Sunday, February 26, 2017

Week 8 Heartland 50 Training-Flu edition

Monday:  Rest day.  All day.  Little red was still not feeling 100% and technically he hadn't been fever free for 24 hours.  I had some errands to do around town and in manhattan, so he could just ride comfortably along.


We went and had pancakes, visited the bank, and made me a hair appointment to finally spend my gift card.  We had a great day together and days like this make me not want to work full time ever again.

Tuesday:  5 miles easy.  After my calf incident, we decided to take out speed work at least for the beginning of the week.  I am really glad that we did because even though I have foam rolled and stick rolled, I was super sore after just 5 miles.  Wearing my compression sleeves did help though, as I had no pain during the run at all.  

Let me back up a little bit though.  I was up all night with a puking dog.  Poor deuce ate something that did NOT agree with him.  Around 7 pm, he started drinking water obsessively and asking to go out and eat grass.  I think that a certain pan of bacon grease got consumed by the two red naughties, Stella and Deuce.  Stella had puked earlier in the day, and I didn't even think about why.  I stayed downstairs and slept or tried to sleep on the couch, while deuce puked up water over and over again.  

Now fast forward again.  Daycare sent me a text at 10:30ish saying andrew was running fever again.  I rushed to try and get everything done that I could at work, before heading out to pick him up.  I was shocked he was running fever, as he was fever free all day Monday and Monday night as well and Tuesday morning.  Of course as soon as I got him home, he seemed much better, BUT I decided to call his Dr and see if we should bring him in. I am very glad that I did call and did take him in because he tested positive for Flu A and also had an ear infection.  Unfortunately, that meant he had to be quarantined for at least the rest of the week, which meant I had to take off of work.  While I super enjoy being with him, being off work as we are super busy is not good:(.  My hubby and I decided to take Tamiflu just in case, and I prepared to hunker down and spend the rest of the week in solitude=people free.

Wednesday:  Cross or strength train.  I elected to get on my bike for a quick 12 miles after my hubby came home and could watch over little man.  While Andrew and I had a great day, as soon as we got out to do a little running around and get some fresh air, he passed out.  He ended up sleeping for 3 hours and waking up with a low grade fever, sigh.


We did get to take a trip to the pharmacy for more Tamiflu and a treat (Reece's pieces), and to sonic for a drink before heading down to the boat ramp under the wamego bridge to throw some rocks.  We actually saw some wasps out and about, so headed back to the car and drove around my running route.  Past the feedlot, andrew passed out cold.   

Thursday:  I really wrestled with running.  I had passed out fairly early wednesday night, and I kind of felt like I was coming down with something or the tamiflu was making me feel bad.  I ended up going out anyway and while the run was okay, I came back feeling very tired and very yucky.  My tummy was not happy either, but running sometimes does that to me anyway.  We ended up getting in six, but we both had to walk multiple times.  It's kind of funny how we have sympathy pains/aches for each other.  I swear its uncanny at times.  My left calf hurt this weekend, melly's left calf is bothering her.  My tummy starts up, her tummy starts acting up.  I think we need to stop sharing so much!!!!

Friday:  Cross or strength train.  I attempted to do my strength training.  I say attempted because this.


 and this.


 and this while I was trying to do hollow body.


Oh well, I am sore, so I know I got something accomplished.  

Saturday: 16 miles.  My coach had cautioned me that I might be fighting off the flu and that doing a long run might be a bad idea.  I really wanted to try and see how it went.  While I felt fine afterwards, I was beat during.  Like major fatigue.  I really, really think it is the Tamiflu.  Around 30 minutes to an hour after taking it at night, I immediately get a headache and feel tired.  I have been going to bed around 8:30 every night I have taken it.  I also feel pretty beat when I get up which is fine when I have been able to sleep in with andrew.  I needed to get my long run in before my hair appointment, so I had to get up at 5 am in order to be done in time, so I hope it was just the lack of my normal 3 more hours of sleep that got me.  The weather was perfect, feels like 10 and a light west wind.  I am such a cold weather runner for sure!  I even went a different way and went out on a different gravel road and down around Mel's house before heading out on our normal route.


We got er done.  It wasn't pretty but it was done. Had my AdvantEdge shake post run.  Back up a little, Lindsey from Livinglovingrunner had tagged me in an instagram post and we won a huge supply of chocolate shakes and vanilla protein powder, PLUS a new yoga mat (pictured above) and a t shirt. 


