Following the Garden Path

So, this fun story does not directly involve the jogging stroller. My husband and I now hire a sitter to stay with the kids every Sat. morning so we get to work out together (in lieu of "date night"). Anyway, she's like my enabler for doing silly things. Like running 18 miles.

Running 18 miles is not necessarily bad. We are training for the Marine Corp Marathon and I had completed that distance the weekend before with no ill effects. Part of training, however, is also working out a good plan for eating and drinking. Take note: eating half a Power Bar and drinking about 1/4 cup of water over the course of 18 miles is NOT a viable plan.

So, as one might expect, I felt bad afterwards. I pushed it to the end (mental stupidity - oops, I mean mental toughness). Really bad. Like crap with a capital "C". OK, so I figure I am dehydrated. I rehydrate. The next day I still feel terrible. Well, I probably drank too much water = hyponatremia. So I eat some salty pretzels and drink some sports drink. But now we are going on day 3. I still feel terrible, I've barely eaten in 3 days, and I've had one episode of violent shivering. I'm tough, but not dumb, so I go to the doctor. I'm getting worried that I'm going to have a heart attack from messed up electrolytes. Oh yeah, and this nagging pain in my lower right abdomen, but that is the least of my worries, because I've hurt myself there at least three times before.

So, I felt a little old when my daughter's teacher was younger than me, but I felt even older when the doctor was younger than me! Anyway, I think that I ran my big mouth and inadvertently bullied said young doctor into agreeing with me that it could not possibly be my appendix because of the on-set of symptoms, etc.

To make a long story only slightly shorter, by Tuesday afternoon I realize that I need to go to the hospital. Something was not right. I had a high fever at this point and I could barely get off the couch. Several hours and a CT scan later, I have appendicitis! In the nurse's words, "It needs to come out right now."

So, I'm OK now. Apparently after a Laproscopic Appendectomy, you can start running just 7 days afterwards. All that is holding me back now are the side effects of the cold-turkey weaning of baby that went along with this fun adventure. At least it gets my mind off my belly...

Moral of the Story: Don't blame yourself if you have a bad run, you might have a serious illness!