SETBACKS ARE THE PITS

Setbacks with my heart is so frustrating and hard to explain
how I feel when it happens. Last Friday, late afternoon I was
on my way home from checking on my parents when I begin
to have that funny feeling I have right before an episode. I prayed
that I would make it home as it starts with a warmth of weakness
come over me and then followed by dizzyness and wanting to pass
out then followed by palpitations. I did manage to make it home
by the grace of God. Luckily these aren't full blown episodes
anymore thanks to the meds. When I have these episode I am down
for several days after with a bad headache, weakness, lightheaded
and nauseated. I hated that I had to miss my Saturdays run with
my two girls Christin & Cara. We call ourselves the 3 musketeers
and our nicknames are : Sonic (Christin, she is called sonic
because she can hear a biker sneeking up on us from afar.) then we
have Mo (Cara, we call her that because she keeps us motivated.)
& then there is me who is called Jelly because I love to eat my
jelly beans when I run long distance. I love running with my girls
but it isn't very often we all can make it together and last saturday
darn it was our chance of running together but I just had to be sick.
When I have these episodes it is hard for people to understand just how
it makes me feel and popping one of my meds is not going to make
me feel any better. I take the meds everyday so I will have fewer
of these episodes and less intense when they happen. There is nothing
I can do that will make me hop back up after it happens but to wait it
out for several days to almost a week sometimes until I am myself once again.
I truly appreciate everyone in my Runnersworld group who is concerned
about me and all there well wishes to me when I am down. Saturday while
everyone was out running I was on facebook and Cheryl was on there (she
is not able to run for several weeks due to her leg injury) she is so sweet
and offered to come over and bring me anything I needed while Bobby was gone.
That is what I love about our group. I bet you don't get that kindness from
any other group(no names mentioned ).
Saturday was also my daughters birthday which I can't believe she is 27
already. I was so very young when I had her at the age of 3 LOL.
My granddaughters birthday is this Wednesday which she will be 7. The
years have gone by so fast and both my girls are growing up too fast.
I did manage to go to their birthday party and also I got to meet
my new granddog, Jax for the first time. He is so adorable I wanted
to take him home. He is a yorkie and is 10 weeks old. He was a present
for my daughter and granddaughter from my son in-law.
I usually take my daughter out to dinner afterwards but since I wasn't
feeling well I had to give her a raincheck :( but I guess it is something
to look forward to.
Today is Monday and I will have to miss running with Bobby's bunch
tonight. I will probably have to not run all this week just to give my
heart time to recover. I want my heart to behave for my upcoming
OKC half marathon so I will take it easy when I need to.
Hope everyone has a blessed week and even though I won't be running
I will still be out there cheering you on. I might do a little light walking
if I am up to it.
Here are a few pics of Saturdays party.

My cute granddaughter Katie

My gorgeous daughter Alicia & granddaughter Katie

Bobby & Katie with my new granddog Jax.

Me wanting to eat Jax up because he is so cute.

P.S. Congrats to my hubby for becoming a marathon maniac!
He finally joined this weekend and is now maniac #1372
be sure and check his blog out to read about it.

THANKS

I want to start out by thanking everyone for
all the prayers and phone calls this past week.
I never felt so blessed as I do to have so many
friends with RunnersWorld group.

Those who don't know, last Tuesday my mom
was rushed to the hospital with Congestive heart failure.
We weren't sure and the dr.'s didn't think she was going
to make it at the time. She was actually drowning with
fluid on her lungs. They had a hard time putting a tube
down her to drain the fluid off. They ended up having
to put her on a ventilator. She was in ICU to monitor
her closely. The sight of her on a ventilator was very scary
and they had to keep her heavily sedated and her hands tied down
due to her trying to pull out the tubes not knowing what
she was doing. I have never felt so helpless. When she was
awake she wanted to talk to us but couldn't.
I also had to take care of my ailing father as well. He is
homebound and very feeble. He falls easily and is a diabetic
so he needs constant care. I needed to have 2 of me to be
in both places at once. I was fortunate to have my brother
Russell and my sister to help. I stayed 2 nights with my dad
and spent the days between him and my mom at the hospital.
Russell spent the days and nights with my mom which was
a big help to me. My mom, through all the prayers, got well
enough to come home last Friday evening. My siblings & I
are still having to help when needed.
My parents, through sooner care, is allowed to have assistance
with cleaning, cooking, care, errands, etc. for 4 hours a day, 3 days
a week. I had thought about taking on this task myself but with
my health issues it would be hard to do not knowing how I feel
from day to day but I would if had too. They had someone doing this
but you know good help is hard to find. We are having trouble through
this company that sooner care uses finding someone who is dependable
so if anyone knows someone who is dependable and maybe works through
the company they use (sorry don't remember name of it) please let me know.

