Saturday, March 1, 2008

St. George Bummer...

I wish I had something good to report about the ICUP race today, but I wasn't there! I'm stuck in SLC with an itchy rash from hell that started on Monday and is still going strong. The bad thing about this is I can't sleep at night and I'm up every 30minutes putting some sticky steriod cream on my bod. I've even hopped in the bathtub at 2am, twice, poured in some oatmeal crap that's supposed to soothe your skin, desperately seeking and relief, even if it's short term. When I last looked at the clock on Thursday and it was 4am! That sucks. I don't think I've had more than 3-4 hours of shut eye a night this week.

So, after a botched attempt by a well-meaning VA intern, I got ahold of my Dermatogogist nephew in Indiana today to see what the pro's would do in a situation like this. I can't not sleep the rest of my life. I need help, and it's got to get here right now. He speculates I developed an allergy to something at home, possibly fabric softener (which my wife changed 3 weeks ago) or some fragrance (I even bought Jane flowers 2 weeks ago that are still hangin around on the kitchen table). It could be any number of things and it's a long process to figure out what the culprit is. So, he put me on a 2 week Prednisone dealie (don't tell Brad Keyes - it ain't cheating if the Doc says do it!) and that ought to cure what ails me. He said the down side is my appetite will increase, my metabolism will not and a weight gain is most likely. The good thing is this kind of steriod doesn't shrink your nuts! Wheeew.. He also advised me to not pee in a cup, cuz you won't pass the test. And, I'll have a lot of energy. I've got to find a race somewhere and test this stuff out. Jane's lined up a bunch of house chores for me to take advantage of my soon-to-be new found energy. That sounds like a ton of fun :-(

My next race won't be until the end of March in Moab. I'll do a IHE boost session the week before and see how things go for that one. The steriod advantage will be gone and I'll be left with my wilting old self. Crap! In the meantime, it's back to the trainer and doing what I do.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

dude, I looked all over for you. i was excited to see if the altitude training has helped. hey, I wonder if that has anything to do with the itch.

Brad Mullen said...

Maybe all those extra hema-goblins are trying to get out of my body! They itch on the way out just to piss me off and ruin my plans for utter dominance. I will not be discouraged. I did a 4 hour solo road ride yesterday and was smokin fast.