Doctor's Orders

Let's suppose YOU are two weeks out from a Half Ironman and the PromptCare doctor tells you not to run or lift weights for the next 5 days because you are being put on prednisone. How would you react? 


Me? 


Not so gracefully. 

My eyes aren't big anyway, but
this is just plain ridiculous. 

We came home from Vero Beach, FL last Sunday. It was a wonderful, relaxing vacation with family. I'll post more information about that later, but during this past week I've slowly started putting in a lot of time doing a new exercise. It's called scratching. Scratching my legs. Scratching my arms. Scratching my back and then finally on Friday scratching my eyelid. 


This morning I woke up and my eyelid was so swollen I couldn't fully open my eye. It didn't hurt. It was just simply annoying. The area surrounding my eye was puffy and itchy. I just couldn't take it anymore. I decided it was time to visit Prompt Care. 


The staff asked if I had used anything different this week...new detergent, lotion, etc. Right before vacation we purchased some new suntan lotion, but I didn't see how that could be it. New lotion, but a product we've used in the past few years. Because the area around my eye was affected, the doctor prescribed prednisone and told me no running or weight lifting while on the medication.  Ummmm, excuse me? I just registered for a Half Ironman in Muncie. It's less than two weeks away. Apparently, prednisone can cause hip pain and arthritis. So while I can bike and swim, weight bearing exercises are out for the week. That sure is going to make teaching classes and training for my Half Marathon kind of tough!


However, I will listen to the doctor. I know I don't want to mess with the long term affects this powerful drug can have on my body. Interestingly enough, I also have to test my blood glucose levels several times a day since prednisone can cause BG levels to increase. Oh yay! 


After I returned home from Prompt Care, my husband reminded me that we did use a new product called Tide Pods while on vacation. It will take some time and experimentation to find out what exactly caused my body to react like this, but I definitely want to figure it out because a week of no running and no weights for me is definitely crazy talk.