In honor of Carmen

If you are following this blog you know that I am training with Team in Training-an organization that raises funds for leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood cancers. When I went to the information meeting for TNT our area coordinator told us that if we don't know anyone with leukemia or lymphoma, we will soon. It is so interesting because since then I have learned of several friends who have friends or family members living with a blood cancer, or who have beat the disease. Just yesterday though, through the powers of reconnection thanks to facebook, I found out that a fellow runner from my hometown was recently diagnosed with lymphoma. Carmen's family and mine have known one another for years. Her dad was my very first little league coach and I actually ran with her younger brother in high school. Unlike me, who has basically been sitting idle for the past seven years, Carmen has continued running since college participating in marathons and triathlons. I am posting her story here with her permission as a means of awareness which she so much wants to emphasize.

Many of you have been asking what is going on and I wanted to share my story. My intention is not to freak you out or make you sad, but to share what has been a crazy two weeks for me. In addition, I hope my tale is a reminder to listen to your body and when you do get injured seek medical care from those who understand runners.

About a year ago I started having excruciating pain in my left knee. It would hurt running, walking up and down stairs, etc. It would last for a day or two and then completely disappear for another month or so.

At the time I was pregnant with my second child so I asked my OB about the pain. She attributed it to the normal pains that every pregnant woman endures.

My pregnancy was very uneventful other than this occasional pain. I didn’t even have morning sickness. I ran up until the day of my induction. My second son, Porter, was born in June after a pretty easy labor and delivery. I felt great afterwards and resumed running 3 weeks later.

I continued to have pain through the summer and fall but it was less intense and more sporadic (every 1.5-2 months). I had read that the pregnancy hormones remain in your body while you are nursing so I chalked it up to residual pregnancy pain.

In January I started training for the Cincinnati Flying Pig marathon. The plan was to run it with my husband (his first) and my two college teammates.

As I increased my mileage my knee started hurting more often to the point it was chronic. I was constantly icing and stretching in order to keep it under control. When I stopped running and switched to cross training I had no pain at all.

Despite the knee pain during running, I felt great and was running really well. My workouts were tracking to a 3:10-3:15 marathon which would be a 12-17 minute PR for me. In fact, I ran a 5K time trial in early February of 19:36. This was a time I hadn’t seen since college which was 10 years and two babies ago.

Finally, in mid-February after a painful 2 hour run on hills at South Chagrin I finally decided I needed to see a doctor. I made an appointment with Dr. Nilesh Shah who is a runner and is well known in the running community.

It was about a week and a half before I could get an appointment. I was really worried about ” losing my fitness” and hurting my marathon prospects so I replicated my workouts on the bike and elliptical during this time. In retrospect I find this hilarious.

On February 25, I finally saw Dr. Shah. Runners tend to get a handful of injuries, most of them due to overuse. I was sure I had an overuse injury because I felt so good and because the pain went away when I stopped running.

First, two residents saw me. They checked me for the standard running injuries and seemed a little baffled. Next, Dr. Shah took a look at my knee. After eliminating the standard problems he ordered up xrays. I took the xrays and sat down with Dr. Shah to review.

He brought up the images on his computer and then abruptly got up and left the room. That was my first indication that things weren’t going well. He came back a few minutes later and explained that he had observed patchiness on my left femur and wanted to consult with a radiologist. Dr.Shah and the radiologist suspected it may be from bone loss from the pregnancy but wanted an MRI to make sure it wasn’t anything more sinister.

I had the MRI on Friday. They gave me a copy of the images on CD and I spend the weekend Googling “MRI images of the knee”. While the internet has a lot of info, it’s no substitute for medical school and I was unable to diagnose anything.

On Sunday night, I checked my phone and saw that there was a voicemail from Dr. Shah. From the timing of the call and the urgency in Dr. Shah’s voice, I knew things weren’t looking good. One agonizing hour later, I got a hold of Dr. Shah. He informed me that my MRI showed a suspect tumor on my distal femur. I knew right then that I had cancer even though the official diagnosis wouldn’t come for another week and a half.

I saw an orthopedic oncologist that Monday and had a bone biopsy on Thursday. After the surgery, the orthopedic oncologist informed my husband and parents that it was very probable that I had cancer.

I received the official diagnosis on Wednesday, March 11. Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Diffuse B Cell to be exact.

I’m thirty years old. I’ve never had a cavity. In seventeen years of running I’ve never experienced anything worse than shin splints (and a dog bite). I drink organic milk. I ran the Boston Marathon. I once did a 5 mile race 9 months pregnant while pushing a toddler in a jog stroller. I thought people like me don’t get cancer. But they do and I did.

I’m starting to realize that this is just one of those random things that happen. It can happen to anyone, children, Lance Armstrong, me. I think I may play the lottery.

That said, I’ve already learned two important lessons.

First, listen to your body. I am so thankful I was running because it clued me in that there was a problem. I had no symptoms other than running pains and would have never gone to the doctor otherwise. Who knows how bad things could have progressed?

Second, when you are injured make sure you see someone who understands runners. It would have been so easy for any run of the mill doc to misdiagnose me and tell me I was running too much and to back off. I am so thankful Dr. Shah knew what was normal and abnormal for runners and took an appropriate course of action.

