If life was predictable it would be boring

Tempting Faith

Mid September, herself indoors has a check up in the cancer centre in Limerick Regional Hospital. I am not one for hanging around in waiting rooms so I park the car and have brought my running gear. Plan was a 4 mile tempo run with 1 Mile warm up and warm down. Got back to the car just as herself was coming out of the clinic. As I am changing and towelling down I gaze across to the rear of the Children’s ark to where the Sunshine ward is located I said to herself thankfully we should never see the inside of that place again.

 A month to forget

One day after her 15th Birthday my daughter had a seizure after been fours years free from seizures and about to be taken off her Epilepsy medication. This seizure was different from all the others, which is why on the day I immediately ran the Ambulance. It ended up been some form of Autoimmune Encephalitis and she spent a week in Intensive Care and another two weeks on the Sunshine Ward recovering. Ironically she stayed in the room which is being renovated with funds from the Bridge Milers 10K run this year. Lorraine was released from Hospital last Friday and while not fully 100% she is well on the road to recovery.

We are lucky to have her

Words uttered to me by nurses and consultants alike during Lorraine’s stay. They were referring to Dr O'Mahony who is the paediatric neurologist in Limerick Regional Hospital and I would agree with those sentiments entirely. She is one of the most honest, hard working professional people that I have every had the pleasure to meet.  Also Dr Murphy and her team were excellent especially Johannes who was as elated as I when Lorraine come around in Intensive Care and recognised me. I would like to thank the Nurses in Intensive Care in taking care of Lorraine especially Mairead and Siobhan who dealt with her when she was woken up. They did not have an easy task by any stretch of the imagination. The same is true of Polette and the other nurses who had the difficult task of trying to help her in Accident and Emergency on the night of her Admission.

Lace them up

What I have got from this horrible experience is that it may be raining or freezing or just plain laziness that I might contemplate skipping a run. Not any more "lace them up and run because tomorrow you may not be able to do it" is my new motto.   

What Day is it ??

My running  swimming and gym work have not happened since the day Lorraine got struck down with some mysterious virus. Her condition is no longer critical and her recognition of people and recollection of events prior to last Monday is intact. She is however both confused and delusional since Monday and has no concept of time or reality at the moment. As a result of her current state of health either me or her mother have to be in the Hospital with her at all times. We are taking two day shifts which as one would expect will limit the amount of running I will get to do over the coming weeks.
I did however get two Tempo runs of 7 miles in since last weekend, the pace was slower then previous runs for the same Heart Rate but this is to be expected considering the circumstances and stress of the last 2 weeks. On the upside I have recovered quicker from these runs and found that I was able to hold the pace particularly on the last mile with little or no drift upwards in Heart Rate.

October 14th
         9 Miles 7 Miles 54:42 @ 7:48 pace, HR 161 with 1 Mile WU/WD

October 17th
         9 Miles 7 Miles 56:31 @ 8:04 pace, HR 155 with 1 Mile WU/WD

Why do I run ?

If you asked me that question last week you would have got answer like to get a qualifying time for Boston 2014 sometime next year. Well on Monday evening that and a lot of other plans have been blown out the window. Short story is Lorraine my Daughter had a seizure on Monday at 18:10. After briefly regaining conscious to state that she could not see, she has been unconscious whilst battling an unknown viral infection. As her mam was in hospital until yesterday, I had to deal with all the stuff in Limerick. Short story is we are none the wiser and her condition thankfully has not worsened but has not got better either. I will add that she is been cared for by a wonderful Team of Nurses, Doctors and Consultants in Limerick Regional ICU at the moment and would like to thank all those that have supported us with actions, thoughts and prays over the last week
So today was the first time I got to do a run. Put on my shoes, Hi Vis jacket, light and set out. No planned route or watch to monitor HR/Pace (sick of looking at monitors at this stage), just out my gate turned left and ran.
This run allowed me to get a lot things straight in my head. I would swap in a heartbeat with Lorraine at this moment but that will never happen. Could I have spotted or done something to pick this up earlier ? Probably but that won't change anything now. All I can do is stay positive and be there for her, my wife and son as we face the challenges, high and lows that are ahead of us over the next few hours,days and weeks.

11th Oct 2012 
          About 10.5 miles in a hour and a half or a bit more, at a pace that varied with my mood.