I am hugely impressed with the shakes.  I was really worried that they would taste like every other protein shake i have ever had before, YUCKY!  I would always pinch my nose and chug.  Not with these!  I was so pleasantly surprised.  No weird protein taste, smooth drinkability, and great chocolate taste.  Seriously its much like drinking chocolate milk, and I LOVE chocolate milk.  I am hoping by changing up my recovery that I can get some of my aches and pains under control.  Thanks to Lindsey and thanks to EAS for giving me this awesome give away!!!!


Post run I finally got my hair done.  It's been five long years since I have spent money on my hair, and it was so much fun to finally get something done!  I totally put my hair in the hands of Katie who owns Family Hair Cutters here in Wamego.  She cut a TON of hair off that was sun damaged (thanks running) and put some pretty color and high lights in it. I am loving it!!!! It is so light and airy and PERFECT!

Sunday:  Suppose to be 6, but we did 8.  Sometimes you just go with it and not ask questions.  A beautiful run out on Konza prairie.  That is my church.  I may or may not have shed a few tears at the beauty in those hills.  The flint hills are just my place in life.  I so love it here!

Overall, the tamiflu probably saved me, but also made me feel kind of bleh. I would rather have the bleh of the tamiful than the real flu.  Little red is back to normal, not spiking any type of fever and back to being a night owl again.  


Monday will be tough.  I have honestly really enjoyed being home with him (check out my march runfession post).  35 total miles.  Ready to work hard some more and get a little closer to my goals, a great marathon in my hometown and a second finish on a fun 50K course.  Have a great week!!!!










Friday, February 24, 2017

Runfessions or Let's Have a beer

I've got a lot on my mind so pull up a chair and a tasty beer.  I need to be better about doing these more often.  I've been at home all week with a sick wee one (Flu A diagnosis), so had lots of time to ruminate on lots of things.  Here goes nothing!


While sipping on a nice Leines Ginger/Cranberry shandy, let's talk about my sudden feelings about not wanting to work and wanting to be at home with my kiddo.  I have NO clue where this feeling came from, and it started before i was home all day every day this week with him.  I have even shed a few tears this week, and no I am not preggers or getting ready for my monthly friend. I have seriously been a mess lately about working full time and being gone from him so much.  Even if I were to stay at home, he would still need to go to preschool at least during the "school year" and of course kindergarten starts soon, so there is that as well.  I keep telling myself that all of the fun things we do when I am off work and together would probably not happen, because we wouldn't have the extra money to do those things.  I keep telling myself I need the health care coverage for both of us because it is way better than what my hubby carries.  I keep telling myself I have the most wonderful of bosses, both bosses ( i technically work part time in two labs but am really in one lab full time most of the time), and that I need to remember I will never ever be this lucky again.  I mean, who let's their employee off for a solid week to take care of their sick kiddos without even batting an eye lash???  Yet, that feeling still persists and strongly.  I feel like even though science is one of my passions, that i could walk away from it right now and not even miss it.  This is not like me at all.  I am doing lots of praying and lots of thinking.  I am kind of glad for this week off because I am hoping it will give me some time off to really think about what I really want with my life, and what direction God is leading me.  I have honestly had these feelings before, but never ever this strongly. I am listening God, lead me where you want (and forgive me for the beer:)

Let's stick to the Leines, since I am kind of a blubbering mess lately.  You know, low ABV if you are going to drink more than one y'all is where it is at!  I am seriously worried about Stella.  She has changed.  For one, she has horrible allergies now. I have been in contact with my vet and KSU and will go in March 10th for her recheck, but I don't  know if we will be able to last that long.  She is starting to chew and scratch much more now.  Of course the treatment for an allergy flare up is, you guessed it, steriods.  KSU is concerned that we will have a hard time managing allergies in her since her immune system is so screwed up as it is.  I am trying to manage things on my end till we get her in by adding some quality fish oil to her diet, using a spray on her itchiest spot (her front elbows pictured below), and keeping her ears super clean.



On top of that, while she isn't limping (whew), she is sore.  She gets up like an old woman, not a 5 year old dog.    This surely means she did have damage to her joints, with that back leg being the worst.  She wants to exercise, she seems to enjoy our walks that we do 3-4 times a week, but I am super worried that is too much even.  I am hoping we can manage this some how, which ultimately means I can't quit my day job :).  She also isn't much a food hound lately.  Not having a naughty stella worries me.  Non naughty stella I hope is due to the allergies and not so much the pain.  I SO hope the allergies aren't going to start her IMPA back up again.

