After having such a successful race at Way Too Cool, I was looking forward to continuing with some strong training. I did a couple bike rides but then after a strong 8 mile run I noticed my stomach seemed a little off. I had a date with my youngest daughter to have lunch with her at her school so I headed over there. I made it through the lunch but was feeling worse.
By the time I made it home it was all I could do to make it to the bathroom where I had some pretty severe bouts of vomiting. Along with that, my stomach was cramping something awful. I had alternate bouts of sweating and chills and found myself curled up in a ball by the toilet, wrapped in a blanket. The way this came on it seemed like I had food poisoning. But usually with food poisoning you feel better after vomiting. I wasn't feeling better. In fact, it was getting worse.
Adding to my problems was my kids were due home on the bus and my husband was at a week long class at Lake Tahoe. There was no way I could drive myself to the hospital and I had no one to watch my kids. What to do? I called my mom. They immediately knew things were bad so my dad called Pat in class. Pat called his buddies at his fire station to come up and check me out. They also started an ambulance. Next he called a friend who could come up and take the kids home with her. Then he started heading home. It was all taken care of. As a paramedic/firefighter, it was strange being on the other side of a medical call. But I was in so much pain I really didn't care. It was like being in labor where time is suspended and you lose track of your where-abouts.
I was admitted into the hospital where I spent the next three days. Lots of blood work done and tests taken to rule out all the really bad possibilities. Bottom line is that it remains a bit of a mystery. I think the official diagnosis ended up being severe gastroenteritis. All I know if that Dilaudid is my new best friend. Amazing stuff. It's the only thing that could even touch the pain.
It took me a solid week to recover from my stay in the hospital. Lucho kept things easy as I started rebuilding for AR50 in early April. I'm still not sure what knocked me down but I was ready to move on. The last week of March was solid with 53 miles run but only 16 miles on the bike. I knew my numbers for the month would take a big hit with this unexpected set-back. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be my last.
March numbers:
Run: 152 miles, 14,000 ft, 25:25 hours
Bike: 145 miles, 18,600 ft, 13 hours
Bike trainer: 3x for 2:45
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