A Rough Week

I'm not going to lie, it's been a rough week. It started last weekend with a pile of bad news that had me an emotional wreck for Monday. If you recall the M3 post this week, you'll see I mentioned it.

Without going into details about everything, I learned that my father has prostate cancer. We've been though the cancer scare before with him (skin cancer), and he came through it okay. But this time, he has to decide between surgery or radiation. It's a tough call as there are benefits and downsides to both.  Cancer, diabetes, and heart conditions are big problems on his side of the family, which is yet another reason I decided to get healthy. Next week, he meets with the radiologist to talk about his options and then has another meeting with his oncologist to discuss his decision. So currently we're playing the waiting game.

I got a bit of bad medical news myself this week, too. I'm not sure if you recall the post I made a week or two ago about adding running into my workout routine. Well, it turns out I developed "runner's knee," which is not so odd given that I was running when it happened. However, I also suffer from chronic costochondritis (inflammation of the cartilage surrounding my sternum). Whenever I damage a joint, or other place containing cartilage, the imflammation from my costochondritis spreads to that area, causing more pain and requiring more time to heal.

In the end, I was told that, since runner's knee can happen again and again, I should stop running. After some protesting on my part, I got the okay to run again BUT I have to wait until I hit the 50-pound mark. Less weight on my joints means that there is less of a chance that I will develop it (though it can happen to runners of any weight). So, the running dream isn't going to happen, at least not now. But on the plus side, I'm more than half of the way to the 50 mark.

I've had a few other, more personal, issues going on this week that I don't feel comfortable sharing here, at least not yet. But the important thing is that I'm still going. Despite a rough week, I've been trying to go through everything with a smile on my face and not sink into my old habit of using food for comfort. It's not always easy, but a lot of prayer and some good friends are there to help me get through and keep me motivated when I can't do it myself.