Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
Speaker 2: and speaker.
Speaker 3: And I'm Sarah Hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
Speaker 3: and course creator. We are two working parents who love
Speaker 3: our careers and our families.
Speaker 2: Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
Speaker 2: how real women manage work, family, and time for fun,
Speaker 2: from figuring out childcare to mapping out long.
Speaker 1: Term career goals.
Speaker 2: We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.
Speaker 2: This episode is airing in mid March of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: I am coming at you live from Sarah's fancy recording
Speaker 2: studio also known as her closet. We are here in
Speaker 2: Fort Lauderdale together, Sarah. I feel like we've taken our
Speaker 2: relationship to a whole new level.
Speaker 3: No, because I have recorded in your fancy recording studio
Speaker 3: otherwise known as.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a closet, it's a closet,
Speaker 1: it's not big.
Speaker 3: So we have reached this level of microphone intimacy before,
Speaker 3: just in.
Speaker 1: A different location.
Speaker 2: We have both been in each other's closets now recording
Speaker 2: which in case anyone is wondering, it tends to be
Speaker 2: better sound quality in an enclosed space. And so you
Speaker 2: have a lot of podcasters who if you're not in
Speaker 2: a real recording studio, which we have not yet attained
Speaker 2: that level, I guess we are in our closets. But anyway,
Speaker 2: we're here together in Fort Lauderdale, which is really really exciting.
Speaker 2: I am glad to be here with Sarah. It's always
Speaker 2: fun to come visit her, and especially good to see
Speaker 2: her this time up and moving around. For those who've
Speaker 2: been following her blog, we know that she had a
Speaker 2: pretty major health incident a few weeks ago. So Sarah,
Speaker 2: maybe you could just give the quick version of that.
Speaker 2: I mean, if there is a quick version. I don't
Speaker 2: know that there is.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, the quick version. It's not gonna be that
Speaker 1: quick because it's okay, but I'll give it. We've got time.
Speaker 1: We've got thirty five minutes.
Speaker 3: That's true, all right, So and I won't be that
Speaker 3: long either. So some of you already know this stuff
Speaker 3: if you listen to Best Laid Plans, if you read
Speaker 3: the blog, but just in case you don't, I had
Speaker 3: an incident after running a half marathon in early March.
Speaker 3: It was the Miami Beach Half called the three h
Speaker 3: five Half, and you know, it was just like another
Speaker 3: race for me. I don't even know how many halfs
Speaker 3: I've run, like, I have not counted them at this point,
Speaker 3: but it's got to be twenty or more. And I
Speaker 3: run that distance like almost every weekend, just as a routine.
Speaker 3: But it was a race, so you know, I went in.
Speaker 3: There have been some stressful stuff going on, nothing terrible,
Speaker 3: like fun stuff. I had come back from a speaking engagement,
Speaker 3: I went to a gymnastics meet the day before, so
Speaker 3: just a lot going on, but nothing terribly unusual. And
Speaker 3: we stayed at Josh's parents the night before so that
Speaker 3: the kids could hang out with their grandparents and we
Speaker 3: could run this race and not have to get up
Speaker 3: so early in drive to Miami Beach, and the race
Speaker 3: itself was going good. It was about sixty five degrees,
Speaker 3: which is for us really nice. Humunity was low, so
Speaker 3: everyone was like, WHOA, this is amazing. We can actually
Speaker 3: run for once and not just be driven down by
Speaker 3: the heat. And my goal was to run like around
Speaker 3: a one forty five, so I was kind of aiming
Speaker 3: for like sub eight minute pace.
Speaker 1: And my plan was going off fine.
Speaker 3: I was like a little tired and noticing my heart
Speaker 3: rate was like a little bit on the higher end
Speaker 3: on my watch.
Speaker 1: Than what I would have expected. At the paces.
Speaker 3: I was running, but nothing bad, and I figured, you
Speaker 3: know what, like it's not totally cool out, and you know,
Speaker 3: I just didn't think much of it. But I was
Speaker 3: going up. You go up bridges during this race. There
Speaker 3: are actually four times that you go like back and
Speaker 3: forth across from like the mainland. The geography escapes me exactly,
Speaker 3: but you're going up and down these bridges four times,
Speaker 3: and so that's the most challenging part. Otherwise it's flat.
Speaker 3: And the fourth one, I guess I said to myself,
Speaker 3: Oh man, I thought there were only three somehow, but
Speaker 3: I guess we.
Speaker 1: Have another one.
Speaker 3: And I'm doing fine, and like suddenly it was like
Speaker 3: a switch turn on. I'm like, oh, I'm not fine.
Speaker 3: Something's wrong. Like I guess I'm hitting a wall. Oh
Speaker 3: my god, my husband talks about hitting a wall like
Speaker 3: runners talk about hitting a wall and a marathon, and
Speaker 3: I guess that's it. Because I can't breathe and I
Speaker 3: can't go anymore. And you know, I had been going
Speaker 3: like very solidly, steadily around like seven to fifty five,
Speaker 3: eight minutes, like right where I wanted to be, and
Speaker 3: I just like.
Speaker 1: Could not do that.
Speaker 3: So I start walking and I start jogging and still
Speaker 3: feeling terrible. Like normally, if you're going to give up
Speaker 3: and then you're going to run a ten minute mile
Speaker 3: after you've been running eight, you would think, well, at
Speaker 3: least now I'm going to be able to breathe.
