Figuring It Out

Thank you to all of my friends that have reached out to me to find out what is wrong.  (which, btw, is nothing serious, just frustrating.)   I have been meaning to blog about it, but I have not been able to find a way to condense this post, as it takes an entire year's review to put it all in perspective. 

I had a huge laugh last night when I showed up late to our little get-together and the minute I sat down, everyone turned to me and said...."what is wrong.  what is the diagnosis! spill it!"  All eyes on me- no pressure!  LOL!  Thank you, friends, for loving me enough to be concerned. 

So, I have tried to condense it a bit, but here it is.  I am mainly writing this for friends that might be having similar problems and are looking for some information or just someone to chat with about this.  Under no circumstances is Make It Happen allowed to become a blog for me to whine. 

The first few months of this year, I felt like something was off.  Coming off of a supremely healthy 2011, I couldn't figure out what was wrong.  I was getting sinus infections and felt my immune system was going down.  I was doing my workouts, nailing them in fact, but time and time again, I kept reporting that something wasn't right. 

I went to Tucson camp as a last ditch effort to try to "get in shape."  What I was really looking for was that "feeling of fitness" that just seemed to be alluding me.  I was training, but never feeling fit or good.  Oddly enough, I could hang on to everything we did in Tucson.  I couldn't put my finger on things.  I wasn't fit, yet I could keep up?  

Then I got Parsonage Turner Syndome (PTS) to the left shoulder.  Two different ortho docs + MRI +EMG confirmed spontaneous nerve damage that wiped out my rotator cuff muscles.  The ortho docs told me to give it 1-2 years for the nerve and muscle to come back, but were not even remotely concerned about it.

*FYI, if your body spontaneously attacks its own nervous system, please consider this a red flag.  It is not normal. 

So the rest of the year was racing and training that seemed successful but never felt great.  I never felt tired or over-trained.  I still had a ton of motivation and didn't feel that I needed a break.  It was just that something was off. 

So, I will try to fast forward through all of this.  But by the middle of the summer, I was having what seemed like repetitive sinus infections that were not responding to treatment.  I felt like I had the flu constantly.  I was more than tired.  I wasn't sore or over-trained or over-worked.  It was a fatigue that you cannot even achieve through training.  It is indescribable.  I went to 6 doctors...I was told it was sinus, allergies, bronchitis, and even asthma.  Asthma?  I race triathlons.  I have never had a breathing problem in my life.  I was given a ton of medicine, half of which I never took because I just couldn't relate to the diagnoses.  

But, everything got treated like it was a mini-infection, and I treated it the same way as well.  I had no reason not to do so.  The cycle would look like this:  be sick, see the doc again, rest a few days up to a week, resume easy training again.  It made sense to me- the docs conferred.  That is what we do with a little infection, cold, or flu.  Right?

What didn't make sense it that even with what seemed like a ton of rest, I couldn't run 5 minutes or even spin for 5 minutes at 50W.  Seriously.  I finally just stopped trying to train at all. 

I luckily found my way to an immunologist that ran the blood work that I had been begging all of the other docs to run.  We found some pretty nasty viruses (mainly Epstein Barr which is alive and happily active.  Hello Mono! and yes, you can test for this, but most docs run the test to show exposure, not activity.  And we have all probably been exposed) and a major bacterial infection ("walking pneumonia"/ mycoplasma infection).  I work in home health, so the opportunity for me to be exposed to some nasty things is high.  We also found some really low hormone and thyroid levels, which are also just a small part of a big problem. 

The point is, you can't look at each of these things individually.  The body is a system.  I was having system failure, not a single infection of this or that.  I was having trouble with my immune system.  The PTS earlier in the year was the canary in the coal mine.  It was a sign of some possible auto-immune issues.  (I hate that metaphor, by the way, because it suggests harm to animals.  I can't find another one to fit, though. If you know of a better one, send it my way.) 

It seems so obvious, right?  I spent a year catching everything.  Of course I was having an immune system problem.  But no one treated it as such.  No one treated the cause.

So, while I am treating EBV and a bacterial infection now, I am mainly working with the doc to figure out how to strengthen my immune system, which is the true problem.  All of this is more than I could ever write in a blog.  It is involving medicine, but it is also involving some food changes.  It is really complex, and I don't think I understand it all well enough to yet share it in a helpful way with others. But, when I "get" it, I will share. 


There is a lot more to this story than I could really ever communicate on the blog.  Plus, I don't want this to become a "sick" or "whiny" blog.  But, one thing that has been really hard for me is to see that there is hardly anything on the internet about mono/EBV and triathletes.  All I can seem to find is that it can take a really long time to return to sport after dealing with the initial active virus as in 6 months to 2 years.  But, most of the literature deals with the average person that is not competing in athletics.  There is a big difference between wanting to be able to do a 30 minute walk on the treadmill and being able to do a 3 hour ride with intervals. 

I have found that there are actually a good handful of triathletes that have battled the same or similar problems, but they just have not shared it with others.  I wonder if it is because there is still some sort of stigma that this is just an "over-training" problem.  After 4 months of hardly being able to do anything, I can guarantee you that it is not a training problem, although if you persist in training through this, you will have a problem.  If I had known in June/July what was going on, there is no way I would have continued to train. 

So, if you have something similar and want to chat or share ideas, treatments, etc....definitely feel free to email me or message me on facebook.  I will be happy to share what I know and what we are doing if it would be helpful to you.

In the meantime, just know that I am cool with everything- making a battle plan- and using my excuse to rest to keep me in bed till 9am this morning until I can no longer deny that I have to go to work.  I have no doubt that I will come back stronger, because when my immune system does get strengthened after some diligent work on my end, the sky is the limit.  :)

xoxoxo

And to end on a super awesome note for the day- congrats to JV on her marathon PR of 3:29 - so amazing! and to Angie on her 3:00 flat marathon with NO watch.  Yup, this girl never runs with a watch.  Ever.  She just runs.  Super awesome running chicks!!!!!