Blank. Completely Blank.

That is exactly the way my mind feels this morning.  You know that feeling of being so tired your eyes hurt and the idea of doing much more then making coffee is exhausting!  I lost an entire day!  I've been thinking about football all morning.  Guess what...its Monday!

This is not a complaining post at all.  I just took a minute to try and figure out why I wasn't having time to post anything.  Well....if I'm not working, I'm doing core work, running or I'm dead tired.  So here is a picture overload post.  (my favorite!)  

Pretty much takes up a lot of time.

Running:

I am running again.  Not completely pain free but doing my core and leg strengthening exercises are directly related to my pain while running.  Laura gave me a big dose of Graston last time I was there.

Same leg.  Each side.  They lasted almost a week.  It's VERY common to bruise after a Graston technique torture session.  I use the word torture lightly.  It hurts like crazy but it works amazing!  

Laura wants me to keep moving.  So I try and get out every other day and I try to go an hour.  If it hurts I walk.  This way I don't have to hit a certain mileage but just get in an hour of moving. Despite my over abundance of pics I didn't even take one when I ran with my friend Deb!  

Here is my running recap.  Remember I'm doing a lot of walking so I'm slow but I'm moving forward and getting much much better.

9/30 - 3 miles in 34 minutes

10/6 - 5.46 miles in 1 hour

10/10 - 4.12 miles in 1 hour (I didn't do my PT the day before and I was feeling it)

10/12 - 5.23 miles in 1 hour

10/16 - 5 miles in 1 hour

I can't be the only one that wears an outfit twice before washing.  Or can I?

I wish I could have ran more, but life got in the way a few time.

What life?

Work:

I love my job.  Thank god!  It's almost wrong how much I enjoy working.  There has been a lot of overtime lately and I have taken advantage of that.  It's not always this abundant (we are down a couple of flight nurses) so why not? This morning I did some math in my head.  True.  It hurt.  I've been working 60 to 72 hours a week.  Add life, kids and time spent recovering and that's how that happens.  

Working in Rock Springs.  We had an aircraft switch out (maintenance) at the end of our shift so we took our stuff and flew home.  YAH! Buddy!

Yesterday we did some training.

One of my favorite pilots giving the run down to Wasatch Backcountry Rescue dogs and their handlers some FYI on the aircraft and getting in and out.

Dry run with a NEW newbie.  PUPPIES!

This puppy was really stressed out by the helicopter.

 I work with the best people ever!  They make my job just that awesome.

We work with Wasatch Backcountry Rescue to help them train the dogs (and the people) to be able to approach a running aircraft, get in and get out with their 2 handlers.  In a real life scenario we would be picking up a handler and their dog plus all their ski gear and taking them up a mountain where a search and rescue was occurring.  Northern Utah has some of the most amazing snow, skiing and back country.  Unfortunately with snow comes avalanches.  We are also taught by avalanche specialist so that we can have information we need to stay safe.

Yesterday I was in the helicopter as we picked up and transported over 20 dogs.  We landed 28 times.  14 of those were in a pretty dusty area that I got out and help the crews in and out of the running aircraft.  A helicopter crew member needs to be part of the process for safety. I was a out for half of them and my medic stayed out for the other half.  Amazeballs!  I can't lie.  Every dog got quite a bit of love from me.  

After we dropped off a patient at the UofU hospital. 

My job does not suck.

Walking down the hall in Ogden.  I've posted a pic like this before but this time it was dark.  Kinda freaky!

There is something about this picture that says my spirit twin was here.  

LIFE

10 months later I've ordered the prints and put them in frames.

I'm a go-getter!

Decided I was sick of carrying so much shit in my flight suit.  I'm bringing the "nurse purse" back!  Nothing says "I'm ready to party" at a scene flight then a fanny pack!

Seriously?  If I had money I would buy it just for the conversation.  

Wow, that's a big.......chicken??

Unblocked by former friend after a year.  Reblocked by me.

Childish?  yes.  But I love Facebook and I love keeping in touch with friends far away and friends I don't see often.  I don't need to see ANYTHING that is going on with that shitty situation.

New work socks.  They are so comfy I can't stand it!

New annual pass for Millcreek Canyon.  Best 40 bucks spent.  They do a great job keeping it in tip top shape.

