Rabbit For Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

This is a Chaco update. Several treatments (including a liquid medication that made him foam at the mouth and buck around the house like a donkey after it was administered) and tests have been done for Chaco since I last wrote about his allergy woes. I won’t detail it all here, but the bottom line is there is no obvious (i.e., fleas, mites, fungus) cause for the allergy response that is leading him excessively scratch his head area (leading to sores, hair loss and goopy, infected eyes). Since my primary vet and I have diligently done the hypoallergenic food trial, and every other day management of the itching with a steroid, the only remaining thing to do was try a dermatology consult.[Note: Long-term steroid use could lead to a host of future medical problems, so we really want to manage Chaco’s allergy without steroids]. Pet dermatologists are few and far between, but we’re lucky enough to have one within a 100 mile radius. Her name is Dr. Stepnick (she runs half marathons!), and she works out of a clinic that has 3 locations, none of them close to home, in Port Washington, Glendale and Oak Creek. Oak Creek is the closest to us, so an appointment was made and kept this past Tuesday. Dr. S is only at the Oak Creek location on Tuesday’s, so this meant taking 3 hours of vacation time to get Chaco, drive 25 miles to Oak Creek and back.

The boys know something is awry when I come home suddenly in the middle of the day – they’ve experienced this too many times before to believe it’s an innocent pit stop. Maybe they notice my nervous energy (I’m always stressed about having to take them to the vet and I’m always on a tight time schedule to “capture” them). At any rate, instead of greeting me as they do at 4p.m. after work, they typically take off for the tight spots where I can’t reach them. I have to be cunning and calculated. The night before the appointment, I hid the cat carrier in the bathtub and pulled the curtains across. My plan was to come home as breezy and nonchalant as possible. I would feign disinterest in them and find my way to the bathroom to relieve myself – for some reason when I hit the toilet seat, the boys come running and want to be pet, to even sit in my lap. The plan was to lure them in this way and quickly shut the door before an escape could happen.  As I headed for the door, Denali bolted, leaving Chaco behind. I grabbed a limp and heavy Chaco, who began crying pathetically when I put him in the carrier. I had 5 minutes to round up Denali before we needed to leave. A ridiculous chase ensued that ended in frustration and trauma. Denali darts behind the family room couch, I pull it out, and he runs behind the living room couch, I pull it out, and so on … you get the picture. It was the coldest day of the year (-5°), but I was sweating and cursing – cursing Denali for not cooperating, after all his brother really needed his comfort for this long ride to a scary new place, and cursing Joe (poor guy, hard at work not knowing he’s being cursed) for not being there because “dang it, this is a two person job!” (one to flush Denali out, one to grab him). So, Chaco and I left alone, while Denali was left home alone. The trauma from me chasing him and/or not having his brother around for a couple hours, led to almost 48 hours of slinking around, hiding and timidly creeping his way into and out of rooms L

Dr. Stepnick used a piece of what looked to be Scotch tape, pressed it against Chaco’s face, went to her microscope and returned with news of a yeast infection. When allergies act up, the immune system produces extra yeast and this can evolve into a yeast infection, especially in the areas that get scratched the most. Sometimes the allergy is under control with food or medicine, but due to the yeast infection, itchiness persists, so it seems like the allergy hasn’t improved. There is a magic pill that will clear up this yeast problem over the next month. That’s one part of the new plan. The second part is to go to a rabbit protein based food. Most cat foods, even the special hypoallergenic food he’s been on for 4 months, has a chicken protein base, and chicken is often the major cause of food allergies in felines. The rabbit protein is effective at times because it’s a brand new protein that the body has not been exposed to or built allergens to. An 8-pound bag cost me $80. It’s what we must do. When cats have allergies, it’s almost always food related. When dogs have allergies, it’s almost always environmental. When we’re a week into the yeast treatment and the new rabbit based foods, we will try to cut back on the steroid and see if Chaco can handle that or if the itching resumes.

We’ll see Dr. S in one month to follow-up on the progress, or lack thereof, before coming up with the next plan. She told me allergies are a lifelong disease … a long and winding road that infrequently yields answers. It’s also a costly road - $330 for this one visit.

CRHWC!