Speaker 1: Right. I'm sad, but I can.
Speaker 3: But I still didn't feel right. And I got to
Speaker 3: the end of the race and I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: well I'm done. Now my body can calm down. I
Speaker 3: don't know what the heck just happened, but that was
Speaker 3: so sad, and man, I ran a one fifty that sucks,
Speaker 3: like it's not what I wanted. And my friend passed me,
Speaker 3: and you know, I'm thinking all this stuff, and then
Speaker 3: I'm like, but like, why isn't my heart slowing down?
Speaker 3: Like why do I feel like I'm still running and
Speaker 3: I'm standing still, Okay, I need to sit down for
Speaker 3: a little bit longer. And I find my friend, my
Speaker 3: lovely friend Tracy, who did amazing in that race.
Speaker 1: She's the one who passed me. She had a great race,
Speaker 1: and she's.
Speaker 3: Like, you don't seem quite great, Like, let's go find
Speaker 3: the medical tent. So she like helped me find it,
Speaker 3: which is good because like I was kind of like
Speaker 3: in distress already, and I don't know if I would
Speaker 3: have been able to get there very well. Well, Josh
Speaker 3: had already finished like ten minutes before. I'm celebrating with
Speaker 3: some friends, but we called him and he's like, okay,
Speaker 3: I'm coming right over.
Speaker 1: And I go in there and they put.
Speaker 3: A pul sox on me, and they put a blood
Speaker 3: pressure cuf on and the pul sox says, Okay, you're
Speaker 3: like satting ninety eight percent, your pulse is eighty something,
Speaker 3: your blood pressure is like nineties over sixties. You're like, eh,
Speaker 3: you're a little degagraated.
Speaker 1: That's fine.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, okay, that makes sense. Like I think
Speaker 3: I'm maybe okay, and I start to walk away. But
Speaker 3: then I started to feel like I really couldn't breathe,
Speaker 3: like I was shorter of breath, Like I've never really
Speaker 3: had shortness of breath. I've seen it lots, you know,
Speaker 3: as a clinician. But I'm like, I think I'm having
Speaker 3: an allergic reaction or anaphleaxis, cause I feel like my
Speaker 3: airways closing and my chest feels like it hurts, and
Speaker 3: I don't know what I'm reacting to, but I need
Speaker 3: to go back. So like we'd goten like ten feet away,
Speaker 3: but we walked back and they're like, okay, this time,
Speaker 3: sit down and we'll put the leads on you, like
Speaker 3: the little cardiac leads. I'm like the second they did that,
Speaker 3: everyone was like like there was like things had changed,
Speaker 3: Like everyone was like, oh, this is not good, Like
Speaker 3: we are intro because I guess my heart rate was
Speaker 3: going like over two fifty and the pull sox just
Speaker 3: hadn't picked up on it. I guess because my pulses
Speaker 3: hadn't been making it all the way to my finger
Speaker 3: or what the pull sox was. But my heart was
Speaker 3: showing this like rate of over two fifty and it
Speaker 3: looked funky. I knew enough to be like, Okay, that's
Speaker 3: very bad, and they're gonna like code me and stuff
Speaker 3: is gonna happen. And sure enough, I started feeling more
Speaker 3: and more dizzy, and my blood pressure is dropping and
Speaker 3: just a series of events, I'm getting on a stretcher
Speaker 3: and they're taking me to an ambulance and sticking ivs
Speaker 3: in me.
Speaker 1: Really harrowing ride. I was awake the whole time, so
Speaker 1: it was not even like I passed out and got
Speaker 1: to miss out on this experience.
Speaker 3: I was very dizzy and lightheaded, but like still there,
Speaker 3: and I kept hearing them say something about shocking, and
Speaker 3: I'm like.
Speaker 1: Do not shock me. I am awake.
Speaker 3: I cannot be shocked. I've never seen anyone shocked awake.
Speaker 3: I mean maybe people are shocked awake. I actually haven't
Speaker 3: gone back to looked that. It was just horrifying to me,
Speaker 3: the idea that I would be like electrocuted while I
Speaker 3: could still talk right, even if my vitals looked bad.
Speaker 3: And we're like in the ambulance and I'm think gave
Speaker 3: me two doses of a medicine called dniscene, which if
Speaker 3: you have something called super ventricular taket cardia, often it
Speaker 3: will help stop it if you don't maybe even if
Speaker 3: you do, but it makes you feel like you're gonna die.
Speaker 1: So I like, what like you can't breathe or you
Speaker 1: can't or you just feel.
Speaker 3: Pad he like starts to go black and you feel
Speaker 3: like your heart is stopping, and in that context, I
Speaker 3: was like maybe I am actually dying, and I'm like
Speaker 3: some sort of yeah, and I'm like saying, I love you,
Speaker 3: I love the kids, like I need to be alive
Speaker 3: for my babies, like please like make this stop. And
Speaker 3: we get to the hospital, which was pretty close. I mean,
Speaker 3: they had the sirens on and everything, and I think
Speaker 3: it was like ten minute ride or maybe less because
Speaker 3: mounts On Hospital in mind.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just pretty close to where the race was.
Speaker 3: And they get me the er and I'm like, okay.