Glad I found this gem of a coffee press in my cupboard.  YEAH HOARDING!

The fancy coffee maker behind it has some funky smell to it.  I've tried everything.  I'm going to toss it and get a cheap one.  I had a cheap one for 10 years and it was awesome.  Fancy one...less then 2 years.  LOSER.

Oh crap...I have a massage!  Tough life.

Blog on..........

Grab your stress snacks. Tears are being shed here.

Not actually tears but dang close.  
I took 9 days off from my last half marathon, worked on my core, took a lot of ibuprofen and iced iced iced.  The pain is so hard to explain but it's definitely nerve pain and it shoots down the outside of my leg and making my knee hurt and down to the ankle.  It's crazy how bad it can hurt.  Sometimes it hurts just to walk.  

I went to the gym last week.  I wanted to run an easy 3 miles on a flat surface so I decided to hit the gym.  Well, within 1 step trying to run I was immediately hit with a sharp nerve pain from my knee to my ankle.  I tried stretching, running slower and even walking.  At about 10 minutes I gave it up and finished my 30 minutes on the cycle.  

SO depressing!  

Did some strengthening exercises.  
Came home.
Cooked.

Enough soup to last a week.  SOOOO delicious! 

(did not make or eat the bread)

The constant injuries are wearing on me.  The only time I ran without injury was when I took a couple of Pilates classes a week.  I'm considering finding a good Pilates workout on CD.  

I wanted to eat through my tears but I went for my new favorite snack.

Celery, cashew butter and craisins

I went to the sports doc last Thursday.  They couldn't figure out anything definitive.  If it's going down my leg then they (the doctor and resident) think it's my back but it's not my back.  There was other words thrown around but in the end they thought it was mechanical and sent me to physical therapy.  

Luckily my very favorite PT from the running clinic, Laura, had an opening that night!   She was just as perplexed.  We narrowed it down to my knee.  She did the Graston just above my knee (OUCH) then taped and iced it.  She also gave me a couple of new exercises to do.  

not my knee or Laura

It's been 5 days since then.   The tape is helping.  I'm also icing.  I went to the massage therapist and in her words, "that leg is just not giving it up".  It's frustrating but I really want to move on from this.  I haven't needed the ibuprofen and that's a big improvement.  Plus I get to share my "scrotee" with friends, family and co-workers!

Scrotee - when your knee is taped while bent so that when you straighten your leg your knee now resembles a scrotum.  

I have been keeping close track just to try and keep me motivated.  

Even added a couple of strengthening moves.

Just lifting a light weight with my feet.  I don't move my leg just lift my foot up and down.

Important Info:

Did you know that you can feel like shit after acutely stopping ibuprofen?  I really wanted to give my body a break and the pain was decreasing so I slowed way down and finally stopped today.  I've had a rebound headache since.  Hoping to snap out of it tomorrow.  Usually I just get really sore and feel every knot and creak in my body for a day and then feel better.  This time I had nausea and a headache.  I narrowed it down to stopping the ibuprofen.  

I'm a hot mess and when I say hot I'm talking about a hot flash!  


Work has been great.  We've had a couple of long flights during the day over the beautiful changing leaves.  We don't have our cell phones on during flight and I don't have a regular camera so I don't have pictures.  

It's been the best fall ever!  I appreciate living here in Utah more every season.

I also had a most excellent day in the OR.  Each team member spends one day in the OR intubating patients.  We work closely with the anesthesiologist and learn so much!  I did study before hand.  Have to know your landmarks!

High five for FOUR successful first pass intubations before noon!!

Looking for the perfect name for our Masters Ultra in February.  Any ideas will be welcomed!!  

Blog on........

Race Recap: Run Elevated 2014

Yes, it's true!  I'm doing a race recap! 

My friend Jen Q is running one half marathon a month this year.  She's crazy and that's why we "get" each other.  I signed up for a couple of them with her.  This was suppose to be a long run in my running plan, but with my leg pain I hadn't ran in a week.  I worked on a lot of strength training, rolling and stretching but no running.  Fell into that "I can't run so I can't blog and I'm just going to sit here and get fat and out of shape" depression.  I was nervous about this run.  

This was the Run Elevated Half Marathon. 

