Friday, June 02, 2006

6.2.06 I can't even begin to describe the pain I have been in

For the past 11 days, I have been huddled up in the fetal position in my recliner. I developed a staff infection at the base of my neck and I tell you, in 37 years, this has been the most excruciating pain I have ever had to endure. Past the pain of the infection itself, every muscle in my neck and back feel torn and twisted.

I started growing a knot on the back of my noggin and once it hit the size of a softball and hurt bad enough that I could not put any pressure on it, I thought it might be wise to see a doc about it. It got to that point after a day, so i didn't wait too long. The doc said they couldn't drain it since there was nothing to drain - it was hard as a rock. I figured it was just an ingrown hair that got infected or something.

I will spare you the gory and gross details of this fun event. Yesterday, I went back to the doctor for a 2nd draining and to get my culture results. As I was on my stomach with my wound uncovered, the doc walked in and all I heard was 'Ewwww'. I couldn't help but think, "that ain't good!".

He wanted to go ahead and send me to a surgeon to get the area really cleaned out and remove any bad tissue in there. He started to do the draining and decided to hold of on a visit to the surgeon for now. The lab results showed that I didn't have the staff infection that would require them to remove my neck to get rid of it - I call that bonus! So, we switched from the $100 antibiotic to a $17 10 day cycle and more pain pills to help manage the pain.

I asked if he could give me something a bit stronger for the pain as I told him what he prescribed was like giving a tic tac to a whale. I am not all about taking medicine and stuff, but I was not bearing the pain very well.

In short, for 11 days, I was either in my recliner, trying to find a comfortable position or in the shower running hot water over the area to clean the discharge. No where in there was sleep time. If I was lucky, the pain medication knocked me out for maybe an hour each night.

So, you have to find a silver lining in all of this stuff. I lost another 20 lbs - 6 of which I gained back from being down on the toe. And, with the law of averages, I should be golden from here until race time with no more mishaps... knock on wood!

I talked with Coach Mike yesterday and told him I thought I could get back to running and biking on Monday. I can finally use my CompuTrainer that has been sitting in the garage since I bought it :) Not sure how soon I can get a helmet on or get into a pool. But, I can at least walk and run and ride the trainer. I am hoping in 7 to 10 days I am back to normal - and normal is a relative term :)

Hallah asked me the other day how my toe was doing. I asked her what she was talking about. She said, "You know, your toe...you broke it, remember?" I was like, oh yeah; toe is fine honey, thanks! I totally forgot about that. Funny how your focus gets sifted....

So, looks like a 3 week break and still time to get back and come back strong. Keeping up with the nutrition and hoping to come back strong! It's all about the journey!!!!

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