Mom's knee surgery

The surgery went well. It took about 3 hours for everything, but the surgery itself was only about 40 minutes. Mom couldn't believe how "fast" it seemed to go. Of course, once you are under the influence of "happy juice" time is a fleeting thing. You are awake and then "asleep" and then awake again in what seems like an instant. The nurse said they has to use extra "juice" to keep her sedated. She said her mind must have been thinking of lot's of things, so it made her restless. Probably about how she slept last night. Mom said she was sleeping, but not really resting ~ too many things processing through the main computer for it to go into hibernate mode and allow a peaceful night. They found an extra piece of hard fat or cartilage floating around in there, which the doctor was not expecting and thinks broke off because there is a bit of arthritis in that joint. I think that is probably what was causing the sudden excruciating pains Mom would get every so often. So they took that out and cleaned up the meniscus so it has a nice smooth edge again. He showed us pictures of the different areas of her knee that they worked on and looked at. It's funny that they do that while your in a drugged state. They tell you things knowing you won't remember. I guess it's mostly for my benefit in case she asks later, but they are going to go over all of it at the follow up, so...? Anyway, she had a great nurse. She just kept talking to her and me , doing what she had to do, charting, watching her vitals, and letting me know that the rush of emotion is normal for someone coming out of anethesia (she cried when she saw me come in the room and kind of clung to me ~ very weird when I have only ever seen her be strong emotionally ~ except right after Dad died, but even then not such a rush of emotion). I even got a little faint for some reason in the room, so she checked up on me and got me some juice and made sure I was okay. Told me lots of people do that cause of emotions, or whatever. It wasn't that. I think it was the chemical smell in the air and my 2 waffle breakfast was gone, so my blood sugar dropped a bit. The juice helped, but now my tummy is about ready to scream at me if I don't put some food in it. I got a sandwhich at Subway while I was waiting at WalMart for her perscription to be filled, but haven't eaten it yet. It's staring at me right now...silently saying "eat me...I taste really good...you know you want to...." =0)

So on that note I think I will eat something and crash with the rest of the crowd. Even the critters are sleeping. =0)
Eryn

Running Journal

Tried something new today. Got up at 10:20 (didn't want to, but had to), got dressed, had a glass of water and a packet of orange flavored gu, massaged the muscles that tend to cramp up and stretched a bit, and took the dog out for a run. Started out by running instead of walking to test a theory that the cramps come because I start by walking. It worked for about half my time out, then slight cramping showed up. Stopped to stretch the muscles out and massage them again. That worked for a little while, but the left leg is a bit more stubborn than the right one(hmmm....).

Forgot to use my inhaler before I left, so I did not have enough oxygen to run consistently. Started out well, running 2 min. then walking 2 minutes for about the first half. Then I had to walk mostly to catch my breath, which is when the cramping started. It is soooo weird. Never consistent. Kind of like me, weird and inconsistent. =0) I never know what's going to happen. I guess I'm still on the learning curve. Looking forward to the "knowing" straight away. Maybe someday.

Anyway, I would not recommend going out right after you get up only because you're THIRSTY the whole time. Now had I been thinking clearly I would have taken some water with me, but alas my brain was still wondering why my body had left the bed again (that's another story for another day). The gu helped stave off the hunger that is now creeping back up, so that part was successful. I shall keep experimenting to figure out the best method. Pray for me. There are days I don't want to run, but those I run for don't have a choice whether or not they want the chemo that day. They just have to take it, and then somehow function well afterwards. Pray for them too. Our honored teammate Barb is undergoing some intense chemo right now because the less intense stuff was not working. Imagine being beat up as if a punching bag, run over by a bus, dragged behind a speed boat, thrown on the beach and then told to get up and run through the sand with no opportunity to recover your strength. That's probably about how she feels after chemo. It's no fun.

