this has been the hardest half i've trained for so far. not because of the running or the mileage...that's the easy part. when you have an event in april, you start upping your mileage in jan/feb. cold isn't an issue--just bundle up...it's the illness...it's because of the coombs family month of march curse! seriously, this is year two and running--remember the quarantine, broken nose, and then round 2 last year?...it's tradition now!!
so, not to be beat out by last year, max started us off mid-february with a 105 fever and a slight cough. then david caught the FluCold from the seventh circle of purgatory, graciously passed it on to me just in time for valentine's day, and just when i thought i was ok to run again, my knees decided they needed an extra week of ITBS boot camp to recover. a couple really great runs under the belt, then max got a stomach bug. then pace started with a cough and low-grade fever. nothing alarming at first, and last saturday his cough turned barky. i thought, ok, no problem--we can deal with croup. after doing steam "treatments" all night in the bathroom (i got a great facial out of it!), his fever spiked sunday to 104 and his cough changed to what i thought was a pneumonia-like cough. we saw the dr. on monday, with his 104.6 fever and moaning, and went to the hospital for a chest X-ray, which disproved my gut instinct that it was pneumonia. the dr. told us the X-ray was clear and it was something viral we just had to get through. i grit my teeth, knowing i'd been up for practically 72 hours already, and more sleepless nights were coming--and poor pace had been literally coughing non-stop for those 72 hours...and more was coming.
monday evening, heather and i decided to go for a quick run to squeeze in our last few runs together before she up and leaves me for eagle mountain (i'm going to miss heather so much!!). we decided on 7, so i took some ibuprofen for my knee between 6-630 (it was acting up a little), and between 630-645 quickly ate a few bites of a super yummy dinner (roasted spaghetti squash turned into "noodles" topped with roasted broccoli, sautéed chick peas, kale, red peppers, chopped onion/carrots/celery, roasted/salted sunflower seeds, and some freshly grated romano-peccorino cheese--all things i have eaten before--we eat mainly plant-based, so lots of fruits, veggies, seeds, nuts, legumes, grains...this meal was nothing out of the ordinary and ingredients we eat all the time).
as i was jogging over to heather's house, the palms of my hands started to feel a little itchy. we started running and the itching got worse. while running i was thinking about a friend i had who, towards the end of her pregnancy, started having liver problems and they had to induce her early. her symptoms?--rash and itchy palms. i distinctly remember thinking, "huh. i wonder if my liver is having a hard time filtering the ibuprofen?" then i started to feel a little lump in my throat, which i attributed to maybe heartburn due to running so close after eating. then my ears started to burn. not on the outside, on the inside, the ear canal was burning and itchy. then my underarms. when we made it home about 40 minutes later and were stretching outside, i noticed my palms were bright red, as well as my wrists. and huge white hives were running up my wrists. we said our farewell, and i went inside and grabbed a quick drink--that lump in my throat still hadn't gone away, and in fact, that drink felt a little tight on the way down--and then showed david, our resident asthmatic and allergic-to-everything-but-cats hives expert, my wrists, and he said to take a shower and some benadryl.
as i was jogging over to heather's house, the palms of my hands started to feel a little itchy. we started running and the itching got worse. while running i was thinking about a friend i had who, towards the end of her pregnancy, started having liver problems and they had to induce her early. her symptoms?--rash and itchy palms. i distinctly remember thinking, "huh. i wonder if my liver is having a hard time filtering the ibuprofen?" then i started to feel a little lump in my throat, which i attributed to maybe heartburn due to running so close after eating. then my ears started to burn. not on the outside, on the inside, the ear canal was burning and itchy. then my underarms. when we made it home about 40 minutes later and were stretching outside, i noticed my palms were bright red, as well as my wrists. and huge white hives were running up my wrists. we said our farewell, and i went inside and grabbed a quick drink--that lump in my throat still hadn't gone away, and in fact, that drink felt a little tight on the way down--and then showed david, our resident asthmatic and allergic-to-everything-but-cats hives expert, my wrists, and he said to take a shower and some benadryl.
