Taking matters into my own hands

I don't even know how to articulate the day's events or my emotions and reactions to them.  I can tell you that I broke down and cried in my doctor's office.  I can tell you that I cried even more in my car.  And somewhere between the clinic and my house, I got a little pissed.  No, I got a lot pissed. 

So here's how it played out:

 First thing this morning, I called the clinic and took the only appointment my Dr had available.  Now, I love my doctor.  I really do.  But he really ticked me off today.  He met me in the room, looked at my knee, poked around a little "yes, ouch, that's where it hurts" and sent me off to X-Ray.  After the X-Ray, I am back in the room and looking at it with him.  Nothing there to indicate a problem.  So he tells me that he is sending me to physical therapy and to take two Aleve twice a day.  Wait a mnute.....I have been training since April.  I didn't just start this thing.  I DON"T HAVE 6 WEEKS, I am screaming in my head.  I ask him if he can't do an MRI and he tells me that the insurance companies won't pay for them until after 6 weeks of physical therapy.  So this is when I tear up, he hands me a kleenex and tells me "I want you to know it is awesome what you  are doing.  Even if you can't walk the 3 day."  And his nurse says "yes, I second that!" 

WHAT??????????????  Just like that?  So I leave and I can't even talk, the tears are pouring and I struggle for my sunglasses.  It's embarassing to leave Everett clinic crying.  I get in my car and really lose it.  LOSE it with a capital L.  If someone walked by my car and saw me, they would think I had just received a terminal diagnosis.  No, this isn't cancer.  Thank GOD.  But I am still really upset.  I stop at the drug store and pick up more Aleve and while I am driving home, I just get more and more angry.  I grab my insurance card and dial.  20 minutes later, after phone menus of " hit this number, birthday?  no I need all 4 digits of the year", yada yada yada and I get a live person.

Now Quirdita (yes I made her spell it for me) is super nice while I explain my issue.  Will the insurance pay for an MRI if a Dr orders it?  Well, she needs the procedure code so I'll need to get that from the doctor and then call her back.  Of course.  But while I have her on the phone, I have her check to see if I need a referral to go to the sports medicine doctor that Tath goes to.  The answer is nope.  No referral needed.  Excellent!  After a call back to the clinic for the code and redialing Blue Cross, I get another person, Tenisia.  Yes, I made her spell that too.  I give Tenisia the procedure code and nope, it's not a procedure code.  But she can look it up for me (why couldn't Quirdita do that)???   Anyway, she tells me that I have a 20% co-pay but all I need is a doctor to order it.  Really.  Reeeaaalllly.  Now I am really pissed at my Dr.!!

I call the sports medicine clinic and get the nicest girl ever on the phone.  Super nice.  I don't know why I didn't get her name!  I tell her the problem and that I need help fast because the 3 day is coming up!  She said "we have to get you in here now!"  She started to make an appointment with the first doctor I mentioned (Tath's doctor) and then I said "well, I should ask you who you would go to, since I don't know any of the doctors"  And she tells me that Dr Mitch Story is her doctor.  He's been the Mariners doctor for 20 years and he only treats injuries and is very results oriented.  And he's at Northgate, not Ballard, so way closer for me.  Bingo!  She told me to bring my X-Ray with me, so when we hung up I emailed the Dr to have it ready for me at the front desk so that I can pick it up tomorrow. 

My appointment is Wednesday morning.  I don't know what is going to happen.  I have no idea of the outcome.  But I know that I didn't work this hard, to get this far, without giving it every ounce of my energy to figure it out.  We have to be our own advocate.  We have to take matters into our own hands every now and then. 

And I promise you this.  I am not going to give up without a fight.

Saturday's 18 mile walk turned into 12

Saturday's scheduled 18 mile walk turned into 19 miles for Terry and 12 for me.  We started out at Alderwood Mall and covered the enormous hill on 164th and then another long hill up through Mill Creek.  Everything was fine.  Well, let me back up.  The foot blisters were evident at pit stop 1.  The duct tape was moving and wrinkling, just like the mole skin had in prior weeks.  At pit stop 2,  I reapplied the duct tape and while I could feel the blisters, they were tolerable to walk on. After the two hills and at about mile 9, I felt a weird pull in my left knee.  It kept happening in kind of a pulsing manner until I almost screamed in pain.  So I stopped and tried to stretch it.  It went away and I walked another 1/2 mile and back it came POW! I decided I had better stop and ice it, so I called Tath to have the sweep van come get me.  We were only a mile from lunch, so I put ice on it, took 2 Aleve and elevated it. 

