July 29, 2009

Gone Too Fast

It's 4:30am, I was about to rise from my slumber when it rained. It's a downpour, I decided to skip my early 10km scheduled run and went back to bed to continue my sleep. At 5:30am I woke up to find out it was not raining anymore. At 6:30am, after I brought my son to school I headed to the amoranto oval with a 6min warm-up run.

After a little stretching routine I went to work. My program is to run at race speed for 5km. The first kilometer went fine with a split time of 04m19s. The second kilometer was faster as I clocked at 04m11s. My breathing was normal, I could feel I'm back after the recovery period from the recent milo eliminations.

The Ordeal

On my sixth lap, I stared at my watch to see my split when suddenly I felt a twitch in my left eye. The twitching continued and shut down my left eye. Worried, I halted as the sensation exaggerated, now including part of my left face. It was at this moment that I felt that the twitching is severe. Serious enough that I was terrified, I thought of having a symptom of stroke. I did not panicked though and even shouted to my peers for help. My mind was lucid as I was anticipating a fall, which luckily didn't occur. After a brief walk, uttering prayers, it went out and returned to normal. Saying thanks and praises to God, I continued my walk to the bench and drenched myself with cold water. I called it a day.

The Discovery

During the afternoon I went to the doctor and had my check-up. The diagnosis; it was a muscle twitch. Fasciculation (wikipedia) is a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction (twitching) visible under the skin arising from the spontaneous discharge of a bundle of skeletal muscle fibers. Fasciculations have a variety of causes, the majority of which are benign, but can also be due to disease of the motor neurons. More of this here.

The check-up went well, I had a good dialogue with the doctor, an internal medicine/cardiology specialist. My neuro tests conducted were all normal but I have to have a blood test examined in a couple of days. I hope it would end up well. The good news was "you're good to go, you're good to run", she said.

16 comments:

  1. Kakatakot naman nyan. Glad your ok. And happy to hear your doc's advice. Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  2. good to know you are okay. medyo natakot ako dun dun ah.

    ReplyDelete
  3. thank God you're okay vener. :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pareho tayo regarding the rain. I was also scheduled to run at Amoranto yesterday. But the 4:30am rain told me to sleep nalang so I opted to sleep & run sa treadmill in the afternoon. Weird nga kasi I don't recall that it rained the whole day... just that morning.

    The muscle twitch was sa scare. To think nasa one part lang ng face yung twitching. While I was reading your post kala ko din stroke signs. Praise God na muscle twitch lang at hindi stroke.

    -Grey

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ang bilis mo talaga tumakbo. I was struggling to run 6 minutes per K this morning.

    i have seen that with some friends. In their case it was stress related.

    Regards m8parco

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jinoe - Thanks, natakot talaga ako. That was the first time I had that experience. My doctor said she also experiences this kind of thing particularly in the eyelids. She added, mabilis lang daw yung takbo ko that time.

    Wilbert - Thank you. Now I'm contemplating if I would be racing pa, I'm thinking of having just a leisure run as of the moment. It kinda scared me a lot.

    Rod - Thanks. Marunong talaga ang Diyos. Let's keep on calling, never fail.

    Grey - Thanks for visiting. Immediately after that ordeal the sun appeared intensely. Para bang sumabay dun sa thanksgiving ko with God. Got to be cautious this time.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That was scary. kala ko rin stroke. Glad you're ok.

    ReplyDelete
  8. that was scary! good that you are okay. TC

    ReplyDelete
  9. kinabahan kami dun ah! We're really glad you're okay Vener. We will be praying for excellent results of your other tests. We hope to be seeing you running for a long, long time still.

    Take care and God bless!

    ReplyDelete
  10. glad you're ok now, the first time i learned about this, i thought baka pareho naman nung nangyari kay coach rio (bell's pallsy) before. hope all the tests will turn out fine, see you sa urbanite? =)

    bobby

    ReplyDelete
  11. i used to have severe eyelid twitches on 1 eye years back. I found out that it was due to stress since I was bothered by a major life decision at the time.

    when it happens again, just calm down, relax, and pray ---just like how you did at amoranto. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Mark - I think it was stress related too, one of the reason why I run, to shake those things off me, kaya lang I wasn't expecting na ganun kagrabe. I'm feeling good now. Regards to Tiffin.

    ReplyDelete
  13. BigBen - Thanks for visiting. I shrugged off the idea of stroke kasi I don't have a history, but it scared me a lot. Hope to meet you soon.

    Dennis - Thanks. Ikaw din ang mag-ingat, malapit na. See you sa urbanite.

    Jun&Mariel - You really keep me strong at this time of predicament, thank you. I hope everything will be fine. See you soon.

    Rico - Thanks. Ready na ba tayo sa urbanite, see you then?

    Bobby - Inisip ko rin na baka ganun nga, kaya lang di ito nagtagal. Dahil sa stress siguro as attested by daytripper. See you sa urbanite.

    DT1021 - Now I know that it really occurs. I'll just keep to be ready anytime and leave those stresses behind before I run. Thanks for the words and for the visit. I hope to meet you soon.

    ReplyDelete
  14. slightly suspense and tense. good to hear you're okay. sometimes meron din akong tick sa left eyelid but never extended to my whole face. freaky sya ... when im stressed or too tired mas mabilis yung twitching. ganya siguro pagmabilis ... mas malaki ang coverage ng tick.

    ingat lagi.

    - bards

    ReplyDelete
  15. Bards - Thanks. I think it really happens, I can feel those ticks before but not that of my last one. I was terrified, I'm more cautious now. We missed you for sometime, I hope you're doing fine. See you.

    ReplyDelete