Kristin and I were discussing the next few months on the way home from the climbing gym last night (more about that in a separate post) and came to the realization that this year is going to be a bit difficult. That was sarcasm. The sheer volume of trips, events, and known-struggles on the calendar for 2009 is astonishing. Rather than wait till December to post a top ten things of 2009, I'm going to go ahead and plop that list down right now in February... I may not get the chance again.
January
Well, let's see... I wrote two books in January, travelled to Japan for a week, hosted a student from South Korea, and found out my mom had something going seriously wrong with her left breast. There's a lot of good there, professionally and personally, but also a major cause for concern. We just didn't know how serious yet.
February
I finished the second book in the early days of the month and I'm about to start my third. Our exchange student went home, and my mom went in for a rather urgent mastectomy. We know the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes, but we don't yet know to what extent. We're very scared, but I can already tell my role as oldest son will be to "be the rock." My mother and sister will need it. Kristin works round the clock on schoolwork and work stuff.
March
We booked a three-night ski trip to Whistler for early March with friends and my brother and his girlfriend are flying out to come with us. The trip was booked before we knew about my mom, and I'm not sure I want to go anymore. The lack of snow could be a perfect excuse to cancel the trip. I'm going to buy a one-way ticket back east to spend time with my mom as soon as I finish this book I'm about to start.
April
It's barely even on my radar right now, but we're tentatively going to South Korea in mid April for 10 days. This is heavily dependent on how far along my mother's cancer is, though in reality unless her condition is far more dire than anyone dares imagine at this point, I don't see us skipping the trip. After all, if we can't be with her in NJ all the time, what difference does it make if we're in WA or Korea?
May
May has a lot of good and bad, all dependent on my mom. Kristin will be crunching like crazy to finish her Capstone project (think thesis study) for business school. There's a slight chance (fingers crossed, sort-of) that I go back to Japan for a few days, though I'm not sure how likely that is. I'll likely be returning to visit my mom again in May. Also, there's a group of us planning to ride the 100+ mile Maah-Daah-Hey Trail in North Dakota over Memorial Day Weekend. Kristin has another biz school retreat and I'll no doubt be getting busy on one of my major titles of the year.
June
Kristin graduates from Seattle University's Executive MBA program in the middle of the month. Her parents and grandmother will be flying in, as will my sister who will be coming in for the graduation, but to also go on a pilgrimage to Forks... she's a bit Twilight-crazy. I love when family comes to visit us out here and hope my sister can make it, but her trip is obviously tentative. The Test of Metal is the weekend after Kristin's graduation, which I'll be doing with a bunch of friends. We'll be flying back east again at the end of June for a fun combo-anniversary & birthday party Kristin's parents are having at their beach house in NJ. Oh, and then there's E3... though even if I get invited this year, I'll probably decline.
July
Another possible trip back east to visit family and to join my friends on the annual baseball trip. I've missed the past two years due to TransRockies and the Leadville 100 and don't want to lose my "veteran" status so will likely make every effort to join them this year for a trip down I-95 to the mid-Atlantic ballparks.
August
Nothing for me, mercifully, but I expect Kristin to need to fly east for bridesmaid stuff. Her sister is getting married in October.
September
Ha! I can rarely take a day off from mid-August through the end of October so my butt will be firmly planted in my desk chair. Unless I'm needed in NJ.
October
Kristin's sister is getting married in Long Island. I'm sure Kristin will be going back for several days. I'll probably have to limit my time to a fly-by appearance, staying at most for a night or two, depending on workload. October is the absolute worst of all the crunch periods -- I haven't even gotten a chance to celebrate my birthday in the 9 years I've been doing this.
Well, fortunately, I don't have anything in mind for November (other than sleep and Seahawks games) and December (more of the same). There's a lot of potential in the coming year. Some great trips, great memories, and memorable events and milestones. It's just hard to get excited about any of it right now, as our minds are on my mom. Today she begins scheduling the various imaging tests that will tell the doctors how far the cancer has spread (if at all) then she'll have to begin chemotherapy and radiology treatments.
Waiting for the answers might be the hardest part.
