The two days that changed everything - Part 1

The last year has truly been a whirlwind. New awesome job, where I was learning more in 3 months than I had in a very long time. My "Year of Ironman" was over and in the dust and I was focussing on my run game.  I had big plans.  On January 31, 2015 I had just came back from a business trip, did a 10 mile run in the morning, went to a concert with Erin & Ash, had a few too many drinks and stayed up 5 hours past my normal bedtime.  All was well with my world.  I woke up Sunday, went to spin with my triathlon club and sweat out my hangover over the course of 2 hours.  After the pain session was over I went for lunch with Julie and was so tired I could barely keep my head from falling in my fries. It was the type of tired I hadn't felt since last summer...on the days where I would do 2 hour solo drive back from Falcon Lake after riding my bike for 7 hours and running another 2.  I was also having trouble focusing on the conversation. Words were not coming out right and I'm pretty sure what I was saying was not coherent.  I'm sure Julie was like WTF!  My 10 minute drive home that day, I think I may have slapped my face 16 times just to stay alert. When I arrived at home, I slept for 3 hours and woke up still feeling lethargic and still hungover.  Very strange.  I started googling to see if I had sweat out too may electrolytes during spin.  I was convinced that was what it was...but i also remembered that Google was the one diagnosing me so I went to bed early in hopes to get a good night sleep.

Monday, I was again feeling lethargic and exhausted.  It was my first day back in the office from a week away travelling so when I arrived at work, I spent the majority of the day weeding through emails.  I was still having some speech issues but not nearly as bad as the day before.  I chose to ignore it.  But then I started having some kind images starting to show up.  It's hard to explain, except that it was kind of like a picture-in-picture kind of thing.  I won't go in to the one exact image i saw because its terribly embarrassing but ask me about it after I've had a few drinks and I'm sure I'll spill the beans.  

I was supposed to run 7 miles that night but I had zero motivation.  I had sent some texts to my friend Fern (who is also my trainer) to try and get her to give me an excuse to get out of it. I've been know to be a tad (more than a tad) dramatic. The warning signs were there but I felt so dumb to her about exactly what was happening.  I thought i was just being a wimp. I was a damn ironman after all!!  Fern gave me pass and told me to go home and get some sleep.

Tuesday mornings are normally 5am days where a group of us workout before work.  I was still feeling off (but who isn't feeling off at 5am) and was still having issues with my speech.  I was starting to seriously believe I was either having stroke or a nervous breakdown.  The electrolyte  self-diagnosis was long gone.  There had been one on going issue for the previous month that was causing me a ton of stress so I thought the nervous breakdown thing was a real possibility.  In the change room that Tuesday, as I was getting ready for work I was definitely not feeling my normal self.  I barely said a work....and I'm normally known for clucking with the rest of the girls while we shove each other out of the way to get to the one mirror and one outlet (seriously Richard.....we need more space and a larger electrical panel!! haha)  I was starting to get a tiny bit concerned about how was starting to feel so I had mentioned the symptoms (without laughing this time to Kris and Ayn who urged me to go to emerg to get checked out....or at the very least call Health Links (which I now know was a trap since they would have told me to go to emerg anyways).  Well played girls.

So off I was, to HSC.

Diagnosis to be continued.... 

It's a long story.....i've got to start at the beginning and it's going to take some time!