( CNN ) Hiccups . 3 facts : We all get them . They are annoying . They will go away . Well , Week one of the CNN Fit Nation Challenge has presented me with some hiccups . My hiccups started just before Christmas ; my right knee started aching . Disclaimer : I am 67 . Stuff happens ! The ache seemed to be no big deal . A little ibuprofen and I felt pretty good . I was still going to the gym , doing a little ( very little ) on my treadmill , and started swimming this January 7 . I went to a sports medicine doctor on January 15 and was given naproxen , which worked very well . I was scheduled to return to the doctor February 5 . Kick-off Weekend started on January 21 . With my new painkiller friend , I was able to keep up with everything and loved every minute of it . I was a bit achy , but darn it , I was not going to let it affect this amazing time . Plus , I did n't want it to show -- no big deal , the pain will go away . What a weekend -- it was amazing , awesome , really . Like I tell people , it was like Christmas , only with better workouts ! And I had fantastic teammates . We bonded . We laughed . We cried . January 25 , our last day together , we swam and then we hiked up Stone Mountain . But as the old saying goes , `` What goes up must come down . '' There was no denying that my knee hurt . I figured it would go away , as all hiccups do ( see hiccup facts above ) . There is no time for babying it . We had lunch and then a lovely ride to the airport with CNN 's medical team . While on the flight on Sunday , I started feeling an itchy area on the back of my leg . `` It 's a bug bite , '' I 'm thinking . Next morning , it is large and red . Tuesday morning , I awoke to snow . I checked the area on my leg and it was blistered . My mind went to `` brown recluse spider bite . '' Everything was closed ( snow in South Jersey closes everything ) so I called a dear friend whose husband is a physician . He took one look at it and pronounced . `` You have shingles . '' I was on meds by noon . But there was no swimming until the blistering was gone . OK , so I ca n't run and now I ca n't swim . Hiccups on hiccups . Doctors did an MRI on it January 28 . Since I am a nurse ( uh , with a few control issues ) , I always like to see the test results . They came in the mail January 30 . I 'd had a gym/swim ( blisters gone ) morning and felt great , thanks to my buddy naproxen , and had been feeling happy . But the results that came in the mail , well : . I have a large medial meniscus tear , Baker 's cyst , enchondroma ( a benign cartilage tumor ) . Oh yeah , the hiccups just got real . I emailed the Fit Nation team managers . `` Stay calm , '' they told me , `` we 'll get through this . '' We will . The good news in all this : It 's Week 1 and , like all hiccups , this will go away . I foresee doctor visits in my future and maybe a `` procedure , '' but these hiccups will go away . Stay tuned .
At 67 , Linda Garrett is the oldest person to have ever joined the Fit Nation team . The semiretired psychiatric nurse kept busy looking after people in her job and in her family , and paid limited attention to her own health . A mud run inspired her to want to train for a triathlon `` I 'm a triathlete in my mind . ... I want to make it a reality ''