Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Started the day relatively early, at least early for me these days. After an early breakfast and putzing around the house, I hauled myself up to upper NorthWhite Northwest DC to get myself tested. Specifically, I was getting a VO2Max test. This involved getting a Hannibal Lector-esque mask strapped over my nose and mouth and then running myself ragged.

It actually isn’t as bad as it sounds. They just strap you in, hook you up to a detector, then start you walking at a moderate pace on a treadmill. The pace picks up until you get to a preset one (set by the tester after talking about your pace), then they start increasing the incline. All of this happens slowly over the course of 15 minutes, until you get up to your upper limits, which I presume they could tell by the VO2 feedback. I hit 200 beats per minute before we went into cooldown mode.

I’ve not gotten the full results back yet (they’re being emailed to me), but the tester did confirm something which I’d suspected for several years now – I burn high when it comes to heart rate in exercise. I look forward to seeing what the tests show for where my heart rates are supposed to be now, as it’ll help me train more intelligently. I’ve wanted to do one of these tests for a while, but the timing never worked before now. I’m planning to follow up with another test in a month to see how training affects the numbers.

And it was wonderful getting to run after a full month down from the vertigo, even to that level of effort. Perhaps especially to that level of effort.

After coming home to clean up I zipped out to my local yarn shop to pick up some longer circular needles for the scarf I’m working on (the 16″ was getting annoying – kept catching on the cable). Their selection waxes and wanes, so I picked up several pair while I was at it, for future projects. Switching the scarf over was easily done, and the longer cable’s been much easier to knit with. Not quite halfway done with the first skein. Posted a pic on Flickr today of the progress as of this afternoon when I updated the status over on Ravelry.

Haven’t seen much of BC lately. He’s dealing with his company’s annual audit this past week and next (plus all the prep the week before last). Headed out to the movies with him tomorrow, after a run in the afternoon, I hope. Depends on his work load, but it should work. I just picked up an EZ-Pass for the mini, so I don’t have to keep popping change on the toll road to get out to his place. His parents have accepted an offer on some property to turn into a winery, and he’s going to purchase their house from them, so for the foreseeable future I’ll be driving to Herndon on a semi-regular basis. The EZ-Pass just makes it that much easier to get out there.

One last appointment with the podiatrist in a week, then I should be cleared entirely from his care, which is the last bit of anything going on. The plantar fasciitis is gone, and has been gone for several weeks now, but this is just one last appointment to milk my insurance company ensure it’s well and truly 100% gone. Until then I can still run, so that starts up tomorrow with BC, and then swimming again come Monday. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that this was it, because the long-term goal is focused on the IM now.

So, the acid test this evening was to lie down flat, relatively quickly, wait a bit, then get back up with similar speed, and see if the dizziness returned either time. I’m quite, quite happy to report it did not. What. A. Relief.

A few more days of not sleeping on my right side and I should be back to completely normal. I went in late to work this morning so I could take the full, prescribed 24 hours in the blasted collar. Actually, I did cheat a little by sleeping most of the night without it, but only because I’d managed to “lock” my head into position with a well-placed pillow that wrapped partially around my head and kept it upright and forward like it was supposed to be. Much more comfortable that way, and it did the trick.

It was very difficult not to want to dance around the room when there was no reaction to the shift in position.

Definitely in much, much better spirits this evening, and quite relieved that the worst seems to be behind me.

It moved! Or, rather, it was both sides, not just the one that got treated last week.

Okay, let’s back up. I continued to experience vertigo, first lighter after the treatment last Monday, then back to how it had been over the weekend. Yesterday morning a lie-down on the bed (from full upright to fully on the back) induced full fledged spins. Whee! So, a call to the ENT set up another appointment for this morning.

When they tested to see which side it was this time (last time was definitely the left), the right side is what turned up positive. The doc said the audiologist last time noted some reaction on the right, but because the left was so much more dramatic they thought it was just the left. So, this time we treated the right side, and hopefully that’ll knock it out.

