Derailed By The Plague

Okay, so it's not actually the plague, but it sure as hell feels like it.

It all started a little over two weeks ago. My husband, son and daughter all caught one of those dreaded stomach viruses. They took turns running for the bathroom and I sprayed everything down with Clorox, while holding my breath and praying I wouldn't be the next victim. As each day passed, and they recovered, I become more and more confident that I escaped getting sick.

I made it to our anniversary weekend away in Atlantic City and despite my daughter having a relapse, I still managed to avoid getting sick. It must be all of the healthy eating and running that had given me super powers...right?!

 

Our weekend in Atlantic City. Maybe I caught the plague from playing slots....hmm.

The Wednesday after we came home from Atlantic City, it was gorgeous out and I was feeling great, so I went for a run. I headed towards the post office since I had a package to mail out and I was determined to do a straight run...no slowing down or walking breaks. To my surprise, I did it and I set a new personal record which had me on cloud 9 all day!

You see, for weeks I've been battling that little voice in my head that tells me I can't do things. I don't know why it was so strong lately, or what I was afraid of, but I would sabotage all of my runs by listening to the voice and slowing down or taking a break to walk for a few minutes. I finally conquered that voice and made it shut up, I was so excited. Little did I know that I was going to pay dearly for that major break though.

The next day I woke up and my throat was sore. Soon, my nose started to run and I felt very sluggish. I figured the shift in weather had triggered my allergies, so I took some Claritin and decided to take it easy for the day. By that night, I took to the couch and knew it wasn't allergies.

Friday, I woke feeling terrible and it took me the better half of the day to get up and get moving. You see, every year on Good Friday we have a tradition on making pierogies from scratch. We make well over a hundred of them, so I sanitized myself and got to work. Thankfully I am only responsible for the filling, so I bonded with the couch while my hubs did the dough and formed all of the pierogies. That night I broke down and took some meds before bed, which is huge for me. I hate meds and I am a total baby when it comes to them.

 

Good Friday = Pierogies in our house

The next morning when I woke up, I knew things where getting worse. I felt awful. My throat was on fire, I was coughing and my stomach didn't feel good either. My bladder finally forced me out of bed and on my way back to bed, I got so light headed that I passed out in the hallway. I have no idea how long I laid in my hallway before coming to and then crawling back to bed, but I didn't leave that bed again (expect to use the bathroom) until Tuesday, when the hubs took me to the doctor.

Easter was ruined, thankfully hubs took off from work on Monday because my daughter was puking AGAIN and need to go the pediatrician.

When I finally got to see the doctor, he put me on antibiotics, cough syrup with codeine and an inhaler three times stronger than what I normally end up on when I get bronchitis every year.

I'm happy to report that I am feeling a week and a half after being struck by the plague, but my breathing is still very labored and I'm not sure when I'll be able to safely start running again.

My plan is to go out for a few short walks over the next few days and as I see how I feel, I'll add short periods of jogging to that to see how I feel. It's very frustrating to finally have a mental breakthrough, only to be completely derailed by something that is so out of my control. I was also supposed to have started Insanity on April 1st, but that too has been postponed.

I have my fingers crossed that my breathing settles down over the next week, and I can ease back into running sooner than later.

Have you ever been derailed by sickness? If so how did you ease back into your routine?