And let's end on a good note instead of more emotional diarrhea by me.  One more Leines down the hatch.  Little red is getting really good at his letters.  Numbers, not so much, but baby steps right?


If you write something first, he can copy what you write, and bonus, his letters are getting more legible.  I know numbers will come, so being patient.  

Okay off to take care of my kiddo!  Lunch time and he wants bologna and cheese, just like I did when I was little! Thanks for letting me blubber in your ear and eyes :)
 


Sunday, February 19, 2017

Week 7 Heartland 50 training

What a weird week.  Spring already?  My tulips are coming up, the grass is greening up, and the birds are back full force.  While I love not having to wear so much clothing, I do NOT like running in heat and humidity.  I am NOT ready!

This kid LOVES Chinese food.  I don't think I ate Chinese food till I was in grad school!

Monday:  Rest day!  Grocery shopping and a stop for Chinese food before shopping.  Little red loves egg drop soup!

Rainbow poop emoji found while shopping.  Kind of cute.
Tuesday: Mile repeats x 4 with one mile WU and one mile CD.  Am I the only one that pukes a little in my mouth when i see mile repeats on my schedule???  Not sure why the strike so much fear in my heart, but they do.  Add in that I didn't get much sleep Monday night and canceled our morning run, so got to think about the impending run all day.  As always, it was a tough work out but managed to hit all of the paces coach wanted.  She mainly wanted me to stay around 10 K pace, and I was able to do this with help via walking my quarter mile recoveries.  7 miles total and Happy Valentine's day.

Didn't get the meat heart I wanted for V day but did get some chocolate that we all shared

Wednesday:  Back to strength training.  After my hip and knee thanked me for doing Konza, I thought it was time to get back to it.  I only got through 2 rounds of the 6 exercises before I felt like complete jello, but I will call it a win.  Mel watched my form and did everything with me, even though she had already done weights.  We farted, we lunged, and we laughed.  I really hit the jack pot when I met her :)

Thursday:  6 miles with strides.  Happy birthday Mel!!!!  My legs were D.E.A.D after strength the day before.  Getting them to wake up for strides was hard.  Getting them to stay awake to walk stella post run was even harder.  I can tell I did some major squatting the day before!  As the day went on, I got more and more sore.  That work out kicked my butt so bad!

Yes, this is in a bathroom, but look at that hoothoot!
Friday:  Cross training or strength.  I decided based on the level of sore I was, a nice long walk would be better than angering the same muscles all over again.  Stella and I headed out to catch some Gen 2 pokemon around town.  We took our time and got about a 30 minute walk in.  I really need to get more weight off of her before we even think about running again.  I also got to experience my first time dealing with lice.  We were told a kiddo at school found one live lice in her hair, so we all were to watch our kiddos heads, as they would be too.  Three more kiddos were found to have lice and were sent home, but luckily (knock on wood), we have avoided it thus far.  I stripped the bed and washed everything, as well as putting the pillows in the dryer.  I am frankly surprised we are just now dealing with this, as lice seems to be one of those things that are not if but when in children.

Weighed into the 40 lb weight class and had new socks but it was not meant to be:(
Saturday:  6 miles recovery run.  I had to flip flop this weekend's run because of Andrew's second wrestling tournament.  Well, my plan was to run post tournament, but we were up at 4:30 am with a little sick boy.  He started out running a fever and then after I had given him some purple grape flavored advil, he promptly threw up purple puke all over the side of the bed and all in his little shoes. I cleaned while Tony got him calmed down.  After settling him in with some cartoons and checking his temperature multiple times, we decided no tournament. His fever fluctuated all day from 99 all the way up to 103.  I don't think he had a stomach bug, just had too much drainage in his tummy.




I had a headache all day, but after eating lunch, was able to set out for a slow 6.  It was the first "hot" day we have really had and I could tell I was not ready.  We walked every mile for a tenth of a mile because my legs are still shot from that strength training work out.  By mile 4 or so, I was feeling much better but dang work out!  You aren't suppose to make me so sore that I can't run!!!!