Speaker 3: The doctors are here, like they're like, we have to
Speaker 3: shock you, and I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, just put me asleep. I guess I acknowledge the most.
Speaker 1: Josh and the ambulance with yeah, yes, and he was
Speaker 1: like terrified.
Speaker 3: I mean he was like he said he lost all
Speaker 3: of his medical skills during that time because.
Speaker 1: He just couldn't like think of that type of stuff.
Speaker 3: And they were able to get an iv in give
Speaker 3: me a dose of medicine to like make me not
Speaker 3: asleep but like amnestic yeah, so that I wouldn't remember
Speaker 3: the experience the dose over said, and I got shocked
Speaker 3: and it worked, so Josh said immediately was like what happened.
Speaker 3: My heart rate went from two sixty five to like
Speaker 3: eighty yeah, no, like right, just like it's supposed to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: And I think in retrospect that I probably had been
Speaker 3: in that crazy rhythm for like a long time, like
Speaker 3: for maybe from the race, or maybe I was off
Speaker 3: and on during the race when I was finishing it
Speaker 3: all the way that whole time in the medical tent,
Speaker 3: et cetera. My blood pressure got as low as like
Speaker 3: sixties or ver thirties or something terrible. It was a
Speaker 3: lot the labs they drew labs on me, which looked insane.
Speaker 3: I'm like, that's what sick people's labs look like. So
Speaker 3: I was kind of like the definition of like cardio
Speaker 3: headed towards like CARDI you ding shock or whatever. And
Speaker 3: that was a lot in my completely boring health history
Speaker 3: of a life.
Speaker 1: I yeah, because you didn't.
Speaker 2: Have any really like I mean, you didn't have much
Speaker 2: warning that this was and that happened.
Speaker 1: I had no warning.
Speaker 3: I mean I am like healthy, like I have normal
Speaker 3: blood pressure, I have a really low resting heart rate.
Speaker 1: I say that there's two clues.
Speaker 3: And just in case anyone's listening to this, it's like
Speaker 3: I'm worried this could happen to me, which it probably won't,
Speaker 3: but like it could, these things do happen. The two
Speaker 3: warning signs I had where that I did have one
Speaker 3: race five years ago or had the same thing happen.
Speaker 3: It wasn't as bad, it went away on its own,
Speaker 3: but it was like really fast heartbeat that I felt
Speaker 3: like I couldn't control, and short of breath that it
Speaker 3: lasted for like over a half hour after I had
Speaker 3: stopped running, and I was going to bring it up
Speaker 3: with my doctor, like I remember, but.
Speaker 1: Then I think COVID happened.
Speaker 3: This was twenty twenty pre COVID, like January, and then
Speaker 3: I don't think it ever turned into anything. And honestly,
Speaker 3: even if I had, I'm not sure they would have
Speaker 3: found anything at the time because some of my initial
Speaker 3: testing was normal anyway, even this time, so who knows
Speaker 3: if that would have come to anything. But I did
Speaker 3: have one prior episode, so I'd say do not ignore
Speaker 3: shortness of breath or weird heart stuff.
Speaker 1: That is triggered by exercise.
Speaker 3: And the other thing is I do have a lot
Speaker 3: of what's known as PVC's or like extra beats. I
Speaker 3: kind of always had, and I had actually noticed them
Speaker 3: like a little more than normal in the feud actually
Speaker 3: at a conference, mean like you just feel your heart
Speaker 3: like skip a beat or like like you feel a
Speaker 3: little palpitation, and then maybe you're like, oh that's weird.
Speaker 3: I'll feel my pulse and it's just like weirdly like irregular,
Speaker 3: like you'll feel like beat beat beat, like and you anyway, yeah,
Speaker 3: like extra beats. They're called like PVCs, and they can
Speaker 3: be normal and a lot of people have them. A
Speaker 3: caffeine can make them worse than some people. But I
Speaker 3: had like actually when I was at that conference. I
Speaker 3: was at a conference in Texas speaking and I was
Speaker 3: went to some of the sessions, and I guess I
Speaker 3: think I noticed it more when I'm just sitting still.
Speaker 3: Plus I did drink coffee, probably more than normal because
Speaker 3: I was like at a conference, that's what you do, right,
Speaker 3: And I just noticed them.
Speaker 1: So that's like my one other maybe clue. But other
Speaker 1: than that, no, nothing, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Mean because you were running like fifty sixty miles a
Speaker 2: week pretty fast and not having this happen and like
Speaker 2: on a daily.
Speaker 1: So many races. I've run two marathons in last year.
Speaker 1: I didn't have this issue.
Speaker 3: I've run many really fast paced training runs. I mean,
Speaker 3: I guess the only difference with the half is like
Speaker 3: a faster pace for.
Speaker 1: Like a little bit more. But I wasn't even like
Speaker 1: I wasn't dying in that race.
Speaker 3: I actually was sort of thinking to myself, Oh, this
Speaker 3: feels good, Like I feel like I'm kind of going
Speaker 3: marathon pace. I'm not gonna push too hard. Let me
Speaker 3: just see what my splits end up. It didn't feel
Speaker 3: like a heroic effort until the part where I couldn't
Speaker 3: do it anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, now that's well, who knows. I mean, these
Speaker 2: things happen so randomly. I mean, it's not like there's
Speaker 2: one thing that probably caused it.
