The only constant is change-2024

I am fortunate enough to have a fair degree of inbuilt resilience. I seem to be able to absorb what some might consider to be significant, metaphorical blows and emerge unscathed. Altered in some way, perhaps, but fundamentally unscathed and ready to go again.

Winter 2023 brought about some of the worst chest infections that I have had for a while. I was unwell and unable to do much at all for some weeks. By the end of 2023, I had required several courses of high-dose oral steroids and antibiotics, and I had gone through peaks of feeling amazing and training well and troughs of awful lung function.

Rarely is life all bad news, though, and as a consequence of my increased chest flare-ups, I am now a registered outpatient of the Chest Clinic at the hospital, and lots of cool stuff is happening. Whilst the consultant thinks there is asthma there, she also thinks that there may be another/additional diagnosis. She also thinks that I may be a candidate for biological therapy, specifically the new drug (licensed last year), Tezepelumab and perhaps even a prophylactic antibiotic, Azithromycin.

I am undergoing a bunch of tests for now for the consultant to take my case for this treatment to the MDT (the biological therapy is expensive, so it has to be the right thing), and if successful, I may get the chance to trial it to see if it works for me (as well as asthma drugs). It is a long-ish process that may take four months or more, but there is a plan! In the meantime, my asthma drugs have been escalated to prescriptions that the GP couldn't approve, so I already have slightly better meds.

Of the various tests being run, some immune function tests will be done to see if I have any contributing immune issues. My consultant was fab, and I was able to talk about running, training, and the Klygh Kernow; the short story is that whilst all this is going on, the testing, the MDT review, and, fingers crossed, implementation of new medications (the biological therapy would be first and then potentially abx added) I should hang back on the ultra distance activity/very long run training. And so this has changed my running plan for 2024. IF I get the new medication and IF it works as well as it potentially can, it is possible that my days of chest infections and frequent illness will be over, and a whole new world of possibility will become open to me. I think it is worth the wait.

At the same time as decisions around running, I have also withdrawn from teaching yoga at the boatyard. I am overwhelmed with trying to complete my coursework to be a PT, plus work, plus train, and now, with additional medical appointments to attend in Plymouth in the short term, I don't have enough time to do it all without compromising on sleep, and that is no longer an option for me. Plus, the constant cold and extremely damp conditions at the boatyard, which have worsened significantly over the last two years, are not great for respiratory health.

And so, 2024 will look kinda different from Plan A, but Plan B presents its own potentially ace opportunities, just different ones. In 2024, I have no plan to do anything remarkable in my running life; instead, I will use 2024 to continue increasing my strength by weight training 3-4 times per week with my awesome strength coach and keep running to shorter distances/periods of time but working on speed and power. I will qualify for my Gym Instructor and Personal Trainer qualifications and launch that business in October when my university working hours shrink to two days per week. This will give my body time to go through the various tests and (I hope) adjust to the new medication.

Nothing is ever guaranteed, and it is possible that I may not be approved for biological therapy, but at the moment, that is the new Plan A.v2. Whatever happens next, I am already in a better place than at the end of 2023 because I am engaged with the Chest Clinic, and stuff is moving forward.

And so, Kylgh Kernow, I will push you back to 2025, and if magical things happen, then I might go into that run in a far better position than ever before: more trained still and even more well. And so, back to resilience. There are very few occasions in life when stuff just keeps getting worse. Because I was so poorly in December, I am now on a whole new awesome trajectory and a small reconfiguring of time and life and I have a 2024 Plan A.v2. to look forward to. Cool huh!!