When most people get sick on the weekend, they can flick the switch
on the alarm clock and stay in bed. If they decide they're sick enough
and need some sort of medication, they can go to the store (or send
someone), take it, fall back asleep and hope for a quick recovery. For
Olympic athletes it's just a little bit different and I was just lucky
enough to go through those paces today.
I had a meet I was
supposed to compete in today but woke up feeling worse than yesterday
and knew right away I wasn't going to be able to get in the pool. But
since I had filled out my drug forms (I have to submit my every day and
certain hourly whereabouts to drug testing control agencies) that I
would be at the meet, I had to get out of bed and fill out a form to
update where I would actually be, instead. Then I text messaged it in
to ensure there would be a record of the adjustment, just in case.
After
another hour of failing attempts at sleep, I woke up and my husband,
Nathan, made me some tea with honey. I noticed the longer I was up the
worse I felt, but if I tried to sleep I would get so congested that I'd
start to get a horrible headache. So, Nathan went off to the store and
I sat down at the computer awaiting his call. Why? Because I have to
make sure I can even take any medications that might help with my cold
symptoms.
Nathan walked to the pharmacy area of the store and
called me and started naming off brand name products so I could put
them into USADA's (very handy) online reference tool. Before this came
along athletes had to call into a physician's pager and wait for a call
back. And I'll be honest, there were several times over the last decade
where I never received a call back at all and got pretty upset about
it, but that's another story for another time.
Anyway, after we
found something the website said I could take--we settled on 'Aleve
Cold & Sinus' (I'm not a paid endorser, honest!)--I switched over
to check the ingredients themselves because you never can be too
careful. You don't know if this is a new formula and the website is
outdated or not and, wisely, USADA makes sure to tell you that even if
the site says you can take it, you're still doing so at your own risk.
So,
Nathan named off, and spelled, every active and inactive ingredient and
any other fifteen letter word that might look a little suspicious, and
after what felt like a half hour, was able to buy it.
Lots of people like to stick with the "tried and true" method of
mega-dosing Vitamin C when they're sick, too. But since I ran out of my
regular Vitamin C supplement which I have to order in, I'm at a loss
for that little trick. I don't trust most of the store brands so I
can't just pick one up off the shelf, lest I risk a positive test due
to cross-contamination. It never feels good to be sick and then have to
jump through hoops just to try and get better, but it's most definitely
better to be safe than sorry. And truly, if it kept better tabs on
athletes and made sure everyone was competing clean, I'd put up with a
whole lot more hassles, too.
More than a few people have found it pretty amusing as to what
some athletes have to go through just to treat a cold or flu, so I
wanted to share it. It's an adventure sometimes, to be sure. And given
recent news that does bring up a certain thought...
I bet Alex Rodriguez has never thought to check out his cold medicine.
