Selfless Good Deeds

Yesterday was another follow up appt at the hospital for the husband. He has been slowly coming along - the bruising is almost all gone and he is able to walk a bit better. He had more blood taken and after a lonnnnnngggg wait, we finally saw the hematologist who said his hemoglobin is up to 130 and unless something else comes up, we don't have to come back as he is now on a good track to being fully mended. (insert huge sigh of relief here....)

We wanted to give thanks to the people who took care of the husband. I went out and bought cards ($$!), chocolates ($$) and gift bags for the Cardiac Care staff and the Hematology dept.
While doing all of that, I was thinking about the Friends episode where they said you could not have a selfless good deed - i.e. whenever you do something nice/good for someone else, in the end it is selfish as it ends up making you feel good:



Upon arriving at the hospital (more $$ for parking) AND waiting around for lab results AND waiting for the seriously slow hospital elevator that went down instead of up and then stopped at every floor, I went up grumpily up to the Cardiac ward. Once arriving, the staff were so thankful that we went to the trouble of thinking of them and having cards and chocolates. More than once, they mentioned how much it meant that we went to the trouble of thanking them. They asked how both he husband and I were doing and sent their best wishes on to us.

So how did I end up feeling? Awesome for their concern and gratitude for the thoughtfulness and gifts.
Dammit - selfishness achieved.

Don't forget about the Lift Your Sole giveaway....so I can feel even more selfish about you guys getting something cool.

TIaRT - Running Wishes

This week's sponsor is Julia, author of her blog, Chocolate Shoestrings. Julia knows all runners have dreams and wishes, so she invites us to share ours.
Julia asks:
If a genie were to appear and grant you any three running wishes in the world, what would you choose? It can be anything from superhuman powers, new running inventions, race entries, shoes, you name it!
What would be your three wishes?
_____________________________________________________________

If you have read anything I have written you’d think that I would wish to be faster but I wouldn’t…I want to earn this and I sllloowwwwly am. I don’t want a genie to grant me my “BQ” so I will just have to wait and qualify for the 2020 Boston Marathon.

So my wishes, oh Genie, would be as follows:
1. To always be injury free – my greatest weakness is that I am not a patient person at all. Waiting around for an injury to heal bites so until my genie appears, I need to get more consistent with my stretching.
2. To continue to build my running friendships. The group I have been running with for almost a year is a collection of the most amazing and supportive people I have ever know. After long runs, there are high fives and words of encouragement. People come out to support you even if it is not their race. We suck it up and make it through the snow and ice of winter and then go out for breakfast. We conquer stairs and hills and enjoy freezies or watermelon that someone was thoughtful enough to bring. I have become friends with people who I probably would never know before if it had not been for running. They rock.
3. To always get free running gear. I’m not cheap but I love all things running – gadgets, clothes, hats…shoes so it adds up quickly. Technical stuff also really starts to stink after awhile so I would rather not have to stretch out that running shirt and just get a new one from my genie friend.

Giveaway!! Lift Your Sole

I have a serious love on for Lift Your Sole...so I was super excited when Jill offered to a chance for you to win $24 to spend on the website.

What can you get? Be like me and show your love of running with RunnerGirl:

or put $24.00 toward showing your strength:

Or - create a custom charm like I am for my running coach's birthday. (don't tell her yet..it is a surprise)

Or - Show off your Namaste:
How do you enter? Do any of the following and leave me a comment for each:

• Follow Lift Your Sole on Facebook
• Browse the Lift Your Sole site and let me know what you would like to buy or have Santa bring you....yes Christmas is just around the corner....
• Share this Giveaway -shout from the rooftops, blog it etc.
• Follow me! It gets lonely here......

Contest closes Nov 4th @ 8am. Enjoy!

P.S. - go over to Tall Mom's site for here awesome Brooks giveaway: http://tallmomontherun.blogspot.com/2009/10/brooks-for-her-giveaway.html

Run with the speedies

I was kicked out again by the husband so I met up with our running group. Most people are still recovering from races so there were only 3 of us there. We all stuck together for an awesome 60 minute run. Since the other two are still in recovery, they slowed down and I kept up...which means I had to really step it up in order to even keep up but it was great. It was a beautiful Fall day out and we talked about everything under the sun including what races we are going to do in the Winter season so I am excited about that.

Apres run I called the husband who informed me that he was sleeping so I decided to hang out with my fellow runner as she was going out to meet up with our coaches who were still out on their run. (they are competing in IronMan Arizona in a month and they are amazing) We met them at various points on the run for encouragement and provide water/Gatorade. They ran almost 3 hrs and the day before they had done a 6 hr bike ride.

6 hrs on a bike.....I get tired thinking about it.

All in all a good day..finally. Overall the husband is feeling a bit better. He is on his own today as I had to come into the office so he had strict instructions on what he was allowed to do and orders to continue resting.

I know the cats will tell me if he is behaving.

