Run & Eat

Feels like 88 degrees.

I swear, South Texas needs to get it together!! It’s the end of October already and I’m still sweating through my runs.  I set out last night around 6:30 and, at first, it wasn’t too bad.  There was actually a breeze.  But then I started outrunning the breeze and couldn’t feel it anymore.  I had to resort to pouring water on my head by the last mile – something I had been doing all summer.

It looks nicer than it felt.

The trails were pretty crowded and I could tell other runners were suffering.  I heard very little talking and lots of grunting, huffing and puffing.  The only exception was a hardcore blonde who looked like she was military-trained, bolting through with her two dalmatians.  My route ends with two hills, and over time I have been able to conquer them.  They are nothing compared to what I’ll be running up in 11 days at the Enchanted Rock Trail Race.

The Rock is a huge, pink granite exfoliation dome, that rises 425 feet above ground, 1,825 feet above sea level, and covers 640 acres. It is one of the largest batholiths (underground rock formation uncovered by erosion) in the United States.

(From the Enchanted Rock State Park website)

Baked Acorn Squash

I came home to an amazing meal made by my husband.  This was a first for both of us.  Baked, stuffed acorn squash.  It looked so beautiful and exotic to me.  He stuffed it with things like red bell pepper, cauliflower, onion, zucchini, pecans, and I can’t remember what else he told me because I was too busy scarfing it down.

How lucky is it that he loves to cook and I love to eat!?  It felt like Fall inside our house, eating this meal – too bad Texas weather didn’t get the memo!

Nurse as Patient

Lately it’s been my turn to be the patient.  I’m being “worked up” for a problem with my kidneys.  The most recent step in this process was getting a CT scan of my kidneys, ureters, and bladder – aka CT KUB – or CT abd/pelvis – all the same thing really.  I’ve never had a CT scan before so I was incredibly anxious about having the contrast dye injected through an IV, and lying on a stretcher being pushed in and out of a giant whirring machine.  Luckily my friends reassured me (thank you Facebook friends!) that everything would be fine.

It’s going to swallow me up!

I was sent to an imaging center specifically designed for people with urinary/kidney problems, soooo that meant as I sat in the waiting room – one by one – older, gray-haired men filed in.  They probably wondered “What is this little girl doing here??”  One man was having a PSA level drawn (prostate-specific antigen which is elevated in prostate cancer), and another man was having some kind of injection.

Then it was my turn.

Luckily, the technician was excellent and described every step of the process.  He explained that the contrast dye would make me feel flushed and very warm, and that I would feel like I was peeing on myself (great).  His voice was calm, and he was obviously very experienced.  He put me at ease – a true professional.

So now I wait – again.  Next week I’ll find out the results of all the testing that’s been done over the last 2 months – a long, drawn out process that I suspect will amount to nothing.  But that’s just my cynical nurse voice talking – I fear that I will be told the results are inconclusive, or that I’ll need more tests, or worse yet – “All of these things are just normal variants.”  And I will wait for the bills in the mail.