It starts up Little Cottonwood canyon at Alta Ski Resort and heads downhill.  Pretty awesome eh?  

Well, we live in Utah and it's difficult to tell how the weather will be.  It's August and we do get a lot of thunderstorms.  Of course in the days before the race it was clear that it wasn't going to be clear.  There was rain on the forecast!

I ran with Jen Q, Ashley and another girl they work with, Sam.  When I say we ran together I mean we started together.  

Looking out the bus windows.  RAIN!  Cold!

Bathroom break?  Yes, snow.

Jen is just SHOCKED!  SNOW?

I bought that blue jacket at Savers for 4.99.  Best purchase ever!  Kept me warm and dry until I could toss it.  

Bunches of snow bunnies.

Sam, Jen, me and Ashley.

I'm pretty sure Ashley was trying to spoon. Haha

Funny thing.  The snow and rain stopped IMMEDIATELY as the race started.  It was beautiful and magic!  The weather stayed cool throughout and I was able to shed my layers and stay relatively comfortable.

The city comes into view

My leg was sore.  I had moving pain.  I'm stumped by this crazy injury.  First my shin hurt then it moved to my ankle and lastly my quads.  Knee did ok.  I wore a knee brace and compression sleeves.  It feels like nerve pain.   I plan on taking some time off again and continuing with the ice, tens, core work and stretching.

Despite that, my race went pretty well.

I came in at 2:15.  My Garmin read 13.34 miles.  My average pace 10:08.  

My plan was to keep it around 10:30 but the downhill was very tempting.  I kept the pace down and was able to run with only 3-4 walk breaks.  

Mile 1 9:53

Mile 2 9:18

Mile 3 9:19

Mile 4 9:10

Mile 5 9:40

(walked through water and had GU)

Mile 6 9:05

Mile 7 13:00

(I had to pee :) )

Mile 8 9:28

Mile 9 9:21

Mile 10 11:17

(walked up the one hill)

Mile 11 11:31

Mile 12 10:10

Mile 13 10:35

Mile .1 9:39

I obviously slowed down at the end when we moved to flatter land and a few hills.  I still felt great!  It wasn't until the last mile that my head started to get out of the game and I wanted to start walking.  Such a HUGE improvement from my first half of this year.  When I ran the SL Half I was mentally and physically DONE at mile 8.  So this training is working, lets just hope I get back on track asap.

Ran into Martina, a burn nurse, half way through.  

Finished!!

Me and the Q.  Her 8th of 12 for the year!

Congrats!

Later it was home for an ice bath

Felt awesome.  Unfortunately my right big toe had a blood blister on it and it looks like a blood blister under the toe nail.  So infuriating.  I know I'm going to loose it and I lost it last September.  It was completely grown in for exactly 3 weeks.  It's a weird toenail, always bailing on me. 

It's day 2 after the race and I'm still sore as crazy.  Stretch and roll and ice, repeat.  Hoping that once all the soreness goes away I can re-assess that leg.  Right now it doesn't really bother me.  The muscle fatigue overwhelms any other pain now.  

Love these summer races!!

How is your racing going?

Ever run a race as a training run?

Blog on...........

Did you see that truck?

I feel like the cat.....and that the truck is bigger.

link

I have to confess.  Tumblr and Gif's are my favorite source of entertainment.  If I could, I would spend my entire day watching cats do funny stuff like riding a Roomba vacuum, slapping and knocking stuff off. 

RUNNING

After my awesome hill and long run I made sure and stretched my hip out and went for an easy run at a local parkway.  The weather was cool and beautiful!

I choose the parkway so that I wasn't on the road and the way I'm always running on a slope.  I made it about 4 steps and my hip went "OUCH!".  WTH??   I stopped and stretched, checked my form and then finished the run.  My hip was sore for most of the time.  I was so bummed.  If not for my hip the run felt amazing!  I could run forever!  It wasn't the fastest run but I finally feel like I'm in touch with my form and breathing.  

SO...I am taking a break.  I am doing my PT exercises as much as I can between work.  I've iced it and I've rolled it, over and over again.  I tried to see what it could be and it hurts on the outside so they say it's bursitis?  Really?  another itis?  Can't I just get a stress fracture?  I didn't mean that!

