Yesterday we had our training session at Burke Lake park, which brought back a lot of memories of growing up near Burke lake and running their in high school. Makes me start to feel pretty old, especially since I am really sore today after the run! I only ran 5 miles as my foot has been bothering me a little. Cindy (our dog) was with me and I also needed to cool her down before the end of practice as I think she could have done a few more laps around the lake!
In fund raising news, I am still moving forward with my election day bake sale and am still trying to get everything worked out for a Happy Hour Fundraiser in November in Arlington. Hopefully I will have news on that tomorrow!
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Diets and Desserts
So I have officially maded it through the intro phase of my new diet I am trying that has worked for others with Crohn's disease and UC. This diet, the specific carbohydrate diet, is a strict grain-free, lactose-free and sucrose-free diet that adds up to a whole lot of no fun. I am actually not quite missing carbs yet and feel very empowered with my homemade yogurt and chicken soup I made this week, but I know it will get old. Slowly over the next few weeks I should be able to introduce vegetables and fruit back into my diet, which I have been missing for 2 years now. Nothing like going from one extreme to the other.
In other news, I am planning to do a bake sale fund raiser at an election site in Arlington on November 4th (6am-9am then again at 4:30pm till the goods run out). So if anyone is interested in stopping by or helping out, send me an e-mail!
In other news, I am planning to do a bake sale fund raiser at an election site in Arlington on November 4th (6am-9am then again at 4:30pm till the goods run out). So if anyone is interested in stopping by or helping out, send me an e-mail!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Today's Training Session
I had another good training session today, despite the sudden change in temperature. We ran along the Custis trail from Ballston to the Key Bridge. I ran with three other girls and we did 6 miles and I was able to run the whole time, including the many hills. Even in my 10K races I have had to walk, so today was a big day to finish the whole run without stopping! I am sure though that my legs are going to feel the hills tomorrow though...
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Great Fundraising News!!!
Yesterday I got a huge donation that came out of left field that I did not see coming at all. I am truly amazed at the generosity that has been shown to me and my cause. When I started out doing this I was so scared I would not even raise $1000 and at this point I have already raised $1130!
I can not believe I have so many friends that have stepped up to support me, and I do not mean just financially, as I have 75+ people that have joined my facebook group alone to show support for what I am doing. Having so much support has made it so much easier to come forward and tell my story. So thank you to everyone! Especially to Chris who came up with some great fundraisers this past weekend and really stepped up to help me accomplish my goal.
I can not believe I have so many friends that have stepped up to support me, and I do not mean just financially, as I have 75+ people that have joined my facebook group alone to show support for what I am doing. Having so much support has made it so much easier to come forward and tell my story. So thank you to everyone! Especially to Chris who came up with some great fundraisers this past weekend and really stepped up to help me accomplish my goal.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
My First Training Session - October 11th
I went to my first training session on October 11th and had such a fantastic experience. I am so fortunate to find myself surrounded by such motivated people. I never wanted to join a support group because I was always affraid that their would be all of this negativity within the group. However, as I meet more and more people with UC or Crohn's the more I realize that maybe the support group would not be such a bad idea as we are all in this together. I am finally glad I am surrounding myself with others that can understand what I am going through which I think is an important step in moving forward.
We ran 4.5 miles in a hilly section of Arlington (I am being to think all of Arlington is hilly) and I was very happy as I ran the whole thing and was able to stay in about the middle of the pack. There are 65 of us training, so hopefully I will always be able to find a running partner. This weekend I ran with Mary and Renee....Mary has Crohn's as well and Renee had driven all the way up from Richmond to do the training sessions as a friend of her's recently passed away due to Crohn's complications in August at age 23. I can not say enough how friendly everyone I have met has been!
The rest of the weekend I looked into trying a new diet of no carbs or sugar, which might help with the stomach pain and I also worked on a plan to raise the money for CCFA. More info on both of these topics to come.....
We ran 4.5 miles in a hilly section of Arlington (I am being to think all of Arlington is hilly) and I was very happy as I ran the whole thing and was able to stay in about the middle of the pack. There are 65 of us training, so hopefully I will always be able to find a running partner. This weekend I ran with Mary and Renee....Mary has Crohn's as well and Renee had driven all the way up from Richmond to do the training sessions as a friend of her's recently passed away due to Crohn's complications in August at age 23. I can not say enough how friendly everyone I have met has been!
The rest of the weekend I looked into trying a new diet of no carbs or sugar, which might help with the stomach pain and I also worked on a plan to raise the money for CCFA. More info on both of these topics to come.....
Starting a blog....a little background...
Since starting this journey to run a ½ marathon in an effort to raise awareness and help find a cure for Crohn’s disease, I have kind of been on a journey of self discovery. I know it is really cliché, but I don’t know exactly how else to describe it. Until I announced to the world that I had Crohn’s disease and started connecting with others that have it or ulcerative colitis, I was still in denial. Chris and I had always speculated that even after 2.5 years of finally being diagnosed that I was still not coming to terms with the disease and instead was constantly trying to figure out how to get back to my life before Crohn’s. In the last month, I have been working hard to move past thinking about life before Crohn’s and focus on how to actually start dealing with my new norm. This has meant countless hours of reading blogs, talking on message boards, ordering books to try new diets and to help cope with being diagnosed with a chronic illness in my 20s. I have decided as part of my therapy to write a blog about coming to terms with the disease and training for the marathon. And lets face it, if I have any hope of doing this race, I need to have some accountability so I will be posting my training schedule on my blog each week for my coach to review.