Kicked out of the house in the name of sanity

The husband kicked me out and told me to get to the gym this morning. We both had probably the best sleep in 2 weeks last night so are feeling ok today. I didn't argue as I needed the sweat.
I just a quick 6km run and then hit it old school with crunches, pushups, squats etc. It wasn't a long workout but it felt awesome.
He has already told me to go meet our running group tomorrow as they are still hosting 'unofficial' runs on Sunday and Wednesday until the next clinic starts. (in Dec! Long way away...) I am trying to not feel guilty about leaving him and I know he would kick my ass if I ever said that so I am focusing on the fact that I need to get out and exercise for my own sanity as well.
The little sanity I have left I mean.....

Still improving....slowly

Today was a follow up appt at the hospital for blood work and x-rays. His hemoglobin is still low but up to 115. (a week ago he was admitted at 78. No wonder he passed out in the shower) His usual level is 140 so though he has a ways to go, it is coming along. We actually walked from the lab to the x-ray dept as the doctors said it was good to get a bit of walking in to prevent blood clots. He is walking very slowly right now as there is still a lot of fluid and bruising in his leg. This was an adventure as usually when we walk together he is about 50 ft ahead of me as he just walks so fast. Today was a wake up call that it isn't always nice to leave your spouse in the dust when doing a leisurely stroll. More and more lessons learned as this relationship chugs along....

Once again, so happy the HABS are on tonight so he can sit and chill with them. I will be watching something nice and mindless in the other room.

Home -day 2

The husband is slightly better...and by better I mean that he slept 6 hrs last night and was able to shave this morning. (yeah! whiskers on someone who can't really grow a beard is scary)
He is eating well and I am trying to make sure he is getting all the good stuff to feed his blood. (that sounds gross but hey it is what we need to do) This includes fruits, greens and I am forcing him to have a shot of PomJuice daily. Whatever I find that might help the healing along I am going to do.
He is urging me to head out for a run tonight so IF he is feeling ok on his own for a bit, I will do that...I NEED it.
I wish the Habs were on every night...he was able to stay sitting up to watch the whole game yesterday which is the most upright he has been in a week.

Home

The husband was released yesterday. Since we were in a monitoring mode, they felt he was well enough to go home...plus they needed the bed.
While I am so happy he is home, it is a whole other level of stress. I am now a nurse, with no experience. I ask 1000 times per day: "How are you? Do you feel ok? Do you want food/water/ice/tea". He can't walk properly so I have to help him up/down and to get around.
And I worry. We still don't really know what caused this OR if it might happen again. I am very closely monitoring his temperature, appetite and overall demeanor to make sure he hasn't started bleeding again. We are back on Thursday for blood tests to see where his haemoglobin is and for a rib x-ray as there may be a rib fracture that may have caused an artery to bleed in the first place.
Or maybe not...it is all a mystery. Maybe the husband will make it into one of those medical marvel journals.

Update on the husband

• haemoglobin is up from 79 to 101. This is very good so we are making sure he doesn't move too much just yet
• he is still very bruised and weak so we are taking it day by day at this point
• no idea why this happened yet.....
• the staff at the hospital have been amazing.
• the concern and offers of help from everyone have meant a lot
• I can't believe this time 2 weeks ago I was in full running/training mode. All feels very surreal
• am going broke from parking at the hospital!

Back at the hospital

Yesterday's follow up blood work turned into another trip to Emergency and a stay in hospital.

The husband was really weak on Wednesday. He insisted on taking a shower Thursday morning before we left for his appt and passed out in the shower. (this should result in a nice bruise over his eye as he face planted in the spigot) It is a good thing I work out as I had to pick him up and get him out of the shower. It was lucky that when we got to the hospital that there was a wheelchair outside as he would not have made it more than 30 steps on his own. Once there we had blood work and 2 of the Hematology staff there to look him over. Since Tuesday's stay, his levels dropped from 110 to 80 - not good. So off to Emergency we went (as they didn't have a bed available..?! WTF) for more X-rays, CT and blood transfusions.

Now....I know I could never be a nurse and cannot imagine the stress they are under but I almost went KungFu Laura on the main one there when she told me the reason it was taking so long to get his transfusion was: "well, there are others ahead of you"; and "we are busy and do need to take our breaks you know".

Bite me. Whatever...

We finally ended up in a room at 4pm and the husband actually ate and is still resting. He has had more transfusions through the night as his levels only went up by half of what they should...which indicates he is probably still bleeding.....

I am trying to really focus on the close term questions and what ifs: What if the bleeding doesn't stop? What if they have to do surgery to stop the bleeding?

...and nothing beyond that at this point.

Emergency Room visit at 2:30am

Soo tired and still stressed. We ended up going to the Emergency room at 2:30 yesterday morning. Bruising started coming out in droves all over the husband's torso and went he said his chest hurt, I knew it was time to let the Hospital deal with this and not Google.

• 6 vials of blood
• 2 doctors
• 2 nurses
• 1 morphine drip
• 1 chest X-Ray
• 4 blood tests
• 1 Hematologist
• 1 cat scan
• 9 hours later

= extensive internal bleeding but limited to under the skin and not the abdomen. He is basically bruised from the torso right up into his middle spine which was causing the back pain that started on Friday.

