago we noticed Dio has a soft marble sized lump in his throat just to the right of his trachea. He doesn't seem bothered by us feeling it, but it bothers us that it's there. We're not jumping to any bad conclusions. It could be a swollen gland, or a fatty tumor, or some cyst... Saturday the 28th,we take him in for follow up bloodwork to track his liver functions - Dr. Jackie wants to see if there is a trend for better or worse since he was treated with antibiotics and a liver support pill - and she will try to examine this lump and possibly to a needle aspiration if she feels it's warranted. Stay tuned.

SCHOOL: I decided not to enroll in personal training courses for January 2010. It just didn't feel like the right time - I'm not ready to make the time and energy commitment yet. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was reacting with a sense of urgency to a situation at work more than out of a pressing desire to become a personal trainer ASAP. I've wanted to pursue personal training for a couple years now, but will do so when it feels like a positive fit. In the meantime, I am actively working to change the way I am internally responding to the work situation, which primarily has to do with a co-worker more than anything else. Have I been elusive enough in describing this?!

RUNNING: This past weekend I hit the 4 mile mark in my training and it was the best run I can ever remember having. I didn't suffer mentally or physically. I felt strong and positive, and finished with a time that was 1 minute per mile faster than what I was running at 3 weeks ago. I attribute this to my body absorbing the changes of the past 3 months of running and to the interval training. The best news is that I have registered to run the Mad City Half Marathon on 5/30/10 - this is a vote of faith and confidence in myself and my running future!

Running Updates

I believe I’m improving my running since the last time I was a runner pre-herniation. When I first learned to run it was with a run/walk model, which is a very respectable and popular model. People complete marathons with a run/walk ratio. However, I find this model undermines my mental commitment, as I trudge by minute by minute waiting for the glorious walk break to deliver me from the awful stretches of running. Those kind of inflammatory thoughts make it difficult to get into the running groove. Instead, I want to have my mind mentally committed to the run from the get go, for the long haul. That’s why I set out to be an all out runner this go around. No walk breaks unless there’s a problem. This week I’m hitting the 4 mile mark in my runs. I am running 4 days per week, and mixing things up a bit so I can improve my speed and efficiency. To that end, Ben has recommended I do interval running twice per week. This means I run at a moderate pace for a predetermined amount of minutes, and then run as fast as I can for a predetermined amount of time – back and forth, back and forth, until I’ve done so for 3 miles. Then I take the last mile at my normal pace. For example, last week I ran a moderate pace for 3 minutes and at a super freakish pace for 30 seconds, again and again. This week I ran 2 minutes at a moderate pace and 1 minute at a super freakish pace for 1 minute. Over time I’ll run less at the moderate pace and more at the all out pace. This will increase my lactate threshold, which in plain English means my body will be more efficient at delivering oxygen to my muscles and I won’t bonk as quickly. I’m on track for hitting the 5 mile mark by the end of the year, and feel I’m creating a solid base for my half marathon training which will begin in late February. Joe plans to do that half marathon with me, and began his running comeback this week. Today Joe ran 1 mile, which astonishes me, because it took me nearly 3 weeks before I was up to a mile!

News That’s Better Than Great

Joe had his last PT appointment today, as well as his last appointment with Dr. Nelson. His last because he is going to make a full recovery and is well on his way there now. Dr. Nelson also gave Joe the green light to gradually begin running again. This has been a terrific week for both of us in the recovery news department. Now both of us can focus on training for the May Half Marathon!

Dio

My beloved Dio, who hates everyone and everything in the world except for Joe & me, has gone through many expensive tests in the past week with few conclusive results. Let me start from the beginning, and preface it all by relating 2 key things about Dio: 1) He’s never been motivated by food - he’s always been a slim cat more interested in having our attentions than anything else. 2) Because he is so fierce with others, he cannot be handled at the vet for any kind of exam, which requires him to be anesthetized for any exam or procedure. So, keeping those two things in mind, I’ll begin. Dio is 16 years old. Two years ago he began losing weight due to a hyperthyroid. He was placed on medicine, we bought a baby scale and have kept track of his weight diligently ever since. In the past 2 months he began a weight loss trend that did not stop – losing close to 1 pound from September to November. Weighing in at 8 pounds, he couldn’t afford to lose another ounce, so I scheduled blood work with the doc suspecting his thyroid levels were off and in need of a med adjustment.

The blood work showed his thyroid levels to be healthy, BUT his liver functions were elevated, and he was found to have mild pancreatitis. So what’s going on with the liver? Well, the next step was to knock him out for an x-ray. The x-ray showed nothing. Next, we knocked him out again for an ultrasound of the abdomen, which found his liver to be enlarged and hardened in some areas, but more concerning, it found a thickening of the stomach wall. They aspirated the liver (this means they pulled cells out of his liver with a needle), but could not do the same for his stomach. The cause of the stomach thickening could be an inflammatory issue or neoplastic process (various cancers). To know more about the stomach, an endoscopy would have to be performed for a biopsy to be taken, but that may not be conclusive either. Regardless, we’ve decided we’re not going with any further testing. It’s too much stress and strain for Dio, and they don’t seem to yield definitive answers. The liver cell results returned somewhat inconclusive, but there were no signs of cancer cells – just some evidence of inflammation.

So (big sigh), after spending $1400 in one week, we know little more than we did before, and have the brilliant game plan for now of just trying to fatten him up. If he took in more calories, that could help his liver function better, but you try getting him to eat! The only other thing to do is keep monitoring his weight, and any changes in behaviors or disposition. I’ve given you the blow by blow sans the stress, worry and angst that have accompanied all these tests. It’s scary when you have an old pet. You know that your time will eventually run out, and though I’ve lost many pets in my life, it never gets easier. But for now, we’ll take all the good news we can get, and in the moment, Dio does not test positive for cancer, and he seems like himself, so day by day we’ll move forward.

