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!