Something new...

I just got some pictures from a month ago and just thought I'd put up something new on my tremendously exciting blog...



The top is my niece Lucy and bottom is Brandon and me with some of my cousins after my Grandma's funeral.

REAL SL...what to say...

We are VERY photogenic...


Brandon and I went to the last Real game because his co-worker was playing the Star Spangled Banner with his electric guitar. It was Brandon's first soccer game (other than my weekly indoor games) and it was excellent!

My lucky day :(

So I have quite possibly the worst luck of all time. Anyone who knows me very well knows that I have had back problems for years. The last two marathons I've run I've gone in for cortisone shots before each marathon, and my Escape from Alcatraz triathlon time was well, let's just say it wasn't as good as it could have been because I almost personally amputated my back during the bike part to ease the pain...

Anyway, so since June I've had this crazy pain in my hamstring and thought I pulled it. After continuing to run on it, it got worse and worse to the point where I would have this stabbing knife pain in the back of my leg randomly/frequently throughout the day when I wasn't running or even doing anything, then it would spread to my bum, hips, and back. I just kept training even though the pain was awful. So finally I went to the doctor thinking that I pulled my hamstring, turns out that I am having Sciatic nerve problems in my back that I've been masking for years with the cortisone and it's just getting worse.

I had to go in for an MRI a week ago (While I've been taking a boat load of pills- a steroid pack, Loritab, and Ibuprofin), and let me tell you what a weird experience that was! So I opted for Valium because I'm slightly claustrophobic, and hello-fabulous! I walk into the room and check for possible wedgies because I am warned over and over that if I move at all they will have to start over- and who can resist picking a wedgie for 20 minutes! Then you lay down and get moved into this tunnel that has zero room and the fun begins. You lay there while the machine goes crazy and is all loud and disturbing, but lucky for me I was so medically-induced relaxed that I could have been in the middle of an open fire battle in Iraq and not flinched a muscle!

So long story short, I have a mild broadbased posterior nerve impingement (yeah not sure exactly what that means, but all my pads between my back bones that lead to my sciatic nerves are bulging or slipped or something) but physical therapy won't do anything and my doctor doesn't want me operated on because I'm so young, so I now have to go have steroids injected into my back with a needle while I'm having a real time xray. Again-not really sure what's going on. But the worst part is that I can't run, bike, or swim-I can't do squat! I have to completely leave everything alone until I can have this intervention done to my back to see if it is effective.

What does this mean- I will probably be setting the record for least fast person ever running(or crawling) the New York Marathon. Ahhhh, how great to have the back of a 90 year old...Life has a swell way of giving you a sense of humor...