The begining of every journey begins with one small step.

June 21st, 2010 Chicago, IL.  This was the big day. It was two years in the making and it had finally come. This would be my 13th surgery. I'm not incredibly superstitious but still, the fact that it was my 13the surgey did not escape me and maybe made me a wee bit worried. On this day my surgeon would be performing a Roux n Y on me. Gastric bypass. Now I know a lot of people think this is the 'cheaters' way to losing weight but the surgery was being performed for different reasons than that of celebrities like Star Jones or Carnie Wilson. 

When I was diagnosed with JRA the only treatment was massive doses of baby aspirin. Actually to call that treatment is wrong. The aspirin was merely a way for me to deal with the throbbing pain in my right ankle, it would not stop the progression of my disease, merely make the pain slightly easier. By massive doses I mean my parents had to buy new bottles of aspirin about every 2 - 3 days. Aspirin is incredibly harsh on the digestive system. Then I was given prednisone, a steroid, which also over long term use will cause ulcerations of the stomach. By the time I was 25 I had several severe ulcers in my stomach lining. I lived on anti-acid pills. I could make a cocktail of pepto bismal, antacids, and tums in a jiff and then pray that I would sleep through the night without vomiting stomach acids and bile. It took me a year of living like this when I finally just could not take it anymore. After many false starts, crushed hopes, and intensive search for the right surgeon and right program I found my surgeon and started the process of getting my gastric bypass. By having this surgery I would no longer have the intense burning pain in my gut that often made me wonder if I actually was harboring a very angry alien in my stomach who would come bursting out at an inconvenient moment. As my surgeon said, the surgery would also save my life as several of my ulcers were dangerously close to perforating my stomach lining.

Surgery went smoothly, no problems at all. I woke up in recovery and all I could think was: ok, now what? What would my life be like now? I had taken the presurgical courses which outlined how I would have to change how and what I ate. How I would need to focus on proteins, protein shakes, calorie intake, etc. All these things I never thought of. It was rough the first few weeks. I had two drains coming out of my stomach which made me very uncomfortable, I did not want to leave the house with those drains. Watching my family eat was no big deal, I had no appetite. I worried that I was not drinking enough protein but my doctor kept telling me I was doing fine and not to worry so much. As long as I followed the instructions then I would be fine. Imagine my shock at my first post op check to find that I had lost a whopping 15lbs in two weeks. I started at 227lbs, size 22 pants, XXL shirts. I hated mirrors, I hated clothing stores and I especially hated trying on clothes in those annoying small rooms.

Over the next 11 months I followed my instructions and stopped worrying and the weight came off. By April I was down to 138lbs, size 10 clothing and medium shirts. But more than that, I stood up tall, I walked with my head held high and I was smiling. All the time. I felt ALIVE. My arthritis still hurt, but not the intensity and frequency that it had before.  I still needed my meds to live life. I do injections weekly to keep my arthritis under some sort of control. I still needed pain meds daily to cope with the pain but I still felt better and more ALIVE than I had ever before. I could sleep without being woken up to a mouthful of burning acid. Heck I could sleep lying down and not propped up by all of the pillows I could find.

I was more active, hiking trails with my family and during one outing with my 3 boys, navigated a very difficult train up the side of a mountain in our area. For years I had wanted to be able to climb up one of the mountains that surrounds the Phoenix Valley. It was never a possibility with the shape I had been, with the joint pain I was suffering. But there I was, on top of this mountain, with my 3 boys who also were so happy to see their Mom smiling.  It struck me at that moment, my world of possibilities had opened even wider after having the surgery. I would never be a star athlete but at least now, I could TRY things that the doctors had always said I could not do. Like running.

From day one the doctors had told my parents that I would never be able to run. The impact would damage my joints and the loss of flexibility would limit my ability to run with a 'correct' gait. As I got older they would remind me of this with each visit. In school I was given an excused note so that I never had to join in the class with doing their 15 minute mile runs. Then as I got older and I gained more and more weight due to both the steroids I was on for the disease but also from the stress/depressive eating I would do to stuff down my feelings of anger and loneliness that comes with the disease and being a teenager. It was a vicious cycle.

Now, I could see a glimmer of hope. That the one thing I had NEVER EVER been able to do might be a possibility for me. The docs had said, you will never ride a bike. I did it. They said you probably will never be able to have kids, I had 3. They said you can't roller skate, I tried it once and well, I didn't like it but at least I can say, I tried it. The one thing I've never tried, I never attempted was running. 

That brings me to today. While planning a family trip to Disneyland I came across an article talking about the 1st ever Tinkerbell Half Marathon being held in January of 2012 in Disneyland.  I love Tinkerbell because my youngest son loves Tinkerbell. He loves her so much he has a bedspread with her on it, he has a poster of her, and at one point when he was 3 he wore sandals with Tinkerbell on them. Now before people think that we are letting our boy be 'girly' let me assure you, he loves Legos, he loves Ben10 cartoons, playing in the dirt and playing pretend games involving shooting and 'boy' themes. But as he tells me, Tinkerbell is cool because she builds things. And she's pretty. Very very pretty.
Arthur and I's ultimate goal

I looked at this article and thought, can I do this? It requires you to be able to keep a pace of a mile every 13 minutes. I've gone to the gym a few times and knew that on average I could complete a mile at a walking pace at around 11 - 12 minutes. I thought that maybe with training I could do this. So here I am, tomorrow May 16th I'm going to start training. Me and Arthur, my nickname for this disease that has been a constant companion.  I've talked to a few people who also have arthritis who have completed marathons and searched the internet for training programs. In my research the theme seems to be to focus on small chunks of the race, one mile at a time. So instead of setting myself up for failure and overwhelming myself with right off training for the half marathon I'm focusing first on training for a 5k. Once I do that, which I should be done with by the beginning of August I will then train for a 10k. After that I will train for the half which should bring me right to January.

I've picked this training program to guide me and will blog about how it's going, how it affects my Arthur and starting this new aspect of my life. I hope you will join me on this journey. Like my Harley loving Dad says, it's not the destination, it's the journey.

5K Training program