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
The Leg Thing...
The leg thing had me worried. I'll be honest and say that my first reaction was that I was having a stroke. I know, pretty farfetched for a guy who is only 32, but not impossible. Especially when you factor in the headaches.
I was actually talking with another strategy guide author the other day and mentioned this leg pain and the headaches to him and what he told me confirmed my recent decision to impose more down-time on myself, regardless of the pressure to work round the clock.
He was working ridiculous hours in attempt to meet another nearly-impossible deadline (sound familliar?) when suddenly his arm went numb. Then his leg. Then his other arm and leg, followed by his chest. He was obviously very concerned. He did some searching online for answers, went and got bloodwork done and had a physical and everything appeared to be normal. Except for the fact that the symptoms pointed to anything and everything ranging from stress to Multiple Sclerosis. He tells me he eventually went to a neurologist to have these "body migraines" looked into a bit further. Fortunately, it's very likely that the problem is stress. Way too many hours in front of a computer, way too much stress, way too weird of a sleeping pattern.
As for me, I don't know what caused the leg pain the other night. WebMD suggests it was likely a pinched nerve, but the simultaneous arrival of the headaches and my fellow author's tale tells me it could have been a very mild case of body migraine. I don't know.
Regardless, I am making a serious effort to take more time away from the desk. In fact, I may even ease back on my blogging too. I never minded the ridiculous hours I work when on a project because it always balances out with complete downtime. I've often joked that I either work 80-100 hours a week or 0. There's no way to completely smooth that out to a nice 40 hour per week average (and frankly I wouldn't want to) but I have to make an effort to work less during those crunch times. Kristin and I are going to try and ensure we take two nights a week off from work & schoolwork and spend at least one day on the weekend not working. No matter how busy we get. We just need the downtime for health's sake apparently.
Neither of us are workaholics by any stretch, but crunch happens. It's unavoidable. I just got to find a way to not let it get out of hand.
I was actually talking with another strategy guide author the other day and mentioned this leg pain and the headaches to him and what he told me confirmed my recent decision to impose more down-time on myself, regardless of the pressure to work round the clock.
He was working ridiculous hours in attempt to meet another nearly-impossible deadline (sound familliar?) when suddenly his arm went numb. Then his leg. Then his other arm and leg, followed by his chest. He was obviously very concerned. He did some searching online for answers, went and got bloodwork done and had a physical and everything appeared to be normal. Except for the fact that the symptoms pointed to anything and everything ranging from stress to Multiple Sclerosis. He tells me he eventually went to a neurologist to have these "body migraines" looked into a bit further. Fortunately, it's very likely that the problem is stress. Way too many hours in front of a computer, way too much stress, way too weird of a sleeping pattern.
As for me, I don't know what caused the leg pain the other night. WebMD suggests it was likely a pinched nerve, but the simultaneous arrival of the headaches and my fellow author's tale tells me it could have been a very mild case of body migraine. I don't know.
Regardless, I am making a serious effort to take more time away from the desk. In fact, I may even ease back on my blogging too. I never minded the ridiculous hours I work when on a project because it always balances out with complete downtime. I've often joked that I either work 80-100 hours a week or 0. There's no way to completely smooth that out to a nice 40 hour per week average (and frankly I wouldn't want to) but I have to make an effort to work less during those crunch times. Kristin and I are going to try and ensure we take two nights a week off from work & schoolwork and spend at least one day on the weekend not working. No matter how busy we get. We just need the downtime for health's sake apparently.
Neither of us are workaholics by any stretch, but crunch happens. It's unavoidable. I just got to find a way to not let it get out of hand.
The Eyes Have It
I started suffering from very frequent headaches this weekend, something I've only previously experienced when I was dehydrated or jonesing for a caffeine fix. These weren't normal everyday headaches either. The pain was coming from my eyebrows and were triggered by shifting my gaze. Bright lights were very painful, changing focus from near to far induced pain, and looking up, down or to the sides hurt like hell.
