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Volatile Stuff:Events:Stone Cat 50 Mile Trail Race November 7, 2009 Middlesex Fells Trail Race December 5, 2009 AMC Mountaineering Committee Ice Program Winter 2010 Crash-B Indoor Rowing Championships February 14, 2010 Friends:Breakheart DanTrail Pixie Trespas Kevin kZ Trailgrrl Michelle RunninRob Cookie Monster Steve Latour Pictures:AlbumRunning Data:20102009 2008 |
Sun, 28 Jun 2009
Swine Flu, Cellulitis, MRSA, Oh My!
This has benn a long strange week. Last I wrote I had been feeling a little draggy and sore, but was keeping up fairly high mileage for me. On Wednesday the 17th I was due to run just over 13 miles on the road. I was off school for Bunker Hill Day with just two more days of exams left. I woke up early to meet my brother-in-law, Joe and drive him to Logan. All went well, but I was putting off the run. I took an afternoon nap and had a hard time getting up. Carol convinced me to stop whining and just get out and run. I started chugging away with a plan to gradually speed up and to take a two-minute walk break every three miles. This worked reasonably well, but I found myself trying to compensate for my walk breaks with faster running in between: self-destructive. After running hard uphill at mile 10 I needed an unscheduled walk at mile 11. Something felt wrong. I plotted heartrate data to compare it with my last half-marathon length run the previous week. I had not noticed an appalling heartrate spike right at the beginning of the run. Even with the walk breaks my average heartrate was high. Something WAS wrong. I felt I must be overtrained. I had run 55 miles in the last 7 days and felt entitled to a couple of days off. 
The last two days of exams I tried to take things easy. I felt sore, and I was getting a headache. I emailed RunninRob to cancel a long run we had scheduled for Sunday. Friday afternoon I took my temperature and it was 101.4. Within hours it was 101.7. Now I never get sick; trauma? yes, but sick? no. I went to the Emergency Room several years ago after stepping on a board with a long nail sticking out of it, and again after falling through my rotting basement bulkhead stairs. Within a month I was back after falling through the other basement stairs. I've required heavy doses of antibiotics for cellulitis after being stung by a bee...twice. The first of these required IV antibiotics. So it was with some consternation that I accepted the idea that I had the flu. The next four days ran together in a blur of bedrest, a deluge of sweat, and the most violent shaking chills I have ever felt. My fever reached but never went over 102. The sweating was horrifying. In a year and a half of training, I managed to have made my body tolerate running much longer, but I made it quite expert at sweating. At night I would drench my side of the bed. Carol insists that in my delirium I claimed that the bed, not me, was sweating. We changed sheets several times a day. Invariably, the sweats were followed by cold, severe Mt. Washington in February cold. I would chatter my teeth and my whole body shook. On Saturday I went to the Cambridge Hospital ER and with a temperature of 102 was confirmed to have the flu. The most prevalent flu around these days is the H1N1 Swine Flu recently declared to be internationally pandemic. Public Health professionals do not test flu patients who are not in special high risk groups. I assumed I had H1N1 flu and informed our principal who responsibly had my classroom sanitized. Strangely, though, I never developed the classic respiratory symptoms: sore throat, cough, runny nose. Carol and Connie also after days of serious exposure to my illness developed no symptoms. And worse, my fever never really broke. Sunday night Carol noticed a rash on my belly. A few nights ago I had noticed a bump: a pimple, ingrown hair, whatever on my belly and had pinched it off. It had reddened and a rash had expanded at my waistband, I assumed it was just being aggravated by my waistband and would clear up. Carol was appalled. She wanted to go the the Emergency Room NOW (3 am). I persuaded her to wait until morning. The next morning doctors a the Mass General ER, where we stopped on Carol's way to work, confirmed that my fever was due to cellulitis (Note to self: it's ALWAYS cellulitis... stupid.), possibly MRSA. Without specific testing, I was given a prescription for Keflex and Bactrim that cleared my infection and fever within 48 hours. I'm just now regaining my strength. I managed to run 5 miles today at an average pace of 9:40/mi. |