Took the day off so I can sit around, keep myself upright, and try not to worry about stuff.

Unfortunately, it’ll be another week before we know for sure if this has gotten the last of it fixed. Which means a full three weeks off from exercise. I’m now less than 12 weeks out from my first planned tri, and so much closer to the 10 miler and the half marathon, which means I’m not going to have the fitness base there to be able to run any of the three of them. And that means I’m canning them for this year. Which sucks in a major way, because I enjoy these two particular running races, and was looking forward to doing this particular tri for the first time.

Got myself all kinds of stressed out over the lack of exercise this past weekend. Stressed enough that my hands are a big mess of eczema. It’s getting better now that I’ve let go of the races, but how gross. At least I discovered that my old med for the eczema was out of date, so I’ve got a fresh batch to pick up in a little bit (and no visit to the dermatologist needed, thank heavens).

Anyway, so just chilling out at home today, and meditating over where I’m going to go, fitness wise, once I’m good to get back to exercise. My first race would then be a 10k in June, then the two tris in September and November. Probably should hit the weight room, as I should have been doing over the winter, as well as base building cardio fitness, and lots of technique work. But that’s to be mulled over while I try not to drive myself crazy in this collar for the next day.

Got to the ENT and then had all hopes of having a useful day shattered with a single sentence: “Well, we’re going to give you a neck brace to wear for the next 24 hours to keep your head from moving too much…”

Ugh.

it turns out I have classic Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, or BPPV. Basically some of the little calcium carbonate crystals that are supposed to stay in one place in the ear got out and are wreaking havoc with the innards of my ear, causing the vertigo. So we did a series of slow movements to shake the little things back to where they’re supposed to be, and then they laid the collar on me and sent me home. Well, after paying the co-pay and for the collar they sent me home. Strict instructions not to move the head quickly, no looking down, keep it upright, sleep propped up tonight, etc. Which then meant no going shopping as I’d hoped (holiday sales!), and no laundry or other housework. So, after that I basically bummed around on the Xbox all day, since I can do that and keep my head upright pretty easily. Beat Half-Life 2 and started in on Assassin’s Creed. Fun.

The treatment we did is something like 80% effective with one treatment, so in another week we should know if I have to go back in for a repeat or if we got them all knocked back with the first one. No real cause to pinpoint (no head trauma), and while it’s more likely to recur than not, most cases won’t recur with a 4-5 year period of an episode according to the doc. Which is better than my odds at getting picked for jury duty in DC, so I’ll take ’em.

Take a note: Don’t go book buying (or to the library) if tilting your head to read spines makes you dizzy.

And don’t tilt your head all the way back when sitting in your office chair, either.

Took off from work a little early (after the office chair incident referenced above) to do some shopping, which I cut somewhat short after the dizziness at the book store. Thankfully that particular store is on the bus route that drops me in front of my building, so after a short wait in the cold I was delivered directly to my front door.

Some Super Mario Galaxy this evening (I can power the spaceship finally), and a few more rows on BC’s scarf (I started a scarf for him Monday – fisherman’s rib). And lots of grousing about not being able to exercise since I can’t exactly bounce around a lot right now. So. Annoyed. At. My. Ears. Hopefully the doc was right and this is just a little viral thing that’ll work its way out in a week or so. We’ll see what the ENT says on Monday.

I do look forward to having something else to write about.

Staying home today. The vertigo progressed a little last night, but it was hard to tell because the drug they give you to treat this stuff (meclizine) is simply an antihistamine which, like benadryl, tends to knock you out. I’m convinced it only works because you’re not awake to tell whether or not you have the vertigo anymore.

This is likely just some viral bit of nastiness in the ear which will resolve itself in a week, according to my doc. Nonetheless, I have a reference to an ENT (ugh), so am trying to get an appointment with them. Scarily, the “muzak” for them when you’re on hold includes a man who sounds like a perky version of David Sedaris talking about facial plastic surgery to make you look younger. It’s more than a bit odd – David’s voice should never, ever be perky. Okay, muzak’s over, and appointment set up for Monday afternoon (during the Federal holiday? Hmph).