Because I've been working so hard I haven't been keeping my core as strong as I usually do.  Plus my diet has been one awful choice after another.  I think that goes with working a lot too.  So last week I increased the amount of time I spend on my core and this week I'm blasting back to my Paleo lifestyle.

While I was eating Paleo I had a lot less aches, pains and GI issues.  Last year when I was eating Paleo and doing some sort of core class at least twice a week I was in the best shape ever.  I want to feel that way again.  I've got to figure out a way to work as much as I need to and balance it with exercise.  It always helps to look through my recipes and books and get some fresh ideas for meals on the go.

Speaking of a well deserved treat:

I got this after a long long flight.  Seriously it was worth it.  A treat once in a while, but I can think of healthier choices.  Yesterday I made a vanilla protein smoothie with vanilla protein powder, frozen mango, almond milk, vanilla extract and ice.  After it was nice and smooth I added a few chips of dark chocolate and pulsed a couple of time.  It was a pretty good treat! 

WORK

Oh work.  I love my job like you wouldn't believe.  I'm the happiest, saddest, maddest and most frustrated that I ever get when I'm there.  I have the greatest experiences mixed with scary and sad.  What more can you ask for?  

Filming with the U's PR department.  My patient is awfully smiley and he didn't even get drugs.  It was fun, not very realistic, but fun.  Usually when we are unloading a patient and walking toward the elevator I'm juggling papers, meds and equipment.  

Last Fridays shift I decided to get stuff out to practice.  Most of my job is practice, practice, practice in hopes that you will be able to think clearly and methodically on scene.  We did some video intubation's and manual.  I dug out the infant head to practice since I've had a few critical pediatric flights in the last few months.  Our NICU flight nurse Julie joined us for some teaching and oh boy did she teach me a lot!  Big thanks to her help!  I can now tape a pediatric ET tube and it isn't going ANYWHERE!  She also gave some tips on packaging, safety with infants and general care. 

My next two flights that day were pediatric.  

BOOM.  I didn't throw up or anything!

After 2 flights in the first 12 hours of a 24 hour shift I decided to relax and watch a movie with the team.  Well, the OB/Neonate team left on a flight so I watched it while my medic worked.  Hehe 

I finally went to bed.  Now lets keep in mind that I already tried to take two safety naps that day and each time I just got to sleep we got a call.  No different here.  I fell asleep and next thing I know that pilot was banging on the door...."let's go, we got a flight"!  

Seriously?

Flight was done, then I charted.  When I laid down I couldn't sleep.  I finally napped about 2 hours.  

(I'm setting up "why I feel like I was run over by a truck")

Still dark at 6:30am when I went up to get my stuff out.  Look at that full moon.  Now it all makes sense. 

I went home and I had signed up to volunteer at the Antelope Island 50K/100K.  So I packed up my car and headed out!  I thought it would only take about 45 minutes to get there, but it turned out to be about 90 minutes.  Lesson learned:  Don't ask a helicopter pilot how long it takes to get anywhere.  

When I got out there I ran into this guy!

My brother Joe.

He came in FIRST in the 50K!  I missed it by about 30 minutes and I only knew by overhearing someone else say it.  WOW!  Animal!  This was only his second 50K.  That's crazy.

I spent a few hours talking to him and helping with blisters and questions.  Then things slowed down and I sat in my camping chair just cheering everyone in.  After sitting in the sun for about 6 hours (even though it was cool)  I had to leave.  I was up 36 hours and I was worried about getting home.  

 

These guys are HUGE!  My brother told me that a buffalo ran onto the trail and ran in front of him and another guy running for a while.  He said, "the buffalo paced us".  So true, you do what the buffalo wants you to do.  

I've never been to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. It was beautiful.  It would be a blast to run out there.  Thinking.......

I took all these pics from the car.  Lazy.  Tired. 

That's my week in a nutshell.  I slept good last night and I've spent the day so far in bed.  YES!  Trying to rehydrate and rest so I can work another shift tomorrow!

How long have you ever stayed awake?

Unfortunately, as a nurse this isn't the first time I've been awake over 36 hours at a time. After about 40 hours the body gets all sassy and decides that you are up for a while longer.  It's an interesting feeling.  I try not to do it very often anymore.

Any ultra lovers?

Blog on...............