Sunday:  16 miles.  After a nice restful day hanging out with little sick man, I was hoping there would be some life in my legs.   I got a great night's sleep and woke up hydrated and not near as sore. Unfortunately, a few miles in, I had a very sore spot deep in my calf muscle that was pulling everything below up and making running painful.


I decided to try and make it work by stopping periodically and massaging my calf muscle.  It was probably a stupid idea to do, but I did it.  I needed to know if I could get it to let loose and continue on.


I am happy to say that it did, but it still bothered me pretty much the entire run.  When I got done, I put on my compression sleeves and did some stick rolling of my leg which seemed to help.  


After spending most of the day cuddling with andrew, who was running an on and off again very low grade fever, we decided to take a very slow family walk around wamego.  




Andrew was at the time fever free and I hope he stays that way since I am typing and publishing this before we go to bed tonight!  A quick stella update.  I think she has started to have some allergies and I don't know what we are going to do about it.  Her immunocompromised status makes it super hard to treat.  She has been itching like crazy and almost acting like she has fleas.  I have not found any fleas on her at all, which is why we are leaning towards allergies.  I am going to put her on some additional fish oil to try and treat dry skin just in case.  I wish it were fleas, so we could just treat her and be done.  Sigh.  

35 total hard fought miles.  I am hoping maybe I won't be as sore after working out this week and I can get 2 work outs in.  I can't say that the calf issue during my long run was a result of the work out, but that is really the only change this week.  I know it affected my run on Saturday for sure and I don't like that. I have always had a love hate relationship with strength training, and while I know I need it, I am beginning to tip towards hate.

Have a great weekend!!!!




Sunday, February 12, 2017

Week 6 Heartland 50 training

Another week of battling a sore hip.  Well at least my knee isn't bothering me now, silver lining right? Still not warm enough to take too many pictures without my phone dying, so expect some randomness throughout!

Selfies with his best friend
Monday:  Day off.  Glorious rest day.  My hip was pretty sore after 14 miles, so I spent alot of my time at home on the foam roller.  Funny that it takes something like this to make me actually do the things I should do all the time.

Drawing his first pickachu that actually looks like what he wants it to

Tuesday: Well, not sure exactly what we were suppose to do as I had no plan in my inbox, but what we did do was 5 miles of easy.  It's not funny but it is that both Melly and I are battling the exact same hip issues, and even though we did different long run mileages this weekend, we still both had sore hips.  Neither one of us had issues during our run, but we felt like we were playing it safe by taking it easy.  We took a couple of walk breaks and just chatted the whole time about randomness.  Post run I took stella ella out for a 15 or so minute walk and she did great.  This is the will be the second day of her not getting the roids so finger's crossed!!!!

We just started watching Harry Potter and now we have to color Harry Potter lego pictures!

Wednesday:  Cross or strength.  My hip was feeling much better but I just didn't want to chance it, so took another rest day.

Thursday:  6 miles.  We keep getting a promise of a warm up and somehow that keeps getting moved back further and further.  I thought today was suppose to be in the 60s but we woke up to feels like 11.  OUCH.  Of course the saving grace was no wind.

Friday:  Cross training or strength.  I had every intention of getting home as quick as possible, airing up my tires and heading out for a nice long bike ride till sun down.  What happened?  We practiced t ball in the back yard and I don't regret one single minute of it.  I had found out that they pitch to the kids in Wamego in t ball and then if they can't hit it, they get to hit off of the stand.  Well, we haven't been pitching to him so we started and to our surprise, he actually hit a few when I did a good job giving him a good pitch.  He is still batting on both sides of the plate and I hope it stays that way!!!!

Saturday: Planned 15 miles.

Had to head out before sunrise to get home in time to hit the early showing at the IMAX theater in town.  We wanted to see the new Batman Lego movie with Andrew and figured the earlier the better.  More on that later.  I needed my pack and hydration, since it was a little warmer than normal, but there was also some wind, so I dressed in light layers and was prepared to strip if needed.  

We run past a feedlot that turns a couple of times a year.  Right now they have 5 yards full and it doesn't smell at all!

It was just me and Deuce and some good podcasts for 15 glorious miles.  Wasn't as great as the last couple of weeks, but minimal walking only, and lots of sweating!


Deuce cracks me up!  He so loves to run now!


It was also nice to be able to have my phone out and not fear it dying.  Ready to take pictures on my run again!  Sometimes when I am having a sucky run, taking pictures takes my mind off of the suck.



