Doctor? Doctor.

This is the part of the show where I now become a doctor and offer a reasonable explanation for everything.

Lingering fatigue for about 2 months: that seems so easy. Overtraining. There is no question in my mind that I had almost all of the psychological symptoms of overtraining. Initiative and excitement about sport that was basically eroded. Sleep disruption, depression, lack of belief in oneself, constant evaluation of todays efforts against the past, so on so forth. But only some of the physical symptoms – The lower than expected heart rate. Inability to maintain level of effort. Fatigue for sure, but no depressed immune function, no muscle soreness, no injury. But of course – I’m burning myself out in Zone 2 – I don’t even open my mouth to breathe for these workouts. There is no massive physical effort here. Injury is almost impossible at this lower threshold. How could I ever be sore from this effort? It has to be possible to overtrain on base training alone. I have to have done it. And I made no shortage of stupid, go-way-to-hard decisions all over the landscape of the last 2 months. $500 worth of labs, a CT, allergy testing, all showing nothing – it has to be overtraining. I’ve had so much time off now. Albeit chemically induced, major major rest this weekend. I got on the trainer tonight for 45 minutes of Z2 and felt unstoppable. I haven’t felt like that since February.

Dizziness: this has to be related to the Nasonex. Yes, I have an MRI tomorrow. I suppose that could reveal something else entirely. But something in my brain aside, I’m not buying the post-concussive disorder (PCD) argument right now. It doesn’t make sense. Why would these symptoms manifest themselves out of the blue over six months after my last head injury? Why wouldn’t they simply persist after the last hit to the head? My last concussion was very predictable; 4 weeks and the hangover-like symptoms abated. Just like all the ones I’ve had. I read and read and can’t find experiences that make the PCD diagnosis make sense for what is happening with me. And the timing of the Meclizine incident is so curious here. Could it have been just that single pill alone responsible for me being practically comatose this past weekend? There’s no way that makes sense. I was perpetually carsick as a kid, and took meds like this all the time back then. Why now the acute hypersensitivity? It’s not adding up, and the only variable that hasn’t been explored until Kristen thought about it tonight is this damn Nasonex – something I was given a week ago and took without question. I was told how incredibly safe and mild and well tolerated this medication is, yet when we searched the web tonight, we found loads of stories of people with awful side effects. So let’s start the clock, and let’s see who’s right. I’m f*cking right and I know it. 1 for me, 1 for Kristen. Doctor: 0.