Somebody's Going to Emergency....

Hey faithful reader, I know it's been forever since I last posted, but I've been planning this one for a little while now. (Unfortunately.) Our story begins on June 11th, a mere 19 days ago, I was 6 geocaches away from my 100th find and I had a route planned to go for a short walk down the 202 bypass and grab them. (Grab= sign the physical logbook and log the find online.)

I didn't want to go by myself so needed a partner in crime. Obviously my first thought was Caroline, my awesome 16 year old neighbor. (Pro tip: you look a lot shadier by yourself, just loitering about, hence the dog and other people)

Caroline, seen here. With two random kids and a little black dog.

The above picture was taken for the sole purpose of making my mom jealous. She's living it up in Alaska for 10 days, so I had the twins and the doggie all to myself.
Anyways, Caroline quickly agreed. We decided to make a date of it, a doggie play date.

Which is Trixie?!

Caroline signed up for Geocaching.com and off we went! We grabbed the first 3, no problem, super easy magnetic C&Ds. (Cache & Dash) Cache 4 was a little more challenging, it was not along the 202 bypass, it was down by a creek behind a housing development. There was a small wooded area and my coords were bouncy so we went straight for the creek, there were some woods right by it. Trixie, being Trixie, wanted nothing but to leap into the creek from the bridge. I let her go in.

It's not that deep, she lays down as soon as she hits water.

We finally got on track and got the cache, it ended up being about 30 feet ahead of the creek, but it was hot and Trixie earned a dip. 5 was another easy grab, and my 100th find was hanging on a fence, about 600 feet down the road. We were going for it. It was on a fence along a treeline and we had to go through some high grasses. But we got it. Caroline's 6th find and My One Hundredth Find.

See it? I sure did!

It was totally worth what's about to come. In fact,  I even got a picture of the exact moment that I would come to despise. Maybe. (Maybe it's the exact moment, not maybe I would despise it.) See, here's us, squatting nicely and smiling for a picture after our big find.

[not pictured] Me getting Lyme Disease.

I have Lyme Disease.

Ok, it may not be Lymes. This is still unresolved.
Seriously, 19 days and we have no idea what is going on. All I know is that I woke up the next day to this: WARNING: This is totally gross. 

This is the LEAST gross picture of the bite/lesion.

Ok, it's a bug bite, no big deal. it itches like a bitch but it'll go away, that's what bug bites do: they itch and then go away. Right?

Right?

Apparently not. The next day I was hosting a Quizo and I showed a picture of my leg (and ever growing rash) to Ronan, who was convinced I was going to lose my leg or die. Anyways, it was clearly worse than before. So I promised that the next day I would call my Doctor. It was worse the next day, the day I promised to call the doctor. Spoiler: I didn't.

Here's a fun fact about me: I hate going to the doctor, I mean I really hate going to the doctor. I like doctors, I believe they are good people, but I don't ever want to go to see them professionally. You want to hang out? Play some card/board games, watch a movie, study some bible? Awesome. If I'm sick, I would almost rather die than see you. Almost.
Here's a fun (true) example. Last year I had a little cold, maybe some strep. Then it was a little sinus infection, then a horrific sinus infection. Then it moved to my lungs. It was an awful, but survivable, bronchitis. Then it was pneumonia. (This took place over a three month period, during which I was working 50+ hours a week with a 2 hour daily commute) I waited 2 weeks with the pneumonia and then my best friend made me go to the CVS Minute Clinic. I really didn't want to go.
Also, I've done that, with the pneumonia, twice.

My mom convinced me to at least call Doctor Silver and see if he wanted me to come in. So I called and he was out at a conference, not to return to the office until Monday. So I told the nurse what was up and she said that she'll let him know when he checks in and then call me back, should be within the hour. 5 minutes later she calls me back and says I need to be seen. Not Monday. Now. Go to the ER, the CVS Minute Clinic, Urgent Care, get seen now.
After waiting an HOUR to be seen at the "minute" clinic*, she takes one look at my leg and says, nope. We can't help you, you need to go to Urgent Care or the ER. Perfect, just what I was trying to avoid.

*Seriously, I still love the Minute Clinic. I'd go there any day.

I went to the jerky Urgent Care. No wait, thankfully. But the Doctor was an ass. Like, seriously, thanks for validating all of my reasons for hating you. He basically told me that it was a bug bite and I was over-reacting. He gave me a bug bite discharge printout. (the bugs listed I have unfortunately committed to memory) Mosquito, fleas, bedbugs, chiggers, bees, and wasps.

So when my leg looked like this the next day (that's day 4 for those of you keeping track) of spider bite/bug bite/death/rash of doom/nobody knows what they're talking about:

EGAD! Call a priest! 

I thought he might be wrong. And an ass.

You're wrong AND an ass! Yay!