To make matters worse, my leg started going numb Saturday night while I sat and worked. I couldn't sit in my chair due to pain spreading through my right femur. It originated up near the pelvis and shot down through my leg to my knee. Sunday I laid on the couch all day, suffering from the headaches and periodic leg numbness. A couple of Aleve sent the pain into hibernation, but it was clear something wasn't right. Stress? A pinched nerve? Tired eyes? I toned down the brightness on my monitors, switched out my office chair, but it was only the Aleve that seemed to do anything.
I just got back from my first eye exam in at least 12 years. As expected, I ended up getting a prescription for computer glasses. My overall vision is good and I don't have any eye disease. I'm a little bit burry when it comes to distant viewing -- a slow deterioration that I've noticed over the years when in the car with Kristin -- so the doctor is giving me a mild prescription to help relax my eyes and just make it easier to handle the long hours I put in in front of the computer.
I can't say I particularly enjoyed trying on different glasses. I never thought I'd see the day. And while I'm almost always wearing sunglasses (light sensitivity and for protection while mountain biking), there is something really odd about trying on glasses with clear lenses. I at once thought I looked quite a bit older. I didn't much care for it.
Insurance picked up the exam and the $200 eye hardware credit is enough to cover the lenses (barely, thanks to the anti-glare coating), but the frame selection was super pricey. I had no idea eyeglass frames were so expensive! I should have them in 7-10 days. I just hope the headaches are minor enough so I could finish this book I'm working on in the meantime.
To make matters worse, my leg started going numb Saturday night while I sat and worked. I couldn't sit in my chair due to pain spreading through my right femur. It originated up near the pelvis and shot down through my leg to my knee. Sunday I laid on the couch all day, suffering from the headaches and periodic leg numbness. A couple of Aleve sent the pain into hibernation, but it was clear something wasn't right. Stress? A pinched nerve? Tired eyes? I toned down the brightness on my monitors, switched out my office chair, but it was only the Aleve that seemed to do anything.
I just got back from my first eye exam in at least 12 years. As expected, I ended up getting a prescription for computer glasses. My overall vision is good and I don't have any eye disease. I'm a little bit burry when it comes to distant viewing -- a slow deterioration that I've noticed over the years when in the car with Kristin -- so the doctor is giving me a mild prescription to help relax my eyes and just make it easier to handle the long hours I put in in front of the computer.
I can't say I particularly enjoyed trying on different glasses. I never thought I'd see the day. And while I'm almost always wearing sunglasses (light sensitivity and for protection while mountain biking), there is something really odd about trying on glasses with clear lenses. I at once thought I looked quite a bit older. I didn't much care for it.
Insurance picked up the exam and the $200 eye hardware credit is enough to cover the lenses (barely, thanks to the anti-glare coating), but the frame selection was super pricey. I had no idea eyeglass frames were so expensive! I should have them in 7-10 days. I just hope the headaches are minor enough so I could finish this book I'm working on in the meantime.
The Beat That My Heart Skips?
For reasons unknown, I've been dealing with periodic chest pain for the past six to seven years. Only once had it ever happend during exercise -- at the top of an 18% climb in a century ride in North Carolina -- and it normally occurs when I'm stressed. I had an EKG done when I lived in NC and the doctor told me I had a heart murmur (that, I knew) and that I might have an over-sized heart.
"Evander Holyfield, the boxer, has the same thing. Nothing to worry about," he said.
Flash forward two years. We were living in Bellevue, WA and I had stopped biking and running for one reason or another, but the chest pain was more regular. I had another EKG done and and this time the doctor actually addressed the reason I was there to begin with -- my chest hurt -- and said that it's probably just heartburn or acid reflux or, perhaps, just muscle spasms in my chest or back. Could be all attributed to stress. I felt good that hs said it could be due to food and/or stress, but then he too said the EKG suggested I might have an over-thickened heart muscle. But he just left it at that. No further study.
It's late 2007, my chest hurt less often and I've noticed that when I would get the familliar chest-in-a-vice feeling, it normally came about 20-30 minutes after eating. Or when I was a day or two out from a deadline and working round-the-clock. No worries, right?