Speaker 3: They do, and there's a lot of underlying things that
Speaker 3: can cause us. And I still don't one hundred percent
Speaker 3: know why this happened to me. I did have quite
Speaker 3: a work up when I was in the hospital for
Speaker 3: about a week, CT scan, MRI echo cath to look
Speaker 3: at my cornarys cath to do an EP study and
Speaker 3: find out how like a rhythmegenic my heart is. So
Speaker 3: all those things put together and it does turn out
Speaker 3: like it was kind of a shock to me because
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm just used to getting like.
Speaker 3: Medically good news or like medically benign news, and stuff
Speaker 3: came back that I do have some abnormal all my
Speaker 3: imaging that and on my rhythm study that I was
Speaker 3: kind of more prone to a rhythmias than they expected,
Speaker 3: like they were able to induce them, I guess very easily.
Speaker 3: And then also some just changes in the way the
Speaker 3: walls of my heart looked and the ways of the walls
Speaker 3: of my heart moved, and the sizes of the chambers.
Speaker 3: Now you can get some like athletic remodeling, So that
Speaker 3: can be confusing, like people who are training can actually
Speaker 3: get like normal physiologic enlargement of certain chambers of the heart.
Speaker 3: So they had to really carefully try to figure out,
Speaker 3: like is what they're seeing in me that or is
Speaker 3: it like more than that. They consulted with some experts
Speaker 3: and stuff, and right now the consensus is it's more
Speaker 3: than that. It's not that we don't know exactly what
Speaker 3: the underlying thing is. It might be something called a
Speaker 3: rhythmogenic right ventricular displaysia, which is actually more commonly seen
Speaker 3: in athletes because being very active as tends to be
Speaker 3: what brings out the phenotype and people that are predisposed
Speaker 3: in it, but we don't know for sure yet, and
Speaker 3: so I'm still kind of in the question answering phase.
Speaker 3: And the other things they're thinking about is like, could
Speaker 3: it have been like an old myocarditis that caused changes
Speaker 3: in my heart and even some other really weird, rare things.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even gonna mention all sorts of wonderful things.
Speaker 1: None of it's great. Yeah, yeah, we like to be normal. Yes,
Speaker 1: normal is good.
Speaker 2: All right, Well we're gonna take a quick ad break
Speaker 2: and then be back hearing a little bit more from
Speaker 2: Sarah about her experience.
Speaker 1: Well, we are back.
Speaker 2: We've been talking with Sarah about her very scary incident
Speaker 2: after her half marathon where she wound up in the
Speaker 2: hospital for a week after a heart incident. So maybe
Speaker 2: you can talk a little bit more about what came
Speaker 2: out of that and what your current setup is.
Speaker 3: Yes, so this all felt like was happening really really fast,
Speaker 3: because it was I mean, you know, I went from
Speaker 3: like no medical history, nothing exciting to like, your heart's
Speaker 3: not right in a very short period of time. And
Speaker 3: the doctors felt pretty strongly as well as my husband
Speaker 3: and talking with very like we actually ended up like
Speaker 3: consulting that doctors who work with my health system in
Speaker 3: addition to the ones where I was because we have
Speaker 3: access to them. I feel super, super lucky and privileged
Speaker 3: that I was able to get not only just care,
Speaker 3: but like even multiple expert voices of care in the moment,
Speaker 3: which was amazing. But everyone felt really confident, not necessarily
Speaker 3: with the underlying issue, but that I needed a implanted
Speaker 3: defibrillator because I guess like the amount that it took
Speaker 3: to trigger more a rhythmias during the rhythm study wasn't
Speaker 3: a safe amount. So we looked at the different ones
Speaker 3: and based on what they thought I might have and
Speaker 3: kind of thinking ahead to the future and like procedures
Speaker 3: that I could need or not need, we decided on
Speaker 3: a subcutaneous ICD. So I have a implanted ICD now
Speaker 3: that I had put in just a few days ago
Speaker 3: as we're recording this, So I had my first surgery ever.
Speaker 3: I'm healing from that and I don't know what that's
Speaker 3: going to be like yet. I feel like it's too soon.
Speaker 3: I'm still like literally healing from the incisions and there's
Speaker 3: swelling and there's pain. So I do not think this
Speaker 3: is my long term reality, but I do know that
Speaker 3: as a pretty small person, I think I'm going to
Speaker 3: have a weird outline thing on my body to remind me.
Speaker 1: That it's there.
Speaker 3: It's not going to be so easy to totally forget
Speaker 3: about it. But I also know that it's there because
Speaker 3: if my heart ever decides to do something crazy again,
Speaker 3: it can help me right in the moment and prevent
Speaker 3: something terrible from happening. And they even tested it out,
Speaker 3: so apparently when they put it in this type, they
Speaker 3: want to make sure it works because it's subc it's
Speaker 3: not in the heart, it's like on top of the heart.
Speaker 3: The leads go and so they like put you into
Speaker 3: VTACK or I think even v FIB during the procedure
Speaker 3: and then they shock you out of it and it worked.
Speaker 1: It worked. Well, that's good.
Speaker 2: I mean, so just you know, practical questions here with
Speaker 2: the device, like do the batteries run out?
