Bye Bye Chest Pain

I have been waiting to write this post to be absolutely sure it's gone for good, but after six weeks or so of good running mileage, I think I can finally say my chest pain is gone for good.

For anybody unfamiliar with this, the whole story is here in a blog I wrote after having the pain in a race where I set my half marathon PR. In a nutshell, for the last four years I have had terrible, searing chest pain, left of center, that comes on only while running. It comes and goes, and seems to coincide with times when I am having bad heartburn. This spring was the worst I can ever remember it being, as it would hit me in almost every run, and with greater intensity than ever.

Then I got cancer this summer, and I had to stop running. I had two operations to remove my thyroid gland, and the golf ball sized tumor that was growing off the left side of it. When I finally got around to running again, I was really concerned about how my neck was going to feel. I had limited mobility for several weeks as the tendons stretched and my scar healed, and it would pull a little while running (in fact, it still hurts while swimming).

So I was so focused on my neck, that I don't think I realized the lack of chest pain for the first couple runs. But with each run, I began to wait for it, anticipating the pain would come back eventually. But no, it never came, and here I am over a hundred miles run since starting back up, and not even a whisper of pain. How can this be???

I have a theory: large thyroid tumors like mine have been known to cause tracheal compression and even esophageal compression depending on how they are situated. While running, the increased diaphragm pressure caused the tumor and my esophagus to press together, causing an esophageal spasm. I know I am grasping at straws, but I have no other reason why it would just disappear after getting that tumor out. Whatever it was, I am really glad its gone.

It feels so good to not have to run in fear of that pain. In the middle of all the cancer stuff this summer, a buddy of mine told me that when I finally get back to training again, it's going to feel like an engine running with the restrictor plate removed. He was talking about the tumor and trying to lift my spirits, but I couldn't have guessed how right he would be.

Pictures of some bum at IMCDA

Just thought I'd post a few race photos from IMCDA this year. For anybody who doesn't know, this race was a total freaking disaster for me!

Finishing the swim, after 90 something minutes, all pruny, good god that's a long time to be in the water!

At least I look cool on the bike!

Nice face, huh? I am still running, so this must be in the first 8 miles.

And this one is my favorite: "Where the hell is Becca?! I am quitting this stupid race!"

Back in the trading range.

On this morning's run to work, to my surprise, I pulled off a 31:45 without even trying. My previous best times for this run are 30:30 (pre-cancer) and 33:50 (post cancer). So, needless to say I was totally stoked with that run. I always go faster on the way home over the same course, not sure if the faster time is the result of the elevation change, time of day, or the fact that I am running home (rather than to work!), but either way I am excited to see if I will run even faster this evening. Its great to be back in my old trading range. Especially since my first run back was a 38, and it took 3 weeks to get out of the 35s. Now I am starting to really wonder what kind of shape I am in.

This picture is relevant of nothing in this post. It just cracks me up, so I put it up. Its my oldest beagle, Maggie, trying to come up from the basement through the cat door, and she doesn't fit.



PS - Update on 10/14...I ran a 30:05 on the way home!

Starting to think about a comeback

Maybe because I am feeling so much better than did all summer; maybe because the triathlon season is just about over for all my friends; or maybe its just the fall air getting to me...but whatever it is I am thinking about my comeback to triathlon next year. This weekend we drove out to my Grandma's house in central PA and went by a town called Jim Thorpe, which hosts the Black Bear half. Prior to all of our drama this spring, Black Bear was supposed to be a tune up race for IMCDA this year. It a beautiful area, and just driving by made me want to get out and bike some of the hills. I mentioned to Bec that I'd like to put that race on my schedule for next year. And just saying that got me thinking a lot more about next year. What will it be like? Will I be as fast as I was pre-cancer? Will it be much, much harder than it was before? Will triathlons be as fun even if I am not as fast as I used to be?

See, I have never been out of shape since I started all this endurance sport business in 2004. I never took a break from training, just simply oscillated between marathons in the fall and winter and tri's in the summer. But after about 10 weeks of absolutely no exercise this summer, plus feeling lousy in general, I think I was back to baseline. I have been biking to work for a few weeks now and fitness is slowly beginning to return, but its a long road, and I have no idea where it leads or how high goes anymore.