So what caused it? The surgery? The fact that he was on his stomach? His history of clotting factors? No one knows. I got him back home yesterday around 1pm and let him try to rest up, apply heat to bring more of the bruising out and get some food/fluids in him. Because there is still such a build up, it is pressing on his internal organs (hence the chest pain), he gets winded easily - like going up one flight of stairs is a challenge. Today he seemed a bit better and other than a headache feels 'ok'. His side does look like a Monet watercolour which as a Art History major, I can at least appreciate for that. :)

He is pushing me to race this Sunday and feels so bad that this happened before my race. I keep telling him it is not his fault and not worry about it. I could not even get my head around this on Monday or even yesterday but after a good but chilly 7km run last night once he was settled on the couch, I am going to go ahead with the plan to run unless anything changes. He has a follow up blood appt tomorrow which will give us what levels his blood is at. He probably won't make it to the race which is fine so as long as I have someone to check in on him Sat night/Sun morning, I can run without worrying too much.

As long as I have a reallllly good playlist.

A chilly 10km with Captain Stress-a-rella

Captain Stress-a-rella = me. Oh boy, what a few days...since being back from the husband's surgery, his back for some reason completely swelled up on the one side, specifically the lat area. We have no idea why, we can't get ahold of the doc who did the surgery yet and have been back and forth about going to Emeg - which neither of us want to do as we know it will probably be a gong show and a waste of a day. He says he feels fine other than the swelling and tenderness but it is still upsetting and causing us both worry. He is going to follow up this week to find out if this is normal or if there is something else going on that we need to address.
This morning was supposed to be a 6km run now that we are in taper mode but since last week was a bust as far as running went I just went out to run and enjoy the morning. I ended up putting in a quality 10km on a lovely Fall morning. It was chilly though- I had to dig out my mittens and my shins in my capris never fully warmed up. It was still good and I am glad I put in a bit extra. It gives me a bit more piece of mind coming into next Sunday's race. It also allowed me to push back a bit on this ever building stress of the past week and zone out. Running is my therapy.
At least, this is what I keep telling myself.

21km run: The little engine that could

Today was the last long run before taper next week. It was a bit of a cool morning but no wind and no rain..Mother Nature - feel free to bust out this kind of weather on race day.
I went out today to try out my game plan for the race in a couple of weeks. I actually was faster than I planned to be for the first half but it felt good so I kept it going. I actually felt really good today. Kilometer 18 was a little bit rough but I just took an extra bit of a walk break and then kept going. My legs were a bit sore which was demonstrated when I needed to take my shoe off to get a stray rock out. I am hoping that no one saw me as I must have looked like a little old lady trying to bent down to untie/tie my shoe. Apparently, I need to stretch more..duh...
If race day is like today, I will be seriously happy. If I wasn't so sore, I would do some cartwheels...now that would be sweet.
Post run and post shower, the husband and I went out for food - not so much because I was hungry but I knew I needed to eat. We went to Turtle Jack's near us and had a perfect combo lunch - half club sandwich, small salad and tomato soup. Way better than the Fish and Chips the husband initally suggested. I think he was kidding but he has also been raving about FnC of late.
Now, it is sofa city and a date with the TV. There is vaccuming to do but I am hoping that by tomorrow, the cats will have figured out how to work it by then and start earning their keep.

TIaRT - Race Director

This week's TIaRT is sponsored by Heather:
If you had the knowledge, time and/or means by which to Organize a race – what would your “Race Info” include? Would you chose an organization to donate to? What distance would you choose? Other questions to ponder – Location? Time? Race Expo attendees (guest speakers?)? Shirt design? Get as creative as you want….!

Since this isn't 'real life' I am going all out on this one.....
Distance and race details: 5km, 10km and half marathon. I would have a Fall race since that tends to be a beautiful season here and would pick somewhere that showcase the turning of the sumac and leaves. I would have an early morning event - say a 7:30-8:30 staggered start so people would still have the rest of the day to themselves. Runners and their support team would be encouraged to check out the local sponsors post race - especially the restaurants.
Donation: part of the entry fee would go to a list of charity of the runner's choice - cancer society, diabetes etc.
Expo: one thing I would NOT have is a bag of flyers given out to everyone that showcases upcoming events, sponsor info etc. I realize this is a good way to advertise but I always feel bad getting all that paper that ends up being put in the recycle bin.
Race kit: Race kit would include:
-a choice for the runners of a cotton commemorative T-Shirt or a technical running shirt they could actually use in training. For the cotton shirt, local artists would be contacted to submit a design that could be used to showcase the event and their art.
-medal: as above the design would come from a local artist
-Swag bags would have noisemakers for spectators - runners would be encouraged to have their friends and family come out for support and in an effort to cheer the runners on, they would be given the noisemakers - nothing fancy or scary like air horns but bells, whistlers or those hand clapper things you see at races. (that is the technical term for them)

So, nothing fancy but still fun and that would be the theme - laughter and fun. Especially since Winter is usually right around the corner...and there is no laughing in that....