Speaker 1: Like how is it operating? How is this going on?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I believe the bats last on average eight years, okay,
Speaker 3: and so you just get it replaced. So I will
Speaker 3: have to schedule surgery for twenty thirty whatever, twenty thirty
Speaker 3: three years. So but that's down average. I think sometimes
Speaker 3: it's longer and sometimes it's shorter. I think it's under
Speaker 3: warranty for six warranty. Warranties are nice kind of like
Speaker 3: a used car or something.
Speaker 2: Oh, dear, dear, And you know, is that like when
Speaker 2: you go through metal detectors.
Speaker 1: Is that going to be a thing as well?
Speaker 3: Yes, they said, don't go through metal detectors, like you
Speaker 3: have to request like a pat down. I don't know,
Speaker 3: like if there's like if you do, just make sure.
Speaker 1: You don't linger run through, except don't run right right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll get to that, but yeah, yeah, yeah, like yes,
Speaker 3: but I think in general, my policy instead of being like,
Speaker 3: oh I can go through, but I can go fast,
Speaker 3: it's just gonna be like, no, I have a thingy whatever,
Speaker 3: pat me down, it's fine, and then saying yeah, like
Speaker 3: the airport and concerts and stuff like that. And there's
Speaker 3: some other really random stuff like they say like don't
Speaker 3: use like a body fat scale, like you know those
Speaker 3: are everywhere, yeah, and like we have one, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, don't.
Speaker 1: Step on that, like don't forget.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Mean again, I think a lot of these things are
Speaker 3: probably like not super high risk. But at the same time,
Speaker 3: I'm like, if I accidentally shock myself, I'll.
Speaker 1: Be really sad. Yeah, so yeah, you gonna.
Speaker 2: Try to be follow all the directions, try to avoid
Speaker 2: that if at all possible. So you're resting, relaxing as
Speaker 2: much as as possible in your life right here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm still like tired, Like I'm still I'm honestly
Speaker 3: still like in post up pain.
Speaker 1: To some extent.
Speaker 3: Today has been okay, Like I haven't even taken anything
Speaker 3: other than I yourprofene like a few hours ago, and
Speaker 3: I'm feeling pretty good. But I had to take like
Speaker 3: a long nap this morning because I slept so badly
Speaker 3: because of pain. So just not like back yet. My
Speaker 3: thought is I'll probably have two weeks away from clinical
Speaker 3: work from the date of the surgery, which I think
Speaker 3: should be enough because it's not super super invasive, and
Speaker 3: I'm my hope is to go back feeling like pretty
Speaker 3: good rather than like limping on in there and kind
Speaker 3: of being halfway there. So yeah, but podcasting, I mean, listen,
Speaker 3: it's talking.
Speaker 1: I love to talk.
Speaker 3: It's like therapeutic. It away, so that kind of work.
Speaker 3: I don't mind.
Speaker 2: Going back, don't mind going back to that's good. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: now I'm excited to be here. I'm getting to see
Speaker 2: Sarah's house and experience the places that I've I've actually
Speaker 2: only seen through like the zoom camera because I hadn't
Speaker 2: been here before.
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny because I've been to your house
Speaker 3: a bunch, so this is actually kind of cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, Sarah's parents live pretty near to me, so
Speaker 2: she has many reasons to come up and visit. But
Speaker 2: I'm sure it's still like a huge adjustment and it's
Speaker 2: your family been all doing okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're doing okay.
Speaker 3: I mean we did a lot of frequent like text
Speaker 3: chain updates and stuff like that. Josh kind of took
Speaker 3: over a lot of that. But yeah, everyone seems okay.
Speaker 3: I had the shower of love I got from like friends, family,
Speaker 3: community members, blog readers, et cetera. Has been like totally
Speaker 3: amazing and unexpected and not even like I just feel
Speaker 3: bad like people are sending me on I'm like, you
Speaker 3: don't need to do this, like thank you.
Speaker 1: No, It's been wonderful.
Speaker 3: It makes me just recognize, like what a wonderful community
Speaker 3: has been built out of doing stuff out there in
Speaker 3: the world, and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, and we'll talk about this a little bit in
Speaker 2: the question section of this. But you know, there's this
Speaker 2: tension between planning and like life happens, of course, and
Speaker 2: you can't plan for big things, unexpected things to happen.
Speaker 2: But on the other hand, that doesn't mean that planning
Speaker 2: is useless and not worth it either. And so I
Speaker 2: feel like sometimes when big things happen, people come at
Speaker 2: this it's like we'll see you know, you we make
Speaker 2: our plans and God laughs. But no, because then just
Speaker 2: even stuff like making sure like your daughter still got
Speaker 2: her braces off at the right time, like a big
Speaker 2: milestone for that, even in the middle of all this,
Speaker 2: like all the good systems make that happen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely do not regret any of the past
Speaker 3: planning I've done, nor do I like feel like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: that was dumb. I wanted to you know, just because
Speaker 3: my twenty twenty five goals had running related goals on
Speaker 3: them make all of them worthless. I mean, first of all,
Speaker 3: I always go in knowing I'm not going to meet
Speaker 3: every goal, like maybe Laura.
Speaker 1: Doesn't, but I don't.
Speaker 2: Ever.
Speaker 1: I don't meet every goal. No, No, I know that.
Speaker 3: I definitely I think you sometimes aim more to meet
Speaker 3: every goal. But I have like an open mind about like,
Speaker 3: you know, this is what I'm thinking about, and if
Speaker 3: I meet like a good amount of these, like, that's amazing.
