Getting going

In addition to all the year-end doldrums, & the get out of town for the holidays & then the come back blahs stuff, I have been knocked off my ass by a major respiratory inflammation.  It started as what I now know was influenza B, which is apparently the one to have if you want to get up again with no real long lasting effects so Go Me!

I know what it likely was because about ten days after I started feeling really really sick, my husband started feeling kinda sick.  Then we both went to the doctor.  He tested positive for influenza B; I did not.  But after all that time, the conclusion was I had more or less fought it off.  What still lingered though, was almost worse.

While I do have allergies, they are not-so-much the breathing kind.  Yes, I am allergic to pine pollen & other things that get breathed in & make me sneeze, but the real reason I get allergy shots is insect bites.  If it were just garden air allergies I would be fine with an over the counter, as needed type antihistamine   Because of this, I have very clear lungs for a long term immunology patient, as in crystal clear-I don't think anyone has ever even thought I might have bronchitis before.  Well, I had bronchitis this time.  & the past two weeks have been about treating that, & coping with the symptoms of the treatment& then detoxing.

Which brings us to a week ago Sunday.  It was the last day of my prednisone, a most welcome friend in the beginning, & one I was very glad to see leave when it went.  My skin still hardly feels like my own.  It itches & wiggles & I have bumps where I have never had them before.  & that is the least of the irritants.  After the prednisone I was still so weak I got out of breathe getting up & going to the bathroom.  I broke into a sweat & had to sit down after going for the mail, but I was no longer coughing until I puked, or got so dizzy & fell over & hit my head (yes, that happened -- I know, right?).  My appetite has been so poor that despite this complete inertia, I have actually lost weight since the holidays began (& sure was not on a losing streak as we headed north for christmas), which also explains the lightheadedness.

By mid-week I was walking to the end of the driveway & then the dirt road (a whopping 1/10 of a mile, maybe even a bit more but not much).  I figured I may as well bring one of the dogs, which he has been enjoying as well.  On Sunday we made it almost all the way to the one mile mark before we both were very happy to turn around.  I honestly don't know when I will be back to my 4+ miles of intervals, so I guess that 5k at the end of this month is out of the question.  Now I am looking on to the next one; at this rate it really will be more than a year from when I started before I run my first race.   I'm not sure, but this might be the slowest warm-up ever.