The craziness that is my life...

WHEW! It's been a very eventful and busy few weeks...I'm not even sure where to begin! I'll start with the bad, so I can end on a positive note!

Long story short, the past few weeks I haven't been my usual up-beat and chipper self - my body is still doing the crazy things it was doing a few weeks back + some. I have been having some weird running "side effects" that I hadn't experienced before. Out of nowhere (during a run) my body turns ice cold, a wave of nausea and the "I'm gonna pass out feeling" comes over me. My breathing is not like it used to be - now it actually feels HARD to breathe when running, I have been experiencing very painful migraines that tend to last for a day or two, and last but not least insomnia. The sick feeling and headaches usually leave me dizzy and disoriented - which is nothing I have experienced before. At first I thought this was just my tired body telling me to slow down - oh no...not quite.

One afternoon Scott and I went for an easy 3 mile jog...nothing crazy...piece of cake, right? Ohhhh no. Around the 1.5 mile mark the sick feeling came at me full force, causing me to *GASP* walk. Just as I'm trying to shake the feeling, it happens. There I am, in front of someones cute 'lil house throwing up for a good 2 minutes. Uhhmmm....not normal! Thank goodness Scott was with me - I get so scared when stuff like that happens. The rest of the day was a blur - I had a terrible migraine and was weak as could be. I chalked it up to just having a bad day and onward I went...

Fast-forward to Friday. I was at work - again not feeling like myself. Despite it all I was pumping myself up for the 18 miler I was going to run in the morning. I decided to run it on my own instead of with the team, I needed to do this on my own to get myself back. That night I could not fall asleep...not even for an hour or two. It was now 1 am and I saw no signs of falling asleep. Not sure what got into me, but I decided to start my 18 mile run at 2:30 am...yes, you read that right. Surprisingly, it was a great run! Well, great until mile 15. It was actually REALLY nice to be outside when the rest of the world was sleeping. Very peaceful! I didn't see many cars on the road, except of course a police officer. He drove up behind me reeeeaaallly slowly - trying to figure out what in the world a person was doing outside at 3 am. I'm sure I was a big disappointment - no, I was not some rebellious teenager sneaking out of the house...just some crazy girl going for a run in the middle of the night. I think my reflectors gave it away :)

Then it all went down hill. Out of nowhere I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach 10 times over and felt like I was going to pass out. I was about 2 miles from home and turned around as quickly as I could! When I got home I made a b-line for the shower hoping it would calm me down a bit - no such luck. I have never felt so sick. I tried to sleep it off, but that only lasted an hour. I tried to make my way to the bathroom and came THIS close to collapsing onto the floor. My body turned to ice, but I was still sweating bullets and I'm pretty sure my eyes were rolling back into my head or so it felt. I yelled for someone to come help (I was at my parents), but they were both gone - I started to really panic. I honestly thought I was going to have heart failure right then and there. I called Scott - he was working and I didn't want him to leave because it's such a pain to get coverage and he was 30 minutes away. I mustered up the energy to make it back to my bed and waited for someone to get home. For the next 6 hours I was sick as a dog. Scary stuff.

After realizing that this was anything but normal, I decided I needed to see a Dr. After multiple attempts at drawing blood, they got a teeny tiny bit - good news...everything came back normal. Next Thursday I will go in for a stress test and see if anything else is up.

Tomorrow I am running 12 miles with the team (much better than the 19 I THOUGHT I had to do) - I am planning on taking it nice and easy! Wish me luck!

* This is not "long story short" as I promised...and in true dana fashion - very dramatic (Scott can vouch for that!)...I apologize!

Please (and I mean PLEAAASE!!), if you have not and would like to donate to this great cause you may do so by clicking on the link at the top right-hand corner of the blog. Fundraising has come to a stand still and I would LOVE to see that number go up ASAP! My deadline is September 25 - but I can take donations until the middle of November. Some very kind souls have passed my link on to friends - the offer still stands for anyone who hasn't and is willing!

Race day is in exactly 1 month!! Wooooo hoooo!