I was looking forward to going to DanMan with everyone this past weekend
but since my mom was sick I couldn't go. I told Bobby he should still
go without me so he could achieve his marathon maniac status. He was
torn a little bit about whether or not he should go. We hadn't
seen much of each other that week with me being gone staying all night
with my dad. He would stay if I needed him to plus he was concerned
for my own well being. I reassured him that it was ok for him to go
besides I knew how important it was to him. I would like to thank
Ken, Dana, Brian, Deon, Chrissy, Michael,Lisa & Jason for being there
for him cheering him on, it meant alot to me. You guys are awesome!
I really wanted to be there as he crossed that finish line but you gotta
do what you have to do. Bobby, I am so proud of you.

I never knew taking care of your parents could be so exhausting.
I really pushed myself to the limit, so this week I am taking time
to try and get caught up on my rest as much as I can so Bobby
if the house isn't too clean this week you know the drill
NOT A WORD ABOUT IT!


Once again thanks to all my peeps.

DanMan or bust

I am totally excited about this upcoming trail race

I am doing this coming weekend. The race is called

the DanMan. This race is put on at this man's ranch

every year. The DanMan Run is held in honor of our

own endurance running hero, Dan Little. Dan has completed

over 120 endurance events consisting of marathons, over

twenty 50-mile races, and three Iron Distance Triathlons.

As witnessed by Dan's accomplishments, endurance events test

your physical ability, but more than that test your mental ability.

The DanMan is designed for all runners to experience this test

of mental endurance.

Bobby & I will be traveling along with some of our

running friends to Madill, Ok. to do this race. I hear

this town is pretty small. No wonder I didn't know where

the heck it was.

I am not much into trail racing but I heard this trail was

easy enough and not too rocky so I thought what the

heck why not join in the fun since I am a Tatur member.

For those who don't know what that is it is an awesome

group of trail runners who belong to this I guess you would

call it a club formed by one of my running coaches Brian Hoover.

Tatur stands for Tulsa Area Trail & Ultra Runners. Brian has

done an awesome job putting all this together and keeping it

organized and putting on his own trail races. They meet at

Turkey Mountain every week to run the trails there. For anyone

reading this and want to know more about Taturs you can log onto

http://www.taturs.org/. Like I said I don't usually run the trails but I do

join the membership to support and help out at the races when I can.

I am doing the 10K run at DanMan and Bobby is going to attempt

to do a marathon so he too can join some of our group in becoming

a marathon maniac. Our friends Chrissy & Michael will be doing

a half marathon, Dana I think will be doing a marathon also so

Bobby & her can hang out together keeping each other going.

I think Deon is also going to attempt an ultra (31 miles) as well.

Ken & Coach Kathy will be doing a 100 miler last I heard unless

they change their minds and do a 50 miler which makes more sense

to me. I hope we can talk Jason & Lisa into coming along for the fun.

I was hoping Russell (my brother) & Christin ( my sister in-law)

was going to come along so I could have someone do the 6 miler with

but their cat got sick and had to be in the cat hospital for several days

so that set them back alot of money so they had to decline the trip.

Since I love to make lists I will be working on my list of things to

remember to take for this trip.

1. hotel reservations ( Made that already at the Comfort Inn in Ardmore)

2. reserve a car rental ( got that done)

3. print out a map ( got that done)

4. my list could go on but why bore you with all that.

I hear that the weather will be awesome for the race. I am glad it won't be

freezing cold. The temps are suppose to be in the 70's for the high that day

which I know will be a little warm for those doing the long distances but I

will take that over freezing cold anyday.

I wish everyone luck that is going to do this fun race and I hear that they

also serve up some yummy grub for us so that's a bonus in my book.

This has nothing to do with my post but I had to share these cute pics.

Picture of my granddaughter Katie who is now

missing her 2 front teeth.

My daughter showing off her new glasses.

I wish everyone a blessed week.