For those of you reading this who don’t already know, the last couple days have been pretty exciting … and not in a good way.
The short version … I started a long one but decided it was just TMI … is that I fainted early Tuesday morning and my face broke my fall.
I ended up in the emergency room, where they stitched me up … cuts and bruises and big fat lip, but my nose doesn’t seem to be broken and all my teeth are fine (and you have no idea how grateful I am for that). But since they didn’t know why I fainted, they decided to admit me for overnight observation and to run all sorts of tests on my heart – which other than just a freak thing was the most likely reason I passed out.
I’ve never been admitted to the hospital before … but the whole incident had me kind of scared, and I figured with the strain I put on my body with all the ultrarunning, it would be a good idea to make sure my heart was up to the task. So I spent all day yesterday laying in a hospital bed … chatting on the phone with friends and family, answering e-mails and text messages, and entertaining visitors. I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful people who care about what happens to me.
Every once in a while I’d have blood drawn, or an EKG … they also did a CT Scan, chest and back X-rays (my back and neck are kind of sore from the fall), and an Echocardiogram (basically an ultrasound of my heart).
This morning I woke up and felt tired and sore, but well enough that I was really ready to go home … which of course is when the waiting began. Other than a 6 a.m. EKG, I just waited and waited and waited for a doctor to come see me – to give me some news about my tests and hopefully release me. Finally, the doctor came by … at 12:30 in the afternoon.
The good news?
My heart is absolutely fine … so Bandera 100K is definitely still on the race calendar. The whole fainting was just some weird fluke thing and isn’t likely to happen again (there is actually a term for it – Vasovagal syncope). Once they gave me the clean bill of health, I was home within a couple hours, where I am now happily ensconced recovering on the couch.
The bad news … other than my poor beat up face? (it’s really not that bad, but I’m not posting a picture)
This is what happens when I go stir crazy in the hospital …
This is the patient information board outside each hospital room. Thankfully the cardiac nurses have a great sense of humor … they even left it up there all day.
I love my friend Leah’s suggestion … that I just tell people I had a nose job and my lips done as a Christmas present to myself. ;-)
