Tag: health

inflamed lungs - pneumonia

That One Time I Got Pneumonia While Training for a Half Marathon…

EricaLeave a comment

Yes it’s true. I randomly got pneumonia in the middle of May and have obviously had to stop training for my next half marathon (scheduled for September 8th) while I recover.

I have never had pneumonia or lung issues in my entire life… And neither had my son, until about 4 weeks ago when he got off the school bus and said he had been cold and tired all day. Not good.

Next came high fevers (of up to 103 one night) and the constant coughing. It took a few doctor’s visits for them to finally decide to do a chest x-ray and discover he had pneumonia. Cue the steroids and breathing treatments, and he began to slowly recover.

Two weeks later, I was in full half-marathon training swing. I had finally gotten back up to a 5-mile run one Saturday, which hadn’t happened in months! Sunday morning I felt so sore and achy. By Sunday afternoon, I started getting a killer headache and felt super fatigued. It suddenly hit me that maybe this wasn’t just soreness from my 5 mile run… I took my temperature and it was 101.

Monday afternoon, I called the telehealth doctor and mentioned that I had a fever, and that my son had JUST HAD PNEUMONIA, and I was wanting to nip this in the bud before it turned into anything bad. “I think it’s unlikely that it’s pneumonia – the timing seems wrong. Maybe you have COVID or flu?” The doctor prescribed me tamiflu just in case, and told me to test for COVID. (I was negative for COVID.)

By Wednesday, I was feeling truly terrible. I had chills and aches, and was taking Tylenol and Ibuprofen round the clock. Despite popping so many pills, my fever got up to 104.5. I started freaking out. “When are you supposed to go to the hospital for a fever?” I asked my husband. Google had suggestions ranging from 103 to 105. We called my primary care doctor, and they said their earliest opening was June 11th (almost two full weeks later). So yeah… no thanks. We went to an urgent care. They tested me for strep, flu, COVID, and a UTI. All negative. I again mentioned that my son had just had pneumonia. The doctor listened to my breathing. “Your lungs sound clear. You don’t have pneumonia. I guess it’s just a virus. See if it gets better in a few days and if not, go to the ER.”

By Friday morning, I still was having fevers of 102, despite continuing to take Ibuprofen every 4 hours. I was miserable. And I had also started developing a cough. I woke up at 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I decided to try telehealth again. Maybe I could convince them to give me steroids or antibiotics or SOMETHING to help.

“Hi, this is Dr. So-and-So with telehealth. What can I do for you?”

“Hi, I’ve had a high fever for 6 days now, and it’s not getting better. I had a fever of 104 a few days ago, went to urgent care, and I tested negative for strep, flu, and COVID. My son just had pneumonia, and I’m really worried it’s what I have. I’m just wondering if I could try steroids or antibiotics to see if it would help. My son’s fever went away as soon as he started taking steroids.”

“Wow, a high fever for 6 days??? Honestly, I hate to prescribe you something without being able to do an examination. But something is definitely wrong. I think you need to go to the ER.”

“Do you think it’s pneumonia?”

“It could be. But it could also be something else. You just need to get checked out. Get a chest x-ray.”

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Image of foot with bones

2 Years After Foot Surgery – Slow But Steady Progress!

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Two years ago was Feb 4, 2020. The “before-COVID” times. It was also the day I had foot surgery, specifically an osteotomy, to address my inflamed posterior tibial tendon (aka. my flat arches were causing issues). I had to have three large incisions on my left foot, and one on my calf to “lengthen my calf muscle.”

Afterwards I had to be non-weight bearing on my left foot for four weeks, and I was riding around on a knee scooter like a pro! Then I used crutches for four weeks, and after that did three months of physical therapy. You can read more about the details here, and even see gross post-surgery foot pictures if you want to!

The healing process felt never-ending. Even after I was discharged from physical therapy, I wasn’t back to normal. I still had a bit of a limp sometimes. When I first got up in the morning, my left foot was stiff and I would hobble around for a while until it loosened up. I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to go running again, and honestly I was kind of afraid to, since that was the catalyst for my injury.