While I was in the van, I redressed my feet.  I went back to moleskin since I wasn't having great luck with the duct tape.  I cut a hole out for the blister and then wrapped by foot and heel in athletic tape.  I iced my knee through lunch and it felt fine, so I decided to get back to the walk.   At pit stop #1 after lunch I continued to feel great.  Yes!  I had slowed my pace to begin with, just to make sure everything was OK.  At pit stop #2 I talked to Olwen (the nurse) and she said I should ice it at every pit stop.  OK, I will definitely do that at the next one.  About 2 miles later .....POW!  It came back just like that and was so bad I couldn't even put weight on my left foot.  I went back into the sweep van and iced it the rest of the walk.  Terry finished the walk while lame old me sat in the van.

After we went home, I continued to ice my knee and this morning it is still swollen.  Probably not a good idea to walk on it so I decided not to walk today.  I will be calling the Dr first thing in the morning.  I've got to figure it out.  And quickly.

Moral of the story....if it's not one thing it's another!!

Attempting a new shoe philosophy

This will be a very quick post.  I am re-thinking my whole shoe philosophy.  I am going to try performance sandals.  I just ordered these on Zappos.  They aren't pretty.  And they aren't cheap.  But they have 125 5* reviews from people who have hiked in them and trudged all over Europe.

So we will see what happens when they come in.  I wish they would be here for this weekend.  But I will try them next Wednesday night hopefully.  Stay tuned.  In the meanwhile I need to deal with these blisters for the billion miles we are walking this weekend.

Wednsday night Twilight Walk and BLISTERS

Tonight was my first week back and the walk was great.  It was little warm out, 81 on my car thermometer, I know...Not that hot!   But I am admittedly a wimp!  We started in Lake Forest Park with hills.  Tath, we love her, calls them slopes or inclines.  But truly the first 4 miles were predominantly uphill.  Slopes.  Hills.  Inclines.  Whatever.  We had a nice breeze and lots of shade, so really our small group did just fine.  My pedometer says we did 6.67 miles, 14,598 steps and 593 calories.  OK.  Now, back in May that would sound good, but tonight, I know it's just a minute training walk.

I felt fine the whole walk, hills and all.  But when I got home, I could feel it.  The burning on my heel.  Damn.  Another friggen" blister..  BLISTER   BLISTER.  I am so completely annoyed with these dang things.  This was a short walk and I have had a week off for my blisters to heal and whammo.  I want to send them to the MOON or POW! "right in the kisser" with Alice.  Ack!  So between now and Saturday, I need to figure this out.  I put 2 coats of second skin on my heels where the blisters appear and obviously that didn't help. 

If you are reading this and you know the perfect solution, let me know.

For now....this red headed chubby girl is cranky with my stupid feet.  I may even try finding a great pair of walking sandals that don't rub my heels.  Not sure what else to do.

Can I scream now???  OK.  I'll just go to bed.  *sigh*

Less than 1 month to go!

Tonight it's back to walking after a week long hiatus.   I won't lie.  It's been nice.  The trip to Portland was a huge success.  We left early on Thursday morning, checked into the hotel, had some dinner and then walked a couple of blocks to catch the light rail to the Rose Garden.  I love Portland's transit system.  It is awesome and so easy to use.  GaGa fanatics were everywhere in their hot pink wigs, masks and crazy clothes.  There was A LOT of leg showing Thursday night.  Short, short skirts and high heels.  Lots and lots of eye candy.  Very campy, very fun!  After the (amazing) concert, we met up with the rest of the fam who were at a karaoke bar a mile from the Rose Garden, so we walked there and closed the place down.