Not until I woke up one morning following Thanksgiving and learned about Major Leaguer Joe Kennedy's sudden death from heart-disease. Then, just a few short days later, I read about professional mountain biker Mike Janelle's sudden heart attack. So I started reading more about the issue of thirty-something athletes and heart disease and what I was seeing was that whenever a susprisingly young athlete suddenly died -- whether in their bed or on a high school basketball court -- they often had an overly thick heart muscle.
This is when the worry began.
Flash forward to last month. The March issue of Men's Journal (great magazine, by the way) arrived and in it was a 3-page article about a regular-guy endurance athlete, my age, who was having some very irregular heart beats and decided to get it checked out. He had the EKG done and stress test, and opted for an angiogram. Fortunately, they found nothing wrong with him, but the article was like an omen to me. I don't want to say it scared me, primarily because I was already a little frightened, but it was like a neon sign had been erected over the phone, flashing the words "Call the Doctor: Schedule an Appointment". And seeing this article about heart disease and endurance athlets made the phone call all the more urgent.
I tore the article out for Kristin to read and when she was done she just gave me the raised-eyebrows look. The look that says so what are you going to do about this?
I went in for a physical on the 23rd -- my first physical in 5 years or so -- and the EKG, once again, showed some abnormally high voltage. This time, however, the doctor sensed my unease and referred me for a stress-ultra test, a combination of ultrasound and stress-EKG test I had read about in the Men's Journal article (they said it was probably overkill, but it would certainly enable the doctors to spot any problems, if they exist). My blood pressure and breathing was normal I also had some bloodwork done that day.
But yesterday was the day for the stress-ultra test. I had 12 large sticky electrodes stuck to my unshaven chest -- good times at the hospital! -- and was asked to lay on my side. The diagnostics person spent a good 5 to 7 minutes performing the ultrasound and, despite the fact that I was there for suspected heart disease, I had to lighten the mood. So when she put the jelly on the wand, I asked her to let me know if I'm having a boy or a girl. She laughed and said, "Surprise! You're having triplets!"
She later told me I was very sono-genic and that my heart takes great pictures. "We finally found my good side!" I couldn't help but laugh.
But, on a serious note, she let me know within two minutes that my heart's size/shape was "perfectly normal" and that I did not have the condition involving the over-thickened heart muscle.
That made my day.
Then it was time to hit the treadmill. I still had 12 different wires hanging off my chest and the blood-presure thingy on my right arm. The treadmill started really slow and although inclination kicked up pretty good, the pace was slow enough for me to just walk. The cardiologist took blood pressure readings every minute but soon just took it off and saying my pressure was fine and there was no reason to continue that part of the test.
Finally, after 8 minutes or so, the treadmill had gotten steep enough and fast enought that I had to actually start jogging. In the meantime we chatted about my cycling and racing and heart-rate training and the EKG machine kept spitting out graphs showing my heart in action. The pace of the treadmill finally got my heart rate up over 190 and after a minute or so at that speed, they had me quickly get off the treadmill and return to the bed for post-stress ultrasound.
I had to exhale and hold my breath several times which quickly brought back memories of drills I used to do in the pool when I would try to swim while blending in self-asphyxiation. I didn't like this anymore than I did those damn hypoxic drills.
The good news: I don't have anything wrong with my heart whatsoever.
I do have a relatively rare trait in that once my heart gets above 170bpm the time-gap between the left ventrical pumping and the right gets slightly exaggerated. The doc called it a rate-related-something-something-blockage. He said the two sides usually beat within 1-2 milliseconds of one another, but above 170bpm, the left side fires about 8-10 milliseconds before the right. He said it's nothing to worry about, he only mentioned it because it's pretty rare.
Nevertheless, he took the ream of EKG graphs to a colleague for a second opinion just to make sure there's nothing he's not seeing. In the meantime I have a clean bill of health and confirmation that my chest pain is definitely either heartburn or chest/back muscle tightening masquerading as heart problems.
