I’m Dying…

T minus 14 days, trail mile: 0

My wife hates it when I say that out loud. But it’s the truth, we are ALL dying. Some just quicker than others.

Those who know me (or have known me), might see me as a risk taker, or even reckless. I’ve certainly pushed the limits some times, had some bad luck, and most certainly made some bad choices. What can I say, I like omelets. Bicycle crashes as a kid, my little fall/slide off of the Flatirons in Boulder, motorcycle crashes involving speed, stuck throttles, downed trees, bears and dunes; some resulting in broken bones, torn ligaments or a lower back compression fracture. These are the things I can deal with, maybe even rationalize. I chose them (one way or another).

Several years ago, I suffered a deep vein thrombosis (DVT). It was out of the blue for me, excepting the lower leg swelling I had been suffering from for the last several years. As far as I knew at the time, there was no family history of DVT’s, so I just figured it was a fluke thing. Flash forward to my third DVT in 2018 when I decided I needed to get to the bottom of it. During that time I was also suffering from sinus infections every year. And the icing on the cake was the mentally unhealthy work situation I was in. All of these things were adding up, and most likely contributing to each other. Like my commute. Fifty-eight miles one way. Office job, with a lot of sitting. These two things are the worst thing you can do if you’re prone to DVT’s. And I wasn’t getting any younger. With my physical fitness disappearing, all of these health problems acting up, it was harder to keep active. I then started to lose flexibility; sore back, plantar fasciitus, and finally a knee that constantly barked at me (oh yeah, I just found out last week I have a torn meniscus).

This journey of mine has been on my mind for many years. And I started to see it more and more as a way to escape the downward spiral my mind and body were going. So despite finding out that my blood is deficient in protein C (which reduces my body’s ability to dissolve blood clots naturally), a back and knee that only hurt when I’m not walking, and that I’m overweight, something has to change. I’ve been commuting this route too long, sitting at my desk too much, and not taking care of my mind and body.