Frickin’ Insurance

United HealthCare (UHC) now refuses to pay for any of my chiropractic appointments because my care is now “preventative” and “maintenance”. If I have a relapse or a new issue they will consider paying tons of money for treatment, but they don’t want to pay $200 or less per month to keep me well. Idiots. My chiro says right now, UHC is the only insurance company being so obnoxious. I have monthly chiro appointments to keep everything in line, and these sessions cost between $135-$175. The chiro clinic has offered me a deal to pay $40 the day of my appointments, rather than being billed the full price. Of course I snatched this deal up and appreciate their generosity, but am irritated that UHC is so short sighted.

News That is Better Than Good!

For the past 6 weeks I’ve had an increase in annoying foot numbness & pringliness that would not abate. Since the onset of symptoms in January, my foot has improved overall, but typically has symptom fluctuations from day-to-day, sometimes hour-to-hour. Those fluctuations stopped in the beginning of October when my foot seemed to worsen, holding on to that worsened status consistently until about a week ago, when I scheduled an appointment with my primary physician. It’s as if my body responded to the threat of seeing the doctor because no sooner did I make the appointment when my foot returned to a pattern of fluctuating pringliness – sometimes it’s really annoying and bothersome but sometimes it’s almost gone. I shared my symptoms with Dr. Diehr, and she tested my pedal pulses (very good), my sensitivity to touch (very good) and my reflexes (very good). With all of this information she determined the following great news:

1. I do NOT have permanent nerve damage. If this was a case of nerve damage, the symptoms would not fluctuate the way they do. Also, if this was nerve damage, over time if I were to heal, the improvement would be ever so gradual that I’d hardly notice until one day I’d realize I had all feeling restored.

2. I do NOT have a structural cause for my symptoms. Again, if this were a structural issue, I would not have so much variability in my foot.

3. What IS causing my foot to change conditions is likely an inflammatory process in my back related to muscle and tissue swelling. This could occur from exercise (which is not a bad thing!), as well as many other factors, including the healing process. Also, my sciatic nerve is more susceptible to being squished by inflammation because there is still material from my herniation sitting in the spinal column taking up space, which leaves less room for that nerve to breathe. Over time, up to 60% of that disc material may be reabsorbed and reduce inflammation.

4. Dr. Diehr advises I continue with ice and ibuprofen as needed to reduce inflammation. FYI – she says as long as I take Ibuprofen with food, there is no harm to my stomach or kidneys by taking up to 2400mg per day.

5. She also indicates it takes about 2 years to fully recover from a herniation, though I’ve done much healing in this past year. She feels my foot will eventually be 100%.

Joe will see his doctor Friday. Hopefully the good news will keep flowing this week with Joe being given the green light to resume running.

One Last Hike

At last we get a beautiful fall day! And what timing to have that day be on a Saturday, and not just any Saturday, but a Saturday that has been marked on the calendar for "hiking with Rosanna" for the past month. Joe & I met up with Rosanna for a 5 mile hike at the hilly Scuppernong Trail in the Southern Kettle Moraine. The sun dappled woods, the thick bedding of crunchy leaves and the mercury rising into the 60's made for a wonderful year end hike. Before my herniation, Joe and I did this loop like it was nothing. After my herniation - when I was limping with a cane, and feeling challenged by a one mile walk, I realized how much I had taken my physical rigor for granted. I am back to that place where I think nothing of knocking out a 5 mile hike as a jump start to the day, but I hold a new appreciation and gratefulness that I can.

A note on Rosanna and timing. Rosanna and I have known each other since 7th grade. We were always friendly, and moved in the same social circles, but never became friends outside of that larger social group. Earlier this year, 20 years after our high school graduation, we bumped into each other at the gym, and have become fast friends. We learned that we'd been living within 10 minutes of each other for at least the past 10 years, and that we have many shared interests. Timing is everything in life!

A New Path

This will be news for some and not for others. I’ve grown bored with my job. What does this mean? It means that I still enjoy the work I do – I love my clientele, I value my County job – but, I no longer feel challenged. I’ve been in my current position for 7 years, which is twice as long as I ever stayed in past jobs. I left employers in the past when I became bored and had no other options. I’ve reached that point again. The main difference is that I will not be looking for another job because in my business there is no better job than working for the County (great pay, great benefits, no nights, holidays or weekends, no emergency hotline to carry around). Why not change jobs within the County? Well that would be great if it was possible, but at this time and for the foreseeable future, there will be zero opportunity for me to move up or laterally within the County. So, I’m essentially stuck. Instead of wallowing in this, I’ve decided to create challenges for myself outside of work. My running endeavors are one kind of challenge, but I need a new mental challenge too. To that end, I am considering going back to school to become a personal trainer. I’m all about health & fitness, would love to help people become healthy and have wanted to explore the personal training possibility for a couple years now. What could be better than a personal trainer who is also a therapist? What would this entail? I would go to the Waukesha County Technical College for their 16 credit “Fitness Specialist” certificate. This would prepare me to take one of the nationally recognized personal training exams, and then I’d be able to look for work as a personal trainer. I have no intentions of giving up my day job, but I could do some part-time personal training for local gyms, and who knows what that could lead to…

Of course the thought of having to go to classes after a full day of work (and this includes working out at 4:30a.m.), as well as having to give up some free time to study and work on projects makes me wary. I finished my masters 11 years ago, and have grown to love the simple life of work and leisure. But on the flip side, this is only 16 credits, and the way the courses are offered it would take 2-3 semesters to complete, so it’s not an exhaustive course load by any means, but …? Any input from y’all would be appreciated. Registration begins 11/17, so I need to decide soon whether or not I want to start in January.