1988 was a Big Year

Highlights from this year in history:

•  The Hubble Space Telescope went into operation to explore deep space
•  The Washington Redskins were Superbowl XXII Champions
•  Television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart was photographed in series of hook-ups with prostitutes
•  The Lockerbie, Scotland airplane bombing, ordered by Lybia killed 270 people
•  CDs out-sold vinyl records for the first time
•  Famous quote from the year: "Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy" - Lloyd Bentson to Dan Quayle
•  Milli Vanilli’s first album was recorded early in 1988 and by the time it was released later that year two dancer/models had been picked to front the group

Personal Highlights:

• I got the Chickenpox 
• I got braces
• I am 99% sure I also got Lyme disease 

[Side note]: Returning to my 5^th grade classroom with fading pox and a mouth full of new shiny metal, probably set me back socially for a few years; but that is not what this post is about.

1988. Did I come to this conclusion using scientific evidence? Did I pull this year out of a hat since I previously mentioned I have no idea where or when I got Lyme disease? Did I call my mom up and ask when I was first diagnosed with tendonitis in my shoulders and neck?

If 1988 is the wrong year, blame my mom.

This past year I realized the discomfort and sometimes pain that I have associated with tendonitis in my shoulders and neck, which was first diagnosed in fifth grade, is not purely tendonitis. You’re probably wondering why it took me so long to figure this out. Now is probably a good time to properly introduce my love of swimming and endurance events since some people reading this blog do not know what my life consisted of prior to my Lyme diagnosis. 

My competitive swimming career began when I was five and ended my senior year of college. After sixteen years I took a year-long break from swimming and tried to become a gym rat. During that time I was talked into training for a triathlon. My first triathlon, and what I thought would be my last triathlon, was completed in 2001. It turned into a full-time hobby. Ten years later after completing a handful of duathlons and sprint distance triathlons, 50+ Olympic distance triathlons, 7 half Ironman triathlons, 5 Ironman triathlons, 6 marathons, 2-50k trail runs, various open water swimming events and one Ragnar Relay my body called it quits on me and I had to stop training and racing. Two months after that came the chronic Lyme disease diagnosis that has since inspired this blog. The amount of training that went into preparing for these races and participating in these races pushed my body to new limits, and with that came a lot of aches and pains that were always easily explained away as overuse injuries. What came first... The overuse injuries or the chronic inflammation from the Lyme disease?  In all actuality it is probably a good mix of both. Some of my injuries were legitimate overuse and/or accidents and some of my injuries were caused by chronic inflammation I didn’t realize I had. One things for sure, with my bodies inability to get rid of inflammation, none of my injuries ever got the chance to fully heal. 

And now back to the 5th grade 

It seemed reasonable for an athletic kid who swam 5 to 6 days per week to have developed tendonitis. I was always complaining about feeling stiff and was told to stretch more. In addition to stretching, I did some physical therapy here and there, took some anti-inflammatory medication during the times when my shoulders were really bad, and kept right on swimming up until my first Lyme disease diagnosis in 1994. Do I remember thinking my tendonitis felt worse when I was diagnosed with Lyme disease? No. I don’t think so. I assume I was associating the neurological issues, which I detailed in “Lyme Disease-Episode 1”, with the Lyme disease and was associating the “tendonitis” in my shoulders and neck, which had been a staple in my life for about six years at that point, as a separate issue. After my treatment I was deemed healthy,I finished off my senior year of high school and I went to college. I still had issues with my shoulders and neck, but it was "tendonitis", so I just kept on swimming.

Looking back with my newly acquired Lyme knowledge, I realize my junior year of college was the first time my Lyme disease came out of remission. My shoulders and neck got so bad that I couldn’t swim. I had to wear button down shirts everywhere because it was agonizing to move my arms, and putting on shirts that involved lifting my arms over my head was not even an option. Not only were my shoulders and neck affected, the pain also spread into my shoulder blades. I often claimed it felt like somebody was stabbing my shoulder blades from the inside. I was really uncomfortable and miserable. After months of rigorous physical therapy to treat my “chronic tendonitis” I wasn’t seeing much improvement, but was told I was better. Eventually during my senior year, I was able to get back into the pool and swim very short events. My shoulders and neck never really recovered and I retired from swimming after I graduated college… until I took up the triathlons mentioned above. Even when training for the swimming portion of the triathlon and other various open water events, I knew my limitations because too much swimming really irritated what I thought was my chronic tendonitis. Running and biking also indirectly irritated my shoulders and neck, but that didn’t stop me from loving the sport.

I haven’t worked out with any regularity for the past 15 months. I try to make it to yoga once a week and to the gym once a week to do some light core and strengthening exercises, but it is dependent on how I am feeling, and I often miss weeks at a time. My shoulders and neck hurt just as much as they did when I was swimming and training for triathlons 5-6 days per week, and I am also having issues with my shoulder blades again. The discomfort ebbs and flows with the inflammatory response from the Lyme disease treatment. In fact, sometimes I wake up with full body aches that remind me of the feeling I get the day after running a marathon, yet I literally haven’t run since September 2011. This is the longest stretch of time that I have been inactive from training for a race since my age was in single digits, and I am still feeling all of the aches and pains in my muscles, tendons and joints that I used to associate with working out and racing. 

It appears that mental toughness and the desire to push oneself to new physical limits can beat out the simple common sense voice that occasionally whispers “if it hurts this much, maybe you should stop”. Perhaps in the future I will listen more intently, or maybe common sense should start yelling at me instead.