Poked and Prodded

The JSC clinic gives every employee a yearly physical that they schedule a few weeks prior to your birthday. Today was my lucky day to be poked and prodded, so off I went. But as I sat in the waiting room for short periods between getting my eyes checked, my ears checked, my EKG, my blood taken, etc, I saw a couple familiar faces. They’re not familiar faces because I know them personally, but because they’ve been all over the news. Yes, Stan Love and Dan Tani, two of the astronauts that just came back on the shuttle two days ago, were spending the morning in the clinic running through what I can only assume is the standard battery of post-flight medical tests.
Dan looked pretty darn good for someone who spent the past 4 months in space. He seemed happy, even though it must be a downer to finally come back to Earth only to spend your first few days with a slew of doctors and nurses. His wife was with him, though; she was attached to his arm. I think I’d be pretty attached to my husband too if I hadn’t seen him in four months! She looked happy to have him back.
My physical was uneventful. I always forget that they have you do the whole “pee in a cup” thing, and so I spend an hour doing what I end up doing every year — chugging water between tests to make myself have to go. Fun. I don’t actually get the results of my bloodwork and other tests until I go back in a few weeks for part 2, but hopefully when I see them I’ll be able to report good, healthy numbers. I think I’ve lost a few pounds since last year, so that’s a start.
Friday is always my day off from exercising, especially during periods like this where I’m training for something. (It’s not my only day off, but it’s the only standing day of the week that I intentionally plan to not work out.) But I’ll be running. So far, it has proved to be quite difficult to fit in workouts on Wednesdays and Thursdays, between work and class and sleep. I’ve managed to fit in quick runs and spins in past weeks, but this week was a disaster. Take last night, for instance: I had two hours between work and class, which I had to spend doing my homework since I hadn’t managed to do it any earlier! My bike sat in the garage taunting me while I did my reading and dutifully took notes. Grr.
So: run tonight. Bike tomorrow. TBD on Sunday!