i was in the shower maybe two minutes and watched my whole body turn flaming red, and everything everywhere was instantly on fire and itchy--i couldn't itch enough, head to toes. and in between toes. and under toes. and i was dizzy. i looked in the mirror and couldn't decide if my face was swollen, but thought my eyes looked really small in proportion to everything else, and my ears were definitely puffier than an ear should be. and were those pimples growing on my neck?--they sure were itchy...and getting bigger... and everything sounded far away and tunnel-like. "david," i think i said, because of the tunnel-hearing thing, "i've turned into a huge hive! what do i do?!" he came in to check out my lumpy-lobster glory, and asked if i could still breathe. i took a breath in, and it seemed ok, but that lump in my throat was still there, burning, and i couldn't really swallow very well. i took 2 tsp of children's benadryl and instantly knew i needed to go to the hospital.
david was getting the boys ready for bed, and poor pace was crying and coughing, and i was dizzy, and knew i couldn't take myself to the hospital, so we called heather. "heather? you know how my palms were itchy while we were running?" "yeah?..." "well, i'm kind of one big hive now, and i'm red and itchy and can't swallow and i'm dizzy...i can't drive, can you take me to the hospital?" she was bathing her girls and doing the bedtime thing with them, but she said, "brian is walking out the door right now. he's coming to get you." good thing brian was with me! in my bewilderment, when we made it to the hospital and no one was at the check in window, i just sat down and put my head in between my knees. after parking the car, he came in and asked if i'd checked in yet. i said no, they were busy. so he shouted through the window that i was having an allergic reaction and couldn't breathe and needed to be seen right away.
an allergic reaction?! is that what this is?! i mean, don't get me wrong, i knew medically these signs and symptoms were pointing to an acute and severe allergic reaction, but to me?! i'm not allergic to anything! i always tell doctors i am the most boring patient on earth! well...an hour after a shot of epinephrine, a shot of benadryl, steroid and pepcid pills, and this is what me and my hot legs looked like. david made it to the hospital after the boys fell asleep and getting a sitter to come over, and after i told the dr. what i ate and did an hour prior to becoming a walking hive, he gave me a look and said, "well, it was either the healthy eating, or the running...looks like you need to give up one of the two..." haha...then he more seriously said it was likely a reaction to the ibuprofen, but still wanted me to follow up with an allergist and get tested, as my next exposure will likely be worse than this one was. are you serious?! i'm almost 35 years old, have never had an allergy in my life, and all of a sudden, i'm going to go into acute anaphylactic shock if i stand too close to kale? or sunflower seeds? or take ibuprofen? he also sent me home with a prescription for an epi-pen and steroids to minimize risk of a residual flare up. (these steroids better help me out running this half...wait, would i be tested and charged as a doper?)
all drugged up and feeling kind of loopy, we made it home (good thing david was driving)...and it was back to the night shift with pace.
david took the day off work yesterday, because he was afraid he was going to come home to a swollen, red, and lifeless lobster-like version of his wife on the floor,
(good thing i'll have good "memes" at my funeral...david cooked a couple up for me and i couldn't decide which one was better)
...and pace and i got to have a little nap and snuggle time
and when he woke up, hacking his lungs out for the fourth day in a row, and whimpering and begging that the coughing stop, i did what any mama bear would do and i brought him to the hospital. we checked in and the lady said, "hey, weren't you here..." "yes, yes i was." we thankfully saw a very nice dr. who immediately gave pace a breathing treatment (the awesomely sweet respiratory therapist who came down was actually the same one from last march! i think we'll maybe add misty to our march madness tradition!), an antibiotic (because having a cough and fever for 7 days is just too much on a four-year-old's body and he needs a break--thank you, thank you so much, nice, kind er doctor), and an inhaler for any residual wheezing, and suggested we follow up with our normal dr. to check pace out for possible asthma. just a few minutes after the breathing treatment, and pace was up to his usual antics:
on the way out of the hospital, the check in lady jokingly said, "see you tomorrow!" is it march? then yes, yes you will. i will likely be back with my other little guy before the month is over...
(update: today...i am left with a poor, still sick little pace boy who has lost all his usual sweetness and is demanding, ornery, whiny...and still coughing, although at least it isn't with every breath. he is getting a break. seems like he caught the FluCold from hell, too...but you better believe i'm sticking with the antibiotic--we actually all slept 5 hours straight last night...i think he very well may have something viral, and i am all for not throwing antibiotics at something unnecessarily, but it seems as though these antibiotics are at least giving his immune system some support and kicking in a little! hardly any coughing fits--only when he was throwing a demanding sick boy tantrum--and sleeping is great!)
1 comment:
Wow, that's a big yuck! But good you think it's hilarious!
You sure it wasn't the candlestick?
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