Just over a week ago, I ended up in the doc's office suffering from extreme dizziness, headaches, loss of balance, and unreal nausea. The doc called it labyrinthitis but I say it is the worst hang over feeling in the world. And as I joked later in the week, the worst might just be, never getting to enjoy the party that might lead to such a hang over the night before. It sucked.
I spent several days just hoping the spinning rooms would stop moving and that I might be able to eat a lunch versus sticking to shakes as at least those I knew I was keeping down. I feel for anyone that's had vertigo and I really feel for those that have it over a week. It hasn't been any fun. All the doc recommended was sleep and Bonine. Thanks. I ate 2 boxes of the motion sickness pills over three days in attempting to keep the spinning to a minimum. It helped but never took it away. And for sleep, I think I slept more in the last week than I have in the past six months - seriously. I generally don't sleep much for many reason so to find myself sleeping close to 20 hours in one day was off to say the least.
Things have been getting better everyday but things still aren't "normal". I'm finally able to watch TV, be in the computer, and I'm sleeping more normal hours. I still have some bad dizzy spells and I get bad headaches following it but laying down seems to help it go away. I've been off work a week and will be working from home for a day or two. When I last spoke to the doc she said it could be a few more days. I'm hoping it just goes away.
Last Sunday, with out realizing how bad things were, I headed out to a Cross race with GG and Theresa. Woke up and waited for the dizziness to stop and then I was feeling okay so I figured why not. :-) We headed up to DeKalb for the 2nd Chicago Cyclocross race. We got there and unlike a majority of the road races where I've met great riders like those from Jelly Belly and Garmin, we knew no one. So it was a little odd. We cheered on the riders but GG and Theresa were not having quite the fun I had hoped they would. Between races we were walking around and I saw one of the riders from xXx Racing and he looked somewhat familiar so I went up to say hi. Turns out he was at Downers and that's where I had seen him before. It was fun meeting Mike and it now gave us someone specific to cheer for so GG and Theresa had much more fun during the 2nd race we watched. And it didn't hurt that Mike came in 2nd in the race so that was exciting too. :-)
Mike avoiding a fallen rider on a down hill section at DeKalb.
In a rare event, I handed over my keys after the race for GG to drive as I was just not up to it. There were a few times during the race that if someone didn't know me, they might've thought I was drunk. The whole balance thing started to give me issues and just a step up or down a hill bothered me. I was ready to be home. We stopped for a bite to eat and headed back to GG's where I laid down and slept for awhile. When I got up I felt good enough to get home and that's what I did. Went home and straight to bed.
Once I got my pics uploaded into my flickr account I dropped an email to xXx to share the fun of meeting Mike and cheering him on and to let them know I had some pics they were welcome to. Luke emailed back and so did Bob. I also got an email from Mike and I shared that with Theresa and Jane. It was fun to meet a rider to cheer on and the girls had a good time and we planned future races to check out.
This weekend Theresa was busy but Jane and I were looking forward to going again. So we headed out to Hawthorne. In the email from Mike, and per his entry on the team site, he was moving up to the cat 3's so we went earlier. We found a spot near the nasty ass hill the riders had to go up twice on each lap for pics and cheering. As Mike came by he had a huge "Hi Nikki" which was fun that he knew us. We cheered him and the team on and then moved up to the top of the hill and cheered for even more riders as the hill wasn't easy. The view from the top was great as we got to see them come up twice and could see the whole course. On a beautiful 80 degree sunny Sunday, it doesn't get much better. :-)
The dreaded hill the riders had to go up twice each lap.
Almost to the top for the 2nd time, after jumping the barrier at the bottom.
Of course I got light headed before too long so we left a little earlier than planned but still had a good time. As we drove out I saw a rider with an xXx tee on and tonight, per his email, it sounds like the good luck Jane shouted to him as we passed, it was Bob. His first Cross race today and he said he lost it in the mud pit so we are bummed we didn't check that part of the course out. :-) All good stuff and xXx Racing has new fans for sure as thus far, starting back at Downer's when I met John and Nico, the whole team seems very friendly and fun. We look forward to meeting more and cheering them on at more races. I love the guys I've met this past year and to now be getting to know a local group is just loads of fun. No reason for the season to end when we have some many fun people to meet and cheer on. :-) Check out the pics I've shared at the team site. They're on flickr and on the team's main page. Good stuff.
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