Friday morning after breakfast, I was on flower duty.  Courtney aka the bride, was at a dahlia farm personally picking her flowers for bouquets and center pieces.  How fun is that?  While, I did no walking on Friday, I was aching after 5 hours of stooping and reaching and cutting and lifting flowers and vases.  Ugh!  But they were gorgeous and the bride was thrilled with our handiwork.  The rehearsal, then dinner and then a late night meet up afterward and this girl was TIRED.  I am OLD, remember?  Too much hardy in my party : )

Saturday was breakfast with the fam and then off to the reception site to set up tables and flowers.  So fun to see the transformation!  Off to change clothes, and then off to cathedral park for the wedding.  So casual, so THEM, so right.  Just beautiful.  Everyone had their dancing shoes on for the reception.  Even after the band quit playing, we were all still on the floor until they pulled the power plug at 1 a.m.  Dang it!  Had a wonderful time.

Sunday morning and black out shades created the perfect sleeping environment.  A look at tthe clock and a jump out of bed "It's 10:00!!!!!"  Anyone that knows me, knows that I don't sleep in.  8:00 is probably my record.  Until now.  Holy moley!  2 showers, pack everything up, pick up Mom and we were checked out before 11:00.  How's that for fast??  Everyone was already at Courtney and Sean's for breakfast and we were the late stragglers.  Oh well.  We had more rest than they did!

Now, you might be asking why I am recounting the weekend's festivities on a blog about the 3 day.  Well, it's about balance.  It's about life.  It's about being in the moment.  Terry and I both took our tennis shoes with plans to get up early every morning and get a little walking in.  That never happened.  It was a crazy busy, ridiculously fun weekend and also a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep.  With working and household chores and walking, there is no sleep in time, no catch up time.  This weekend was a wonderful family connection time with lots of buzz and busy-ness.  I wouldn't change one minute of it. 

Today is Wednesday and tonight it's back to walking.  It's back in the saddle!  This weekend, the walks are 18.5 on Saturday and 15 miles on Sunday.  There are only 2 more weekends to walk.  A weekend off and then the 3 day weekend will be here.  It's coming up FAST!

Live in the moment. Cherish the memories.  Then get your butt back out there! 

I actually get to sleep in tomorrow!

For the first time in a month, I get a Saturday!  It will likely be the last Saturday I get until September October 2nd!  I better enjoy it!  Tath and  a group are heading to Vancouver BC to cheer on walkers this weekend.  So, while we could find a training walk, I plan to enjoy a Saturday.  No alarm going off at 5:30.  No walking 18 miles.  Resting my feet and enjoying the sunshine are in my plans.  It is supposed to be a gorgeous weekend.  90 both Saturday and Sunday.  I do have to work on Sunday.  But that's OK.  I can sleep in on Sunday too.

It will be back to walking on Wednesday night and then off to Portland for GaGa (YES!) and Court's wedding.

A little mid-training rest is good for the soul and the sole.

Cookie Monster was here

A few months ago, when I was really worrying about my fund raising, I had a little "contest" where I held a cookie drawing of all contributors if I could raise $500 that week.  I raised over $700 that week and had my drawing.  The winner was Jan O'Neil.

After a couple of scheduling mishaps and busy summer, we were finally able to make a date: August 10th.  Now, Jan is a first grade teacher.   An awesome first grade teacher, just like my sister-in-law, Linda.   There is just a wee bit of enviable child in her.  For example, she loves Disneyland.  I mean, she has a love affair with Disneyland!  That infectious happy joy is her aura.  (I just really wanted to use that word).  So, when I asked Jan what kind of cookies she wanted, (I am picturing white chocolate macadamia nut, crystallized ginger, some gourmet type cookies) Jan's answer was "my Mother's Christmas cookies".  Alrighty then, Christmas cookies it is!  Jan sent me her Mom's recipes and the plan was set.  Jan also wanted to help bake the cookies (of course she did!!) so a fun girl day was in store for Jan, Linda and me.  Christmas in August.  Queue the Christmas music (yes, seriously!) and I started making cookie dough at 9:30.  It was raining outside, which was actually perfect.  Two ovens going and the  kitchen can get hot!  There were 4 recipes and I doubled each one, so 8 batches of cookie dough later, it was 1:00 and the ladies arrived.

Sustenance of the non-sugary kind

The decor table

So, of course by now, the sun started to come out.  Dang it, it was supposed to rain today!  Oh well, baking in sunshine......off we go.  Whew, it takes a long time to make that many cookies.  We must have ended up with at least 20 dozen cookies.  Seriously!

Oops!

After about 3 hours of standing and baking and rolling and dropping, it was refreshment time!

Cheers!

                                     The fruits of our labor were plentiful!

