Wendy Davis

I hope that you all, like me, are standing in support of Wendy Davis. She is standing for 12 hours in the Texas State Senate to filibuster the anti-abortion bill. You can watch her live here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2Q8Hr0O20LY

good karma

I must have done something right because the day after my wonderful natural childbirth experience, I had another great delivery! Someone's smiling on me.

fibromyalgia

How many times in a day can you argue with patients about not increasing narcotics for a syndrome that narcotics are not indicated for and haven't actually helped this patient very much given that their pain scores haven't changed with the last increase? I think pain management in general but specifically fibromyalgia management is one of the most frustrating parts of my day. I feel like neither of us leave satisfied from that encounter ever.

Ouch and Yay

Not every birth is beautiful. Most are, but some are hair raising and anxiety provoking and it takes a while to see the beauty. Then, there are some births that are just amazing right from the start. Today I saw one of those. Natural, 2 cm to fully dilated in 45 minutes, 3 pushes, healthy baby. Extraordinarily, it was a 39 year old mother who had been told that she had a very high chance of her baby having Down's Syndrome or another genetic anomaly and who had spent the last 2 weeks coming into my office telling me that she had a bad feeling about this pregnancy and that the baby wanted to come out. It all turned out wonderfully in the end. Phew.

Now on to the ouch. After my race I discovered that the little finger and half of the ring finger of my right hand are numb. It's called a handlebar palsy and is quite common for cyclists. Unfortunately, it hasn't improved much over the past week and it's very uncomfortable to do thinks like wash my hair because something about the texture of hair on my numb fingers is very painful. I really hope this gets better soon because I feel I can't ride my bike until it has resolved to avoid further injury. It's a bummer. I really don't enjoy running this much!

The Real Test

This weekend I went to Lake Placid/Wilmington NY and participated in the Wilmington 100 mountain bike race. It was the most amazing race experience I've ever had. It wasn't because of the race itself, it was because of the people. I think I almost cried 3 or 4 times due to the inspirational speeches that were made at the pre-race meeting. I had the amazing privilege to ride and chat with Rebecca Rusch ( my new girl crush - she's kicking ass and taking names in her 40s setting endurance records and she is SO genuine and nice it's unbelievable) at the pre-ride.

The founder of Leadville, Kennith Chlouber and his wife were there and he gave a similar speech with her to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9N_YT-kIaI . I remembered it during the entire race and it pushed me to go further than I thought I could, faster than I thought I could, and push through the killer leg cramps that were so bad I could hardly get back on my bike after pushing it up a loose climb, but I did. I was better than I thought was. I did more than I thought I could. The high of finishing 1 minute under my 6 hour and 30 minute goal was great. I only hope to get faster next year (and maybe train a bit more for endurance - I think 2 endurance rides probably weren't enough). 

The other inspiring thing was the number of amputees there were who raced hard and fast. It was awesome and amazing.

110 km and 7,641 feet of climbing. I wasn't first. I wasn't last but I did it.