Holy Cow!
I was running in April, then I got stricken with a series of migraines. Like debilitating migraines where you go home and pray it will go away. I took maybe 3 or 4 dosages of migraine medication, which is pretty hard on the body.
On April 16, I experienced chest pain and shortness of breath. I called the doc and they told me to go straight to the ER (actually they wanted to send an ambulance, but since I work at a hospital, I thought that would be incredibly embarrassing). They kept me for 6 hours in the ER and did all kinds of crazy tests, among them a PET scan. They said that I did NOT have a heart attack but that I needed to go see my doctor at the first available appointment.
That weekend, I got to ponder this and I was sure I was old and dying. It was awful. On the next Monday, I went to my doc, who felt that I was in good shape and it was unlikely that I had heart disease - more likely I had an adverse drug reaction to the migraine medication. But we scheduled a stress test. Well, I didn't know a woman my age was supposed to quit 5 minutes into the deal! No one told me! So, I went for 12 minutes, which is off the chart for a 57 year old.
Using my blood pressure and my cholesterol, They calculated my risk of developing heart disease in the next 10 years as 1%. One Percent. That made me feel very very good.
Then I started running again....
Last week, I developed a horrible toothache. And the worst part was, it wasn't actually my tooth that hurt. It was a gum infection, which was horribly painful. I took antibiotics for 5 days and that went away...
Then I started running again....
Now I am feeling good. I ran this morning. I am going to ride my bike to work tomorrow. I am a happy girl about this.
I am looking into half marathons to do in January. ... still have Maui on my mind.
Has anyone done a race in Hawaii? Any advice?