After all of the baking, we retired to the deck to enjoy the sunset and the beautiful weather.  Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup (hey, it was supposed to be raining and December!)

It was a fun way to repay all of the generosity I have been given during this commitment to walk 60 miles and end breast cancer.  Forever.

Holy aching feet!

This was a weekend of walking.  Saturday......a whopping 18.5 miles.  Now, after my blisters last weekend, I was a little gun shy.  But they really had healed nicely, so in my ignorance, I decided that they were gone for good.  A little Glide (like vaseline to keep things from rubbing) all over my feet, two extra pairs of socks and I was ready to roll.  First pit stop = blisters.  Ach!  I had only gone 3 miles, for crying out loud, 15+ more to go.  This was not looking good.

Owlen the Goddess.......notice her halo?

Enter my hero Owlen.  Now Owlen is something of a goddess to me now.  She is a nurse at Children's hospital.  She has crewed for the 3 day twice (in blister care, I might add) and this is her 2nd year walking.  I had my fanny pack loaded with bandaids, mole skin, tape, etc.  But Owlen, with her halo glowing so bright I had to wear shades, is packing a drug store in her fanny pack.  Alcohol wipes to clean the area, some ointment that is basically like super glue for feet to help everything stick and restrict movement, some cool gel things (technical I know) that felt fabulous and cool on my blisters, mole skin, scissors (see what I mean about the drug store??) some wrapping tape and voila!  I am dressed and ready to party.  Oh, but wait, while we are here, let me do your left foot too (the one that had the blood blisters last week).  So she worked her mojo on that foot too.  Clean socks on and off I went. 

This is about the time it started to rain.  Then it rained ALL Day.  No sightings of the Blue Angels to keep us going.  The cloud cover was too low, so they had to fly low over the water.  For the people on the log booms, like my husband Terry (slacker!) I am sure it was fabulous.  Really, I am just jealous.  Drinking on a boat, watching hydro races and the blue Angels may be just a wee bit more fun than walking 18 miles.

Now, I want anyone reading this to think about 18 miles.  It is only 13 miles from my house to Ballard.  Ballard, for crying out loud.  It is FAR.  We started out on 145th and Bothell Way and walked to Sand Point Way along the water, picked up the Burke Gilman Trail, past Mathews Beach (nice park and beach, I want to go back!) through University Village (I want to go back and shop) where we had the fanicest training walk bathrooms EVER, up the hill through Ravenna, (holy cow some nice houses!) up Roosevelt, past North Seattle Community College, up to 145th and all the way back to Bothell Way.  Aye karumbah!

But, NO BLISTERS!  When I got home (exhausted) and took off the bandaid packs, no blisters.  Yes!

This is what 52 looks like after 18.5 miles

Sunday's walk was scheduled to be 12.5 miles.  I had an open house to hold from 1-4 so I knew I wouldn't be able to walk that far.  Terry met me at the McDonald's to drop my car so that I could break away and jet home to shower and get to work.

Neither of us were motivated to walk today.  It was pouring down rain.  After walking in the rain yesterday, it wasn't too exciting to imagine day 2 in the rain.  But we got our butts up and off we went.  Owlen met me there a little early to dress my feet again.  What a kind woman!  Everyone's but was dragging today after yesterday's very long day.  This is what we look like when we head out walking.  We are not fashion statements, that is for sure!

We all just kind of wanted to get it over with :-)  So off we started, my blisters feeling ok, but after mile 6 I was really hurting.  A new spot was hurting....the outside of my right foot.  All I can think is that all of the mole skin padding maybe pushed my foot more to the right.  Man, it was like someone was stabbing me with a knife.  I walked about another mile and then decided to bail out and go to my car.  We were within a mile of it anyway and I was in a lot of pain.  I came home, took a 20 minute bath to soak my poor feet and off to work I went.

Next weekend there is no training walk and the weekend after that is Courtney's wedding.  I am hoping that will be enough time for my feet to heal.  I can take shorter walks and get my shoes more broken in .  Keeping my fingers crossed.  I want to walk every single mile of this 60 mile journey!

Just as a final thought for today: in our meeting place this morning, there was a young couple with a one year old.  Our training group is hard to miss, 15-20 people, dressed in lots of pink, stretching and chatting.  We were all making goo-goo eyes at the baby and the husband started chatting with Tath.  He asked what group we were and what we were training for.  With tears in his eyes, he told her that he lost his mother 2 years ago to breast cancer.  It is a reminder of why we do this.  We have to stop this stupid disease.  Oh, and he said he thinks he will walk next year.  It brings it all back to center.

