Sunday, March 23, 2014

I'm back, and this time, i mean it.

Dear Diary,

Three days after i was hit and two days after my last post, I tried to jog gently across the street on the way to a meeting. OW. I continued to stand at my standing workstation, and walked between a half to a full mile a day, slowly, but I had a sharp pain whenever I toed off, in maybe the fibularus longus? I suck at anatomy

I went to see th doc. My new doc is with the 377th medical group now that Sweet Baboo is active duty. It's a large clinic full of practitioners wearing combat fatigues. I was seen at EXACTLY 0700. There's something comforting about providers who have medical training in addition to combat and firearm training. Everyone says "m'am." My prescriptions, three months' supply of Advaire, thyroid meds, and other meds, were handed to me in a plain paper bag, no charge. If this is government-run medicine, I'll take it.

I remembered more about the accident. The driver gunned it as I was crossing the street, and I remembered being surprised that the car was picking up speed as it came at me, I still don't remember much until I landed on the other side of the hood.

The doctor clarified that no, i wasn't in a car when I was hit. Then he felt both legs. "There's no swelling, no discoloration, and they both feel exactly the same," he muttered. He ordered an x-ray, which was negative. I was already mending. I could power walk, which I couldn't do three days before. The doc said that, in his opinion, most other women my age would have snapped a bone. "Fitness and luck," he said.

Two days after that, I had a Thai massage. Two days after that, I took a few tentative shuffling jogging steps on the treadmill, and the next day I shuffle-jogged a mile on the trails behind my house. A few days after that, I ran. After that day I never felt pain in that leg again. The next week, I was up to two miles a day, then three miles a day, and on March 22, yesterday, I ran-walked seventeen miles. I still need walk breaks, but they're getting further apart.

My facebook description says:

Anything's possible. I can climb a mountain, swim across a lake, go 62 miles on my own two feet. I can live happily ever after...

To this I add,

even if you hit me with a car.

I now consider the Unfortunate Car Incident of 2014 to be closed.

...

I turned 49 last week. Getting old doesn't bother me. Being four years away from the age my mother was when she was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy does. I try to remind myself that a) I am far healthier than my mother was, even when she was in her twenties, b) my mother never exercised, and c) I suspect she had undiagnosed hypothyroidism. Mine was diagnosed, and is treated.

As it comes early in my family, menopause has come and gone for me. Here is what has made life livable: Small fans. Black cohosh. Salted carmel sport gels. Injinji compression socks in pink. Wicking clothing. A panasonic epilator. It's the little things.

This next weekend, I'll do a marathon double, hopefully, and pick up two new states: the Forest Gump challenge in Missouri, and the Hogeye in Arkansas.

I'm back. And barring further car incidents, I'm picking up speed.

...

5 comments:

  1. Good luck this weekend!

    For me, still, the weird ages are the ones my kids reach, in particular the fact that two of them are past/at the age I was when I had my first kid. I look at them and can't even imagine what my parents must have been thinking when I told them I was pregnant. Well, I guess I can. I'm just glad I haven't yet had to have that conversation from this side.

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  2. Glad to hear you've (almost) mended. Your grit and determination is to be admired!

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  3. Kate, all my kids are well past the age that I was when I had my first and second! I'm guessing that means they've paid attention to all my dire warnings all these years. I have one that is about to be 30, and already looks like an old man. THAT's weird.

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  4. I'm so glad to hear you're doing great! It's amazing how well a fit and strong body is able to recover from something like that.

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  5. WAIT... you are doing (2) marathons next week... and just got back to running after the accident!? HOLY COW... you are amazing! And the grit and determination of NEVER giving up is a very powerful tool! Thank you for being an example of this... can't wait for my run in the morning!!!

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 I'm no longer involved in multisport or endurance sports. I've started my own business, a psychotherapist specializing in anxiety d...