Speaker 3: But you wouldn't be here right now. We wouldn't actually
Speaker 3: be having this time if we hadn't plan on it.
Speaker 3: And even though it looks different, I'm still really really
Speaker 3: glad like we planned it. Yeah, it's working out nice,
Speaker 3: and it turns out that actually I'm getting some really
Speaker 3: nice distraction.
Speaker 1: Even then we would have been.
Speaker 3: At the beach, So that's all right. Planning can pause
Speaker 3: and you could take time to wallow. I have a
Speaker 3: whole chapter about like I'm gonna read my own chapter.
Speaker 1: Chapter you reach your own chapter on wallowings.
Speaker 3: No, but really I have a chapter on like when
Speaker 3: things are hard, and like I talk about wallowing, and
Speaker 3: I talk about like taking a minute to just like
Speaker 3: regroup and letting yourself go slowly and all those kinds
Speaker 3: of things, and those all apply, and you can still
Speaker 3: plan and use planning to help you kind of recover
Speaker 3: from something like this rather than be mad at the
Speaker 3: fact that you did it in the first place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we're going to take one more quick ad
Speaker 2: break and then we'll be back with a little bit
Speaker 2: more about this topic. Well, we are back talking about
Speaker 2: life updates, Sarah, you know, adjusting to the new normal
Speaker 2: with being a I don't know, being a cardiac patient,
Speaker 2: being a cardiac patient. But you know, it's like we
Speaker 2: could hold two thoughts in mind simultaneously, Hairy. One is that,
Speaker 2: you know, we're all so grateful that things did not
Speaker 2: go worse, that you got medical help quickly, that people
Speaker 2: recognized what was going on, you were in a place
Speaker 2: where that could happen, as opposed to like ten miles
Speaker 2: from the house on a long on at four am
Speaker 2: that you were doing on your own, where nobody would
Speaker 2: have noticed or something until all that, So we could
Speaker 2: be grateful for that. We can also just realize, like
Speaker 2: everything about this sucks, Like there's just you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's hard, like you know, there's no like suck Olympics.
Speaker 3: Like part of me is like, well I wish it
Speaker 3: was this condition, are like, well that's worse than it's like,
Speaker 3: you know what, that all sucks it all sucks, all
Speaker 3: of it, and there's no like even real like comparisons
Speaker 3: to be made or anything. And one piece of the
Speaker 3: suckage that Laura hasn't mentioned because I thinks she's not
Speaker 3: sure whether she should mention or not, is that I
Speaker 3: probably cannot run anymore. Don't know for sure, but if
Speaker 3: the diagnosis is what they think it is, exercise has
Speaker 3: been shown to cause further remodeling of the heart in
Speaker 3: a maladaptive way and can lead to heart failure over time.
Speaker 3: Now I don't again, don't know for sure, so maybe
Speaker 3: like there's like this chance they'll be like, actually it
Speaker 3: was my ocarditis and that doesn't apply to you, and
Speaker 3: like whatever. I don't think it's healthy for me to
Speaker 3: hold on to that hope because I don't think it's
Speaker 3: super high. But I'm just you know, I'll keep an
Speaker 3: air of uncertainty there because it is there. But if
Speaker 3: it is that, and certainly until we figure out that
Speaker 3: it's not that, I can't really run, like won't be
Speaker 3: able to do even like high intensity spinning. And before
Speaker 3: you're like that can't possibly be true. I mean, of
Speaker 3: course we don't know everything, but it looks like there
Speaker 3: is enough research on this specific thing where the top
Speaker 3: centers kind of really recommend very specific amounts of exercise
Speaker 3: that are not what I was used to doing anywhere
Speaker 3: close would I be able to maybe sometimes do a
Speaker 3: slow three mile run, like maybe great, But it's going
Speaker 3: to be a change.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a an enormous change.
Speaker 3: So I am grappling with that because it is nowhere
Speaker 3: near it's important as being alive and being with my family,
Speaker 3: and it's still like an annoying, crappy loss that is
Speaker 3: going to change my lifestyle a lot, because I just
Speaker 3: really have always loved to be active, Like I never
Speaker 3: really had a long period of my life where I
Speaker 3: wasn't working out most days for a significant amount of time,
Speaker 3: and I feel like I was like really relied on
Speaker 3: that like hormonal endorphin kind of whatever it was.
Speaker 1: It's not.
Speaker 3: It hasn't always been running, and there have been periods
Speaker 3: where I've done a lot lot less. Like actually, I
Speaker 3: look back on my infertility period when I was mostly
Speaker 3: going to yoga, and I was like, you know what,
Speaker 3: other than the infertility part, I kind of liked that lifestyle,
Speaker 3: Like it wasn't that bad. So I'm glad I actually
Speaker 3: have that to refer to and think about.
Speaker 1: So you've been through this before in the sense of
Speaker 1: remodeling sort of your identity differents like I canun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can like feel active and enjoy life and
Speaker 3: didn't really have like some huge gap in my my
Speaker 3: existence when I wasn't running during that time. So, and
Speaker 3: I didn't run that much when my kids were little either,
Speaker 3: So I'm actually really glad that I've had breaks in
Speaker 3: my life at the same time in the last two
Speaker 3: years or so, it's been a huge source of joy.
