Attitude is everything...

For most of last night I spent my time surfing the web to find out more about my elevated enzymes. The one thing I know for certain is that my liver bile ducts are not working properly and putting excess GGT, AST, ALT and Bilirubin into the blood stream. Many things can cause the elevations that I have. It could be alcohol, medication, hepatitis, non-prescription drugs, antibiotics, anti inflammatory, fatty liver and the list goes on and on. It could also be a sign that I have issues with my gallbladder, kidneys or bones. My situation is that I have high GGT, AST, ALT, Bilirubin, Albumin, and Creatine. I've always been told I've had a fatty liver. 

The good news is that my Cholesterol has went from bad to perfect:-)

I initially thought it may be alcohol because I do like my beer and drink more than most, but I'm not sure because I didn't even have a beer 2 - 3 weeks before the test and 2 years ago the levels were fine and I drank similar amounts back then. The one thing I do know for sure is that I have liver disease and I don't know why. The only way to find out is by the doctors doing tests.

I was a little bummed out yesterday. I felt a little better once I got more information and realized it could be a lot of things. It kind of became a family affair and even my daughter was surfing the web looking to see what it was. Of course she pulls out all the scary possibilities and results. At a certain point I had enough and went out and rented the movie "Benjamin Button" and we had a family night. We all watched the first half of it. The other half we'll watch tonight. It's a long movie.

This morning I got some comments from Sam Horowitz, Johan Stemmet, Brooks Running, Todd Schoonover and tsauerbrei. All the messages were supportive and encouraged me to be positive and not dwell on the "what ifs". It was the same advice I'd give others in a similar circumstance and I appreciated their kind words.

I was still a little bummed when I got up. I had the house to myself for a couple hours and did some more research and got ready for my ride, it was nice and peaceful. Today is my long bike and brick run and it's supposed to be on and off rain all day. I got out the door for the ride at around 10 am. For the first 30 minutes of the ride all I was doing was thinking the worst about my situation and feeling sorry for myself and every song that came on the iPhone made me a little emotional. At one point I started to tear up.

Then I started asking myself what is the worst thing that can happen. The liver is pretty resilient, but even if it was really damaged, I could always get a new one. From there I started working back and realized that it is going to take some time for the doctor to figure it out. I'm sure I'll be going for a lot of tests and I bet I won't know for a few weeks and it doesn't make sense for me to worry about it. I've had this condition since May 2007 and there is nothing I can do about it until I know what is causing it. Then we'll determine the action plan and move forward.

After I made the decision to not worry and move forward I started to enjoy the ride. Everything seemed a little more beautiful and I was enjoying the moment. The ride was strange in that I had a lot of different new animals cross my path. In the past I've riden by turtles, deer, squirrels, birds, dogs, cats, dead raccoons, dead skunks, horses, cows, lama's, pigs, sheep, geese, swans and today I added a frog, a baby duckling and a ground hog.  

I decided to ride really easy today and not do any King hill climbs. I didn't want to further injure my hamstring. For some reason, even at a low effort, I had one of my fastest long rides over some challenging rolling hills. I kept my heart rate at an average of 124 bpm and still averaged 31.2 kph for just over 4 hours. I was shocked. For the last 90 minutes of the ride it was "pouring rain". The good thing was that it was about 19 C and not too cold. I'd much rather ride when it is warmer outside and raining than ride when it's cold with no rain.

I had a couple of mishaps during the ride. A couple of stupid drivers, but nothing near as close as the truck that hit me. But the worst was going down a hill at 50 kph I went over a patch of asphalt that had some oil on it and my rear end started to slip to the side. It happened so fast I didn't have time to get scared. Needless to say I took it easy until I got off that stretch of road. 

When I got home my legs and neck was feeling a little sore. I could feel the difference from missing last weeks long bike ride as part of my taper for the half marathon. I was looking forward to the run to give my legs and neck a rest. My transition time was just over 4 minutes and during the run I felt pretty good. Around the 2 mile point my right hamstring started to get tender but I was able to manage it and when I finished my left Achilles was starting to tighten up. When I got home I did over 16 minutes of stretching and then took some Advil. Everything seemed to be okay. 

Oh yeah, yesterday I realized I have another medical condition, part of my gum, under my new crown, is infected. Called the dentist and he prescribed me some antibiotics.

Anyways, onward and upward!!!

Long Bike - 4:12:50 / 131.72 km / 31.2 kph / 124 avg heart rate

Brick Run - 30.06 / 3.91 miles / 7:42 pace / 140 avg heart rate