Beyond What is Possible

What a week! Just glad to have made it through relatively unscathed. I got in a few good runs before James had surgery on Thursday and the rest of the week was run when you can. James is the priority so weeks like this its not about the 100 miler that's looming a month away or the new trail that is beckoning...nope its all about the boy.

I knew after Thursday running may be questionable so I put in some quality miles early in the week. I made a concerted effort not to push too hard and felt good. My stride felt smooth and easy. I feel like I'm in a good place running-wise. I'm not completely confident that I will be peaking right, but I'm trying to remind myself, I'm not trying to win Leadville, just cross the finish line.

Wednesday night we said goodbye to Dan's parents and headed down to Denver since we had to be at the hospital so early on Thursday. Thursday we checked in and headed to the surgery center. We actually hadn't been here before. When James got his tubes we were just in the procedure center.James was of course thinking it was the greatest day ever since everyone was playing with him and we were all just hangining out. When it was finally time to leave him it was so hard not to keep going in for one more kiss. I'm sure the nurses are used to it and really I didn't care. I didn't want to leave my boy.

Rocking his hospital gown

Everything ended up going well. He had a sleep endoscopy, adenoidectomy, supraglattoplasty, bronchoscopy with lavage, tear duct tubes. So basically they scoped his airway as he fell asleep and noticed his adenoids were a bit enlarged and epiglottis wasn't laying quite flat. The ENT called me at this point for consect of the adenoidectomy and supraglattoplasty. In the background I could hear my boy waking up. Heartbreaking. As we expected the bronchoscopy revealed significant inflammation in his lungs. James is now on steroids to resolve the inflammation. There goes his sports career! During the opthamology part, yes as it has been said before James is complicated and requires three part surgeries, they were able to get one stent placed. However, his left eye doesn't have any tear ducts. For now we'll just wait and see how his left eye does, but at some point he may need to have a tear duct constructed.

Getting back to himself

Because of the adenoidectomy and supraglattoplasty James had to spend the night at Children's. He spent most of the rest of Thursday sleeping while Dan and I watched over him. It reminded me of the days in the NICU. Dan and I sitting there on our computers jumping up at every coo James made. Ready to hold his hand or rub his back at a moments notice. Dan headed home to take care of Seamus and I took care of the boy for the night. As I watched a beautiful sunset over the mountains from James window I was reminded all was right with the world. Friday James was getting back to himself. A woman came by in the morning asking if James would like some toys to play with. It was like she knew him because she came back with his favorite ball and another one of his favorite toys. He immediately lit up and started playing. A bit later another woman came to the door to ask if James could have a visitor. In came a  therapy dog. I signed 'dog' to James and he lit up. The kid may not sign back, but he certainly knows what some signs mean. I sat him on my lap and he held out his hand for the dog to lick. It was so sweet to see. Finally after much drama we were discharged and breaking out of the hospital.

The rest of the weekend was still tough, making sure James was eating enough and getting enough pain meds. Saturday I was in desparate need of getting out of the house so I went for a quick run at Flying J. Sunday I was still worried about the boy and not wanting to go too far from home I opted for 15 miles on the treadmill. Arg...

Well we got through a tough week. My miles may not be where I hoped they would be, but I forced myself beyond what I thought I could handle. People keep saying to me they don't know how I can handle weeks like this. How I can watch my lil guy go through so much. Well we all do what we have to do. We do what's best for our family. And you know what I've learned. I can push so much further than what I've ever thought possible. I'm pretty sure that's about as good as it gets when it comes for training.

"Our limits today may not be where they were yesterday, or where we hope they will be tomorrow. But it is today that counts. And sometimes even in 'today' we can go beyond what we think is possible!" -Lizzy Hawker

Week July 22 - 28

Miles Running: 35
Hours Hiking and Running: 6