My Big Bowl of Pills
by marathonmama | Nov 22, 2009 | 312 views
I realized recently that I am no good at introducing myself. When people ask me what I do, I either take ten minutes to list every little detail of my existence or I describe myself in terms of what I’m not. Here, I’ve introduced myself as a recovering academic. The other day, when I was smarting from lacking time to work on my book, I told someone I was a non-practicing writer. These are accurate descriptions, I guess, but I do feel kind of old to be so non-committal.
My daily dose.
In the spirit of age and identity, I’d like to introduce you to Kristina, Prematurely Aged Pill Popper.
Clearly, my osteo diagnosis was so recent to Thursday’s post that I didn’t even know how to spell it. If a side effect of osteopenia is lazy spelling, this dx is far more serious than I thought. I couldn’t bear to know I’ll be afflicted with spelling errors because I don’t think more calcium will help that.
In addition to upping my calcium dose, my nutritionist put me on a pile of other pills to help my cramping. Even though my electrolyte test came back normal, apparently a magnesium deficiency won’t show up in test results until you’ve got none of it. Karen, my nutritionist, speculated that the cramping is a result of a magnesium/potassium problem, so I’m popping magnesium supplements. Also taking Vitamin D. Also Omega 3. And Zinc. And my Vitamin C, which is doing nothing to prevent a chest cold I’ve been fighting all weekend, but that’s not really relevant other than to say my life is now dominated by vitamins.
I want to work my way towards getting these vitamins through food instead of pills, but for now, we’re trying to health me up as quickly as possible. In the morning, I pour myself a heaping bowl of pills and work my way through them all day.
I am officially my mother.
Bring on the red hat; I’ll take my mid-life crisis now, please. Truly, nothing precipitates said crisis like being told your spine looks like that of a woman 25 years your senior. Except instead of sashaying in my red hat and purple dress at the garden club meeting, I got a tattoo.
This is where Brian sighs in relief that we don’t have a pool or a landscaper.
We all know that I am not going to be one to accept aging. Ever. As my body gets older, no doubt my maturity will head in the other direction. Neo-adolescence, here I come. Just this year, I did a bunch of things I meant to do in my twenties when I was holed up in a library…. I took off for a solo tour around Australia. I got a tattoo. I went out for drinks with my friends (my social life from 1998-2005 was nothing short of pathetic). The way things are going, this time next year, I’ll probably be in the front row of a Miley Cyrus concert with a wine cooler in my backpack.
Thankfully, training and self-discipline will save me from most possible embarrassments. I want to run my first 50k next Spring. I want to have just one good day at a marathon. I want to run a 1:39 half-marathon. I want to go under 21:30 in a 5k. I want to try Zumba.
Zumba aside, running–training, in particular–has a way of grounding every identity trait that’s in flux. It has constancy. There’s an article in this month’s Wired by a journalist who tried to disappear from society untraced, telling no one where he was going. The one constant in his new life? He still went running every day. He’d changed his name, dropped contact with his friends and family, was more or less homeless, and lived on very limited means. But he still went running.
It is very reassuring for me to know this. Not because I want to disappear untraced and still maintain a race calendar, mind you. It’s just that even with that bowl of horse pills always on my counter reminding me of my mortality, my running shoes are always in the kitchen as well. Thank God, too, because I have a tattoo that now commits me to identifying as a runner for the rest of my life.
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November 22nd, 2009 on 10:27 pm
What! No Spirulina! No vitamin E to go with the D? and what about B vitamins???? AND most importantly, what about the PROZAC!!!
jk.
Seriously, I know I don’t have the diagnosis you do, but I hear you about the pills. I will say, though, that my fingernails have gotten much stronger since I started taking the vitamin D….
I kind of like Miley Cyrus….
November 22nd, 2009 on 11:48 pm
I have the full set of Zumba DVD’s, overrated. I think they have an inch of dust on them.
I also started taking Vitamin D recently. I don’t eat a lot of dairy and worship sunscreen, retin A and hydroquinone; my tour de force against aging. I have no idea what’s going on inside though, I could be melting away to a nice soft gooey center.
November 23rd, 2009 on 3:24 am
I’m 31 and two and a half years ago, just after I turned 29 I took a bone density test and was diagnosed with osteopenia. I had 5 and 7 year old boys at home and the first thing I started doing was dropping soda from my diet and adding a calcium suplement. I like the chews, I take them 2x a day on top of my multi vitamin and they taste enough like carmel (or chocolate) that I feel like they are a little treat sometimes holding of the craving for a treat late in the day. I started running again and recently added kettlebells for a whole body resistance and strength. I have another bone density the begining of the year to see how much progress (I pray there was progress anyway) I’ve made.
November 23rd, 2009 on 4:29 am
Zumba is all the rage here in the Netherlands too. But I just don’t get it! What’s the fun in doing too difficult steps? I’ll take running any day, at least with running the steps are easy!
November 23rd, 2009 on 10:43 am
OK, I take a MV, Calcium w/ vit D(viactiv, little chocolate treat), B complex vitamins (since I eat little meat), fish oil, garlic, and vitamin C. Feel better? You are certainly not an outlier!
November 23rd, 2009 on 10:55 am
How about using something like a whole food supplement? It’s basically like a vitamin, but it takes the nutrients directly from the foods that you should be getting in your diet — no synthetics. I’ve been taking a liquid form for a few years now and I never am getting sick any more! I take one that I get from the health food store (Nature’s Plus), but I’m getting ready to try one my sister recommended on juiceplus.com because if an adult orders, their kids can get theirs free.
November 23rd, 2009 on 11:59 am
I am in middle of participating in a bone density test. Today is the last day of reporting on my food/drink intake and exercise, and then I’ll get my results. I’ll admit, I have some apprehension about my results now. I’m 33 and always thought that was way too young to have any type of bone issues. I guess we’ll see what the results say.
Thank you for sharing this with us. Good luck with the pills and I’m sure you’ll be able to break away from them and rely mostly on food soon!
btw – I’ve been wanting to try Zumba for over a year now.
November 23rd, 2009 on 2:54 pm
Are you going to start playing Bingo and watching the Wheel of Fortune anytime soon?