However, I told the good doctor that I would wait until Monday unless "my leg swelled to double in size or you get a fever" so I waited. In retrospect, I didn't ask what he meant by fever. My temp that day was 97.3º so 98.6º might have been feverish. I should have clarified. My bad.
Day 5 was Father's Day! Yay Daddy!! My dad, who I surprisingly don't talk a lot about here, is awesome. He's a nurse, he got his RN 2 years ago and works at a psychiatric hospital. Anyways, he's a mandated worker, so if the nurse after him doesn't show up, guess what? you're not leaving.

Me and Pops. Like, our regular faces. That's just us.

So the nurse replacing him overslept and was an hour late. I had an AWESOME Dad's Day planned. We were supposed to go to the zoo for a member's only early open day, then church, then out to lunch. That.... didn't happen. at all.
Instead, he got to my house super late, and had me text this picture to my mom and step-mom.

That is ONE DAY after the other picture. I thought I was going to die.

The three of them (mom, dad, step-mom) made me go back to urgent care. Bridget wanted dad to take me to the ER, but I convinced him Urgent Care was ok. It was a three hour wait. Literally. Over three hours from sign-in to seeing a doctor. On a sunday morning. FML, right? No. This Doctor was AMAZING. For the first time in my life I felt like a doctor actually listened to me and didn't dismiss me as a child or whining or over-reacting. But that's another story.
Doctor Packer was great. She actually examined my leg and asked questions and seemed to give a shit. Which I've never really experienced before, so it was very nice. She gave me an antibiotic cream, a P/O corticosteriod, and an antihistamine, because apparently my body was flipping shit and I didn't notice.
Honestly though, if I have to wait three hours to see a doctor that actually gives a shit, DONE. I am so there.

It's going away!! Finally!

After one day of the steroid and antibiotic, it was starting to go away. It looks a little more purple in the picture, but the raised part was almost completely gone and the coloring was just a bit off. Okay, it was still terrifying but better! I promise! I was on the steroid for 8 days and it was SO MUCH BETTER. It was really almost gone. Then I was done the pills and two days later, this shit.

dafuq?

I just want it to go away. It's a spider bite, it's a mosquito bite (I never believed that), its impetigo, whatever. Make it go away.

It's ending soon, I promise.

So today, now yesterday, I went for a hike through Valley Forge National Historical Park with my friend Kubs. He's like an expert in everything. So I was regaling to him the odyssey of my wound, and he asked, "does it itch?" Ohmahgad, does it ever. It never stopped itching. He said it sounds almost like a tick bite. OH. MY. GOD. It hits me. I remember finding a tick, a dead tick, on my comforter the day the bite appeared. It stands to reason, even if he himself wasn't the jerk that got me, that there were other jerk ticks nearby. And it's not like, totally out of the realm of possibility that in the state with the highest incidence of Lyme Disease in the country by far, I mean by like 1,400 cases above the #2 state, I could get attacked by a tick or two. Especially out in the woods and high grasses like we were.

Usually after geocaching in high grasses/wooded areas/fields/whatnot (this is known as "bushwhacking" in the caching world) you brush off, or have a friend get, the ticks, the many many ticks, from your clothes before you get back in the car. And then you find some more, and throw them out the window of said car. Don't get me wrong, this is not always the case, and is hardly ever the case in urban caching, but I'm used to it. And I didn't see any ticks that day. But... Deer ticks are super effing tiny. I found one one me once in Shippensburg. Actually, Kubs found one on him today after our hike.
I'm going to my actual doctor, Dr. Silver, on Monday, I'll tell him I think it might be Lyme's and hopefully he'll run an ELISA and we'll find out for sure.

I'm so screwed.

Sorry for the long post, here's a potato.

[Today's blog title comes from Season 2, episode 16 of the same title. They got it from a song called "New York Minute" by Don Henley." The quote in the song is Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail. I highly recommend you give it a listen. Faithful reader, aka Amanda, you already know this information. Next time I see you, I will give you a real potato.]

The JFK 50: Don't worry, I didn't run it.

On November 17th, My mom and my step-dad Joe decided that they were CRAZY and wanted to run this fancy 50 mile race... again. So my friend Jamie and I were their Crew. 

Crew:

This involves meeting your runners on the race course at several pre-designated points and bringing them, well, whatever the hell they want. Food, drinks, gu, changes of clothes, socks, shoes, hat changes, whatever. So you meet your runners, give them whatever they bark at you and then make sure you know their pace and what time they will be at the next checkpoint and what they will want. If you don't find out what they will want at the next checkpoint, bring EVERYTHING. 

Oh! and we get t-shirts! 

So the night before the race, we got to Hagerstown, Maryland and checked into the hotel the 'rents would be staying in. Which happened to be the official Race Expo location. Perf.

Clarion- this place is only marginally better than the place that put ultramarathon runners in a smoking room.

