Longest run: 3.5 miles (again with the heat wave!); greatest moment: spending some time with mom
I'm in training, she's in recovery. We both have set high expectations for ourselves. When we found out about my mom's surgery almost 2 months ago now, we read a number of blogs and medical sites about mastectomy recovery time. Some women said they were back at work within 2 weeks, or even 10 days. On the phone together and searching online for more info, we were amazed at how quickly these women got back to work - and it set some pretty unreasonable expectations. After 2 weeks, mom had to call her boss to say, "remember how I said I'd be gone for 2 weeks? Well, it's going to be more like 2 months." And when I saw her last week, she was weak, shaky, "puny" as we used to call it when we feel sick. Poor mom was puny, and she's not a puny chick. She's used to being fierce. And this made her frustrated. Why don't I feel better than this? How long is it going to hurt?
And me? Well, I had some of the same questions. I've been running (well, maybe not following my training schedule to perfection, but pretty close) and I felt like I should be able to go a bit faster, that it shouldn't take me a whole mile and a half to warm up. And things hurt. My hip continued to burn, and now there was a worrisome ping in my heel. Like someone had strung a guitar a bit too tight and it might snap at any minute. So there's frustration, and the setbacks.
But guess what? It's ok to give yourself a break. You're not going to progress the same as those folks online. You may not be a superwoman, driving your wounded body to work on day 10, with a drainage tube and mastectomy camisole. Sometimes you have to listen to your own body, and trust that you will get better, you will get faster, and sometimes you just have to take a break: mentally and physically. Relax, let it be, and next week you'll feel a whole heck of a lot better. I do. And what amazed me about my mom, by the end of our visit, she was walking around the block - twice!
