The move to Charlotte

Had a good run last night of 4 miles that started out a little rough. By the 2 mile mark was feeling a little better and the last 2 were stronger. It was stormy around the neighborhood and it started to rain when I started, but it was only my street and once I was on my way it cleared up nice. I am planning on another 4-6 mile run thursday in hopes of running saturday morning 8 miles with a neighbor.

Before we moved to Charlotte, I was running everyday during lunch at work with a good group of coworkers. We had a some strong runners in the group and I was always in the back. My boss was a 100 mile runner and could do a marathon in under 4 hours. He is an amazing runner and really got all of us into running. We had several routes we could take through downtown Spartanburg and they all had hills, some were the worst I have ever seen. After running for over a year and half with my coworkers, we moved to Charlotte and I got a different job that is in downtown Charlotte and does not have any of the luxeries I had in Spartanburg (locker room, shower, and time) to run during my work day. We moved in to our house in September and in October I had the phase II melanoma removed and off the chart cholesterol counts. I was right on target weight wise and was a pretty healthy "specimen", but my Dr. told me that he wasn't worried about the skin cancer but we had to get my cholesterol down or I was going to die young.

I became a case study with a group of doctors cause of my cholesterol count. I was started immediately on Vytorin and it has helped lower my cholesterol but I still had a high count of tiny particles of cholesterol. He then started me on Niaspan and it helped lower my particle count a little. I have not had any side effects from my medicine except when I up the dosage of niaspan, I have a flush feeling the next day. Nothing that has slowed me down. The skin cancer has been the thing to slow me down in that I have to take precautions when ever I am going to do something outside. I have to go to both doctors office every 3 months and get blood drawn and my birthday suit checked out. When I get my blood drawn I can't eat or drink anything before I do so I usually go first thing in the morning. For my dermatology doctor I let her look me over over head to toe, inside all crevices included, which takes about 5 minutes and then pay my $45 copay. The derm. appt. goes to every 6 months once I hit the two year mark in October with no other melanoma. On top of all this, I have my second colonoscopy coming up in July and have to get one done every three years unless there is no other history of colon issues in my family.

All of this is very manageable and "easy" compared to others out there and I am very aware of how lucky I am to have it this easy. It does however make you think of how short life is and how important it is to Carpi Diem. Coming from a family of ten, I am very lucky to have the good health and good life that I have and I try not to take advantage of that. Fathers day is this weekend and I can't wait to be with the family all weekend and enjoy our great times together.