Berg Lake, Mt. Robson Provincial Park, British Colombia, Canada

What, you don't know what CRHWC stands for? It's Canadian Rockies Here We Come! Last weekend we sat down to study the massive book of hiking trails in the Canadian Rockies. We developed our itinerary and have spent the week refining the details while making necessary advanced reservations. So far, everything we've wanted to reserve has been granted to us. Pictured above is the first backpacking destination of this adventure. The backcountry leading to this glaciated lake requires advanced permits, which we have secured. When we come off the trail from this route, we'll stay in a picturesque cabin for two nights, while day hiking in Jasper National Park. Whenever we're not backpacking, we'll be day hiking - accumulating about 90 miles of trail by trip's end. Part two of our vacation will be a backpacking trip that spans a wondrous journey between Banff National Park and Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park. Everything is falling into place easily thus far, inciting a sense that this trip is meant to be. Our passports arrived this week - a sign! We found that Joe's Remicade infusion is scheduled conveniently after we come home - another sign! Our pet sitter is available all the days we're gone - yet another sign! We'll take 2 full weeks in early August - allowing us a full month upon our return to complete training for our September trail half marathon. For now, with much of the leg work complete, we can hone our conversion skills - kilometers to miles, meters to feet :) 

Radon - Do You Know What It Is?

Always on a quest to do everything I can for my health, I have made some adjustments to my work life. The research is piling up that sitting for prolonged periods of time (30 minutes or longer) is bad, bad, bad for your overall health and life expectancy. Even people like me who work out hard everyday are at increased risk for physical issues if we sit most of the day after working out. To that end, some changes I've initiated as of 1/2/13 include sitting on a stability exercise ball at work instead of a chair - this mainly strengthens the core and comforts the back, as it is allowed to assume it's natural S-curve, which most desk chairs squash. I have posted a note on my phone that says "STAND UP" as a reminder to stand during phone conversations, and I'm being cognizant of the time when I do hunker down to write lengthy assessments, making sure to get up every 30 minutes to walk around and stretch for a few minutes. My actions are catching on, with several other co-worker's sitting on balls and standing while talking too. What more could I do for my health???

Well, how about a home radon testing kit? Much of the northern half of the U.S. sits atop decaying limestone, which releases a radioactive substance called radon. Waukesha County is especially known for having high levels of this carcinogen. We've been in our house nearly 14 years, but you know how life goes, you mean to get a test kit, and never do ... until 14 years later. You try to do everything right for your health and then you get the results that your home’s lung cancer causing radon levels are way above the acceptable range. Anything above 4.0 is sky high - we're at a 4.9. Below is information copied from the EPA website to give you a better idea of what this all means.

EPA estimates that about 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the U.S. are radon-related. Exposure to radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. Radon is an odorless, tasteless and invisible gas produced by the decay of naturally occurring uranium in soil and water. Radon is a form of ionizing radiation and a proven carcinogen. Lung cancer is the only known effect on human health from exposure to radon in air. Thus far, there is no evidence that children are at greater risk of lung cancer than are adults.

Radon in air is ubiquitous. Radon is found in outdoor air and in the indoor air of buildings of all kinds. EPA recommends homes be fixed if the radon level is 4 pCi/L (pico Curies per Liter) or more. Because there is no known safe level of exposure to radon, EPA also recommends that Americans consider fixing their home for radon levels between 2 pCi/L and 4 pCi/L. The average radon concentration in the indoor air of America’s homes is about 1.3 pCi/L. It is upon this level that EPA based its estimate of 20,000 radon-related lung cancers a year upon. It is for this simple reason that EPA recommends that Americans consider fixing their homes when the radon level is between 2 pCi/L and 4 pCi/L. The average concentration of radon in outdoor air is .4 pCi/L or 1/10th of EPA's 4 pCi/L action level.

We will do a retest, and then we will explore our options for reducing our exposure to radon. I encourage you to buy a test kit too - they're under $15.

The Scale

Day 5 of 2013, and life is going well. Old files are tossed, new calendars are hung, lingering clutter (both at home and at work) was cleared without sentimentality, I feel well and rested,  my tendon is all better, negative people are not impacting my life, details of our August vacation are coalescing and I'm controlling the scale. I ended 2012 with 3.5 extra pounds. Extra pounds that crept up in the latter quarter of the year, pounds that had never taken hold in previous years, though I may have visited them briefly.

You may scoff, and think 3.5 pounds is not a big deal (it's not even enough to make my clothing ill-fitted), and you'd be in good company thinking so, right in line with most of obese America. It's the little weight gains, year after year, the insidious creep, that catches people unaware - "how'd I get to this size? how'd my health slide?"  The average American woman will gain about 1 pound every year. Let's say you began at a healthy weight in your mid-20's, by the time you reach 50, you're at least 25 pounds overweight - often times it's much more than that. I weigh myself weekly to remain accountable. I've been fat and I'm never going back.

