I am on antibiotics

So the email method of posting to this blog has its bugs and I don't think I'll do that much anymore.

The recent distress I'm having when running isn't all in my head. After the terrible race, and after coughing up blood-streaked sputum over the last few days, and a few other indicators, I called the doctor Monday and got my mid-Jan appointment moved up to today. (I got to see Dr. Ting, as Dr. Shaw is out on maternity leave; can't wait to see pictures of the little guy.) The PFTs are not encouraging, but they at least point the way to getting some treatment going. From a high at the beginning of summer of 52% FEV1 predicted, I'm down to 42%.

Based on October's sensitivities, Ting's put me on Levaquin, which is really quite good in my experience. New cultures are currently cooking and by the time I leave for Xmas, I should be able to report improvement (or none) to the doc, and he'll be able to assess my current bugs and their sensitivities. IV antibiotics are not out of the question yet, though I have great faith in Levaquin. Hell, even Cipro, which I am supposedly resistant to, still works pretty well.

I did avoid hospitalization, though, which is pleasing. Part of what took that option off the table is that my heartrate read as 66 and my sats at 97. Sats below 90 are cause for inpatient care; but my sats have never been that low. The other factor in avoiding the hospital: I GAINED WEIGHT! THREE POUNDS!! You've no idea how tickled I am, as this is something I've been working on for most of a year. I have been good about doing my therapy and taking in a steady, fairly-high-calorie diet. And my reward is three pounds!

All of the above discussion is to say: I'm sure that I'll have a little easier time running this weekend at the Hot Chocolate 15K and certainly by the New Year's Eve 4-miler I'll be in great shape.

I did go running in Central Park after the doctor's appointment. I had to hurry, since NYRR closed early today. I'd been planning three loops of the reservoir for 4.8 miles, but quickly found that running on frozen-solid compressed snow, cinder, and ice is worse than running on cobblestones. So I shifted to doing the loop, cutting across at the 102nd and 72nd street crossovers, for a 4-mile run. It was hard, and bad. Walked about 1/2-mile of it, total. Didn't make it up Cat Hill running. I know the cold air (22 degrees!) isn't helping the whole "breathing" thing, but I was quite warm overall in three shirts and if I can get this lung infection under control, then Old Man Winter can bring it on, baby!