I swore it would never happen, but it did!

On the 3 day walk, there are vans that constantly run the course, looking for injured walkers.  These "sweep vans" take walkers to the next pit stop, or to camp, where ever they need to go to get attention.  A lot of thought and effort goes in to the vans and their volunteers to make sure that walkers do not feel badly about being swept.  Tath always tells us stories about her experiences at the 3 day to help prepare us for what we will experience.  The first year the walk was in Seattle, the temperatures were in the 90's and above, highly unusual for Seattle.  Several hundred walkers were not only swept, but they ended up in the hospital.  

One of the reasons for training is so that you are really prepared for the walk and have a high likelihood of being successful.  After all this training and walking, I am determined to make every step of the 60 miles.  After the long walk on Saturday, I did have 2 hot spots on my heels.  I was THRILLED that the tops of my feet didn't hurt a lick, a first time experience.  Thank you custom insoles!  I got up on Sunday (after not sleeping at ALL) and dressed those hot spots with 2nd skin band aids and regular band aids.  I checked them at mile 5 and all seemed well.  I could feel warm spots as I walked but no big deal.  At mile 7 we had a fairly long pit stop.  I did some stretching and then as we headed out to finish the last 3 miles, I felt burning on my right heel.  Uh-oh.  I really didn't want to look, but Tath said I had better check.  Crap, a GIANT blister on my right heel.  Ack.  All that covering didn't help at all.  Jamie had been struggling with her hot spots too and at the same pit stop uncovered giant blisters on the pads of her feet.  Ouch!  I'll take a heel blister over that.  So Jamie and I went into the sweep van with Walter the Beagle.  We were both CRANKY at being swept.  I don't want this to happen on the 3 day.  I really think the issue is that I was breaking in new shoes on giant walks.  When I first got my other shoes, we were only doing 5-8 mile walks and 17 is probably not the right way to wear a new shoe.  This morning, both heels are pretty sore, so I need to figure out what shoes I can wear to work in today.  Flip flops just don't look that professional.

It's funny, I walked 30 miles this week and I felt like a failure because of my blisters.  Some positive self talk is necessary!  I want these things dealt with before the walk on Wednesday night.  I am off to the drug store for some blister relief!

A funny thing happened on the way from the pit stop......................

OK, I am OLD.  Well, maybe not as old as some of the women on our team. Tath just turned 62 (and looks amazing!!) and another gal is probably in the same age bracket and kicks my BUTT.  Sheesh!  Today was a long walk, technically 16.82 miles, but hey I think I can call that 17.   I walked in my new shoes and I am VERY happy to report that the tops of my feet don't hurt at all.  YES!  I do have some pre-blisters (hot spots) but that is just because they are new shoes.  I can deal with that.  But those tops of the feet pain is non-existent with new inserts and new shoes.  Thank heavens for that.  Today's walk was good.  I did fine.  We stopped for a real lunch at a real restaurant around mile 10.  That really made the day long, we didn't finish until about 3:30.  It is a time commitment! 

At each pit stop I would check my phone for messages.  We have a hot new listing in Monroe and my phone was ringing off the hook!  As soon as I was done walking, I had to head home, jump in the shower and bolt to Monroe to present offers.  No rest for the weary or the old.  After meeting with our clients, we gratefully headed to Tom and Linda's who had invited us for dinner.  Such a nice treat after a long day.

But the funniest thing happened at a pit stop today.  We were filling our water bottles in a parking lot of a park and in drives a police car.  The officer had his window rolled down and said "Hello Ladies" and then told us that he had received a report of a suspicious car.  We all thought he was kidding.  Nope!  Someone had actually called in to report our sweep car, which is a Honda Element with our mascot strapped on top; a stuffed Pink Flamingo.  Seriously.....THAT is worth a phone call?  The officer was laughing as he called in on his radio to report that a bunch of 3 day walkers had a stuffed flamingo strapped to a car and nope, it wasn't very suspicious.  Ha!  We really don't look like rif-raf :-)

That actually made our day!  Tomorrow is 10 miles.  Piece of cake.