All was not rosey, however. My blood work came back with -- surprise! -- high cholesterol levels. I expected this and was prepared defend against a prescription for a statin, but my doctor had a ladder for every wall I raised; he was nothing if not persistent. Finally, I relented and took the prescription for Zocor and agreed to give him 90 days on it. What I really wanted was a second-opinion so I took the scribble to the straight-shooting pharmacist Kristin and I use and he told me that my total (246) wasn't overly high and that, for example, a European doctor wouldn't typically prescribe a statin for anyone with less than a combined score of 300. But, he said, a ratio of 4:1 of bad:good is definitely not good and that I really ought to give the drugs a shot, especially if diet and exercise don't seem to be making any difference. We skipped the diet/exercise riff on account of Kristin and I eating the same things and her having a combined 110 cholesterol and, well, there's really not anymore exercise I can do -- I average 10 to 15 hours a week as it is.
As for why I resisted, the reasons are many. For starters, I despise the idea of possibly having to take a pill every day for the rest of my life. Secondly, I have no known history of heart disease in my family. My grandmother died of a stroke at age 56, but she was as big as a house and smoked like a chimney. I suspect there's a good chance my father will one day succumb to heart trouble, but he too is obese, so even if the high cholesterol is hereditary it's hereditarily not been a problem thus far. Lastly, there's little proof that lowering cholesterol reduces the risk of heart attacks and heart disease. I know it theoretically makes sense and, perhaps, there's just not enough data yet to show a strong correlation and maybe that data is coming, but I still can't help but be untrusting of the rush to prescribe.
But ultimately, none of this matters. All that matters is that so long as I have no side-effects, if taking the pill has no associated harm other than a $10/month co-pay but might mean I can be around longer for Kristin, then it's worth doing. Definitely.
"Evander Holyfield, the boxer, has the same thing. Nothing to worry about," he said.
Flash forward two years. We were living in Bellevue, WA and I had stopped biking and running for one reason or another, but the chest pain was more regular. I had another EKG done and and this time the doctor actually addressed the reason I was there to begin with -- my chest hurt -- and said that it's probably just heartburn or acid reflux or, perhaps, just muscle spasms in my chest or back. Could be all attributed to stress. I felt good that hs said it could be due to food and/or stress, but then he too said the EKG suggested I might have an over-thickened heart muscle. But he just left it at that. No further study.
It's late 2007, my chest hurt less often and I've noticed that when I would get the familliar chest-in-a-vice feeling, it normally came about 20-30 minutes after eating. Or when I was a day or two out from a deadline and working round-the-clock. No worries, right?
Not until I woke up one morning following Thanksgiving and learned about Major Leaguer Joe Kennedy's sudden death from heart-disease. Then, just a few short days later, I read about professional mountain biker Mike Janelle's sudden heart attack. So I started reading more about the issue of thirty-something athletes and heart disease and what I was seeing was that whenever a susprisingly young athlete suddenly died -- whether in their bed or on a high school basketball court -- they often had an overly thick heart muscle.
This is when the worry began.
Flash forward to last month. The March issue of Men's Journal (great magazine, by the way) arrived and in it was a 3-page article about a regular-guy endurance athlete, my age, who was having some very irregular heart beats and decided to get it checked out. He had the EKG done and stress test, and opted for an angiogram. Fortunately, they found nothing wrong with him, but the article was like an omen to me. I don't want to say it scared me, primarily because I was already a little frightened, but it was like a neon sign had been erected over the phone, flashing the words "Call the Doctor: Schedule an Appointment". And seeing this article about heart disease and endurance athlets made the phone call all the more urgent.
I tore the article out for Kristin to read and when she was done she just gave me the raised-eyebrows look. The look that says so what are you going to do about this?
I went in for a physical on the 23rd -- my first physical in 5 years or so -- and the EKG, once again, showed some abnormally high voltage. This time, however, the doctor sensed my unease and referred me for a stress-ultra test, a combination of ultrasound and stress-EKG test I had read about in the Men's Journal article (they said it was probably overkill, but it would certainly enable the doctors to spot any problems, if they exist). My blood pressure and breathing was normal I also had some bloodwork done that day.
