In Sickness and in Health
May. 15th, 2006 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jamesqI've been sick for the last few weeks. It started with the a harder then average cold brought on by exposure to young children (the most efficient disease vector known to mankind - just ask any elementary school teacher, assuming you can find a healthy one). After three people I know ended up on antibiotics due to this cold, I opted to go to my own doctor.
The bad news is that spending three weeks sick really clobbered my running regime. I only started running again about a week ago. Plus they were pretty short runs (5-6 K) because I didn't want to relapse.
This is all relevant because I had committed to doing the Forzani's Mother's Day 10K (as I do every year). I was really worried that my time would suck, or that I wouldn't finish it at all. It's been over a month since I've done anything approaching a 10K run.
Saturday was the "fitness fair". Mount Royal College was were you picked up your race kit and T-shirt. They also had a ton of vendors hocking assorted fitness-related wares. I'm not really interested in any of that stuff as they only equipment I need is my shoes, and I pick those up once a year in July.
This year they did have a "vendor" that interested me. The Calgary Fire Department had people there checking cholesterol and blood pressure. Now that I'm half-way healthy, these things don't hold as much fear as they used to so I figured I'd have myself checked.
As an aside, isn't it weird how the people who need to be checked the most are the ones most afraid of doing so. I can certainly relate to this as I am one of these people. When I was fat, I would have avoided a test like the plague. But I wouldn't have been able to put it out of my mind. I worried for years that I was diabetic (I'm in almost every high risk group for it), but never actually got checked. When I was diagnosed with chronic depression, I had to get a doctor to prescribe antidepressants. The first thing he did was subject me to a battery of blood tests to rule out a physical cause for the depression (for example, thyroid problems often cause chronic depression). Well the tests came back OK, including the blood sugar tests. That was a load off my mind.
My Therapist is of the opinion that it is always better to have the truth (even if it's bad news) then to spend huge amounts of time worried that it might be bad news. The mental toll is less, and having correct information puts you in the position of correctly gauging your options. I've come to agree with this assertion, but it's still a chore to actually do it.
Anyway, back to the fitness fair. A fireman took some blood and put it through there analyzer. About five minutes later it came back and told me my cholesterol was 3.88 (anything below 5 is healthy, not that I can confirm or deny this - I have no idea what the numbers mean. My "healthy lipid" count was .85, and it should be about 1, so while my cholesterol is low, I still have a wee bit too much of the "bad cholesterol". Meh, I'll keep using butter when making cookies. If I really wanted to be super healthy I'd stop making cookies and that's just not going to happen.
Blood pressure was next and my numbers were in the normal range (I can't remember exactly, 160/80 maybe?). And then I spent five minutes flirting with the nurse who took my blood pressure. She was a little surprised to find out my age - my blood pressure and cholesterol were all normal for a younger man. I also went into a sad strange little zone. Without prompting I started talking about my weight loss. Yes, I was pimping my accomplishments to this stranger in an attempt to impress her. I'm vaguely disgusted by this, yet can't put my finger on why.
But still, I'm healthier then normal! Go me!
The rest of the day was spent shopping, then friends came over for a spontaneous barbecue and we all watched King Kong.
Sunday I got up bright and early for the race. Unlike the last few races I got down there in plenty of time, met some coworkers and then we spread ourselves through the crowd so that we were all near people close to our speed.
It was a nearly perfect day for it. Sunny, but not too hot. A slight breeze to wick away moisture. The wonderful company of 12000 like-minded souls.
And then I stopped being sick. It was like a switch got flipped in my body. I started running and within a Kilometer I had passed enough people to pick my speed up to near maximum. I kept it up for nearly the whole race, slowing down only for the two water stations. The last 2K I ran even faster as I was trying to keep in sight of a very nice backside that was a wee bit faster then I (don't knock it, it's an excellent way to pick up your pace and works for all genders and preferences!).
I finished the race fairly certain that I had broken my 55m goal. According to the official results, I came in at 53 minutes 21 seconds (601st out of 2051). A new personal best. Now If I could only break 100 at archery.
"Doc, I've had a cold for two weeks and it's not going away"So I got my prescription and took my horse pills for a week. They seemed to do the trick.
