Small step forward today. Made it through an easy 4 miles with no hamstring pain. Yay!
Feeling the growl again
One small step for a man....
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Hope it turns out OK, Cecil. We'll be thinking about you.
+ en
"He conquers who endures" - Persius "Every workout should have a purpose. Every purpose should link back to achieving a training objective." - Spaniel
http://ncstake.blogspot.com/
Isn't that crazy? The technician told me I was "micro-sleeping" throughout the night, even thought I felt like I was 100% awake the entire night. Micro-sleeping apparently can be a fraction of a second up to 30 seconds, and is the same thing as dozing off in front of your computer for a second or two, or while driving. I don't count that as "real" sleep, because I don't feel like I got any sleep at all, plus at any given point in the night I felt that I was fully cognizant of my surroundings and what was going on. The results from the study will be available in a week or so, and it will be interesting to see what the sleep specialist have to say. My GP had me give up coffee and stop taking naps and no TV in the bedroom and all the other usual suspects, but none of that helped. What was the outcome of your sleep study? Were you dealing with chronic insomnia, and was there any effective treatment?
yep not real sleep since there is no rest involved and you feel way worse than you did the day before. What really sucked is that I had to do a day time study right after my night time one. They wouldn't let me lay down at all and had to sit in a chair the whole time. As far as the results, I was diagnosed as having restless leg syndrome (my legs moved on an average of 69 times an hour I think it was and normal is around 10 or so. Sleep apnea and hyperinsomnia with my sleep latency being around 3 minutes (how long it takes me to fall asleep during the day) Doctor said that I COULD be on my way to having narcolepsy though I don't go into REM during the short naps they had me take which is the only thing that is missing for a narcalepsy diagnosis. I use a cpap machine which has NOT done anything for me. The doctor put me on Nuvigil which is helping. I still feel like crap a lot of the time and am very tired and exhausted but I'm able to marathon train where before I didn't have to do anything to feel like I do now. I see the sleep specialist in August to see what's next. My regular doctor believes there is still something going on that hasn't been figured out and I agree with him. Such a long process.
Did you get your results and if so care to share?
Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don't so much outrun your opponents as outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head." - Joe Henderson
Walk-Jogger
. . . Did you get your results and if so care to share?
. . .
I didn't get a copy of the sleep study results yet, only a few comments from the nurse over the phone saying they had seen a little bit of sleep apnea (which I had told them about before the test) so they wanted me to come in and talk about trying out a cpap machine - which is stupid because the small bit of sleep apnea I have is NOT the cause of my insomnia. It's very minor and isn't a regular occurrence. Plus I have new information that backs up my own personal thoughts on the cause of my sleeping troubles. My urologist gave me a prescription for Flomax for my bladder and prostate issues, and Flomax is an alpha-blocker. It basically works as a "chill pill" for me and seems to block some of the production of adrenaline within my body that I believe to be the cause of me waking and staying awake at night. The proof is in the results - I've been sleeping up to 7 hours a night on the Flowmax, even thought I still have to get up three times to pee in the night - I go back to sleep afterwards. 7 hours of sleep versus the typical 1-2 hours a night I was getting is amazing. There are side effects as with most drugs - it plugs my sinuses especially at night, and this makes my sleep apea a bit worse. It makes me feel like I need to pee much more frequently during the day - everything I drink seems to run right through me. It does make it easier to go, as it's supposed to. It also messes with my heart beat a lot, which I find disturbing. I already have episodes of PVC's - irregular heart beats, and the Flowmax seems to make those a lot worse, as in nearly non-stop since I started taking it. I mentioned that to my urologist and he dismissed it without even a comment.
Retired & Loving It
Thanks everyone for your kind concern and positive thoughts, it means a lot to me.
For those who were wondering; The prostate cancer is at an intermediate risk category, stage IIB, and with a little bit of luck is usually curable at this stage. My numbers were PSA 19, Gleason score 3+4=7.
DW and I met with my Dr on Thursday to go over treatment options, and will most likely do radiation + several months of temporary ADT hormone deprivation therapy (yuck - there goes my running for next year!). My Group Health insurance won't pay for state of the art Proton Beam Therapy treatment in Seattle, unfortunately, but it seems like the modern standard photon radiation treatments gets almost as good of a result.
If anyone knows a runner or other athlete that has gone through temporary ADT (Androgen Deprivation Therapy), I'd be interested to hear details of their experience and how it affected their performance in the long term . . .
- Cecil
Thanks everyone for your kind concern and positive thoughts, it means a lot to me. For those who were wondering; The prostate cancer is at an intermediate risk category, stage IIB, and with a little bit of luck is usually curable at this stage. My numbers were PSA 19, Gleason score 3+4=7. DW and I met with my Dr on Thursday to go over treatment options, and will most likely do radiation + several months of temporary ADT hormone deprivation therapy (yuck - there goes my running for next year!). My Group Health insurance won't pay for state of the art Proton Beam Therapy treatment in Seattle, unfortunately, but it seems like the modern standard photon radiation treatments gets almost as good of a result. If anyone knows a runner or other athlete that has gone through temporary ADT (Androgen Deprivation Therapy), I'd be interested to hear details of their experience and how it affected their performance in the long term . . . - Cecil
Well not great news to have a positive diagnosis, that's not all bad news. The cure rate is very high. IIRC the Gleason score of the individual I mentioned to you via PM was 6 and he had the radiation w/o ADT and 3-4 years later PSA is essentially zero. The radiation did cause fatigue though, so for an athlete that may have an effect.
I wish I had some ADT information to share with you, but the only person I'm personally familiar with that did that was not an athlete and I don't think their experience would be relevant for you.
One thing to keep in mind afterwards is that it's not so much the absolute PSA number that matters, but the trend, for the first year. Best of luck with your treatments.
old woman w/hobby
I'm sorry for the bad news Cecil. But glad that you're likely to have positive results from
the treatment. My prayers are with you.
steph
Sorry about the bad news Cecil and massive positive vibes with the recovery process, I'm sure you'll go at this with the same strong drive you do with your running.
So sorry to hear Cecil. The doctors have a sound plan for treatment and that means quite a bit on the road to recovery. We'll be keeping you and your family in our prayers.
Major bummer, Cecil. Keep at it and update us with any news.
Sorry Cecil.
You will be back in those running shoes before you know it.
And we run because we like itThrough the broad bright land
Prince of Fatness
Wishing for the best outcome for you, Cecil.
Not at it at all.
So sorry to hear about your news Cecil. Here's to hoping for a good treatment plan and a positive outcome. Keep us posted on the progress.
Will Crew for Beer
+1 to everything that's already been said Cecil. Runners are tough. Kick this thing's ass.
Rule number one of a gunfight, bring a gun. Rule number two of a gunfight, bring friends with guns.