Despising the “Mucous Monster”

One of my belated Christmas gift this year, was a lovely chest cold.  You know them.  They’re the really lovely cold that make it feel like a small hippopotamus is sitting on your upper chest and squeezing your lungs.  It’s also the cold that bring on the invasion of the “Mucous Monster”.  This nasty little creature add to the tightness and causes you to feel like you’re donating a lung everyday because you can stop the hacking cough!  You start to lose your voice, and you can feel the monster sitting on your vocal chords. If you’re really lucky, when you cough, you’ll get the taste of hard, icky sputum on your back taste buds.  But it’s just a tease, no matter how much it feels like you’re going to throw up with the force of the coughing, you can’t bring the special nugget of mucous forward to join the spittoon contest just yet.  Then, when you’ve gladly moved on to nicer times (ie. cough free times), you all of a sudden feel the urge to clear your throat, and LO! AND BEHOLD! the mucous loosens and you have to drop everything, run to the sink, toilet, or whatever and expel the offending “mini monster” post haste.

If this lovely dance isn’t enough, you must also build up a arsenal of cough mixtures to fight the “Mucous Monster”.  My personal artillery consisted of Buckley’s and Benylin Mucous and Phlegm.  No amount of training could have prepared me for the taste!  Both are equally piquant, in unique ways.  The Buckley’s make me feel like I have finally given in to irrational thought and have decided to drink a mixture of bleaching hair dye, Vick’s VapoRub, and tree sap.  The Benylin is more like swilling down a variation of Varasol and cherry Koolaid, that just seems to tweak your stomach just a little.  Worst of all, I cannot attack the monster with both at the same time.  It is either my sword or my shield that can be wheeled at any given time.  The Buckley’s shield suppressed the cough, and the Benylin sword attacks the mucous.  And I am stuck using one or the other, or neither, and somehow never thwarting the Monster!

Thus has been my struggle for the last seven days.  It has caused me many a rough, sleep-deprived night and many a cranky day, exacerbated by a non-stop scheduling and the persistent feeling that I’ve swallowed sandpaper.  But hear this “Mucous Monster”.  One day my body will be victorious!  You will be expectorated in a radical fashion!  You shall no longer live victoriously in the annals of my respiratory tract, and you will be gone until we take up the fight in the next cold season.  BE GONE FORTHWITH VILE ABOMINATION, I BID THEE GONE!

Winding down 2009

Since doing my Dare in October, life seems to have moved pretty fast.  November was a blur of midterms, final projects, and clinical days.  Not to mention kick-ass floor hockey games.  Before I knew it, it was December and I was wrapping up clinical at SickKids, doing SIM lab demos, and preparing to write my final exams.   Now, the school work is over, and I have time to breathe again.  In other words, I have a life again (but only until January 4th).

Since finishing up my exams last Wednesday, I’ve been cramming my days full of things I’ve been meaning to do for ages and I’ve been picking up work shifts.  First item on the agenda: CLEANING THE HOUSE!!  The dust bunnies have been staring me down and I promised myself to wait until after exams to clean.  I was itching to get going, and I knew once I started, there was no going back.  So last weekend, M and I cleaned every surface in the apartment and took the time to purge some stuff that really needed to be disposed of.  Once that was all taken care of, we celebrated our good work with decorating for Christmas!

Really, there is nothing I love more than having a house full of Christmas lights, and spreading a little cheer with cute angels, snowmen, and penguins with Christmas hats.  It makes me remember happy things, and it’s a way of celebrating the amazing event that is Christmas.  I know it may seem like I’m just giving in to the commercial side with my types of decorations, but my heart knows that what I’m really feeling is the joy of the season that comes from knowing that the peace of Christ came to earth for all of us.  Such an amazing gift! 

I guess now that I have time to think about the season, I really need to ensure that I enfuse the power of the gift of life Jesus brought to us in everything I do for Christmas.  The cookies I make should be made with love, because Christ showed us the meaning of loving others.  The Christmas lights should be reminders of the light of Jesus, brought to those who sat in darkness, a light that changes everything!  The decorations should be ways of praising the Prince of Peace!  Everything should exude peace, love, joy, and hope.

That is my Christmas wish as we wind down 2009.  Praise to the Lord, Christ has come, Hallelujah!

Dare run blog – Day nine

Fundraising goal:	102% ($925)
Time of day:	3:59 pm
Run time:	36 minutes
Weather:	12°C
Overall feeling:	The last one!

So, it’s done.  My dare is finally finished.  I just completed my last run with M – he did really well considering that he already did 40 km on his bike this afternoon.  The weather was lovely, and I got a good respite from my paper writing (yes, it’s STILL not done, but at least I have something on paper).

Reflecting back on the last few days, I can’t believe what I’ve done.  I knew I had something in me, but I didn’t know I could push myself to do all those runs (especially because I don’t always enjoy running).  But I think I’ve found myself a good groove now.  I’ll just have to find another awesome cause to run for next!

I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading my daily updates.  I can’t thank you enough for supporting me!  Lots of love!

Dare run blog – Day eight, run #2

Fundraising goal:	102% ($925)
Time of day:	9:05 am
Run time:	33 minutes
Weather:	9°C, wet but not raining
Overall feeling:	Left foot, right foot…

I can’t believe I survived!  This day has gone to pot and I’m stressing because not one page of my essay is written (I spent a few hours on the care plan part, but still no essay).  The last thing I wanted to do tonight was run again – especially because M couldn’t come and I couldn’t find another run partner.  I know my running route well, but it’s different when it’s dark out!  I was even more worried because I wanted to bring my music and I didn’t want that to add to me being unsafe.