Even one year later, I was still keenly aware of some of my limitations that I hadn’t had before my foot injury – like experiencing some residual foot pain and always needing to wear supportive/orthotic shoes.

I think it’s valuable to take a moment today to look back and remember where I was two years ago, so that I can fully appreciate just how far I’ve come in terms of recovery. In my post from May of 2020 (four months after the surgery) I had written:

My foot is not perfect, I’m still waiting for that glorious day when I can do a heel raise while standing only on my left foot, but I’m not there yet. I’m longing for when I can go on a walk around the block without limping or feeling sore, and I’m dreaming about a day when I might be able to go for a jog again.

May 2020

Later that year in October, five months after writing those words, I went for my first post-surgery jog. It had been 17 months since I had been able to run. I couldn’t run as far or as fast, and my foot was really sore after, but I did it.

How often do we get to receive the things our hearts are so desperately longing for? Honestly, it may be more often than we think. If you do any sort of journaling – whether it’s personal writing, blogging, or even photo journaling – it makes it easy to see where you were and how far you’ve come.

Many times we get the exact things we’re hoping for, and we’re happy for a little while, but then we move on to hoping for the next thing, and then the thing after that. It’s easy to feel like we haven’t “made it” yet because there’s always something we are looking to accomplish next.

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The Connection Between Your Mental Health and Physical Health

Erica1 Comment

For the past few weeks, I’ve been really tired. Like REALLY tired. I found myself falling asleep on the couch after work – going to bed at 8:30 – coming home in the middle of the day to take naps… It seemed like no matter how much sleep I got, I still felt exhausted. 

I began wondering if something weird was going on. Was I sick? Was I pregnant? Did I have COVID and my only symptom was intense fatigue? 

If you’re a follower of my blog, you’ll notice that in the past three weeks, I haven’t published anything. Not only that, I really didn’t write anything at all those few weeks – not drafts, not personal journaling or anything. I normally try to get up early to have quiet devotional time and to write, but even though I set my alarm to get up early (and had gone to bed at a reasonable hour), I still woke up every day feeling tired and hit the snooze button.

What was going on? 

I have this sweatshirt I purchased recently that says “Mental health is health.” I love it not only because it’s cute and comfortable, but because of the message it broadcasts. Mental health affects our physical health. They are so intricately connected that to really be in a state of health at all, our mental health must be cared for. 

It only takes doing a quick Google search to get thousands of results on the link between mental health and physical health. One of the results I found was from the Hillside Mental Health Facility’s blog, and it described some of the warning signs that a person’s mental health may be negatively shifting, which included:

  • Changes in sleeping and eating patterns
  • Withdrawal from friends, family and activities
  • Loss of energy
  • Increasing irritability and mood swings
  • Loss of performance at school or work

Looking back, I realize now that I was also losing motivation at work, and having increased irritability with members of my family. Basically, I was exhibiting most of these warning signs. 

I should have noticed more of the red flags. I know from past experience that when I’m stressed or overwhelmed, (or when depression might be kicking in), I tend to cope by sleeping. Some people can’t sleep when they’re anxious or stressed, but I tend to start checking out and want to sleep all of the time. 

In the book Try Softer by Aundi Kolber, (one of my top recommended books!) she describes the idea of your “window of tolerance” (WOT). She is referring to our ability to tolerate discomfort, specifically emotional discomfort. All of us have an amount of emotional discomfort or growing pains that we can tolerate – this is our “just right” amount where we won’t be at risk of becoming overwhelmed emotionally and physiologically. But once we hit our limits, we can either go into hyperarousal or hypoarousal. 

Hyperarousal mode feels like being overwhelmed with adrenaline or anger. You are out of control. You may feel the need to be moving (trying to flee whatever stressful event you are experiencing).

Hypoarousal mode causes a person to feel sluggish or depressed. You become disconnected from the world. In a word, numb. 

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