Post running we showered and headed to Manhattan to watch Lego Batman at the new IMAX.  


Little red LOVED it, and I will admit, I actually enjoyed it too.  I liked the first lego movie, but it didn't hold my attention.  This one not only had a great storyline, but it also had enough pop culture references (Lord Voldermort was in it) that I stayed into the movie and didn't drift off.  Probably helped that we were so close to the top and right near the very LOUD speakers.  The only bad part was there was a more adult oriented movie in the previews, and it had a very scary part where a thing jumped over a wall and scared the crap out of me and andrew.  Every time the whole theater would go dark post this happening, he would freak out and scream too DARK!  I really didn't think it was appropriate to have this movie preview in a kid's type movie, but I guess they were targeting the parents that were present?  Andrew was glued to the screen the whole time and never moved, and that was even after having some kit kat bites, popcorn, some of our milk duds, and a regular sized coke slush (there were only two sizes and I wanted my own, don't judge). 


Sunday:  6 recovery miles.  I decided to hook up with livinglovingrunner and do my recovery run out at Konza.  It was windy but not too cold and we had a great time just talking.  We are planning out our ultras and I sure hope we can do another one together or at least I might be able to pace or help out at her 50 miler!

I have to say, even though my hip and knee are being hateful, it isn't getting worse but we didn't do any speed work to aggravate it.  In fact, all of those hills up and down felt kind of good to it. I may not be able to walk later, but right now I am feeling good.  32 miles total this week!  Even though my 50K isn't technically a trail 50K, I do see that it has hills so time to get some hill work back in my schedule and time to get back to strength whether my hip and knee like it or not.  

Have a great weekend and week!













Sunday, February 5, 2017

Week 5 Heartland 50

Finally cold free!  YIPEEE!!!  Here is how my week went.

Monday:  Rest day.  Lots of resting.  Am reading this book.


It rips my heart out every time I read it,  but it is so good and so timely.  Now that I am a mom, books like this really make me think hard about what I would do in that situation.  These kids and these adults that risked their lives to save these kids are amazing.  I highly recommend reading this book if you have time, but keep the tissues close by.

Tuesday:  Fartlek fun.  WU, 3 hard, 2 easy x 4, 4 hard, 1 easy x 3,  CD.  This one was fun too. I kind of like Coach Jenny not setting paces right now.  Helps me build confidence for sure.  After going almost a year without any speed work per se, I have no clue where I am or where I should be.  Plus, I can dig deep for shorter intervals.  Her biggest instructions with this work out was to not go so hard that the recovery is super slow.  After the first couple of faster intervals, I noticed we were hanging around 9:55/10 minute miles on the "fast" and recovering around 11 minute miles, which was in line with what Coach Jenny wanted.  After our work out, I took stella out for a nice long Pokemon walk.  We got about a 15 minute walk in and caught a few Pokemon.  Yes, I still play :)

Wednesday:  Strength.  My knee and hip are still off, but I can tell everything is getting better.  I am still rolling, stretching and icing like crazy till this passes.  I was self talking all day about working out as soon as I got home, and at the end of the day something really cool happened which derailed my plans.  The new lab I am working in has been trying to get an experiment to work for five years.  Many of the past lab workers had contributed, and got it closer to completion, but I had been chipping away at the problem since august with the last few crucial variables.  I have FINALLY gotten three replicates of mostly consistent results and solved the issue!  We had to have a few beers to celebrate, which means my motivation to work out was 0.  Plus my hubby made steak and sweet potatoes for dinner to go with our beers to continue the celebration :)

Thursday:  5 miles with strides sprinkled in.  What happened was we ran 5 miles and talked the whole time and totally forgot about adding strides.  Plus my tummy wasn't too thrilled with the previous night's two beers.  Oops.  


Friday:  Day off from work and hopefully bike riding for cross training, since my knee and hip are still not great. The day was cold but beautiful.  I took stella to the vet to get her monthly testing done (will do a separate post), and had planned on getting so much done in the afternoon.   It just didn't happen.  I did get laundry done and got some of andrew's clothes sorted and put up for later donation.  I know I should be getting rid of all of his clothes, but I just can't bring myself to get rid of it yet.  Mel and I headed to the thrift shop to check out what they had and donate some stuff, and she found a beautiful dress and I found some work out pants for andrew.  I guess the fact that we walked there and back could count as cross training?  No?  Well crap, I guess this will be filed under rest day number 2.

