This was not in the plan!
My body seems to be conspiring against me at the moment and I'm pretty anxious about it.
After my last run, I started to develop a headache and was feeling sick. I thought it might have been dehydration so I made sure I drank a lot of water, but to no avail. The exertion of getting out of bed on Monday morning reduced me to tears because I felt so terrible, so back to bed I went. I was fretting because I knew it was going to be a busy week and I didn't have the time to be ill, but my body had other ideas. 6pm I got up out of bed, and not because I felt much better, just because I couldn't lay there any more. By 10pm I was back in bed.
I felt loads better the following morning, and so thought that whatever it was had passed, however not so. I felt sick whenever I ate anything and was generally feeling pretty low, not helped by being at work late each evening. On Thursday morning around 11.30am the headache and nausea returned with a vengeance and I left the office in tears to head home. I couldn't go to bed though, which is what my body wanted me to do, I had too much work to do. So I sat on the sofa with the curtains closed working on my laptop. It took me until 3.30pm to be able to take a sip of drink, and another hour before I could stomach half a sandwich. It was only at this point that I could take any pain relief too, and by the evening I was starting to feel much better.
By this point I had admitted to myself that there was no way I was going to complete all the work I needed to do before the Monday deadline, and I don't know whether letting go of that deadline was what made me start to feel a bit better, but Friday I was relatively spritely, although still feeling sick most of the day.
I went away to Wales for the weekend with some of my best friends, and it was just the tonic. Honestly, I needed that so badly. I spent some time playing with my 3 year old friend Freyja on the Friday night, and I could feel myself relaxing and the tension draining from me. It struck me then that I hadn't even realised quite how stressed I had allowed myself to get, little wonder I was ill. I now honestly think that stress was the major factor in how ill I had been feeling.
Looking back over the previous couple of weeks it's little wonder! Finding out that one of your close friends has a life-threatening illness is pretty devastating. It was the 5 year anniversary of Kat's death after fighting that same disease. The atmosphere in the office had been low as folks had been to visit one of our colleagues who is losing his battle against pancreatic cancer. On the Friday evening, just as I was packing my bags for the weekend away I got a call from my Mum, in tears. This is never a good thing! Turns out my Uncle Michael had a heart attack and had been rushed to hospital earlier that day. He needed urgent bypass surgery. I'm so pleased to be able to report that it went well and he is now going from strength to strength.
Sadness just seems to be all around and all-encompassing sometimes.
I knew I wouldn't be able to run whilst we were away, the weather was too appalling! Plus I wanted to be able to relax and enjoy time with my friends, so I didn't even take my running kit. I had planned on getting in a run on the Monday evening after we got back, but I had a little accident on Sunday and running has been out of the question this week as a result!
We had a little break in the weather, there was even a brief flash of sunshine, so myself, Pete and Sui went for a little walk up a hill behind the cottage we were staying in. It was fab! So good to get out of breath, get to the top and admire the views and get a little windswept, knowing we could head back down for some mulled wine. Heading back down turned out to be a dangerous activity for me! The ground was grassy, wet and steep, and we were all slipping around a bit so we took our time and joked about who would fall over first. Stupid bluddy question really eh! My feet went from under me, and I landed on my bum, closely followed by my head. The resulting whiplash is still causing me the occasional twinge of pain and codeine has been my best friend this week.
So, after all of that, you could be forgiven for thinking that a run this weekend would be just the tonic. Get me back into it, no time constraints, fresh air and time out, all things I need. But I was dealt a bit of a blow yesterday. I had a mole on my back that was causing me concern, and my GP agreed and referred me to a specialist. I say HAD a mole, because yesterday she removed it. I'm a bit sore today, but more of an issue is the fact that she has told me I shouldn't run for at least a week if I want to avoid the wound getting infected, and two weeks if I want to avoid pulling the stitches too much. It's advice rather than instructions, and I am feeling torn. Should I just go for a run and take the risk, given I am fretting about all this time off, or should I take her advice and wait another week before heading out to be sure I don't end up with an infection?
What would you do?
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