Echo'ed

Got an echo cardiogram today,
it was by far the coolest medical related thing I have ever experienced! Watching your heart beating on a screen in realtime, seeing the valves flap and flap away. Listening to it, getting all different views just from the friendly technician move a transducer around on your chest. Wow, now I know what pregnant women feel like after getting theur first ultrasound...

I got it as a pre-caution and just to have more information rather than guessing if i should be concerned or not. We'll see, overall the tech said to not be anxious over it, so thats good.
Its almost time to go climbing again.

the grey

Mellow days,
Saw the Dr. again toda,y not much really to tell about. Another round of blood work to see if the protiens that indicate that all is not well in heartland are still elevated. I asked and I'm getting an echocardiogram tomorrow. Should be intresting and answer some questions as what the hell is really going on.
The cough that I had over a month ago is back so I'm thinking I never got the original bug out of my system to begin with.

On a happy note I've been blowing money and just got set up with a time lapse camera setup, its an old Nikon I got off of ebay that accecpts a controler, combined with a homebrew AA rechargable battery pack I should be able to make some pretty cool new time lapse movies.

I'm in competion with a friend over the adn 50" plazma tv setup. Not that I actually want such a thing but seeing the junk that was being entered made me go edit some stuff new and old and see what happens:
http://www.adn.com/includes/vmix/vid_contest.html

Southcentral in motion and Chugach baby...

pericarditis & sewing projects

What was that stabbing chest pain I had two weeks ago?? well if I thought I needed help trying to get an excuse to rest my knee, you better watch what you ask for... Pericardidis is defined as an inflamation usually with fluid of the sac that surrounds the heart, it can be very painfull and cause difficuilty breathing. I'm on the total R&R plan now, and am supprisingly content, I think I've gotten into Long haul mode with it where I'm not totally going crazy that I cant be climbing peaks every day. Slowly starting to feel better, but I'm still not planning anything bit.
I canceled my spring mountaineering trip to what was going to be Mt. Redoubt, but (and a big but) I feel better super quick I can join some friends going to Marcus Baker, I'm not crossing my fingers. The big carrot is heading down to climb the liberty ridge on Mt.Rainier at the end of May. If I'm not better by then, then lock me up cause its not going to be pretty...

Aside from that I've spent a lot of this past winter honing some more mellow skills of videography and film editing and sewing outdoor gear. Here are some pic's of stuff. The Backpack took me forever, the two frame bags not so much, a day each, I'm starting to get those dialed in pretty good. THe camera case was a pain in the ass... I find sewing is the more homey creative side to my engineering mind. Its way more rewarding than work and more fun, teaches you patience... If I knew I could make a good living doing it, I'd probably jump ship.
ha haa
The other big thing lately has been the slide show for my south america trip. It went off big at teh BP energy center on the 5th. We raised almost $700 for singletrack advocates - right on!!
Giving it again in Palmer tomorrow night, should be more low-key and less stress than the first time through.

Inactivity

So the short story is that I havent been doing much of anything lately.
I got into a cycle this winter where I'd go backcountry snowboarding on my splitboard then have knee pain for the rest of the week just in time to do it all over again. On top of that my 25 min each way bike commute just kept feeling worse and worse. I wasnt doing my knee any good by trying to push it. Started seeking help again and getting the cycle of PT's and Dr.s going. Basically I decided on my own to simply take a month off of everything that would aggrivate it and give the cartlidge a fighting chance to heal.

I havent been on my splitboards in like 6 weeks now and I've cut biking cold turkey by DRIVING to work. Yes Driving to work, I've been biking to work since college and its killing me.

So the days flip by and I try to stay sane with a long haul mentality, swimming, lifting weights, the usual recovery stuff...

Then out of the blue last week I get massive chest pains, cant breathe, cant sleep... Turns out that a virus from a case of bronchitis I had made its way to my heart and has caused Pericarditis.. More of do nothing time, this time really do nothing...

2 trips canceled so far, I'm hoping for a comeback in May.

An update?

Thought I would get this blog going again... It was originally created by my sister Laura while I was traveling and I dont think I have a single actual post of my own on here! There will be some big changes to come to make it more my own.
Cheers