Speaker 3: And you know, I always wanted to be Q which
Speaker 3: is Boston qualify, and then I finally did. And now
Speaker 3: even if my time from Jacksonville Marathon in December makes it,
Speaker 3: I like, I'm not going to submit it because I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna be able to run the race.
Speaker 1: And that's that sucks that you qualified?
Speaker 2: You qualified? Yeah, yeah, you know, no, it's rough. Well,
Speaker 2: we need to find you a new nine to ten
Speaker 2: hour a week hobby. I guess I know what could
Speaker 2: it be.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe I'll write some more, write more books.
Speaker 1: I don't know. You can sing, I don't know, choir.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll just sleep a lot more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't have to get up at four fifteen
Speaker 2: in the morning. That whatever hobby you're doing that may
Speaker 2: not have to happen. Then maybe you know, play musical instruments.
Speaker 2: You want to get violin back out.
Speaker 1: Probably not probably not, okay, piano, maybe maybe piano. I
Speaker 1: mean a few of those hours could be filled up
Speaker 1: with like yoga, Yeah, yoga, that's true.
Speaker 3: We're gonna try some pilates, you know, all that kind
Speaker 3: of stuff. Maybe more socials. I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 3: I'm not signing the hours yet, but it is a
Speaker 3: fun thing to think about. Yeah, it's a positive.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, and again it's the holding two thoughts in mind
Speaker 2: at the same point that you maybe things will be different.
Speaker 2: I mean, medicine advances at a crazy rate. There will
Speaker 2: be you know, you talk about making the appointment for
Speaker 2: your surgery in twenty thirty three, but I can tell
Speaker 2: you the device world will be different in twenty thirty
Speaker 2: three than it.
Speaker 1: Maybe you could just like shoot it in there.
Speaker 2: I know it'll be like AI powered entirely and like
Speaker 2: a robot that like does I don't know. And then
Speaker 2: you know, gene therapy if it is genetic, like there's
Speaker 2: all sorts of things that will happen in the next
Speaker 2: eight years that we just have no idea, and that's
Speaker 2: one of the most exciting things. But you can have
Speaker 2: that thought, but then also build your life in a
Speaker 2: way where you can be happy now whatever that takes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I believe I'm I don't have a doubt
Speaker 3: that I could be happy again, like I think I
Speaker 3: might if I hadn't done it before.
Speaker 1: But I have done it before, so I could do
Speaker 1: it again. You can do it again. Well, that's wonderful. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that we are still able to be in
Speaker 2: the closet recording that there is a March eighteenth episode
Speaker 2: or whatever date this is of.
Speaker 3: And by the way, if you're listening to this and
Speaker 3: you're like, I don't think she's even fully processed this,
Speaker 3: you're absolutely right. We are now like ten days or
Speaker 3: so out from the event, so I'm still just like
Speaker 3: what happened, Like, Yeah, there's lots of pieces of me
Speaker 3: that are still just trying to figure out how I feel.
Speaker 1: And that's okay. I'm going to give myself time for that.
Speaker 3: I think there's a time and a place for therapy
Speaker 3: and I think this is it, and yeah, just well
Speaker 3: be going forward from.
Speaker 1: Here, going forward from here. I love it.
Speaker 2: Well, our question for the week is actually related to this,
Speaker 2: and I'll read it and then we can have Sarah's advice.
Speaker 2: And this is just sort of like maybe how she's
Speaker 2: giving her own advice to a degree. But this listener
Speaker 2: writes in that she has a broken kneecap, can't walk
Speaker 2: without crutches, this is an accident that happened, can't drive.
Speaker 2: It's been really challenging to leave her house. They're up
Speaker 2: a lot of steps. So basically she is going to
Speaker 2: be staying home except for medical appointments, for the next
Speaker 2: several months. Fortunately, her job has been able to convert
Speaker 2: to be a one hundred percent work from home job,
Speaker 2: which is very unfortunate. She's adjusting reasonably well to that situation,
Speaker 2: she says, but most of her hopes and dreams for
Speaker 2: other aspects of her life in twenty twenty five seem
Speaker 2: to be lost. They were going to be taking a
Speaker 2: European vacation as a family this summer, but it's hard
Speaker 2: to know. Will she be able to walk around on
Speaker 2: cobblestone types treats, you know, the various fitness goals, she had,
Speaker 2: self care goals, friendship goals all seem out of reach.
Speaker 2: She's still feeling kind of emotionally down about this whole thing.
Speaker 2: It is grateful for advice on how to pull off
Speaker 2: a major pivot when the things.
Speaker 1: You planned for the years seem like they might not
Speaker 1: be happening. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, there's a book coming out in January with a
Speaker 3: whole chapter about this, and I definitely recommend that you
Speaker 3: like pre order about ten copies because I'm just going.
Speaker 1: To give it to all your friends. I hear it's
Speaker 1: called Best Slide Plans.
Speaker 3: Yes, So I mean yes, I one hundred percent like
Speaker 3: I'm in the same place. And after the quote wallowing,
Speaker 3: which I think can actually be helpful, just kind of
Speaker 3: let yourself like not worry.
Speaker 1: About anything for a while, Like don't even.