I have an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic tomorrow, followed by presumably more tests. Once all the results are back a course of treatment will be developed.

I am honored to be participating in honor of Carmen.

The long and short of it...

So I haven't done a very good job at keeping up with this blog...seems to be a pattern in my life right now. Training is great, but adding that to my plate each day has shortened my evening quite a bit! So, the long and short of it...
I am up to 5 miles running now in training. I am very thankful to Lisa who is one of my team in training teammates and has become quite the encouraging force I need to press through and move on. I swam my first mile in the pool a couple of weeks ago and have since swam two more on top of working on my stroke and my kick...my trainer says I am way too stiff when I swim and I need to move my hips more...I don't really know how to do that, so I am glad I have a trainer. And, the biking has become my greatest mountain to climb. I have so far ridden 16 miles as my farthest distance-and I disliked most of it. I bought a new bike about three weeks ago and was enjoying the rides until they got longer. Now I dread them. I think it's because I get nervous that I will be ten miles away from my house and a tire will explode or something. I also just don't feel very comfortable on the road yet. So, again I am thankful for Lisa who does 65 mile rides on the weekend just for the fun of it and is going to help me tremendously with this part of it. Your prayers are greatly coveted!
As for the fund raising...my first round of letters produced about 15% of my fund raising goal. I believe they brought awareness of my training and that many more donations will come out of them. I am currently about $100 short of my recommitment amount which is due on March 27. I am sure that won't be an issue. Then it is going to be a huge email/facebook campaign, and work on a plan B for raising the other 75% of the funds.
I am going to try to be better about updating this blog as I really want it to be a place people want to visit to see my progress. Thank you all for your continued support!

The amazing shoe deal

So last week I went to a specialty sport store where they analyzed my foot and told me what kind of running shoes would work best for me. I am thinking that since I am not 16 anymore, and my body doesn't recover as quickly as it once did, I am willing to invest a little more in a good pair of shoes. Of course being at this particular store, the shoes cost a bit more than I was willing to spend. The model that they told me would be the best was $89.95. I asked them to hold them for me so that I could look around. I then went to Dick's Sporting Goods to check out the shoe selection there. They had the exact same model on sale there for $74.99. I thought this was a bit better, but still wanted to see if I could find a better deal. So already being right there, I figured I would just run in to Shoe Carnival. I was very pleasantly surprised to see the same model once again, but here they were only $65.00. I was pretty proud of myself at this point for holding out for the deal. At Shoe Carnival shoes are always buy one get one half off, and since I have been needing a new pair of black shoes for work, I decided to browse around a bit to see if I could go ahead and get them half off. As I was looking through the clearance section there were what appeared to be the exact running shoes I was holding in my hand. I picked them up and looked them over-it turns out they were the exact model...just last year's model-and they were on clearance for $35.00! I found a pair of black shoes for 29.99 and headed to the check out where the cashier informed me that all clearance shoes are now $5 off clearance price. So, I left Shoe Carnival with the two pair of shoes for about $45.00 plus tax. That means essentially my $89.95 shoes were purchased for $22.50. Patience can pay off!!!

First team training and back in the pool!

I want to let you all know that this is not only my first triathlon, but also my first blog, so still trying to figure it all out!

I went to my first team training on Saturday morning. Found out that I am the only one from the Western North Carolina team that will be going to the Capital Texas Triathlon this year. It's kind of sad, but we meet up with other area teams to travel, so that will be cool. I met a couple of the people I will be training often with-other triathlon athletes. We ran at Country Park. I never knew there were such nice trails there. I am really excited to run some more miles there. We will be having our first swim training on Friday evening.

I got to swim at the y yesterday. Got there later than I had planned after I tutored, but was lucky...no swim team practice! I had the whole pool to myself for the most part. I swam several laps, but I always lose count of them...need to work on that one. It felt good to get back into the pool. The swimming is the part I am the most concerned about for the triathlon. I don't think I really have any concept of what it is like to swim a mile in open water. I guess I will learn soon!

The beginning

So I took the first step on Tuesday-joined the Y. I was really excited to learn that the YMCA now offers a metro pass so I can go to any Y in Greensboro with my membership. I then took the next step on Wednesday. I actually ran on the track. 3 miles. I got a training schedule from my tri trainer earlier in the week and that was the recommended mileage, so I bit the bullet and went for the ten long laps around the indoor track. It was not nearly as bad as I expected. This is when I discovered that I am still a runner! On Thursday I went with the intention of jogging a mile warm up before hitting the bike. When I got there the rtun was feeling great, so I went ahead and did two miles. Then I made another amazing discovery-the Bryan Family Y has these sweet bikes with screens where you can ride a tour and it is like you are playing a video game...racing against other bikers and twisting and turning, going up hills and on trails. I was pretty excited about that. This evening I was supposed to be swimming but there was a city wide swim meet taking place at the Y, so I opted for a nice run outside since the weather has warmed up. I forgot how much I enjoy running along the side of the road and taking in the surroundings. In the morning I will meet many people on the team and run with a group for the first time in eight years...seems impossible that it has been that long. I am really looking forward to networking with a whole new group of people and being able to motivate, as well as be motivated on this journey.