So I did a thing today....

"Let's Do It Anyway" has become my new mantra.  

Things are not quite getting better in my body. Things are lingering & repeating & new things have arrived. Now when I do physical activity, particularly the 5k's I really love, my guts go on riot and make misery in new ways. Whatever. I just turned 34 & I am not going to rollover and give up. 


LET'S DO IT ANYWAY!


So I did a thing today. 



I kinda self invited to go along with the XC team & a carpooling friend to the Aerial Adventure Park in Keystone. It was awesome & challenging in every way. Physically, Mentally, Drop foot & dehydration, guts aflame & numb appendages. Let's do it anyway. 

We started the day at a great guy who runs the sports store in Hill City's home. Pat. Pat lives right on the Mickelson Trail. Guys, if you've never..... seriously, it's a place in our backyards that winds through some of the best views you'll ever experience. If you can't follow trail etiquette, don't you dare though. It is a place to hold to the highest of respect. 




The XC team ran anywhere from 2-6 miles from his driveway, out on the Mickelson, and back. I was debating a 1 or 2 mile powerwalk as I wanted to save some energy for the aerial course, but it was so beautiful & it felt so good that I started thinking a 5k would be great to do, it's my jam, its my length, my go to & my fav. So I'm walking along enjoying every second, thinking maybe just do a 2 mile so they aren't waiting on me.....well I noticed a mile marker sign that caught my attention.....wait a second, I shouldn't be seeing that mile marker. I took a good look around, yep....

missed the driveway. Dang it. Turned around, found the driveway.....right at 5k. It worked out. 

I was the last one in, but not by long. Pat served everyone pancakes & was still making them. I tried one with almond butter AND SYRUP, hello, I earned it. We sat on the deck and took in the amazing views & the sweet smells of summer in the forest. Perfect morning workout. 

the smell of hot oiled wood & the sound of your shoes on it,
breathe it in, it's a good day to have a good day

After a group picture, we went on to Keystone to Rushmore Tramway Adventures. They have many packages and options for some pretty exhilarating fun. We did a group rate on the aerial course. This is not a place or activity that all of my family could qualify to endeavor or even handle, also the upfront price, not group rate, is pretty steep. Worth it, but steep. Knowing all this, I jumped in as a "chaperone" ....I guess you'd call it. 

They have a safety & training course, then a system like a ski slope with color coded courses. You must start at yellow, conquer it, then do green & then blue, most difficult is black. Zach after finishing the yellow, scurried right up the black trail, made it most of the way through, then took an escape route zipline down. The tougher courses had zipline escape routes for those who maxed out on ability, time allotment, inclement weather, or in the event someone needs assistance. 

One of the workers came flying backwards up one of the ziplines part way through a blue course a bunch of us were on to try to get to one of our own who's course zipline didn't trolley all the way across. He had hand over hand made it to the end before she even got to him. The first obstacle past the escape route she came up was one of the most

challenging in the courses. It was a set of 5 rings in a row to maneuver your feet through. It whooped all our butts. I almost took the very same escape route down and called it good right there.

these are not the rings there
but similar ones elsewhere
ours were wooden w/white ropes
and only one row which
was way harder

My foot was lagging & numbing, I was entirely dehydrated & nauseous. My body was definitely being challenged to the max. LETS DO IT ANYWAY. After letting our entire group go through it ahead of me, I decided ride or die & basically Tarzaned through it. Made it.

From an easier part of the course. I put my
phone away when it got tough. 

The next obstacle was a rolling log on a swing. My numbing appendage miss judged it & I fell on my rear mid swing. I got to the opposite platform, but had my oldest son's best friend give me a hand up, thanks Devin. 


After that one was another set of trying swinging planks then a long wire with V shaped obstacles to step over on

the wire, followed by previous mentioned zipline that my body weight had no trouble whooshing me through to the end, then a wicked obstacle that had 2 wires to straddle 
and walk and various boards diagonally across that had you switching sides of the parallel wires you straddle, climbing over the boards on the wire, then yanking your clips along with you. THESE CLIPS, those or your zip line trolley pouch, play a fun side game of tangle, snag & jerk through the entire route of the courses. Stopping mid slack wires above the trees to yank your clips through was just another tricky obstacle embedded in it all. 


