While most other posts have noted past "Aha's" involving exercise, this side note is current. I am still recovering from this cold as I feebly write.....
This week I have been so sick. I can't imagine putting my body to any type of exercise test, except for the "laying prone" kind. Indeed, by the end of the week, I couldn't think, work, or move, EXCEPT to lay prone! What started out as escalating fall allergies in one week morphed into one big bad cold and ultimately crushing sinus infection the next.
Last weekend I had started to feel these interacting effects. Even with the dull tiredness and nasal congestion of seasonal allergies, I pushed myself over the holiday weekend, working out on my own on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. By Sunday afternoon I felt some very deep muscle aches in new places - my biceps and triceps, knees and wrists, near my thumbs. (Nothing to be proud of..but even a couple of months into this exercise adventure, I still was unsure which muscle groups were biceps and which were triceps?) I didn't attribute these odd aches to an oncoming cold, but felt they were regular aches and pains that come with hard, repeated exercise, most-likely fall-out from the 20-minute "interval" treadmill workout that my trainer, Rob, prepared, an exercise protocol designed to move me to the next level.
After the weekend, on Monday, I was dizzy all day. Couldn't stand up or sit down without the world swirling around me. This clearly was not fall-out from a treadmill workout! In the meantime while I had excellent results on my blood-work (cholesterol, A1C, blood sugars), my blood pressure had increased uncharacteristically, and my doctor had taken me off the 24-hour Allegra D because she suspected the decongestant, that I was taking to clear nasal passages and allergy symptoms, was also raising my blood pressure beyond the safe zone. (She had told me that it was not good for a person with "heart" issues to take decongestants.)
By Tuesday and Wednesday, the cold was in full force, including blinding headaches (the kind that Vitamin I - Ibuprofen - doesn't cure), facial and neck pain, body aches, cough and multiplied drainage/mucus from the newly forming sinus infection. I stayed home from work for two straight days - and attempted to sleep it off. There is only one thing that will bring me down for two days at work, and that is a raging bull sinus infection. By Friday morning I was back visiting my doctor again, seven days after the initial muscle aches. She prescribed an antibiotic that took immediate effect. I have now gone without exercise for seven days. Even though I mentally missed the exercise, I must admit that this illness - this sinus condition - "arrested" me both physically and mentally. I also realize that exercise and illness (especially of the sinus variety) don't mix well for me.
My primary concern now is that I will actually miss two weeks of exercise; this past week of sinus arrest, and the upcoming week when I travel to Indianapolis for work. For the first time in my life, I may have to try the fitness room at my hotel? Another potential story for a future blog post?
Submitted on Saturday, September 11, 2010
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