Smiles Across the Miles

I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and I believe in miracles -Audry Hepburn

Shinglemill Trial

I've always said if its not okay run farther. This week culminated in a 30 mile run and while the run started out tough, as each mile passed so did all the worry from the week. By the last mile I was running strong and felt great. This week was a struggle to get in all the miles, and took some creativity. During the snowstorm I did laps of the 2 mile loop around our house. It was so cold with really wet, heavy snow that my whole face  kept freezing, eye lashes freezing together. So I was able to warm up between laps and adjust my run as necessary. I got in miles on the treadmill when James was sleeping and aside from my long run I ran Conifer Mountain when I could sneak it in.

Shinglemill Trail

Saturday I knew I had to get in this 30 miler. So despite hardly sleeping this week I forced myself up and out of bed and out to Pine Valley. Nick was injured and taking it easy so that meant 30 miles by myself. Its a long way to go without anyone else out there. The first 10 miles were a struggle. My time wasn't terrible, but I just felt slow and sluggish and wasn't really enjoying the run. At this point I had debated cutting the run short, but found myself turning away from Baldy to head back to PVR and continuing out to the Colorado Trail. As I headed up Tramway I increased my calories and fluids and by the time I hit the Shinglemill downhill I was starting to feel better. I powered up the Baldy climb and was then really feeling good. I cruised all the way back to PVR finishing 29 miles in 5:17. When I ran North Fork the 50k loop is nearly the same, just 2 miles longer and it took me 6:30. I'm definitely feeling good heading into Quad Rock.



Tramway Trail

James still all smiles!

As I was talking with another mom this week, we commented on how lucky we were that despite various medical issues with our sons, none are that extreme. This week James made some great progress with this feeding and his feeding therapist at Children's was really happy. He's loving his puffs and just likes to chow down. He also finally hit the 15lb mark so it was a great week there. We also got a call on Wednesday that there was a cancellation for a sleep study so we were moved up. Wednesday night James and I spent the night at Children's for his first sleep study. They hooked him up, 15 electrodes on his head, 15 on his body, a chest strap, and abdominal strap and an oxygen nose cannula. The test doesn't start until 7:30 so by the time he was hooked up we had missed the window of opportunity to get him to bed and I knew it was going to be a long night. I finally got him to sleep, but nearly every hour the tech was in our room waking him up to readjust something or put on a new cannula. The poor guy was exhausted by 6:30am when they sent us home. James' oxygen levels dropped pretty significantly during the test so by the time we got home the nurse from the sleep clinic was calling to say we needed to come in Friday to see the pulmonologist. Friday we ended up seeing another ENT, two pulmonologists and the nurse from the Ds clinic. Its such a great team of doctors and nurses and I know we're on the right path to getting James off oxygen. We scoped his tonsils and adenoids and they aren't large so he gets to keep them! They suspect because of the IUGR his lungs never fully developed. We will go in for a bronchoscopy to lavage his lungs and check their development. Hopefully steroids will help the lungs to grow and develop. We'll also test for pulmonary hypertension at higher altitude to make sure nothing is going on with his heart. At least we have a plan and a great team of doctors that will get our little grommie all fixed up!

A whole new meaning to bedhead!

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have

Week April 15- 21

Miles Running: 50.6
Hours Running and Hiking: 9.5