Not Invincible

Well, it's been a rough couple of weeks for sure. After the last post when I had visited the Duke Urgent Care and they told me that I had a case of bad sinusitis I stayed home for two days feeling miserable. I managed the workout with Lauren and Charlie and then went to Blake's funeral service the next day at Trinity School, but otherwise, bed-bound and sickly for 2 straight days. On Wednesday of last week, I decided that is was time to get out of bed, especially since I thought it was just sinusitis, and get moving.

I taught the TRX class early Wed morning and had extreme difficulty with breathing and started to get a little concerned. I finished off the morning and then headed to my primary care physician to get another look at the "sinusitis". While I was at the doctors office, I collapsed because I couldn't breathe and lost sensation in both arms. At this stage, I felt like I was in a House episode and was going to die. They called the ambulance and took me straight to Duke ER. They immediately took a chest x-ray and saw that the lower right lobe of my lungs had collapsed and flattened out due to the bacteria that was enveloping it. They caught it quick enough that I didn't need a chest tube and they placed me on high-powered antibiotics that took a few hours to start working while they monitored me in the hospital.

The bad news is that I can't do any vigorous exercise for at least 6 weeks. This is a huge setback in terms of training and I'm bummed because I was well on pace to get a 1:35 or less for the half marathon in March and easily break by previous record of 1:41 (the only other time I've run an open half marathon). My running was strong, my biking was decent, and I was looking forward to the spring. That is now on hold...

The good news, and perhaps the only news that I should consider, I'm alive. I live to see another day and will train again just not any time soon. Instead, I'm focused on getting better and trying to put some of the 15 lbs of weight that I lost in 20 days because of the Engine 2 Diet and sickness combined. It is really hard for me to put back on weight, but since I can't do much cardio I will focus all my energy into weights.

That brings me to the Engine 2 Diet. Many people have asked my take on the diet and so here it is... I think it does what it claims, weight loss and lowering cholesterol. My weight dropped 15 lbs in 20 days and cholesterol went down slightly (although I was at 140 total cholesterol before so I didn't want to lose much anyway for adequate cell functioning). What it did to a healthy and active male, though, was make me worse. The fat content was at 18-22% daily caloric intake before E2 and then down to 3-5% on E2. Even though the caloric intake was the same, I strongly believe the fat helped slow down my metabolism and make my immune system stronger. With less fat, my metabolism actually increased and my immune system weakened and I feel may have contributed to my pneumonia in the long run. In summary, good for a majority of obese America, bad for the healthy and already stable individuals. I will NOT be going back on it any time soon...

The last 2 weeks have really opened my eyes and made me realize that I'm not quite as invincible as I once thought. I've aged a bit and learned that I will need to pay closer attention to signs of sickness and fatigue. Furthermore, once I recognize those signs, listen to them and actually rest the body stopping the progression of various bacteria and viruses the kids might bring home to my lungs. I'm happy to still have life and glad that Carrie and the boys were also able to recover and rebound as well (Braden was also diagnosed with pneumonia the same day that I went to the ER). I have a new found appreciation of modern medicine and am glad for the antibiotics that have seemed to help up to this point. I still have a cough that I'll give 1 more week before I go back to the primary care physician for a re-check...