The first month or so of the 3.5 pound weight gain I attributed to PMS, or extra calories while training for my final half marathon in October. When my weekly weigh ins were unchanged from week to week, I even suspected the scale was off, or the floor a bit slanted, so I started placing the scale in the exact spot every time. The same number appeared. With the close of 2012, I decided I needed to go back to the basics and keep a food journal for a week to see just what I'm eating. This is tedious work - if I have 4 forkfuls of dinner as I'm cooking it, I write it down. Since I prepare most of my food from scratch, I don't have easy nutritional labels to follow to document calories, fat, carbs, fiber, sugars and protein, so there's the laborious task of looking that info up in a book or the Internet. BUT, I'm doing it, cause I'm going to lose those 3.5 pounds and not let them come back.

I weigh myself on Saturday mornings, so today was a weigh-in, though I've only been journaling for 4 days - the result of reigning it in and counting every morsel that enters my mouth is a 1/2 pound loss! This is great news. By the end of the month, I'll be back to normal. What I'm finding is that there are many little extras in the day that I wasn't including in my mental tallys, such as those spoonfuls of sampling dinner foods (which can easily be 100 calories), or a few pretzels here and there while being both busy doing things, yet hungry, or that cup of cocoa I have to warm-up after a cold long run (we make our own with cocoa powder and sugar - I think of it as chocolate flavored water with no calories, but sugar is caloric and one cup is 150 calories!). The other conclusion I've come to, is that I gained weight after half marathon season ended, because I didn't shift my caloric intake. From February - October, when my training ramps up, I can eat 2,500 calories per day without gaining, and this amount actually helps to keep me feeling energized, while supplying enough protein and nutrients to facilitate rapid muscle recovery. The freedom of eating whatever I want during these months becomes a hard habit to break when training slows down, but now that I see scale will slap me for not cutting back, I will hold onto these new insights. I've essentially been the same healthy weight for nearly 20 years, and I intend to keep it that way for the next 60!

Clean Slate

Hello 2013! A new year, with new possibilities; new hopes. January 1st is my favorite day of the year. I visualize it as me being on the top of a beautiful mountain summit (something akin to Mt. Everest) with bright blue skies and a clear, ethereal, far-reaching view. From this height everything looks distant and untouchable, smooth and rounded, but as the descent begins, details that were fuzzy become clear. There are many unexpected encounters, some exciting, breathtaking and awe-inspiring, while others are frigthening and daunting, requiring perseverance and faith to get around/through. It's the idea of the fresh slate, yet unmarred, that I love about the new year. It's also a time to take control of your life and shape the reality you want. I've already created a comforting and joyous reality for myself, but with the notion that there's always room for improvement, what I've decided to do this year is focus on only having positive relationships. In the past year, I realized what a drain some relationships are - negative people, people who view life as happening to them, people who take on the victim or martyr role, and people who feel the need to break others down - those are the folks I'm steering clear of whether in my family, friendships or work place. I will also focus on allowing my fears to make me vulnerable, instead of putting up the wall or the nonchalant strong front that is a natural reaction to fear (FYI, there's research that shows people who are willing to be vulnerable, live longer, healthier lives). When fear arises, it will be my cue to push through beyond it and be authentic.

Aside from these loftier ideals, I have practical goals too - keep thriving in my career, keep saving at least 35% of my earnings towards retirement, keep my weight in check, try not to sweat the small stuff, and of course there are running goals, and these are them:

       PREVENT INJURY! Run Smart. Listen to my body.

1.      Be diligent with running slow in recovery runs

2.      Take 2-3 days off when sx’s of overtraining or pain occur

3.      Scale mileage back every 4 weeks or so

       Build Mental Toughness – Eliminate/Reduce Amount of Breaks

       With the Exception of the Sled Hill, Be Able to Run Up Every Minooka Hill

       Continue With Long Runs of 6 Miles or Longer

       Run 5 Half Marathons

       Get New Half Marathon PR (10:14 pace or better)

       Get Easy Treadmill Pace to 9:40-9:30

       Don’t Get Too Comfortable With Speedwork Pace – Get HR Up There!!!

       Run at least 1,100 miles for the year

BTW, my tendon held up in my 6-miler the other day, and 16 hours later, it still performed well for my inagurual 5-mile New Year's Eve Day run with Rosanna - the birth of a new tradition. Rosanna and I used to run the organized Run Into the New Year 5k every New Year's Eve Day since 2009, but for many reasons, opted to ditch that cold, unscenic race for our own, longer distance run thorugh beautiful locales. Another part of this tradition includes indulging in Joe's once-a-year homemade cinnamon buns!

As I type this, it is -10° with the windchill, but over my right shoulder, I can see blue skies, the sun casting shiny rays off the snowpak and I hear birds beneath the window. To kick this year off right, I think I'll lace up my shoes, and go for a short run ... then I might have another cinnamon bun :)