Oh, except that their room faced the expo room and it was really loud, so we almost immediately bounced and met up with Jamie and Bébé Alex... at the outlets!! (What? me, shopping? Noooooo...) After Jamie and I grabbed a quick geocache in the outlet parking lot, we all went to dinner together. 

So post-dinner, I spent the night at Zac and Jamie's and we decided to surprise Mom and Joe with support signs. Oh yeah, just like the ones you've seen on the internet, but better.

Race Day:

Our first course meet- up is Weverton Cliffs- 15.0 miles which is immediately after they get off the Appalachian Trail. Parking there is a bitch. But don't worry, Jamie and I survived our 3 block hike to the trail.

This is where we parked.

For this, our first meet-up, the signs we chose were a couple of classics:

Run like you stole something

Toenails are overrated!

That second one may not seem like a "classic" but if you know an ultra runner (that's when being a marathon runner isn't intense enough) then I'm betting you're gonna think that second one's really funny. 

Then we hit Antietam- 27.1 miles well, we hit a geocache or two and then got to Antietam. Yes, that Antietam, where the infamous battle in the civil war was fought. No, we didn't do anything interesting or historical. We did, however, stop at a gas station for food and coffee. There was no food. I mean, none. they had potato chips and not much of a selection, and slim jims. That's when the gas station guy and lady pointed out to us the bin of homemade doughnuts for like $0.75 each. there were two left, Done deal. I may have dropped one on the ground and then still ate it and DAMN it was goooood. We were really quite hungry and  it was totally worth it.

Run like a Kenyan... being chased by Killer Bees!

Run like a Kenyan, This is so overused it's ridiculous. There are t-shirts that say this. Every marathon runner has seen a sign with this or something similar to it. So we wanted to add something to really give it something special. Killer Bees!

The stick figure Kenyan is saying "I'm faster than you!"
Quick! History Quiz!! 

Q: Who knows where Marathons started? 

A: The name Marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger. The legend states that he was sent from the Battle of Marathon (in Marathon) to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated. It is said that he ran the entire 25 mile distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming "We won!" and then dropped dead. In all fairness, this guy just was fighting in a battle and then they made him book it to Athens. Did they not have a page or someone that could do that? I guess not. Oh, and all of this happened in 490 BC.

When they started the modern olympics in 1896 they didn't have a set distance, they went back and forth between running almost 25 mi and over 26.5. 

So why is it now 26.2 miles? because some asses in the International Olympic Committee agreed in 1907 that the distance for the 1908 London Olympic marathon would be about 25 miles, the standard at the time if there was one. The organizers decided on a course of 26 miles from the start at Windsor Castle to the royal entrance to the White City Stadium, followed by a partial lap of the track, 385 yards, finishing in front of the Royal Box and that distance kind of just stuck.

But I digress.

Antietam- 27.1. 

With this new knowledge, 

Pheidippides was Dead by now

Pheidippides was dead by now is Hilarious when you know that those people running past us at mile 27 have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what the hell that sign means. We originally weren't going to make the Pheidippides sign, but Jamie convinced me that for that one guy who gets it, it will make his race. So we did, and wouldn't you know it, we were at that checkpoint for less than 5 minutes when the only runner other than my mom who got that sign pointed at it and yelled, "Yes!" 

Totally worth it.Also at Antietam, in the parking lot we saw this car: 

JFK 50 Car

That guy has to be intense. 

From there, we made our way into Antietam's town center. We were a'searchin' for some eats. We stopped at what seemed to be the only restaurant/bar open in the town and they were packed. I mean, like woah. We waited for a table and practically attacked a couple as they left, then before we even saw a waitress we had to leave because we were afraid that we would miss Mom and Joe at mile 38. So we got some advice from some locals and stopped at a deli down the road and grabbed some quick eats and a 6-pack. Remember, we were super hungry and all we'd had to eat was gas station doughnuts.

Then off to Taylor's Landing Aid Station- 38.1 miles where our adventure really starts.

For next time, friends, for next time.

Keeping up with the times.

So I now have Twitter. I am following every senator and congressman that I can find. I have the White House, NPR, and the State Department. I wonder if Benjamin Netanyahu twitters... If only Bartlet Tweeted...
The US House of Representatives posts something every ten minutes or so. It's live updates scraped from the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.

I am taking Microeconomics over the summer. It is comparable to strangulation death. More on that later. It is mon-thurs 10am-12, so after class is too late to start doing anything like geocaching and too early to start something like, I don't know, drinking. Well, maybe it's not.

Books!
I finished Jane Eyre in about three days of reading. I am now reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. i am really liking it so far, and I have yet to make my bookmark for it, that's what I work on in class. I like to make my bookmarks, but I have to get to know the book first. I hope to finish it tomorrow.