But yesterday was the day for the stress-ultra test. I had 12 large sticky electrodes stuck to my unshaven chest -- good times at the hospital! -- and was asked to lay on my side. The diagnostics person spent a good 5 to 7 minutes performing the ultrasound and, despite the fact that I was there for suspected heart disease, I had to lighten the mood. So when she put the jelly on the wand, I asked her to let me know if I'm having a boy or a girl. She laughed and said, "Surprise! You're having triplets!"
She later told me I was very sono-genic and that my heart takes great pictures. "We finally found my good side!" I couldn't help but laugh.
But, on a serious note, she let me know within two minutes that my heart's size/shape was "perfectly normal" and that I did not have the condition involving the over-thickened heart muscle.
That made my day.
Then it was time to hit the treadmill. I still had 12 different wires hanging off my chest and the blood-presure thingy on my right arm. The treadmill started really slow and although inclination kicked up pretty good, the pace was slow enough for me to just walk. The cardiologist took blood pressure readings every minute but soon just took it off and saying my pressure was fine and there was no reason to continue that part of the test.
Finally, after 8 minutes or so, the treadmill had gotten steep enough and fast enought that I had to actually start jogging. In the meantime we chatted about my cycling and racing and heart-rate training and the EKG machine kept spitting out graphs showing my heart in action. The pace of the treadmill finally got my heart rate up over 190 and after a minute or so at that speed, they had me quickly get off the treadmill and return to the bed for post-stress ultrasound.
I had to exhale and hold my breath several times which quickly brought back memories of drills I used to do in the pool when I would try to swim while blending in self-asphyxiation. I didn't like this anymore than I did those damn hypoxic drills.
The good news: I don't have anything wrong with my heart whatsoever.
I do have a relatively rare trait in that once my heart gets above 170bpm the time-gap between the left ventrical pumping and the right gets slightly exaggerated. The doc called it a rate-related-something-something-blockage. He said the two sides usually beat within 1-2 milliseconds of one another, but above 170bpm, the left side fires about 8-10 milliseconds before the right. He said it's nothing to worry about, he only mentioned it because it's pretty rare.
Nevertheless, he took the ream of EKG graphs to a colleague for a second opinion just to make sure there's nothing he's not seeing. In the meantime I have a clean bill of health and confirmation that my chest pain is definitely either heartburn or chest/back muscle tightening masquerading as heart problems.
All was not rosey, however. My blood work came back with -- surprise! -- high cholesterol levels. I expected this and was prepared defend against a prescription for a statin, but my doctor had a ladder for every wall I raised; he was nothing if not persistent. Finally, I relented and took the prescription for Zocor and agreed to give him 90 days on it. What I really wanted was a second-opinion so I took the scribble to the straight-shooting pharmacist Kristin and I use and he told me that my total (246) wasn't overly high and that, for example, a European doctor wouldn't typically prescribe a statin for anyone with less than a combined score of 300. But, he said, a ratio of 4:1 of bad:good is definitely not good and that I really ought to give the drugs a shot, especially if diet and exercise don't seem to be making any difference. We skipped the diet/exercise riff on account of Kristin and I eating the same things and her having a combined 110 cholesterol and, well, there's really not anymore exercise I can do -- I average 10 to 15 hours a week as it is.
As for why I resisted, the reasons are many. For starters, I despise the idea of possibly having to take a pill every day for the rest of my life. Secondly, I have no known history of heart disease in my family. My grandmother died of a stroke at age 56, but she was as big as a house and smoked like a chimney. I suspect there's a good chance my father will one day succumb to heart trouble, but he too is obese, so even if the high cholesterol is hereditary it's hereditarily not been a problem thus far. Lastly, there's little proof that lowering cholesterol reduces the risk of heart attacks and heart disease. I know it theoretically makes sense and, perhaps, there's just not enough data yet to show a strong correlation and maybe that data is coming, but I still can't help but be untrusting of the rush to prescribe.
But ultimately, none of this matters. All that matters is that so long as I have no side-effects, if taking the pill has no associated harm other than a $10/month co-pay but might mean I can be around longer for Kristin, then it's worth doing. Definitely.
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