Currently at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis waiting for Jane to come out of her MRI (2-1/2 hours!) so finally have a chance to catch up with the blog.  Going to change up my usual report order…

Jane Update:

Good riddance to January!  Jane had a rough month, sick with one virus after another—she missed seven days of school in January alone!  On top of that she developed a lazy eye on her right side (a cranial nerve VI palsy) and has been seeing double for the past two weeks.  This happened once before, about two years ago, when she had a prolonged illness.  She had an extensive work-up at the time, including multiple MRIs and a night in the ICU.  What the doctors ended up deciding (as I understood it, though they weren't completely sure) was that her tumor is close enough to the nerves that control her eye muscles that they can sometimes be a little weaker, particularly if she is worn out or ill.  The double vision has made it hard for Jane to read, which wasn’t an issue two years ago.  The eye doctor suggested temporarily patching the eye to prevent her from seeing double.  Jane didn’t like the feel of the patch, so instead uses her hand or even Puppy to cover her eye.  As adaptable as she is, I have noticed Jane has been more irritable this past week.  It sucks to have double vision!  Hoping that this will resolve on its own as Jane gets stronger again.  I guess the MRI today will tell us if there are any other new developments to worry about…

Running Update:

1/15  4.5 miles in 39:13

1/17  5.7 miles in 51:14

1/19  10.0 miles in 1:38:24

1/26  5.0 miles in 48:33

1/29 7.6 miles in 1:13:22

2/1  7.6 miles in 1:13:33

Lost a whole week of training while sidelined with a respiratory virus (courtesy of Jane), and even once I started running again had to take it easy.  Found myself feeling pretty down for several reasons—largely due to Jane’s eye problem and what it might mean, but also from anxiety in anticipation of our trip to Indiana University, from the frustration of falling behind in training (the Boston Marathon is only 11 weeks away!), and probably in some part due to not having my usual mental therapy in the form of running!  Had to get a pep talk from Sarah Coulam (director of the NF Endurance Team), watch “Pep Talk” by Kid President multiple times, and depend on you all for you messages of love and support!  During my last run I listened to OK Go’s This Too Shall Pass (“You can’t keep lettin’ it get you down…”) on repeat for 7 miles.  I am sorry to say none of it has worked to perk me up for very long…only good MRI results can do that :(

NF Update:

The good news for NF to come out of the Constable Family this week is from Todd:  he and a colleague have developed a method for increasing the speed of MRI studies (see Yale News), which may mean that little kids like Jane won’t have to be sedated for long MRI tests anymore.  Thank you, Daddy!