Throwing A Tantrum

I’m dreading the day I start working out again. It has been four weeks now without any workout. FOUR weeks! I feel like one of those rubber balls, bouncing off the walls. I so want to get back into working out. Yes, I’m actually desperate to! But I can’t.

I’m used to work out at least 5 days a week. HIIT workouts which I combined with running as I wanted to build up to 10km runs again. That was the time before I got sick 4 weeks ago. I was sick a couple of weeks before but just for a short time. This time though it really knocked me out. One week in bed. Fever, coughing, feeling like s**t in general and aches all over. No energy whatsoever. As I’m known to my husband as the one that plays it down and would not go to see the doctor unless it’s really necessary, he actually started telling me to go see our GP already the second day in, as my breathing was really shallow and painful. And guess what? I followed his advice.

Our GP is a good man. He is a good doctor too but somehow he was off that day. Or then I had MERS and he was keen to get me out of his rooms asap. He checked my lungs, told me that they were all clear and that there was no pneumonia present and that I should take some over the counter cold and flu stuff and handed me a prescription of antibiotics in case it wouldn’t get better in the next two days. I didn’t know that he was off to some place nice the next day…

Well, it didn’t get better at all and so I started with my first round of antibiotics… I hate taking antibiotics. Actually I hate taking drugs (medication) in general! All those chemicals… and I’m not going to talk about the side effects (like preferably not drinking wine while taking them…). There was no other option though this time.

I finally managed to get my sore body our of bed end of my first week of being sick, which was also the kids first week of school holidays. I was glad that they felt exhausted from all that we’ve done prior and were happy to just stay at home. And I was super glad that my husband works from home and was able to take over. I wasn’t happy about the fact that your laundry machine had a (nervous) breakdown more or less at the same time I got sick and that the technician had not called so far to arrange a date and time to come and fix it… Thankfully there was my MIL, who took over and happily (let’s just assume she was happy about it…) took care of our laundry (which was a huge pile after having had guests staying with us prior and me sweating through everything… Honestly, I could have gotten used to the outsourcing of the laundry duties…

Anyway…

Week two of my four week being sick trip was slightly better, as I actually felt good enough to get out of bed but when walking ten steps had to breathe as if I’d just finished a marathon in a new world record time. It then dawned to me that I might have to go back and see a doc again, as the breathing just didn’t get better… so I did, at the very beginning of week three. The lady I saw was great, told me that my lungs are in a way okay but that I definitely need a puffer and another round of antibiotics. And that actually helped heaps.

The technician actually came in then too to fix the laundry machine and it turned out that nothing was really broken… It was just overheated because apparently you should not use detergent that says “use for top and front loader” but only the one that specifically says only use for front loader, if you have a front loader… So if we would have tried to use it again after 2 days (he said it sometimes takes that long for it to cool down and “reprogram itself”…) it would have actually worked… Learned my lesson again (and got around washing piles of laundry thanks to this…)…

The cough slowly started to ease and the breathing got easier. But now, after a full 3 weeks of coughing (plus some more days as I coughed before I got really sick), my ribcage started to act up. And by acting up I mean hurting like crazy, feeling like burning… Just sore, which is no surprise at all. Oh well. Back to the doc for a follow up. She’s happy about the lungs and about the coughing and tells me that the issue with the ribs are kind of normal. Now it’s about keeping that inflammation under control and GET RID OF IT.

I’m over it. Four weeks is too long. I feel like a little child ready to throw a tantrum.

And no! I don’t want to be patient anymore!

All I want right now is to feel well again and to head out there and run or do one of my HIIT workouts. Yes! And you know what annoys me as well? That when I start working out again I will have to start at 0 again. ZERO! That’s how your body works. It takes forever to build it up but then stop for two weeks (or four) and you have to start all over again. You cannot be serious!

Do you feel sorry for me already??? No! Oh man…

Anyway. There are some positives to this “journey” as well. Maybe start with the least important: I’ve actually lost 3 kilos. I still don’t know really how, but they disappeared in the first 10 days of being sick (well, I did sweat a lot…) and I haven’t seen them since. And now please don’t tell me it was all muscles and no fat!

The good thing is that I know once again, that the ship is not sinking without me being part of the control center for a while. Everyone looked after me and took care of what had to be taken care of. The pets are still alive and the kids too. Everyone is happy and the house didn’t end up being a mess. I also think that my body needed a rest, which I didn’t offer it for a long time and that was its way to get what it needed. Getting back in my workout routine will soon be possible again and although I’ll have to start again, it will be fun again and I know I can do it.

As this post is not just a rant about being sick but also a confession about me being close to throwing a tantrum and a little bit about exercising, I thought this post with it’s hilarious clips would fit in just fine.