Pain Management Decision, Fun Story About Marathon Photo on the Wall

Easy read -

Today has been a very comfy day--hooray! Yesterday told me it's almost time to make a decision in the pain department, though. While the long-acting NSAID, CBD cream and occasional lidocaine patches have been working well for my spine and ribs, it's almost time to step it up. My choices are radiation, Gabapentin, or opioids. Radiation to temporarily reduce the bad cells sounds like a hassle going to the hospital 5-10 times, plus a long list of very unappealing side effects. Gabapentin is for nerve pain and I don't really know if mine is nerve pain or not. The doctor could help me figure that out but considering I would have to take it 3 times a day every day, It sounds like my best option is opioids. I can take those as needed. I put them out on the dresser last night in case I needed them during the night. I didn't. I've been blessed with mostly good nights. I'm SO very thankful for that.

Photos and story: This heavy glass vase is my cup holder on the bed so my water bottle doesn't tip over. The holistic guy we consulted with about my liver advised me to drink water like there's no tomorrow. Michael wants me to drink water like there are lots of tomorrows. <3

The photos on the wall are of me and Michael running the St. George, Utah marathon in 2003. We had never done any running before, but a year earlier our brother-in-law Kurt Wiest invited us to run this marathon with him. So we trained for it and completed it. From zero to marathon. It was one of the hardest things we'd ever done. And we were pretty darn proud of ourselves. We went on to run the inaugural Salt Lake City Marathon in 2004, and Michael did the St. George one more time with Kurt.

A fun story about that first marathon. Probably around mile 20 Michael began struggling and eventually "hit the wall" pretty hard. This surprised me because he is much stronger and has much more endurance than I do. I can only guess it was because at the water stops (and maybe in his water bottle?) he always drank water instead of something like Gatorade that replaces electrolytes. When one of the race vans slowly drove past checking on runners, I asked him if he wanted to get in and have a ride to the finish. No! Eventually he flopped down on a strip of grass under a tree in front of a strip mall on Bluff Street. I wasn't sure if he was going to be able to finish. But he is not one to give up! He finally got up to press on. At this point I carried both of our water bottles as seen in the photo. We did a lot of walking but he was determined to cross the finish line running which he did. He was taking small steps but he was running.

We were staying with my parents who lived in St. George at the time. After getting free ice cream and free massages along with the other participants, my parents and our 3-year-old son picked us up and took us home. Mom made us sandwiches and I put the pre-ordered bags of frozen peas on my thighs. I didn't finish my sandwich before tipping over and going to sleep. In the morning Michael was fine. I felt like I had been beaten by a mob the whole night and could barely move, haha! We wore our shirts and finishers medals on the airplane on the way home.