2008 redux

The winter of 2008 wasn't the best. I sprained two fingers falling on the ice, which was mostly just an annoyance. I broke my tailbone the first time I went snowboarding, which was painful for 4 months but mostly just embarrassing to have to carry one of those stupid donuts around to sit on. But the worst was that I got bronchitis and coughed so hard I cracked 5 ribs.

Fast forward...

I get vertigo after I fly. Think Lucille II from "Arrested Development." I discovered this when I was flying to D.C. every couple weeks for a semester during grad school for meetings for a grant I was working on. We would fly to D.C. in the afternoon, head to a dinner meeting, meet all day the next day, and get on a 5 pm flight back to MN. I would spend the entire time in D.C. and several days after the trip feeling nauseated and dizzy. A friend told me she has the same problem, and that she takes a sudafed before she boards and she's set. It's really worked for me.

Until the flight home from Greece. I didn't realize how dizzy I must have been until I took a shower when I got home. I closed my eyes to wash my hair and slip! I crashed into the side of the tub. It really hurt. I woke up the next day and my foot was all bruised from when it slammed into the faucet. My side was killing me but there weren't any bruises, so I figured I had been pretty lucky. But now it's over three weeks later and it isn't any better. I'm still super tender by my ribs and it hurts a lot when I take a deep breath. The fact that my allergies have been awful this week, causing me to sneeze all the time, has only made it worse.

I'm sure I cracked a rib or two (I don't think anything is broken, or it would probably hurt worse). And from my 08 experience, I know there isn't anything that can be done. It just takes 1-3 months to heal. Probably running a marathon isn't the wisest recovery plan. But it hasn't been too bad during or after runs.

I'll be fine, right?