"Ok, let me have a listen", he said, putting the stethoscope to the middle of my back. "Take a deep breath".
*deep breath*
"Hmmmm. That doesn't sound good."
"What?!? What doesn't sound good?!?"
"You've got an infection in your lungs. It's not pneumonia yet, but it will be if we don't take care of it now. Here's a prescription for some antibiotics. Twice a day for a week and you should be fine."
"Thanks Doc"
The bad news is that spending three weeks sick really clobbered my running regime. I only started running again about a week ago. Plus they were pretty short runs (5-6 K) because I didn't want to relapse.
This is all relevant because I had committed to doing the Forzani's Mother's Day 10K (as I do every year). I was really worried that my time would suck, or that I wouldn't finish it at all. It's been over a month since I've done anything approaching a 10K run.
Saturday was the "fitness fair". Mount Royal College was were you picked up your race kit and T-shirt. They also had a ton of vendors hocking assorted fitness-related wares. I'm not really interested in any of that stuff as they only equipment I need is my shoes, and I pick those up once a year in July.
This year they did have a "vendor" that interested me. The Calgary Fire Department had people there checking cholesterol and blood pressure. Now that I'm half-way healthy, these things don't hold as much fear as they used to so I figured I'd have myself checked.
As an aside, isn't it weird how the people who need to be checked the most are the ones most afraid of doing so. I can certainly relate to this as I am one of these people. When I was fat, I would have avoided a test like the plague. But I wouldn't have been able to put it out of my mind. I worried for years that I was diabetic (I'm in almost every high risk group for it), but never actually got checked. When I was diagnosed with chronic depression, I had to get a doctor to prescribe antidepressants. The first thing he did was subject me to a battery of blood tests to rule out a physical cause for the depression (for example, thyroid problems often cause chronic depression). Well the tests came back OK, including the blood sugar tests. That was a load off my mind.
My Therapist is of the opinion that it is always better to have the truth (even if it's bad news) then to spend huge amounts of time worried that it might be bad news. The mental toll is less, and having correct information puts you in the position of correctly gauging your options. I've come to agree with this assertion, but it's still a chore to actually do it.
Anyway, back to the fitness fair. A fireman took some blood and put it through there analyzer. About five minutes later it came back and told me my cholesterol was 3.88 (anything below 5 is healthy, not that I can confirm or deny this - I have no idea what the numbers mean. My "healthy lipid" count was .85, and it should be about 1, so while my cholesterol is low, I still have a wee bit too much of the "bad cholesterol". Meh, I'll keep using butter when making cookies. If I really wanted to be super healthy I'd stop making cookies and that's just not going to happen.
Blood pressure was next and my numbers were in the normal range (I can't remember exactly, 160/80 maybe?). And then I spent five minutes flirting with the nurse who took my blood pressure. She was a little surprised to find out my age - my blood pressure and cholesterol were all normal for a younger man. I also went into a sad strange little zone. Without prompting I started talking about my weight loss. Yes, I was pimping my accomplishments to this stranger in an attempt to impress her. I'm vaguely disgusted by this, yet can't put my finger on why.
But still, I'm healthier then normal! Go me!
The rest of the day was spent shopping, then friends came over for a spontaneous barbecue and we all watched King Kong.
Sunday I got up bright and early for the race. Unlike the last few races I got down there in plenty of time, met some coworkers and then we spread ourselves through the crowd so that we were all near people close to our speed.
It was a nearly perfect day for it. Sunny, but not too hot. A slight breeze to wick away moisture. The wonderful company of 12000 like-minded souls.
And then I stopped being sick. It was like a switch got flipped in my body. I started running and within a Kilometer I had passed enough people to pick my speed up to near maximum. I kept it up for nearly the whole race, slowing down only for the two water stations. The last 2K I ran even faster as I was trying to keep in sight of a very nice backside that was a wee bit faster then I (don't knock it, it's an excellent way to pick up your pace and works for all genders and preferences!).
I finished the race fairly certain that I had broken my 55m goal. According to the official results, I came in at 53 minutes 21 seconds (601st out of 2051). A new personal best. Now If I could only break 100 at archery.
