1 Year. 3 Surgeries. 3 Races.

This is what my 28th year is looking like so far:

November 30, 2013 - turned 28
December 2, 2013 - total colectomy & jpouch construction surgery
March 7, 2014 - cervical conization surgery
Still to come:
June 9, 2014 - reversal of loop ileostomy

My complications so far have been 2 partial blockages and severe dehydration, needing 2 IV bags twice to get functional again. Oh yeah, plus 1 stomach bug and 2 head colds. An abnormal pap smear and an abnormal colposcopy in January led to the conization surgery. And in between all this, I have been shuffled through 3 different opthamologist offices as they try to figure out whether I have low-tension glaucoma. So far the best specialist in the country (Dr. Marlene Moster, she was the funniest doctor I have ever seen) has decided nope, no need to treat me for glaucoma. She thinks I have have funky eyes and optic nerves, which she has never seen before. That's never a good feeling to hear come out of a doctor's mouth, but from her, she says its a good thing.

So despite all this medical CRAP, I feel so healthy and amazing, and most importantly happy. And here's the best thing: I have been able to go for a run for the first time in 4 years. In order to celebrate this amazing feeling, I plan on making my comeback with the following races:

August 17, 2014 - Got Guts 5K in Ocean City
September 6, 2014 - The Philly 10K in South Philly
November 16, 2014 - Rock N Roll Half Marathon in Vegas.

In 6 months' time, I will have had countless blood tests, 10 doctor office visits, 6 procedural tests, and 3 surgeries (2 of them major surgeries.) The next 6 months will hopefully bring nothing but positives: 3 races, each them 3-6 miles longer than the last one! I cannot wait.


To anyone who is not a chronically ill patient, this may seem like a lot of stuff to go through. But really, I am getting off pretty easy. Especially now! I felt way worse before surgery. Imagine basically having the flu for four years straight? That was my life! I couldn't eat, cook or watch TV without abdominal pain. I couldn't go shopping, walk the dogs, or enjoy a get-together without the stress of how close the bathroom was.

There are people with this same disease who have much worse situations in many different ways, like no familial support, bad insurance, more chronic diseases and their own dependents to take care of.

My thoughts and hearts go out to those people, they need it more than I do.

Step Into the Sun

And these last three years, I know they've been hard. 

But now it's time to step out of the desert and into the sun.

While I was doing some work from home, I was listening to an old band I was really into in college, The Format. One of my favorite songs came on, and it brought me back to when I was first diagnosed. Not that it spoke to me about my diagnosis at the time, but on a side note, I find myself defining my memories by whether I was sick or not. Like, when I look at an old picture and I think, "Oh I remember that day, I felt like crap but I forced myself to go out." Or "Wow, I remember how healthy and stress-free I was that day." The song just brought me back to those scary and confusing first few months.

Anyway, this song "On Your Porch" came on and these lines spoke to me, about how really the last four years have been so difficult with this disease. But now I am feeling so healthy and so happy that it's my time to step into the sun.

I went for a short run yesterday for the first time in over four years. I was so happy I could have cried.