It was so taxing. Physically exerting and exhausting. Add mentally taxing. Forget heights, which I'm pretty sure every human has a bit of fear for, it develops somewhere within your first year of life is what my Early Childhood degree taught me. That fear can be trained to be ignored. With the focus of the obstacles, you honestly don't even notice how high you are half the time. For real. Buuuuuut then, bam, after the parallel wires of wooden zig zags, you land yourself on a platform a few YARDS up a tree & you must hook to a rope & free jump down!!!! NOT REPEL, you must trust this rope will function as intended & slow you down, Arresto Momentum. (for shame, if you don't know the reference, culture yourself, click here to cheat)

This is a taller free standing jump tower that is a seperate pay, we watched some people jump from it & some people back out from jumping off it. The one we jumped off mid course was not quite as tall, but tall enough. It was a mind game & very exhilerating to experience. 

After standing here for a very long time & Coach Riley scolding me for repetitively looking down & saying he's just going to stand mid his current obstacle until I jump, I win over my will power & jump. I didn't die, it was awesome! I'd totally do it again. 

I really really wanted to do the black, it was the only one I didn't conquer. Buuuut I may have done some bargaining with God back a couple obstacles & decided not to push any further. I was dizzy, nauseous, my stomach was killing me, my head was hurting, there was gunk in the corners of my mouth..... I decided to go hydrate before my mind over matter landed me in some ER with an impossible to find a vein, multiple poke, IV bag. It took a long time and many stainless steel water bottle refills later, an icee snow

cone thing, half a Subway wrap, a bag of sunchips & 2 refills of watermelon cucumber water (they didn't have iced tea.... what kind of fast food doesn't have iced tea, but the watermelon cucumber water was AMAZING, culture people, try something knew, LETS DO IT ANYWAY) to feel even okayish. 

That group of kids & those people are totally my people. Just sitting around picnic tables in the summer rain & listening to the chatter with them is living your best life.
I absolutely will embrace every opportunity that comes along to try something new, to meet people, to push through and experience life. 

If you are in the Black Hills or visiting it, I highly recommend the Rushmore Tramway Adventure Park in Keystone (right down the road from Mt Rushmore). I would recommend the Aerial course. You get a little bit of ziplining, a little bit of that arresto momentum tree jump & a whole lot of workout. You are supposed to pay for 90 minutes, however I do believe we were up there somewhere between 3-4 hours. So worth it. You must be 50-250#s, they do have a scale there, but I didn't see anyone tested on it. Recommended over 6 years old. There are courses for each ability level and you will come away knowing the term TWEEZELING. You will TWEEZLE around 45 times per course, minimum. TWEEZELING will become second nature. 

That same blue course outlined above, in the second or 3rd obstacle (a couple before where that narrative begins), I TWEEZLED into a braid of pullback ropes, course rope, wire and TWEEZEL strap.... I would get a third into the obstacle & the pullback rope for the next person to use the obstacle would not move. I could go no farther. Head back, untangle, thought we had it, go again, get one plank further, nope, return. We were piling up on the platform by then & getting yelled at from the blue shirts below. "Coach Elsom, come save me!!!!"

He arrives off the prior obstacle, now 4-5 of us working on it & yelling back to the blue shirts, "it's tangled"....the overzealous & surely bored at watching instead of participating girl from the story above yells "I'm COMING!!!" & is again bummed when we get it before she can get to us. This actually happened before Dylan's zipline not completing it's path, she wasted no time and was very

determined to come try to save him when she didn't get to help untangle me & still to no avail. Poor girl. I'd have completed the course instead of backtracking to the escape route if I were her. ;) ;) 

On the way home it was wall to wall, both lanes full, people cutting each other off, can't get over for on ramps, traffic on I90. For some reason the entirety of the rally goers decided to show up mid day Wednesday while we were in the hills & forgot how to drive MidWest style while they were at it. 
It begins #sturgisrally2019 