But it all worked out – I called my mum before and after the run, and I kept to the night well-lit areas.  Plus I felt motivated to run off my pounding headache.  It worked!  AND I ran the fast I’ve run yet.  YESS!  So I dedicate this run to my friend who donated another $20 today to bring me up to 102% of my goal!

Tomorrow is my last run, and I can’t believe it!  Come back to read the last update, friends!  And thanks so much for the love and support!

Dare run blog – Day eight, run #1

Fundraising goal:	100.1% ($905)
Time of day:	9: 40 am
Run time:	36 minutes
Weather:	12°C, wet but not raining
Overall feeling:	Sluggish…

I felt so sluggish this morning.  I had to will myself to run forward – I was almost regretting agreeing to run twice today and thought I should have run last night.  But then I started running over the wet leaves on the sidewalk, which were super slippery without the rain and I was thankful that I didn’t go last night after all.

Even though I felt like I was hardly moving by the end of my run, I did it quicker than the 40 minutes I was expecting.  My legs hurt a little less, and my music was pretty decent.  Overall a good run – tonight’s will be much chillier and I’ll keep you posted.

Dare run blog – day seven – run postponed

Fundraising goal:	100.1% ($905)
Time of day:	9: 05 pm
Run time:	-
Weather:	7°C, really raining.
Overall feeling:	POSTPONED

It’s Friday night, it started pouring rain after clinical and it hasn’t stopped.  I am willing myself to go out and run, but it’s soooo wet it’s probably not the best idea.  So, through much thoughtful consideration  I’ve decided to postpone my run from tonight to first thing tomorrow AM.  I will run tomorrow night as well to keep up my promise – 9 runs in 9 days!

Please forgive me for “whimping” out.  But I promise you I will be in bed in about 30 minutes so I can rest up for tomorrow.

Dare run blog – Day six

Fundraising goal:	100% ($900)
Time of day:	8: 02 pm
Run time:	39 minutes
Weather:	6°C
Overall feeling:	I really did it!

Ok – I did it!  I really did it!  After 12 hours of clinical, I did not want to go run at all!  But I knew that I couldn’t let my friends down!  Even with an empty tummy and sore legs I managed to finish my 5 km before I knew it!  I was sooo glad that M came with me – there were a few unique Torontonians around when we ran past Riverdale that I wouldn’t have wanted to confront alone. The nice weather and clear night made it even more bearable!  You could see the CN tower perfectly!

Now I’m home, icing my tired legs and I’m about to enjoy an awesome not-so healthy meal of Wendy’s!  At least I’ve “earned” it.

Dare run blog – Day five

Fundraising goal:	100% ($900)
Time of day:	5: 38 pm
Run time:	40 minutes
Weather:	13°C and raining
Overall feeling:	OUCH!

Ow!  Today’s run really hurt – literally.  I had to go after work today, but I guess that was just as well – it allowed my legs to recover somewhat from my floor hockey game last night.  Or so I thought!  My legs were really hurting, right on the side of my calves for about 50% of my run today and I hardly wanted to finish.  I’m so glad that M was there to keep pushing me, and I took some walking breaks.  (They were so necessary).

It’s totally worrying me now, though.  My friend C and I were talking at floor hockey last night about the possibility that I was getting shin splints, and that it could put me out of commission for months!  Ugh!  That’s not cool – and it’s not helping my anxiety that I’ve iced my legs but still feel pain.  I so want to do this run, but do I want to seriously hurt myself?  I’ll keep wrestling with this problem!

Keep checking in – tomorrow I’ve got clinical – 12 hours at the hospital.  I won’t get to running until around 8pm or so.

Dare run blog – Day four

Fundraising goal:	100% ($900)
Time of day:	7:40 am
Run time:	34 minutes
Weather:	11°C
Overall feeling:	Do I have to be awake?

This is a quick post because I need to make sure I get to school on time (class and midterm today).  The run went really well.  I pushed myself to go faster because I didn’t want to be late, and because I had some awesome motivational music playing (MIA, MJ, etc).  The weather was awesome, and it was great to see tons of people out walking their dogs.  I kept a good pace and didn’t take one walking break, and I got all green lights!  I guess this was God’s way of pushing me forward seeing as I didn’t even want to get out of bed this morning!

Tomorrow will be an afternoon run, I’ve got to work during the day.  Keep checking in friend – the dare is on!

Dare run blog – Day three

Fundraising goal:	100% ($900)
Time of day:	9:13 am
Run time:	35 minutes
Weather:	3°C
Overall feeling:	Tired, but good

This morning I got up at 7:20 and was determined to run right away. Yeah…that didn’t happen.  I did a little bit of studying to wake myself up and decided to run just after 9:00.  As soon as I started, I noticed I had a headache and I realized that I had forgotten to eat breakfast – OOPS.  Oh well, I just plugged on instead and tried to motivate myself by thinking about the OJ and cinnamon raisin toast waiting for me (which I just ate).

The run was pretty good overall – I can tell my muscles are getting more tired and it felt like my calves were on fire when I was running up the first part of our regular route (it’s all uphill for about 10 minutes).  The weather was awesome!  It was super clear out and I could see the CN tower across Riverdale Park and I tried to use that to distract me from my tired legs.  Once I was up the hill it was a lot better.  I had some awesome tunes come up on my shuffle and I just ran it out.  I made in home before I knew it.

Now it’s time for more school work and a shower!