Clinic follow up

After two posts on how each day went, I felt it best to describe how it ended.

A positive side was that Mistress and I came up with enough available credit to cover the cost of the visit. It was a very stressful phone call for me, I felt like a failure to my wife for incurring such a bill. I will say this about Mistress though, I did not have to justify or get her buy in. She trusted me, she trusted our process and the road signs we took to get to the clinic. I know I have fought with her over much less spending issues and in this regard I felt she lifted me up when I needed it.

I was not only told but shown through their actions that this visit is just one part of larger process. I have unlimited access to each doctor should I need advice or consultation on my recovery. I have a real team vested in my interests. Having seen such a medical board work for my son, I respect this set up. When all the tests have been completed and reviewed I will get a binder with a complete copy of everything that was done. I also took dozens of pages of notes in my personal journal.

Many of the tests are still at the labs, the results of which will not be seen for several more days. As I was told, they are testing everything from esoteric to absolute to find why my body is reacting and doing what it does.

Part of the initial testing they did, led that the rhabdo., kidneys and liver failures showing up the way they do could be the effect of something and not the cause. There is some thought I could have a rare parasite that I picked up overseas. Its a stretch but possible. It or something else may be causing an obstruction below my kidneys that backs urine up into them and speeds up my condition.

They do not think the renal damage is as bad as western medicine believes it is. I will never be 100% again, of that there is no doubt. However they believe that I can have a recovery that long term should not decrease the quality or quanity of my life, barring some new considerations I must make to exertion.

The road to recovery starts with a medicinal profile repairing damages done to my organs in the past. This first phase I am in lasts ten days and the results could be loosely compared to chemotherapy. I may feel as fatiqued and neasous. I won't be loosing any hair or weight. I then have a phase two and three that are not quite as dramatic.

This week I am taking my HR when I wake up. This will be the base for the workouts I start next week. If my waking HR is +5 bpm over base, then my workout the day before was too much and I need to take a rest day or scale the effort way back.

I am also doing a nutritional intake journal: food, water, drugs, also including physical condition (fine, headache, pain w/ location) and how I feel emotionally. Once this is completed and compared to labs that tested nutritional deficencies, it will help blue print a better nutritional profile for me to follow and also delve into training and recovery protocols.

Some of the tests were quite surprising. On a test that read energy levels released by the body, I was told mine was some of the highest they had ever recorded compared to names like DeBoom, Reid, Hincapie, Lieto and Landis. I constantly was through the roof, though they were quick to point out that these tests did not determine genetics and God given talent of which it is clear, I am quite pedestrian. It could also mean that my body can not regulate energy expenditure and this is another test that shows that I am burning up my kidneys through some sort of whacked out internal process.

I am my own exercise coach in this, though they recommend that I obtain a trainer or coach for oversight. Its clear I have the ability but not the perspective or discernment over my volume or manage my effort. My training partner, Jeff, who is a doctor, chiropractor, acupuncuturist, sport therapist, weight loss coach and acredited USAT triathlon coach, is going to do this for me. Either it will be a great benefit for my recovery with my coach right there training with me or Jeff is going to be a huge enabler pushing me further than necessary just so he's not out there alone.

I am not to train outside. Not for a while. Swimming is okay as long as I keep it short. Everything else is indoors. Based on current doctrine I need to stay below 140 bpm. Which to me is the lowest end of my Zone 2. Lowest. In the beginning its going to be almost impossible for me to get any cycling or running done indoors but having done HR training I know that it will pay off later. My HR will stay the same and the effort will go up.

iNew gave me perameters to train 'inside their box'. The next several months are truly just the smallest possible steps to a return to fitness. They believe the earliest I could toe any start line at any distance is nine months. Thats agressive to them. Fine by me. I have an opportunity to someday get back into the mix and that is good enough for now.

I must say the cost was staggering but I am not dissappointed in the slightest for my decision to go to Seattle. I learned so much there. I had so much effort and attention put into my health and future well being. It is, in my case, money well spent. I have never had so much medical attention for so long a period of time. Six hours a day for three days, and the times I was not there they were compiling and consulting each other on their individual findings. I look forward to the final results of the time there. I expect to be surprised, disappointed and confused. I'm already happy.