When we met parents at the park for pickups, there was THE COOLEST dog I've ever met. He was an English Great Dane with huge droopy cheeks, tons of slobber & feet to be mistaken for wolves'. He had a rope leash that was looped around a guy's shoulder and torso. He was a service dog with 26 tasks and 11 commands for PTSD support. His man friend was known to wander during an episode & the dog knew how to 'find the car' or 'find help' (policeman). He was also an unforgettable dog that people notice tied to a man (purpose #1), everyone also wants to pet this dog & ask about him which pulls his man friend into social situations & conversations (purpose #2 as service dog). The couple was very personable. They spoke about their prior lives as Chef in Disney World, even shared recipes & where to find them, about being from Lake Eerie & Nevada & living in Maine for a spell. They anticipated being able to handle our winters with those experiences under their belts. We constantly wonder how people find & decide to live in Belle Fourche, SD from these other places???? Is it the Center of the Nation?? That's more self proclaimed than anything else, folks. Well, anyhow, welcome!

Again, totally worth it. They should pay me to promote & link them. Maybe someday that will be how I earn a buck or two, or enter a place free. But seriously, check it out....

https://rushmoretramwayadventures.com/ 

I did a thing today & it was amazing. I'll never forget today. And that's what it's all about. 

It's hard to describe....

Today, for the first time in a while, my Trigeminal Neuralgia is raging. It's been flaring for over a week, which is fun enough, but today I woke up with a migraine I couldn't head off. It triggered the face pain, I got frustrated, I cried, which caused my sinuses to close up and swell.....BAM, worse case scenario ensues.

I'm writing this to vent it out and to put it out there on the interweb, so that if someone googles & finds this, they may see what got me through on one day. What it looks like for one other person.

Trigeminal Neuralgia is not well studied at this point in time, it is not well understood. There is no cure, the treatments are limited and often ineffective, it's diverse in its presentation and our 'specialists' are few in this world. Many neurologists are not TN endorsed & we are left to do a lot of research on our own to get through.


To try describe a flare, or worse, a rage, is near impossible, but if you were to imagine the simultaneous occurrence of unmedicated crowning of a baby but in your face + dental work before you were numb + being bludgeoned in the head with name your blunt force object (all of which I have indeed experienced separately), that might come close. Add migraine.

There wasn't a way to talk, to move from the spot I was at, to swallow meds. The whole thing had me shaking, writhing my feet, goosebumps & dehydrated. It wasn't just a 'my face hurts' ordeal.


It worsened in waves. I ended up muttering peppermint oil to my husband who found it for me. I lathered that stuff all over my sinuses, undiluted....feel the burn. It did 2 things for me. First, it made an intense burn on my sinuses, which diverted it for just a moment from the entirety of my migraine and my trigeminal nerve as a whole came down one notch. But mainly, it did get my sinuses to drain to be able to breathe and have the drainage quit going down my throat making me more nauseous as well as to relieve pressure of my sinuses on my trigemninal nerve.

Once that was established, I was able to swallow pain relievers to take the edge off the migraine. Acetaminophen and caffeine in large doses can do this if you're lucky enough. Any little bit at this point was a win.


Once that kicked in I was able to sip water & use some more supplements (magnesium, oils, turmeric) to bring down the TN a bit more. 10:30- 4:30pm was how long a laid thrashing & crying & grasping whatever was close with my head wrapped in a blanket not to let the slightest light or touch through.  An entire day wasted. But it was just one day. There are more days.


Even through this episode, I cannot get myself to surrender to the anti epileptics. It was just one day. To trade in the freedom of any other good day I may have feeling myself....not worth it. Meds are everyday. I can't do their side affects every day. This was just one day. Some days are better than others. It was just one day.

A glimpse: https://youtu.be/rWCdXy6TYUE 

Today is my last day being 33....that's okay with me.

After today, I will no longer be able to pretend to be less than in my 'mid thirties', something I've felt for a while now anyway. Today is my last day being 33 and it's okay with me. 