Off to work I go.
eryn

Running Journal ~ Hill Training

"Let's meet Wednesday to do hill training with your coaches." Great Idea!!! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!! Have you ever run up and down the hills of Tacoma around Pt. Defiance?? Down is nice. Up...not so nice, especially on a warm almost summer day in June. We all felt a lot better when Coach Kathy told us that she could barely make it up this particular hill. WOW! The first time wasn't sooooo bad. I made it up in about 62 seconds. Kathy, Kathy, and David were about 10 seconds or so faster. Captain Meg, Leanne, and Suzy came in about 10 seconds after me. Walking back down was the best part. Then coach said, "let's do it again!" Okay, but I'm am certain that it is going to be slower. Do you know, I did it in the same amount of time, only my muscles and lungs were screaming a bit more that time. Wow. K2 and D went down for a third run and I waited for Leanne and Suzy. We all decided it was better to breath than to do it again, so we waited at the top to cheer on those running the gauntlet again. Great cardiovascular work out!!! (I think I shall tackle Steilacoom hill one of these days. Maybe Friday morning. We shall see.)
The daunting part was after having exhausted ourselves a bit running up that particular hill, we all had to hike back to Vassault park to get back to our cars. You see, the coaches had not arrived by 5:45 so Captain Meg decided we should just go down Vassault Street to the first hill and do our "intervals" there for about 30-45 minutes. On our way back up the first time Coach Kathy drove by looking for us. She decided it would be a "Great idea" to do the "valley of death" hill at the end of Pt. Defiance park. However, that was about half a mile away at least. Yea! She drove back to the park to get David, who had run all the way to the end and back before the rest of us (he's a fast one), and then drove over to "the hill" while the rest of us walk/ran to it. One bright spot about that particular location...it is all shaded! Beautifully tree-lined and cool air. Lovely.
(Am I complaining...no...just relating to you the joys of running. =0) You actually do feel a whole lot better after you do it, but the process is not always pleasant.)
I stuck with Captain Meg most of the way back. She tried to run a bit on the way back, but having fallen not 3 blocks into our first outing, she said she had no steam left to even want to give to running part of the way. So, we walked. I'm okay with that.
I am sooooooo happy that my legs seem to have stopped cramping up. I do not know if it is just adjustment to training more, the bananas I have been eating more of, stretching before going out, or a combo of all of it, or simply God's grace. Whatever it is I am grateful!!!!! It is very difficult to run with feet that feel like dead weights.
As I was driving home, my body was telling me that it would love to sit on the couch for at least 30 minutes, doing nothing in particular, but eating would be nice. However, my brain knew that there would be a certain puppy dog who would be very unhappy if he did not get a walk today, so after a 5 minute reprieve and an argument with myself (should I go...nah, I'll take him out tomorrow...no you won't, you get home too late...okay fine...)we went. It was just a short walk to the park and back, mostly because the blister I got from Saturday's Sound to Narrows walk was talking to me (funny that it didn't bother me during practice, but after a short respite I guess it decided it was going to be an irritation ~ yea!), but her was happy. That's what counts. =0)
Well, if I go out to Steilacoom hill on Friday I shall apply the principles I learned today. Do not lean in to the hill whilst going up it. Approach it as if it were a staircase. Keep your body upright in order to keep your core muscles and glutes engaged. When going down hill, shorten your step and go a bit slower, so you don't end up on your face inadvertently. Keep your eyes up (unless running on uneven sidewalk that likes to reach out and grab your foot if you're not looking), which keeps your head up, which keeps your chest expanded, which keeps your oxygen flowing to your muscles, which keeps you from falling over. Good plan.
Well the hour is late, so i shall bid you adieu.
Happy trail (running) to you.
eryn

Sound to Narrows 12k

The Sound to Narrows went pretty well. I learned not to wear the socks I chose for the Bellingham marathon. =0) Good to know. They are a bit to loose, so they rub a little and cause my feet to sweat more than the Brooks socks I normally wear (they were all dirty). Kim and her sister Lisa and her son Jordan came too. Kim and Lisa ran the 12k and Jordan and Rikki and I walked it. My friend Marci and her son Daniel found us at the start line. I was worried she had not come because she didn't call my phone so we could find each other before the race, but she told me that she left her phone in her car. OOPS! Oh well. I walked with them for a while, but Jordan and Rikki (mostly Jordan) wanted to run a bit, so I said they could run ahead as long as I could see them and they could see me.That lasted for a while, but when we got into Point Defiance with it's windy roads, they got a bit farther than they should have, so I had to part with my friend and zoom ahead to find them. It was funny to run by all the walkers. They kind of look at you sideways, thinking to themselves perhaps "uh...this is the walkers part of the race", or maybe "what's so important that you have to run to get there?" Maybe they weren't thinking anything at all. I don't know. Anyway, I found them around the two mile point and Rikki was saying her knees were hurting her, so we slowed it down a bit. Poor Jordan, it was torture for him to walk with us. So I started letting him run to the curve in the road, or the next sign, or to the medic car, or the next big tree. Rikki was really complaining about her knees, so at one point we stopped to rest, and another time we stopped for a potty break and to let Marci catch up. She is a surgical nurse, so i was going to ask her what she thought we should do for Rikki, but they never came by, so we kept going, figuring they took the short cut offered a mile or so ago, either that or they zoomed past us when we weren't looking.. I made Rikki tough it out until about the 5 mile mark and then she was complaining so much that I didn't want to risk an injury, so I told her that she could ride with the medics (if they would let her) at the next station. We stopped and the medic who had wrapped her knee with ice earlier told us that she could not ride with them, but the bus that was following us would be happy to take her. Once she was on the bus Jordan and I ran most of the rest of the way. He is very goal oriented and competitive. He kept saying he wanted to get past the group ahead of us, so we passed about three groups before we ran into Kim and Lisa. Jordan ran the rest of the way with his mom and I walked and chatted with Kim, and then we ran in to the finish line. With all the delays along the way it took us about two hours and 27 minutes to finish!!!! It was a beautiful course though. Jordan said that next year he is going to run the whole thing. I think he will be the fasted kid out there. It was a great day for running though, nice and cool. For some reason I developed a water blister on my left heel (probably from the socks I was wearing), and I learned that I should take a few pretzels with me next time. There was no food on the course, only water, which is great except when you are hungry. There was food at the finish line, so that kept us going for a bit longer; but it's hard to coax your body to perform well on the thought of food at the end. It wants it NOW! =0) Lesson learned. All in all ~ it was a good day.

