What is pericarditis?
Okay, it’s been a minute. In fact, it’s been months. Life, right?
But, I finally feel like I’m at the point where I can consistently dedicate the amount of time that I want to to Run Wild. A lot has happened over the past few months, starting with Pericarditis. I know… I was confused too when the Doctor informed me of this weird diagnosis.
Essentially, Pericarditis is the swelling of the sac around the heart. So, I had gone from full speed, running most days and sometimes gymming twice a day, to having to completely stop. Wait, what? Stop? As a mother, I’m sure you know that the word ‘stop’ does not refer to us. It was the most bizarre and scary thing I had faced in a while. I usually don't get too anxious about health issues that are concerned with myself, but this shook me.
This came about one day while I was at work. I was in the office and I had continuous chest pain on the left side. I was also struggling to take deep breaths. The pain was sharp and would come and go throughout the day. I originally thought that it was anxiety because there was a lot going on at that time and I was 2 weeks out of the Edinburgh Marathon, so I put it down to my body being tired.
The Doctor had told me that my troponin levels (the protein complex in the heart that indicates whether someone is having a heart attack if elevated) was high, but obviously not high enough to result in a heart attack. This was a lot to take in. I mean, I’m 29?
Obviously, I couldn’t run the marathon in Edinburgh. I was heartbroken. It was going to be my first marathon, and I had had colleagues donating to my JustGiving page /:
After the tears and sadness, I realised that I needed to focus on resting and getting my body back to a healthy state. I slept a lot and couldn’t even walk around the block. Going from 100% to nothing was weird, but I knew that it was what my body needed at that time. But I realised that I needed to give my body the time it needed to rest and recover.
And, with the support from my family and friends, it made getting through each day a little easier. Sometimes, giving yourself the time to get through something stressful is all you need to reset and recover.
I’m still taking it easy now, but I have a lot more energy and am back on the road, running because I love it and I am so grateful that I get to do that.
Run wild x
