Running Into Joy

I write to you from the hazy fog brought on by a string of heavy symptom days with occipital neuralgia. For the last few months of 2019, I enjoyed blissfully low to no symptoms and, in truth, felt very much like I was "better." And then... the tense headache warning of what's to come. So, as much as I love a crisp new planner and the start of a new year, I'm struggling to find optimism. It's hard to feel like it's a fresh new year when I'm carrying over the same old chronic pain that met me in August of last year. In spite of this, I carry the lessons with me that going for a run will actually improve symptoms, not make them worse. And so, as the year of my half marathon (fingers crossed) begins, I'm continuing my training plan. Yesterday, I met a challenge that feels both distant and familiar. My symptoms were heavy, shocking pains coming frequently and a tell-tale tightness in my right neck muscles. I debated skipping the day's 45 minute ru...

Cue Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's "A Diagnosis." I've written a few times before about my chronic pain and the road to figuring out what I do and don't have. This week, I visited my neurologist for a long awaited follow-up appointment, the theme of which was basically "Okay, so we know I don't have multiple sclerosis or a brain tumor, so what now?" If you've never had a doctor show you pictures of your brain at 9am, let me just tell you I don't recommend it. Back in college when I took Neuroscience, I always used to get this weird, fuzzy feeling whenever I had to look at images of brains for too long. It always kind of freaked me out to think too hard about that little thing inside my head that was making me think all of my me thoughts. So staring in the face of not just pictures of any brain, but my very own brain, was something before which I would have preferred more coffee. Alas, it was not to be. The morning of my follow-up appointment, I ...

So you want to run a 10K but you've been sick and/or injured off and on for most of the year... Earlier this year, my boyfriend and I signed up for Pittsburgh's Great Race 10K, one of the largest standalone 10Ks in the nation. It would be my 3rd 10K and Andy's first race. I was excited to take on this distance again, and hopeful that 2020 would become my Half Marathon year. Admittedly, I was previous nervous to race with Andy, since he is faster than me and has more endurance, and I have a history of getting in fights with men who refuse to leave me behind when I'm struggling in a race. And then, 2019 hit me like a ton of bricks. First, shoulder and back injuries and issues. Then, some knee stuff. And finally, the onset of a mysterious and chronic condition known as occipital neuralgia. Do I sound like a broken record? Well, I feel like one. Needless to say, this put one hell of a damper on my training plans. I tested a few short runs to see if they brought on any ...

It's been well over a month since I spent a weekend tent camping at the Omega retreat center in Rhinebeck, New York. It's taken me some time to process the experience, for a number of reasons, not least among them the events that led up to the trip. Just before my move, I developed a dull headache and sharp, stabbing pains at the nape of my neck. When these symptoms persisted, I saw a doctor and was diagnosed with occipital neurlagia, a relatively rare primary headache disorder, according to WebMD (which my therapist has since banned me from using--rightly so). Long story short, the first run of medication handled my pain symptoms but had a slew of nasty side effects that led my doctor to recommend I see a neurologist. The neurologist agreed with the initial diagnosis, but recommended an MRI to rule out additional potential causes of my other symptoms. Those causes? Oh, brain tumors or Multiple Sclerosis. "Any other questions for me?" the neurologist asked at...