Speaker 3: Try to plan when you're just first contending with something,
Speaker 3: but just like rest and watch TV and like soak
Speaker 3: it in and like take a little bit of time
Speaker 3: to process. And then once you've done that, I really
Speaker 3: what I'm trying to do and what I have recommended
Speaker 3: is to just like try to go short term first,
Speaker 3: like not oh my god, I have to plan August
Speaker 3: right now, and like will I be able to walk?
Speaker 3: And like won't I be able to walk?
Speaker 1: And what can I do?
Speaker 3: But like, okay, what can I do this week? Like
Speaker 3: what can I do tomorrow? What little joys can I
Speaker 3: still fit into my life? How can I practice self
Speaker 3: care tomorrow in the ways that I can, rather than
Speaker 3: thinking too much about putting big goals or even like
Speaker 3: pie in the sky ways of caring for myself like
Speaker 3: for the long term. So I would focus yourself in
Speaker 3: and then my other thing is to like get all
Speaker 3: the support you can, like, don't feel bad. I noticed
Speaker 3: there was like a little hinte of like, you know,
Speaker 3: I did this to myself, but like you know, no
Speaker 3: one wants to do that to themselves, So that needs
Speaker 3: to just go. And I would lean on people who
Speaker 3: want to help you, because they probably truly do want
Speaker 3: to help you. And whether that is the support of
Speaker 3: of paid caregivers or therapists or whatever, or just like
Speaker 3: having your family help you a little bit more, you
Speaker 3: should definitely accept that to the extent that you are
Speaker 3: able to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good advice. That's where I am right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well, and just I mean figuring out what
Speaker 2: you can still do. I mean, and if it doesn't
Speaker 2: happen to go to Europe this summer, you know that
Speaker 2: that's something that you want to do as a family.
Speaker 2: That's why you planned it for the summer, which means
Speaker 2: that if it doesn't happen this summer, you make it
Speaker 2: happen next summer, right, and by that time things will
Speaker 2: probably look entirely different in terms of your recovery. You
Speaker 2: said that you had friendship goals. I bet you can
Speaker 2: still come up with fun things to do with friends
Speaker 2: because people will come visit you.
Speaker 1: You have a very good excuse to not go to them.
Speaker 1: You can make them all come to you.
Speaker 2: They can bring wine and snacks or board games or
Speaker 2: whatever it is that you can all crouche together, who
Speaker 2: knows whatever you like to do, right, You can do
Speaker 2: that and figure out new physical goals that still work,
Speaker 2: and as you're recovering from this knee injury, that it's
Speaker 2: gonna look different than if you didn't have that. But
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean you can't have anything that you are
Speaker 2: aiming for and then just keep revisiting as things go along.
Speaker 2: So yeah, but definitely nothing gained by like beating yourself
Speaker 2: up about any of this.
Speaker 1: I mean, people do not cause their medical things like this.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, anyway, we won't go on that soapbox.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, hopefully this has been something of a positive. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know it's a little less raw than the one.
Speaker 1: We're all we're all feeling a little yikes, yeah, a
Speaker 1: little bit yikes.
Speaker 3: I'd have recorded an episode of Bestlay of Plans like
Speaker 3: from the Hot partly because like it's probably dumb, but
Speaker 3: I was like, well, I have an episode due and whatever.
Speaker 3: I probably could have just done something else, but I
Speaker 3: maybe I also wanted to like share the story, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: a process. So this one's a little more calm because
Speaker 3: I'm a whole like ten days out now, the.
Speaker 2: Whole ten days out and in your closet and not
Speaker 2: in the hospitals. So it's all feeling a little different,
Speaker 2: all right, So.
Speaker 1: Love of the weeks, Sarah. Yeah, shout out to the
Speaker 1: super nice nurses I had.
Speaker 3: I mean they were all good, but like there were
Speaker 3: just some total standouts.
Speaker 1: One of them her name was Sarah. She was awesome.
Speaker 3: She was telling me all about like COVID times and
Speaker 3: how that's what was her very first job was working
Speaker 3: in the ICUs during COVID and I can't even imagine,
Speaker 3: but like, yeah, the nurses were just they made the
Speaker 3: experience great.
Speaker 1: Like the way they were like really made a difference.
Speaker 1: So that was great. And then my other I'm giving
Speaker 1: two because whatever, we can have two loves of the week.
Speaker 1: This Why is that.
Speaker 3: Anvil's teeth are so straight? They're so pretty, Like I'm jealous.
Speaker 3: She wore racist for a long time, and I you know,
Speaker 3: I helped pay for them, so I feel like I
Speaker 3: can take a little bit of credit. Oh and I
Speaker 3: drove her to a lot of appointments.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's like your street teeth too. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: they're in somebody else's mouth exactly. I'm going to say that.
Speaker 2: It's only a two hour and fifteen minute in the
Speaker 2: air flight from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale, So you know,
Speaker 2: I was in my house this morning and I'm in
Speaker 2: Sarah's closet right now, and it's kind of cool how
Speaker 2: that works. And yeah, I mean, air travel is amazing
Speaker 2: and gets you far distances very very quickly, and that's
Speaker 2: good because we can come see each other.
Speaker 1: Yeah phl fll. It's done it many times, done it
Speaker 1: many times.
Speaker 2: All right, Well we will be back next week with
Speaker 2: more on making work and life fit together.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3: You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com
Speaker 3: or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you.
Speaker 2: Can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This
Speaker 2: has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join
Speaker 2: us next time for more on making work and life
Speaker 2: work together.