I have enjoyed playing Ultimate Frisbee the past few afternoons --I mean; I really, really like Ultimate Frisbee. I played yesterday till all my clothes stuck to my skin. I’ve also been relishing my morning jog—It’s so cool now and the weather so gentle. Even the bit of rain earlier in the week was delicious. However, this morning the wind at the mouth of the canyon was ferocious! A lithe young runner glided past me and pointed out how the headwind was causing us grief…..it sure is, I said, practically crawling & gasping for breath behind him as he disappeared into the canyon. Man, I really hope to rebuild some stamina over the next few weeks. Also, my piriformis hurts again. Dr. Brady’s magic injection must be wearing off. Adding to my litany of complaints is how much reading I’ve done now on hypoglycemia and marathon/distance running. My refusal over these years to eat before running, or during runs, is no longer an option. There is only one available endocrinologist in Utah County so I have to wait to see her. But ever since I've been learning about hypoglycemia, it explains almost everything that has been wrong with me (exhaustion & dizziness, heart arrhythmia, headaches, weakness, extreme irritability, mental fogginess, faintness, etc.. ). I have thought I was dying of cancer or something so many times in the past two years, I finally made them run every test they suspected I should take. They’ve checked me for early menopause, for liver failure, for vitamin D deficiency, anemia---but after 10 years at the same doctor, no one ever said to me: Hey! Do you ever feel like you’re going to pass out or get really dizzy and weak? Get headaches much? Because we’ve noticed your blood sugar for the past 10 years, has been half of what it should to even be considered “Low”. I mean, I thought was going to die of a heart attack a hundred times because of the arrhythmia. I just assumed it would kill me, the same as it killed my Dad of a stroke. But come to find out it’s hypoglycemia that causes it. I've laid down on the trail and put my feet up in the air so I won't pass out a few times, or bent way over so the blood would stay in my head to keep me conscious. No one has ever said anything except “your blood sugar is low” in an un-alarming, monotone way that led me to believe it was totally normal to have such low blood sugar. It's never meant anything to me until it started to affect my running. I’ve lived with it so long it’s become normal, and I have such a litany of other complaints during the day that I just shoved "passing out on the trail" into the closet along with the rest of the crap. But it came to me in June, that the only things I enjoy doing (running and skiing) are jeopardized. It hasn’t mattered that I’ve gone through the rest of my waking life half-dead and low functioning; it hardly makes a difference. I’m just one of 6 billion human drones doing the same thing every single day, living through whatever misery or luck is thrown my way. But do not mess with the hiking, running or the skiing…. please. | 