It was 12 months ago to this day when I started to develop stomach discomfort. Discomfort is the only way I was able to describe it at the time but it was later explained to me that what I was feeling was pain. I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary and other than repeated cold like symptoms whenever I put two-three sessions together I still felt relatively fit but the discomfort wouldn't disappear. Being early in the year, there were plenty of people keen on hiring me to help them with PT and I was soldiering on making sure that no one was let down by this irritating "tummy bug". Only a week after it began did I start shifting sessions around and that was quickly followed by my wife finding me in the fetal position (still trying to navigate work that morning). Fortunately for us the local hospital is only 10 minutes from home and my wife spent the entire day with me in the emergency ward. Throughout the day I was put on an IV drip, had bloods taken, x-rays and more scans. The doctors weren't sure what was causing the discomfort however their initial concerns were that we were dealing with a cancer. This was enough to bring both my wife and I to tears as we thought about what life might look like for our three young kids if it should turn out to be the worst. We were sent on our way at 4pm with no conclusive evidence and was told to get more bloods in a weeks time to determine if we were dealing with a blood cancer. I went back to work on the Thursday (2 days later) feeling as though I was on top of whatever this was. I didn't want to keep letting my clients down and the only way to stop doing this was to go back to work. This lasted all of one session though as I found myself getting more bloods and emergency scans later in the day trying to understand what on earth was going on! Another trip to the hospital on the Sunday, a large dosage of laxatives and the realisation that I may just be lactose intolerant (self diagnosed) after consuming lasagne of all things throughout the previous week and a bit. Either way, far happier with this diagnosis than the possibilities given to me by the doctor. This felt like a second chance and it finally gave us the answers as to why I was unable to workout multiple times per week without getting sick again. We fast forward a year and I've since run almost 3000km, finished 103rd in the 12km City to Bay out of 10000+ competitors, ran a 5km pb and finished 24th in the Victor Harbor Half Marathon out of 1075 competitors. It's given me another level of appreciation of just how fortunate I am to be able to live the life that I live. Nothing like a little jolt to kick us back into gear