What did I do on my last day being 33? 

A 5K. My 2nd 5K of the month. My goal was to have my knee & my guts strong enough to do the Rodeo Run on the 4th of July & they were. It had been 3 years since I had participated in it instead of helped at a table. It had been 3 years since my last 5K event. It had been my 1st 5K since having Joe, since surgery, since knee injury. I wanted to push the kids in the stroller, the stroller is a killer crutch & security blanket. My friend told me to suck it up and get out there, get a base time again, hit the reset button & work through to getting back into it. She's a good friend. She puts on that race. Then today she paced with me to improve my time (by a whopping 11 seconds- but improvement is improvement), she can go waaaaay faster & was totally doing a solid for me by pacing me. I woke up with a stomach bug (really?!?!?! it's summer!?!?! Joe also has a fever of 102-103!!! You're not supposed to get sick in the summer!!!!) and I was really worried about making it....but "Let's do it anyway" is my new mantra. I mean, most days one thing or another is waring on me, if I waited for a feel good day, I may never leave the house again.

On that note......checking in on health:

My knee feels it after those 5Ks but not enough to stop me. Let's do it anyway.

My H&P surgery.... forgot all about it!
Feels great not to drop into anemia territory every few weeks & I do not miss a certain isle at the store. Unfortunatley the only downside here is that it can't fix the hormone imbalance from the Polycystic, that is still there. I tried to get off ALL Rx meds, if you recall, when I went rogue after post surgery complications. That went well until my 6 week post surgery appoinment when discussing the effects of not taking the metformin. My ovaries were left in after my genetic screening for BRCA 1& 2 (a mutation that runs in my family) came back negative. In leaving them in, my risk for other types of cancers remains far lower. My doc showed me those ovaries (they take pics of your insides with laproscopy, it's kinda way cool) and they were HUGE, way bigger than they should be & looked like golf balls instead of smooth even with taking metformin for 8 years, the PCOS is kicking their butt. The metformin is the only thing keeping them from being even more out of control & the only thing resembling certain hormones I lack to adequately produce. Soooooo, I started taking it again....unfortunately this means my immune system suffers & my body is sun sensitive. Let's do it anyway.

I am still NOT taking the antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) for my face nerve condition (trigeminal neuralgia), I take a handful of supplements and steer clear of certain triggers and get by with the day to day zingers of pain. The AED side effects take away quality of life, I'd rather feel the zingers. Chicken is a big trigger, I really like chicken, sun is a HUGE trigger, I like to be outside..... Let's do it anyway.

I still have not gotten back into the dentist for my crown repair & am scared of what will be awaiting me when I wake up from that procedure in the face pain department. It will have to happen as the tooth keeps slowly chipping away and some day its going to expose the nerve (by the way if that has ever happened to you, a crack or chip or dental injury where your nerve had been worked on or exposed....that is similar to what Trigeminal feels like when it flares). Any day without a flare with TN is a good day.

The autoimmune stuff....it was fairly ignorable until the rains stopped and the heat amped up this week. The heat is like a traquilizer gun for me. I get real nasty cases of 'the dropsies' & lose sensation in my apendages....something I've decided is not all bad for running: legs go numb, run anyway, hands go numb, you don't need them to run. Let's do it anyway.

I'm pretty locked into the house in the a/c from 10am - 6pm ....but I've got enough to do around here during that time....

I made the decision to take a sobbatical from teaching preschool & focus on health, homeschooling & bucketlist projects next school year. As a result my main summer project has been to rearrange the basement, take down the preschool, put the living room & craft area there, make a playroom, homeschool nook, and 2 more bedrooms (where the living room and craft area were) so the kids are all back into their own rooms. This is a no cost opperation. By making rooms, I mean putting up sheets as dividers. We did paint over one wall in the preschool area where we will be putting the tv as a focus wall. Its been a slow and emotional process. I'm about 1/3 done. looooots of stuff.















Goal: done by rally. It's about to get even busier.....our 1st experience as parents of a high schooler coming right up!