Oh What To Do

[At the very end of this post is a picture of the actual IV that was in my arm because more than a few people said that they’d be interested.  I personally don’t think it’s really graphic or anything like that but I’m sure that some people will find is too much so I’m giving you fair warning.  Plus I don’t think the quality of the pictures is all that great either soooo it might no even look like anything.]

And no I’m not talking about maybe going out and running.  For once in my life I’m sticking to my guns. Even though it’s the first day of May (how is it May already?!), National Runners Month.

What I really mean is: What to do when it’s 70+* outside and I want to keep wearing that darn jacket?! Haha.  Luckily (?) I’m still feeling a bit nauseous and chilly from my infection and antibiotics so I think I won’t overheat too much 😉

In fact I was feeling so awful yesterday that I SKIPPED my Spanish class on Friday.  Ummm yeah.  I *never* skip classes.  But my head was pounding and I thought I was going to vomit at any given moment.  Dry heavy? Sexy, no? I was even terrified to eat something for fear of actually throwing up (while I doubt anyone like puking the idea sends chills up my spine.

As the day went on I started to feel slightly better.  I was able to go to my last PT session.  I figure that since I haven’t really run at all lately, and my shins were an overuse thing, that I’m done with PT for now.  My therapist did say that she won’t officially discharge me for a few weeks in case something crops up when I do return to running but, like I said, the shin stuff was due to too much running and I won’t be anywhere near that when I do return. And sadly, because of the infection we didn’t do much soft tissue work because of the risk of circulating the infection. Boo.

The rest of my Friday, the start of Spring Weekend, was rather lame.  I ended up laying out in the beautiful weather with friends, writing a cover letter to a job that send me a secondary application (yay!) and kicking back with lots of ginger ale.  So yes, I am a lame-o.  But on the bright side I got a good night of sleep and I feel like I’m catching up on that sleep deprivation that my go-to-the-hospital-every-8-hours schedule created.  Much better use of my time than staying up late at parties, especially since I can’t drink at the moment.

I also got to start watching the show Miami Medical.  SO. GOOD.  Seriously.  It’s like ER but a little sexier.  I am hooked! I love that I can understand a lot of what’s going on medically plus it makes me want to go work in an ER, like, now 🙂  Again I guess my not feeling so hot is good because I don’t think I would have started watching this if I had been feeling better.  I would have been out partying. Oops hahah.

But now it’s Saturday morning and I think I’m feeling a little better.  Like, not better enough to go run around all crazy on campus, but better enough to emerge from my room and and enjoy today’s festivities. Like I mentioned at the beginning of the post it’s a beautiful day so it’ll be fun.  No running, duh, and I hate “wasting” good running weather (especially since it was ideal when I got up) but whatever. Trying to stay positive.

Also, thanks again for all your “Get betters” and other caring words! Especially to TMart who told me to keep blogging even if I wasn’t running. But since this is a running blog I’m…well not at a loss of words seeing how this post is still lengthy but rather at a loss of topics.  Anything that you guys want me to write about? I feel so lost with topics without my running!

I am putting together an April recap to keep some type of running related stuff here 😛  Granted April wasn’t exactly the model month for running. I’ve looked over a rough estimate of my miles and they took a total nosedive because of the combo of my shins being so painful at the beginning of the month, to tapering, to this infection.  Oh well, I’ll try to completely that soon. But right now I need to get back outside in the SUN!

Hope you guys are having a fabulous weekend and check out the giveaways from ErikaH, Kim, Tricia

As promised:

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Graduation Day

And no I’m not talking about graduation from college. I mean graduation from the IV.

Cool nettting so the IV doesn't catch on anything. I was going to post a pic of the actual IV but my friend told me that not everyone is fascinated with this stuff!

Yesterday when I hit up the ER the doc (who had seen me before luckily so he had a baseline of how it had been previously) told me that even though we were “fighting and winning the battle” (legit his words and he’s a short little man with fuzzy hair haha) he wanted to give me another 24 hours of the IV.  Annoying but I can’t argue with his logic.  Annoying though because it meant another 1300, 2200 and 0500 (this morning) treatments.

So I got up at 0430 (after going to be after midnight! ugh!) and went to the ER.  As much as it sucked getting up with so little sleep and having the extra 3 treatments, the good thing is that I had a hot nurse to take care of me. And lack of sleep sometimes makes me a bit punchy so there may have been some flirting haha. Too bad that the only time I’d ever see him again is if I get sent to the ER.  Bummer

But I got cleared to stop the IV.  I’m on a 7 day oral form of the IV antibiotic in addition to the other oral I’m on.  And since antibiotics are time sensitive in dosage I had to write out a schedule of when to take the drugs and tape it to the bottles because there are so many that I have to take over the course of 24 hours haha!

I did ask when I could return to running.  My body is really recovered from Boston and I’m itching to go. The short answer is not soon.  The infection was really really bad and the doctor told me to wait until the open wound on my toe (from draining the fluid Monday) is completely healed.  Bahhh.  And double bahhhh because I’m a slow healer in general (always have been). But as the nurse told me “You’re young so why risk messing anything up?”

SO TRUE.  Which is what you guys and people in my “real life” keep reminding me of.  And to be honest, I haven’t forgotten it.  I know that my body is still rebounding from the 16+ weeks of intense high mileage training so this downtime is going to be amazing.  I can almost feel myself  getting stronger in fact.  And I can feel that I’m getting back in touch with my bodies needs.  I totally think that my mind and the goal of Boston took over for awhile and I lost that ability to be tuned into my body.

But it still sucks that I have this pent up energy so I did also ask about other activities and the short answer is: not yet.  There is still some redness in the leg and toe, very faint but it indicates that the infection isn’t 100% gone.  I’m hoping that within the next day or so my leg looks 100% normal because, as much as the rest and “relaxation” (because relaxation just isn’t in my vocabulary with < 6 days of classes left!) I’m getting a little stir crazy.  I’ll be able to do anything non-impact or anything that doesn’t pinch/rub hard my big toe (aka the one that this all started with).

On a different, yet still not running related note: this weekend is SPRING WEEKEND! The weather, which has of late been highs of 40* (we even had frost the other morning!) is going to be upper 70s to low 80s.  Perfect for sitting outside and celebrating spring.  There are live bands, games, face painting, inflatable jumping thingy.  Basically a carnival type thing.  AKA drinking from Thursday night and not stopping until Sunday night.  I know of quite a few people who don’t have a sober moment over those days.

Unfortunately this year I will be unable to participate because I get violently ill when I mix alcohol and antibiotics.  Boo.  Not that I’m a huge drinker anyway but having the *option* to taken away from me is a bummer.  And it’s not as though I can go easy on the stuff and be okay.  Literally one glass of wine is enough to make me very unhappy.

But it’s okay because I’ll still have fun.  Assuming I can finish all the work I have in front of me.  Because, with no more ER trips, I don’t have a set time where the only thing I can really do is homework.  I had been so productive during those trips.  Both on the school work front and fun reading.  I read 4 books over the course of the 4 days I was there.  I know I’m a fast reader but I think the fastest of those books was due more from the waiting time 😉

….Okay so I wrote all that this morning then went and finished my work. Yippee! Off to go enjoy the blustery weather.  The physics club is going to a pub in about 20 minutes because an alum (and one of my good friends) is visiting…so duh on the pub hahah.  Obviously I can’t drink like I said but it’s still going to be a blast 🙂

Enjoy the rest of your Thursdays and the upcoming weekend!