How is it possible that I can run for 5 minutes on Saturday with my team, but I cannot go more than two minutes around my neighborhood???????? Perhaps it was the magic jelly bean I ate before practice? Perhaps the cool weather, gravel path, good company, and well balanced meal the day before all worked together to make a great run? Maybe it was the coaches pace? I think it was the magic jellybean. =0)

Anyway, UPS practice went really well today. Leann and I did a warm up lap around the track with Coach Eileen giving us great instructions on "speed walking" before we ran an 800 yard "dash." Slowest dash in history! The purpose was to see what our time would be if we ran a marathon that day at that speed. I would have crossed the finish line in 6 hrs and 8 minutes. I think I can do better than that. The coaches told us to take it easy because it was about 77 degrees right then. After a cool down walk and some chitchat, Coach Eileen had us go around 2 more times (800 yrds). That time I came in at 6:16. Leann and I walked a bit more on the last lap. I think I was going a bit too fast as well, because I was not so easy to chat with Leann as it should have been. "Running should be easy at any stage." "You should be able to talk." Still working on that part. =0)

I guess I'll get to practice pacing myself more Saturday at the Sound to Narrows 12k. I'll let you know how that goes.
Eryn

Running Journal

Popular restaurant manager loses battle with leukemia

Another reason why i run. Click on the link to read the article.

Running Journal ~ 5th Saturday

I RAN 5 MINUTE INTERVALS TODAY!!!!! WOW!!! I started out with coach Kathy's group, who usually runs 5 and walks 2, and told her I had never run 5 minutes before. I don't know how I did it, but the first run was pretty easy (started breathing harder and checking my watch at 4:32), so whatever her pace is I LIKE IT! I think the combonation of stretching before running, eating more potassium and running on dirt helped a lot. I much prefer dirt to asphalt, but sometimes you have no choice. Anyway, I didn't maintain the 5 and 2 pace long because I chose to partner up with a gal who was a little slower than me and my mentor Kristeen ran with us too, since we didn't know the course streets well (at least I didn't). We were out for 50 minutes this morning ~ did a lap around Wright Park, and on the way back out to Division street, who should cross our path, but Ms. Gloria (and her team). I kicked it in to high gear so I could get up the hill to say "Hi" and not delay her run. They had been out for about an hour, someone said, on their 20 mile journey today. We passed a lot of folks from the summer team on our course through Tacoma. I was really neat 'cause as we passed each other we would always yell "GO TEAM!" and sometimes give a high 5 to the passerby.
Oh I see my battery is getting low. Needless to say it was a great day to run (just ask Gloria) and I am SOOOOOO happy to cross the 5 minute mark. Now I know that I can do it. My partner today is trying to talk me into going to the Nike Marathon with her instead of Bellingham, but that's a $4000 commitment, so we will have to see where my fundraising is by the end of June. If you want to send me to San Francisco just click the link on the right that says "Check out my marathon page" and make a contribution. =0)
God is so good! Uh, I am just so happy to have beaten that 5 minute mark...
Okay, really. More later.
eryn

Running Journal

Great run yesterday. Dehydrated though. AND HOT!!! I was considering going up and down Steilacoom hill, but thought better of that when I got outside at 9:30am and it already felt too warm. I can't believe the weather this year...so random. Only mild cramping in my left leg. I have eaten more potassium rich bananas this week and made sure to stretch a bit before going out, so perhaps that combo helped. Still testing the theory.
Sleep is calling. See ya later.

Running Journal

I declared today a rest day. I had to work all day and then teach a bunch of rowdy wonderful kids tonight and besides, it was WAY TOO HOT for running. Oh yeah, and I'm sore from my karate work out yesterday! Oy! You take a week off from training and your muscles somehow forget what they have done before. How many other excuses can I make????? =0) I went out for an hour on Monday anyway, so that surely counts as two 30 minute walks right? =0)

Chronicles is calling...I'm supposed to be done with that by now; but, alas, that too is a bit behind.
Sprinting through the Bible...I think I'm on a slight incline right now. I see the plateau on the horizon, though.

Night all.