Desperate Attempts

I have launched a desperate attempt to fend off being sick this week.

In all honesty, I'm certainly due to be sick... considering the lack of sleep I've had over the last six months. Before I got pregnant, if I slept less than 7 hours two nights in a row, I got sick. Like clockwork. I always dreaded traveling to the mainland for this very reason... somehow the travel always included an overnight flight where I didn't get good sleep and inevitably ended up coughing up a lung by the end of the trip.

But pregnancy and childbirth has worked wonders for my body in all sorts of ways... one of which is that I have been able to operate on very little sleep and not get sick. So far anyway. My luck may have run out though.

Sunday night I couldn't sleep very well because my nose was running non-stop and I was sneezing a ton. My body didn't feel sick so I thought maybe this was some weird new allergy I was experiencing.

The runny nose/sneezing continued through Monday... I debated about running Tuesday morning, but since I wasn't actually feeling sick (just highly congested), I opted to go. I remember a running coach telling me years ago that sometimes you can just run it right out of you, so I thought I'd try that. I had a great run, but didn't run the sickness out. Instead it got worse.

Last night I finally admitted that I was sick. I could feel it in my chest and I started coughing up phlegm. Ugh. I have a 1/2 marathon in Maui this weekend that I was (am) really looking forward to so I'd like to get to the start line feeling as healthy as I can... To that end, all day I've been washing my hands raw and desperately pounding anything I can get my hands on that has ever claimed to enhance your immune system or reduce the length and severity of your sickness. All day I ate nothing but whole foods- juice and fruits and vegetables... and also drank kombucha, kefir, an immunity herbal supplement of some sort that was recommended by the guy at the health food store, zinc and elderberry lozenges, airborne, oscillococcinum... you name it. And I didn't workout at all today. (Yes, run streak officially over...)

I'm still coughing up some rude stuff, but overall I am starting to feel better. I don't feel any worse anyway, so I guess that's a start. I don't recommend the try it all at the same time method for those supplements though because something has just wreaked havoc on my intestinal system... don't know which one it was (probably a combination of them all!) I deserve it I know, but this whole getting sick the week before your race doesn't sit well with me and I was gonna fight it off (or die trying).

The other thing I found out over the past few days is that it's a lot harder to be a good mom when you're not feeling well. Dragging myself around the house trying to take care of an (almost) 3 month old is *so* challenging when you can't bring yourself to smile. That's actually how I knew I was feeling better tonight... Moana made me smile again. ;) She's been such a champ and I hope against all hope that her little immune system is strong enough to block out mommy's germs. So far so good on that front. Keep your fingers crossed!

*** Thursday morning update: Moana sounds like Darth Vader now when she breathes... and I had my first experience with using one of those nose sucker thingies this morning... poor little girl! She's such a champ though- she's not even fussy.