Life's little adventures, accompanied by a running watch

Friday, March 18, 2016

City Tour…by Ambulance

I’m typically pretty low maintenance.  No prescriptions, no health issues, no real complaints.  This week however was not a low maintenance week. 

To back up, I spent last week (my first week at my new job) flying to Chicago.  I conquered O’Hare like a champ, didn’t get lost (though the car rental place almost sent me off with an expired registered car!), and had a good week getting to know my teammate and partners I’ll be working with.  I didn’t really have time to explore Chicago, but I’m sure there’ll be other opportunities.

So this past Monday was to be my first day in my NC office.  Ah, but my “low maintenance” body had other plans.  Enter:  Kidney Stone.  Evil.  Pure evil.  As if the excruciating pain wasn’t enough, I didn’t know what was causing it and that was scary.  And, I was in a new city.  And, we didn’t have a doctor or any idea of best hospital to go to, etc.  When you’re in that much pain, vomiting, and shaking in a sweaty mess, you call 911.  Or, you yell to your husband to call 911.

The inside of an ambulance is not where I expected to be touring as a new resident of NC.  But there I was at 3:00 am Monday.  I remember the EMT asking questions of Scott and of me that were going down the path of heart history….what??    Fortunately, there was no issue there (though they had a hard time getting temperature and blood pressure) and it was later confirmed through CT scan that the little bastard kidney stone was there.  I spent Monday in bed and NOT at work – yes, that felt like a sure fire way to move up the corporate ladder (not!).  They gave me pain medication and anti-nausea medication, since my kidney stone was too small to actually do something more invasive about it.  I went to work Tuesday, feeling exhausted but without pain.  Once the pain stopped, it was over.  As if it had never happened.  Oof.

Tuesday, though, brought on a head cold.  Now, I don’t get sick too often, but here I was throwing down kidney stones and a nasty head cold back to back.  What happened to “low maintenance Lisa”?  Like a good new employee, I worked the rest of the week, stoically sitting at my desk, fully drenched in leaking eyes and nose.  Yeah, I was pretty hot.  A hot MESS that is.

Tomorrow, Scott and I are registered for the Get Your Rear In Gear 5K for Colon Cancer Coalition.  I’ll probably walk it with the girls I’ve met at our apartment complex.  I’m grateful the kidney stone episode passed quickly and I know this cold will too.  I’m also grateful the kidney stone episode didn’t hit while I was travelling to IL and Scott was road tripping it to our new home in NC.  Even if I crawl at this 5K, I’ll be grateful to be out of bed and moving again.  Touring our new city by foot is much better than touring by ambulance!



Tuesday, March 8, 2016

A Different Kind of Calm After A Different Kind of Storm

About one and a half months ago, I accepted a job offer that would relocate us to NC.  Our news came as a surprise to many, but Scott and I had been talking about changing things up for some time.  We couldn’t have fathomed the intensity and velocity of this change.  During this brief period, we –
  • Listed our house we've lived in for 26 years (for me, 39 years!)
  • Celebrated Scott's 50th birthday by island hopping Marco > Sanibel > Captiva
  • Sold our house
  • Packed and purged (did I mention 39 years?!?!?)
  • Made impressively monstrous to-do lists
  • Connected with as many family and friends as possible
  • Resigned from our jobs
  • Prepared for new job
  • Found/secured temporary housing in NC
  • Completed first road trip to NC
There were things we missed, things we had to reprioritize, and things we simply had to let go of.  Running took a major back seat.  Eating well was a challenge (we celebrated any meal not found between two pieces of bread).  Due to the crazy pace and moving parts, sleep was hard to come by.  We were extremely lucky to have engaged a phenomenal broker who helped sell our house so quickly, and to find an apartment that fits us as well as it does.  We are so grateful to have family and friends so supportive of our adventure – even though it meant we’d be farther away.
 
As I write this post, I am curled up on our only piece of furniture in our new apartment.  And I’m actually hand writing it because I have no computer and no internet (to post later).  The apartment is completely quiet; no TV, no internet, no Scott, no Bella.  I went for my first solo run earlier, ate dinner in solitude, and at 6:00 pm, ran out of things to do.  Weird.
This will be short lived.
 
Tomorrow, I start my new job.  I begin by jumping on a flight to Chicago.  Hey, if you’re going to live out of suitcases, does it really matter which city or state you’re in?  For now, I will soak up the solitude and quietly celebrate having survived the last one and a half months of a hectic, emotional, scary, and exciting rollercoaster ride.  Tomorrow, I meet new people in another new city and start a new chapter in my career.  Friday, I return to NC, where Scott and Bella will be waiting for me.  And the solitude will be replaced with the wonderful sounds of home.