and I don’t gain weight very easily. haha, I know you hate me
I was a skinny kid growing up and didn’t get into working out till my late 20’s. I did however lead an athletic childhood, playing various sports before, during and after school. I’ve always had a fast metabolism but working out helped me pack on some pounds.
I did however go through some crazy times in my life in regards to my health. For one, severe allergies popped out of nowhere and really hit me hard in my late 20’s . I was prescribed claritin and took it almost everyday for like 2 yrs during allergy season. Now I’m not sure if my allergies were the cause for what happened next but, I’m pretty sure it played a major part in it. In 1999 I got a chest infection of some sort and I ended up in the hospital for a whole week! The diagnosis: Periacarditis (sp?), which in layman’s terms means, inflamation of the hearts lining.
I was told different stories from a bunch of different Dr’s, one of the setbacks of being in a general hospital. One Dr. was surprised to see zits on my back. She gave me this look like I had a conjoined twin attached back there. What rock did she crawl under from??
They were so confused as to my condition that they gave me this crazy test called a “Heart Cath” test. Whoa! If you don’t know what a catherization test is, allow me to tell you. It involves a long thin plastic tube, almost like a long bendable needle inserted into the artery or vein of your leg or arm, (in my case they said fuck it, let’s take the long route and go through his leg) from there it gets pushed all the way up into the chambers of the heart or into the coronary arteries. Now, I don’t know about you but, having a tube inserted at the bottom and work it’s way up your body and all the way upto your heart sounds pretty unpleasant to me to say the least. Meanwhile they can see everything on a screen. Then they tell me “you’re going to feel something funny on your heart”. My immediate reaction was “oh oh”, all of a sudden they started poking my heart and it started jumping! Ugghh I got scared and yelled out, “Oh ya I’m feeling something funny alright!”
Well a week passes and I’m let go. One Dr. said to take it easy at the gym for a while, another told me, “You have some heart damage, you should come see me at my office”. My first thought was, “ya right buddy, you just want my money.”
I went back to my normal life and it was all peaches and cream from there. I went back to working out and my heart hasn’t bothered me since. Matter of fact my allergies have been less severe for the past 4 yrs. No longer use medication except for the occasional nose drops.
So as I look back now, I’m happy to be healthy , not so wealthy and wise. I feel good and look good. My mental state and general outlook towards exercise has completely changed thanks to Terri.
Sure I workout less than before, but I feel like I’m doing it right.