{"id":3,"date":"2007-06-28T16:32:44","date_gmt":"2007-06-28T23:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/?p=3"},"modified":"2007-08-17T09:35:09","modified_gmt":"2007-08-17T16:35:09","slug":"my-first-entry-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/?p=3","title":{"rendered":"My First Entry! Welcome!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to my BLOG!\u00a0 This first posting, written soon after finding out that some health issues that I\u2019d been having are not a significant issue as I feared came as great news for me, and renewed my enthusiasm for many things in my life.\u00a0\u00a0 While I like writing and try to keep a written journal, I think this will be a lot of fun, to share the things that I’m doing with my friends, and also to look back on as time passes.\u00a0 Welcome, enjoy, subscribe on the left if you want me to let you know when I’m added new things to the website.\u00a0 AND PLEASE POST COMMENTS OR EMAILS TO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU’RE UP TO!<\/p>\n

As far as the health issues that are now pretty much behind me, over the last year or so, some issues with my heart, and resulting running performance had me concerned.\u00a0 After a couple of particularly bad episodes of what seemed to be an arrhythmia, or out of control heart rate where your heart is just fluttering and not really beating,\u00a0 I went to see a cardiologist.\u00a0 In these situations that lasted a few minutes, I really could not get a pulse, and my Heart Rate Monitor would give crazy reading, 280 bpm and such.\u00a0 A very odd feeling.\u00a0 In the last 8 months I had some episodes that seems particularly bad, so I went to see a cardiologist.\u00a0 The resulting testing first showed an abnormal EKG that had him suspecting an enlarged heart or thickened heart walls.\u00a0\u00a0 Very high caffeine consumption and stress were also suspects.\u00a0\u00a0 CT Scans and Ultrasound testing was scheduled, and\u00a0further testing revealed that the heart was in good condition, excepting an Aortic Valve that is not sealing properly, allowing some flowback of oxygenated blood back into the heart, rather than going into my system as it should, and some mild scarring in my lungs from some problem in the past.\u00a0 At this point, we do not know if this is a condition I\u2019ve had forever, or if it is a new occurrence, followup checks will tell us that.\u00a0 But it\u2019s fairly minor, and nothing that I can do about it at this point.\u00a0 We just have to check it in a year, and see if the valve issue is the same or progressing to a worsened condition.\u00a0 I feel like it\u2019s probably something I\u2019ve always had, but who knows, maybe I’ll have a pig heart transplant or something at some point in the future.\u00a0\u00a0Just to provide me all the best karma possible, I’m swearing off bacon to save my friends the pigs.\u00a0 But then again, if I eat more bacon, maybe there will be more pig hearts available.\u00a0 Oh well, FOOD for thought, huh?<\/p>\n

THEN the fun begins.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next issue came with the CT Scans that were done which incidentally revealed two tumors in my liver.\u00a0 Not a good thing, so additional scans were scheduled to make further determinations of the problem.\u00a0 Eventually, they were diagnosed as two\u00a0benign cavernous hemangiomas\u00a0which are actually fairly common, and of no consequence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

My original issue was likely caffeine, stress, and maybe the fact that I felt something was wrong, just increased the stress on me.\u00a0 I\u00a0was taking in massive amounts of caffeine. \u00a0I know I was trying to run and exercise but constantly worried that something may be seriously wrong.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t realize the toll this was taking, until I got a clean bill of health.\u00a0 I can promise you a lot of soul searching and thought went on during that time.<\/p>\n

In any case, I got some cool measurements and photos of my heart,\u00a0and confirmation that there is no plaque buildup in my arteries, everything is wide open and good, but for the first quarter of this year, it was quite an unusual situation for me to be worried about possible serious heart problems, or the possibility of having to deal with a cancer diagnosis and what that would mean to me and my family.\u00a0
\n<\/p>\n

Part of my function as a Financial Planner is explaining to people that as part of a financial plan is the protection provided by insurance.\u00a0 They NEED life insurance, disability insurance, health insurance, long term care insurance and now we have available products like cancer, serious illness insurance.\u00a0 So many that I speak with just don\u2019t think it can happen to them, and it\u2019s rather ironic that I\u2019m healthier and more fit than almost all of them, yet here I am, having to review every aspect of what I have in place in my financial life to determine what we do if I am not able to work for 6 months, a year, or longer.\u00a0 I practice what I preach, and will only make one significant financial change after having gone through this, but it was a wakeup call, and I wish I could make every client have to face these facts for just one day, to open their eyes as to what one medical diagnosis could mean to them and their families financial future.<\/p>\n

This whole process took 2 or 3 months, and really derailed my ability to train effectively.\u00a0 I missed some races that I really wanted to do, the Massennuten 100 miler in Virginia, and the Hardrock 100 in Colorado had to be scratched off the list.\u00a0 I was hoping to compete in both Hardrock and Badwater, in the same year, 10 days apart.\u00a0 But with all of this going on, I simply did not feel I had the time to be prepared for these two ultra-difficult events.<\/p>\n

I do still intend to compete in my third Badwater 135 Ultra, and will follow that up in October with the Furnace Creek 508 bicycle race.\u00a0 Completion of both of these events in the same year is pretty exclusive, only 11 people have completed it, none of them from Florida, so that is my goal for 2008.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking forward to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to my BLOG!\u00a0 This first posting, written soon after finding out that some health issues that I\u2019d been having are not a significant issue as I feared came as great news for me, and renewed my enthusiasm for many things in my life.\u00a0\u00a0 While I like writing and try to keep a written journal, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":""},"categories":[5,4,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/irun100s.com\/daveharper\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}