100% Back

Last spring, when I was getting geared up to to Ironman Coeur D;Alene with what I believed to be a goiter (later turned out to be thryoid cancer), Lance Armstrong was also gearing up for the Tour de France. Since I had been so sick all spring, and had been missing a lot of training worrying about what was growing in my neck, I just didn't feel like I was 100%. Only when I got the negative biopsy (which was ultimately false) in April, did I get psyhosomatically better, and felt back to my old self for a few weeks. To celebrate my negative biopsy and my return to feeling good, Becca and Elena got me a great Father's Day present: a Livestrong tee-shirt that says "100% BACK" on it. These shirts were printed as a celebration of Armstrong's return to cycling in great fitness at the age of 37, but for me it had a double meaning, as I myself was trying to get back to 100%.

I only wore that shirt once before the disaaster that was IMCDA. Then it sat neatly folded in my closet for the whirlwind of events to followed my return from Idaho. Since Father's Day, getting back to 100% has taken on new meaning. Well, this morning I finally put it on again. I can say that after 3 weeks of synthroid I feel 100% back to normal. This isn't to say that I am 100% as fit as I was in 2008, not even close. But as opposed to the months of July and August, I feel good again. My taste is all the way back, my radioactivity is wearing down (I still set a geiger counter wild though), and I have the energy to work out when the mood strikes me. Best part is, I can hug my wife and daughter now.

A guy with no taste

Just when I thought I escaped my radiation therapy with almost no side effects, I lost my sense of taste this week. It came on slowly, last Sunday. At my celebratory Red Lobster gorge, I was left less than satisfied, but I chalked it up not having been to RL in about 4 years. Then, we bought all kinds of great looking fruit at Costco, and I was disappointed in all of it. The strawberries looked ripe but had no sweetness, and the grapes were simply awful, tasted like water. And on Monday I was certain the cereal I had for breakfast was stale or something because it didn't taste right either. Then in the afternoon I got a crazy metallic taste in my mouth, like when you lick a 9-volt battery (what?? you've never done this?? clearly you didn't grow up having somebody like my sister around), I figured out what was going on Tuesday, after thinking about Becca's chipotle shrimp I had eaten Monday night, and how it just tasted bland and greasy (its usually spicy as hell and fantastic). And when I looked up "RAI and taste" on Google, sure enough, about half the people who go through radioactive iodine lose their taste at about 10 days later.

So, I have been dealing with that, but its no big deal. Just kinds sucks. What's weird is that while my sense of sweet, sour, and salty is totally gone, I can detect bitter, So, coffee is still pretty good, just tastes like its black whether I put sugar in it or not. And chocolate all tastes like its extra dark. Fritos, a mainstay of my diet, are absolutely disgusting, like soap. Tonight we got Applebees take out, and I thought I could tast the salt on the fries, so maybe my sense of salt is coming back. From what I have read this shouldn't last more than a month.

I've still been feeling great otherwise. I was going for 5 out of 5 work days riding to work this week, but I only got 3. Wednesday I was way too sore to bike to work after having done a brick plus weights on Tuesday. Yep, I had my first run since June 21 (mile 14 of IMCDA), it was 3 miles and I felt pretty good. And on Friday it rained its butt off here, so I canned it. This week I will try to run to work at least twice (9 miles per day). I like having these commuting goals as a good way to get back in shape.

Life is returning to normal

What a week! I am finally back to feeling like my old self. I owe this entirely to Synthroid. It was unbelievable to be thinking clearly at my job, doing house chores, and generally feeling awesome again. It makes me feel so bad for people who have undiagnosed hypothyroidism.

I had my last cancer-related doctors appt on Thursday: a post-RAI whole body scan. It came back clean, with only residual thyroid bed and most of the left side of my neck (former site of the tumor) lighting up on the scan. The RAI should kill it all off in the next few weeks. So the nuclear medicine doctor said I am good to go for a year. I'll have a few endocrine appts over the next couple months to get my snythroid dose right, but other than that I am done with cancer stuff for awhile. It feels so good to write that! We had a celebratory dinner at Red Lobster last night, courtesy of my in-laws. Thanks!

And I rode to work twice this week, so I guess I have returned to training somewhat. Though no plans to race in 09 still. Just getting back to normalcy feels like plenty for me for right now!

One last shout out to my buddies Jason and Scott who raced Timberman this weekend. Nice races guys! I gotta get up to NH and do that one now that I live in the Northeast.