BC came over last night after dinner. Was good to have a body to grab (instead of just the bed) when I laid myself down and let the spins wash over me until my ears settled (if you ever wanted to see a lawyer/control freak have a near panic attack, yesterday was your chance). The freak-out aspect has calmed down some today, though. When you’re a bit of a control nut, having the world spin due to nothing you’ve done to or with yourself is more than a bit disconcerting. A nice chanting of “this will pass, this will pass” was ultimately helpful for getting through the shift in head position, kind of like reciting the litany against fear.

So, in the meantime it’s going to be mindless entertainment today while the brain adjusts to the meclizine. That or a lot of napping. And a trip to the polling place (which is, thankfully, literally right across the street from our front gate, so about a block to block and a half walk over there). Because through fall, fog or fire I will vote.

Okay, it’s still here, so I have an appointment with the doctor this afternoon. Whee!

No swim for me tonight, it seems. I just hope this doesn’t mean I get to add yet another specialist (Ear, Nose and Throat, or ENT) to my list of doctors (orthopedist, podiatrist, opthalmologist, neurologist, etc.). I’ve managed not to have to visit an ENT since I was in elementary school (multiple sets of tubes from recurrent ear infections) and I’m getting tired of adding to the list.

Plus this puts a major damper on training. And has BC worried since I called to tell him I was going to the doc, which just all around sucks gorilla butt.

Nothing like an attack of vertigo to start off your day on the right foot.

Woke up, swung my legs over and sat up, per the usual routine, and whammo! Felt like I was still drunk from the night before. Which would be fine if I had actually been drinking the night before, but I hadn’t. Not a pleasant sensation, but it did fade fairly quickly and I cautiously went about my morning. Had one more ‘relapse’ when I laid down on the floor to do some ab exercises while waiting for BC in the shower, but none since (maybe the usual sudafed dose kicked in and dried out the ears? who knows…).

Will test myself again before I go swimming tonight – definitely not into drowning, and I suspect an attack of vertigo in the water would be pretty damned terrifying.

I decided to give up caffeine again because it was affecting my sleep, which in turn was screwing with my training. Today was day two, and I warned BC that I might get a bit testy in a week or so. So far, so good, no headaches, sleeping better, all good.

I have, however, been extra-snarky. Like, really, really overly sarcastic at every little thing. Poor BC got to see a lot of it this weekend as we watched TV and I did a complete snark-a-thon at pretty much every show. Not quite what I was intending when giving up caffeine (New and Improved! Now with extra Snark!), and hopefully it’ll pass shortly as my system gets used to the change. Until then I suppose I’m going to have to watch my tongue more than usual.

After spending several hours reviewing a document just to find out that the office who sent it up for review couldn’t actually make any of the changes we sent back, I was more than a tad pissed as I left work this evening. Walked home (no buses convenient when I was near a stop), made some dinner, pigged out on some soy ice cream (better than drinking), and popped down for more knitting. Managed to add several inches of knit stitch to the thing as I cleared out stuff on the TiVo. It was mostly calming, and I feel a little bit better, but it’s going to be hard not to go in tomorrow and want to bite someone’s head off over wasting several hours of my time which could have been better spent doing work that actually needed to be done.

In other news, work actually gave me a choice of blackberries, which is both gratifying and annoying. Gratifying because I won’t get one of the ancient, leftover ones from someone else. Annoying because I have to choose and I know nothing about the devices. If anyone has a reason why I should go with either an 8800 series or an 8300 series model, let me know, otherwise I’m just going to tell them 8800 series.

I’m also missing BC. We moved a date originally scheduled for yesterday to tomorrow, and I’m feeling withdrawal. Hopefully our schedules will better match for it then.