Fast forward till later, andrew had said his tummy was not feeling well, but he ate dinner.  I gave him some pepto and he seemed fine.  Around midnight, he woke up crying, and promptly threw up all over the bed.  Tony got him out and into the bathroom, but he missed the toilet and puked all over the bathroom floor.  After a few times of puking and lots of crying, I commenced to cleaning the floors and stripping the bed.  Andrew felt great after one session of puking, but then didn't want to go back to bed, so we read books and cuddled.  We didn't have anymore issues, so whatever it was, it was short lived, whew!



Saturday:  Long run or recovery run.  I say or because hubby had to work, and we were suppose to have 20-30 mile an hour wind gusts.  I decided to move my long run to Sunday to avoid that situation, which meant I either had to battle the wind or hit the mill.  I chose to battle the wind only because it was 50 degrees out and gorgeous, even with the wind.  Deuce and I got 4 miles in before we cried uncle and gave into the wind gusts.  

Deuce started limping around mile 2.5.  I stopped him, felt all over and found nothing.  He would run, then stop, sit and chew and then get back up and limp and run again.  I finally found the source of the problem.  He had a HUGE cock a burr in between his toes on his back foot.  I tried and tried to get it out but it was wedged in and not moving.  I finally had to just hold his foot and leg up so he could chew it out himself.  With team work, he finally chewed it out and then promptly ate it.  EW!  I don't know why dogs do that.  Stella does that too with burrs.  Glad we didn't have to call daddy to come and pick us up! Did take stella for another nice long Pokemon walk post run.  



Sunday:  14 miles.  I am SO glad i waited a day to my long run.  It was cold but NO wind.  I love cold, minus windchill of course.  I got to try out my new Solomon jacket as well, which made me so happy.  It's bright purple, I got it on a super duper sale, and other that not having venting under the arms, I am in love.  I honestly just felt like i was in the zone for the majority of the run.  Then I looked at my watch.  I was going over 12 minute miles.  Sigh.  I know for some that is fast and I am not saying that a 12 minute mile is super slow, but it is two minutes slower than I use to do long runs at. Maybe this is the pace I should have been running all along on my easy runs, but it kind of makes me sad to be slowing down this much.  My hip and knee also bothered me on and off during my run, so I guess my foam rolling and stretching is not doing what I had hoped it would do, which was to avoid having to get a massage or an adjustment.  Not that those things are bad at all, as I do need a good tune up, and we should all keep self care as the most important training tool in our bag.  I am still super jazzed that I have had two super duper awesome long runs lately as they continue to increase in length.  I really need to quit worrying about pace.  

28 miles and some change.  Overall, other than my hip and knee still being kind of hateful, this was a good week!  Next week is going to be interesting, as it is suppose to get in the 60s and then dip back down into the low 30s, and then back up.  This has been a super mild winter and I am LOVING it!

Have a great weekend!

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Stella update: February edition

Here it is February and I am hoping I will only be giving you monthly updates.  Overall, she has been doing GREAT!  She hasn't had any limping or lameness, been very active, and has been growing back all of her hair.  Just to remind you, we are on 15 mg of steroid once a day every other day, 25 mg of azathioprine once a day, every other day, enalapril 20 mg twice a day.



I think, hope, pray, that this is the combo she needs to get her off the pred.  Yesterday, we had urine protein testing done and blood work to make sure the azathioprine isn't doing damage.  I am still waiting on results.  Thus far, the plan is to remove the steroid period from her drug list and see how she does.  I am scared, but ready to get rid of this horrible drug.  She really doesn't have any lingering symptoms from the pred, which is odd because I feel like 15mg is still a large amount.  She occasionally has accidents in the house, and is always hungry, but she was always hungry before the roids.  Dr. S was very careful to let me know that remission can always be transient, and that this disease is a life long issue.  He also said that the disease could be resolving on its own and the drugs really aren't doing anything, but time will tell.  I am very encouraged either way that we are heading in the right direction and that we might be able to remove at least some of the drugs that I pump into her system.  

Update:  Stella's protein dumping seems under control!  YIPEEE!!!! Of course we don't know if it is due to the disease being under control, the lack of pred in her system, or the lack of truly hard exercise, but I am super excited!!!!