I mentioned to my sponsor that last night's run was a failed attempt at 21km on account that something was wrong. I don't know what exactly was wrong but surely something wasn't right with my body, hence the shorted run, fatal position and dry heaving. He was overly concerned and mentioned I should go immediately to the hospital.
I'm an anti-hospital kind of gal. I'm a firm believer that extra fluids and extra rest is what the body needs. The hospital is full of sick people, of course, and I really don't care to catch anything they're sneezing out of their mouths or spreading on the furniture with their lack of hand-washing, no mouth-covering ways. No thanks. So I decided to leave it to Goggle to search out what was wrong with me. I know, I know.. I've had this conversation plenty of times with friends and just had it the other week with a particular Hulkie. You should never self-diagnose yourself via the Internet, but I was curious and I couldn't resit. I let my curiosity get the best of me and next thing I knew it I was typing a quick description and pages upon pages of possibly problems instantly sprung up.
I typed in "lower abdominal pain when running" and then ended up adding "wanted to vomit".
This is some of the excerpts that came up...
In women, ovulation in the right ovary can cause right-side abdominal pain. In more severe cases, the pain might be caused by an ovarian cyst, ruptured ovary or ectopic pregnancy — a pregnancy that occurs inside the fallopian tube. When ovulation is the culprit, the pain is usually felt as a sharp twinge that fades within a day or so. Women who are experiencing extreme pain or a stabbing sensation should seek medical attention.
Appendicitis is one of the more severe causes of right-side stomach pain. The pain is usually felt in the lower right abdomen, below the level of the belly button, and it usually persists over several days, increasing in intensity. Additional signs of appendicitis include loss of appetite, chills, nausea and fever. The intensity of the pain typically increases during movement. People who suspect appendicitis should seek emergency medical attention, because a ruptured appendix can be fatal.
In some cases, the right-side stomach pain does not even originate in the stomach. Lung conditions can cause the pain to radiate downward from the site of the infection or disease, reaching the abdomen. A tumour in another part of the body can cause pain to travel down to the stomach region as well.
Soooo... in doing the mistake of self diagnosing myself online, my potential "choices" are the following:
- Appendicitis (inflammation of appendix)
- Crohn’s disease affecting the last part of the small intestine, called terminal ileum.
- Volvulus twisting of the cecum (starting part of large intestine), rare.
- Ovulation (mid-cycle pain, Mittleschmerz)
- Twisted or ruptured ovarian cyst
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Miscarriage
- Endometriosis
- Polycystic ovarian syndrome – PCOS; usually affecting both right and left ovary
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat, pick a problem. I came across a checklist for appendicitis and checked it off accordingly.
The most common symptoms of appendicitis are the following:
abdominal pain -- yes
loss of appetite -- YES!!!
nausea -- yes
vomiting -- yes
fever -- no
abdominal tenderness -- yes
I have no fever and didn't actually poke though I couldn't really see what it was I spat out at the 9km mark. Felt a bit of stomach acid cross my lips though and then when I got home I really thought I was going to puke. After my long runs, I am usually super hungry and my motivation to finish the run is often thoughts of what I'm going to eat afterwards. But yesterday's run, I was way too preoccupied and worried about possibly fainting than to think of food. I was convinced that I was going to possibly pass out by Shinsaegee and early morning shoppers would snap shots of me, post it all over the web and add some kind of strange and derranged tag line like "crazy foreign boxer knocks herself out in mall parking lot".
Lesson learnt here, don't use Goggle to self-diagnose yourself. Train even harder next time to see if the same pain arises and then worry about it... yup, because that's exactly what I'm going to do!
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