I will typically just talk about the highs and lows of training, as well has how my overall health is going, but today I decided to start with a little background info for everyone who is not familiar with Crohn’s disease. I guess I will start with my general health, I have never been an incredibly healthy, in fact looking back at high school and college it now seems funny to think that getting the stomach flu half a dozen times a year seemed “normal” to me. It was not until my last year of college that I actually went to see a gastroenterologist and they basically told me that I was under a huge amount of stress (wedding, graduation, moving, new job) and that everything would work itself out. After all of the “stresses”, I did get better however in January of 2006 I started first getting the “stomach flu” every few weeks and then it turned to once a week. It took several months and countless tests, but thanks to Dr Burkey in Williamsburg I was finally able to get a diagnosis of Crohn’s Disease in my ileum (where your small and large intestines meet) in the Spring of 2006.
It was bitter sweet being diagnosed because I was so used to a doctor saying, oh you have this, here take this medicine and you will be fine and with Crohn’s Disease they don’t have a clear answer on how to manage this incurable disease. One doctor might think you should do this….another thinks you should try this treatment. So far I have been under the care of three specialists and I am still more confused then ever, which is very hard for someone who always has to be in control of everything to deal with. And then when the medicine is actually helping, the controlling part of me still can’t deal with the thoughts of how long will the medicine last, what if I get sick again, what if I can’t walk the dog in the morning because I am in too much pain. These thoughts go through my head daily, which is enough to make anyone crazy. Luckily I have a fabulous husband, Chris, to keep me sane and a great network of friends and family.
So far I have been lucky, even though I still haven’t gone into full remission; I feel so much better on the medicine and only have blockages (really bad stomach flu in laymen’s terms) about twice a year. I also do not have many of the horrible symptoms that other’s suffering from the disease have, as I only really have to deal with waves of pain, nausea and bloating of my stomach which for the most part I have just learned to deal with as they come. A large part of dealing with Crohn’s disease is also diet as well, so I have learned how to avoid “trigger” foods that can cause my stomach to go into attack mode. For everyone that doesn’t know what Crohn’s Disease is, it is an auto-immune disease in which the body mistakes food, good bacteria and other materials for foreign and invading substances and launches an attack against them. I could go into greater detail, but I am going to do my best not to get into too much personal info. So that is basically my Crohn’s Disease in a nut shell or at least the condensed version. If anyone ever wants to know more details please feel free to contact me!
I will typically just talk about the highs and lows of training, as well has how my overall health is going, but today I decided to start with a little background info for everyone who is not familiar with Crohn’s disease. I guess I will start with my general health, I have never been an incredibly healthy, in fact looking back at high school and college it now seems funny to think that getting the stomach flu half a dozen times a year seemed “normal” to me. It was not until my last year of college that I actually went to see a gastroenterologist and they basically told me that I was under a huge amount of stress (wedding, graduation, moving, new job) and that everything would work itself out. After all of the “stresses”, I did get better however in January of 2006 I started first getting the “stomach flu” every few weeks and then it turned to once a week. It took several months and countless tests, but thanks to Dr Burkey in Williamsburg I was finally able to get a diagnosis of Crohn’s Disease in my ileum (where your small and large intestines meet) in the Spring of 2006.
It was bitter sweet being diagnosed because I was so used to a doctor saying, oh you have this, here take this medicine and you will be fine and with Crohn’s Disease they don’t have a clear answer on how to manage this incurable disease. One doctor might think you should do this….another thinks you should try this treatment. So far I have been under the care of three specialists and I am still more confused then ever, which is very hard for someone who always has to be in control of everything to deal with. And then when the medicine is actually helping, the controlling part of me still can’t deal with the thoughts of how long will the medicine last, what if I get sick again, what if I can’t walk the dog in the morning because I am in too much pain. These thoughts go through my head daily, which is enough to make anyone crazy. Luckily I have a fabulous husband, Chris, to keep me sane and a great network of friends and family.
So far I have been lucky, even though I still haven’t gone into full remission; I feel so much better on the medicine and only have blockages (really bad stomach flu in laymen’s terms) about twice a year. I also do not have many of the horrible symptoms that other’s suffering from the disease have, as I only really have to deal with waves of pain, nausea and bloating of my stomach which for the most part I have just learned to deal with as they come. A large part of dealing with Crohn’s disease is also diet as well, so I have learned how to avoid “trigger” foods that can cause my stomach to go into attack mode. For everyone that doesn’t know what Crohn’s Disease is, it is an auto-immune disease in which the body mistakes food, good bacteria and other materials for foreign and invading substances and launches an attack against them. I could go into greater detail, but I am going to do my best not to get into too much personal info. So that is basically my Crohn’s Disease in a nut shell or at least the condensed version. If anyone ever wants to know more details please feel free to contact me!
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