Month: July 2013

Celebration time…

This week marks 6months since I had my surgery, since they found my open circuit…the one that caused me so much pain and anguish in my physical chest and in my heart.  Yet, that battery just symbolizes one more change in life and as we all know one thing that is constant in life is change.  I am extremely lucky and fortunate that I believed in myself and that my doctor also believed in my intuition.  Life is full of ups and downs, but often we forget the downs, please learn from them.  Dystonia will always present challenges in my life, however it will never break my spirit.  

Call me crazy, many do…but 6 months post surgery ran several 10Ks and one half marathon and training for two more in the very close future…My spirit my be bent at some times, but it will never be broken.  I love my scars, I adore my little limp on off days and I am very blessed and lucky that I have such supporting friends and family…

In 6 months, I went from cane and wheelchair to being able to be sporty again…and I just want to take this week to remember how lucky I am for great doctors, good friends and an amazing family!  My friend Karen ran a marathon in my honor last November and this past weekend, someone who I have never seen in 20 years secured a marathon medal for me and my sister…so to Karen and all the others out there…I love you all for going out and pushing your own limits to raise awareness of this disease!

The joys of dystonia and the challenges of Dystonia…

Last Friday July 5th, a miracle happened, one that I have been dreaming of my entire life..

I ran the fastest 6 miler, I have ever run in my entire life…by myself more importantly.  I felt strong, I have been working really hard for this day and dreaming about it the day I emerged from brain surgery.  I was running as fast as an able bodied person, and so proud of myself.  I was smiling all weekend and thankful all weekend..

Then Sunday evening happened…one of those events that just are never planned when living with a disease…An tremor episode happened…and while I started shaking I started hearing the lyrics from Daniel Powter’s song – Bad Day, especially this part of the song ..

Sometimes the system goes on the blink
And the whole thing turns out wrong
You might not make it back and you know
That you could be well oh that strong
And I’m not wrong

Cause you had a bad day
You’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know

And those tremor episodes start a bad day, a day you know will pass, but the emotional path to getting over the bad day is a long one…one of being scared, feeling like you are the only person on the planet, and then in a moment of clarity you remember you have friends…friends that can help you breathe through the moments, friends that can bring you lunch because you are too exhausted from all the brain activity and medicine to go to work….Then what I like to call the Siu-Pity party starts (but I try not to keep the party to only one day) – the why me? why now? what happened I was such a bad ass 3 days ago…and then the anger and then finally the acceptance…the acceptance that it was just a bad day, the acceptance that I have Dystonia, the acceptance I could have more bad days and the realization I don’t always have to go through it alone…

So I share my story because for all that follow this blog, I am real too…I have bad days, I have great days…and the bad days are always a gentle nudge to slow down a little and realize I am differently abled…But the disease as always won’t rule me but will have to be my physical compass – to remind myself that I still work out more, run more than most able bodied people I know and I shouldn’t stop because I had a bad day…plus the Siu Pity party is kind of boring and who wants to go to a boring party?

So for all of you that I ask if I have bad days, I do I just acknowledge them, allow my body to rest for 2 days and get back to my training, because as we all know its not about pace, it is about lacing up, going out and finishing and celebrating the medal with friends – now that’s a party 🙂

Hello there! I am back.  I needed a month off of my blog to reset my mind, body and soul.  I had to take stock after that last race and be at peace that everyone has a bad day and that was my last race – a bay day.  In the month, I have made sure my knees are fine and that my toe pain was taken care of.  I needed to take care of my body, but I also needed to realize that I needed to believe in me.  

Last night, I was looking at my facebook profile pictures and realized in 7 years I went from bald to a full head of long hair….then it struck me, my legs are really only 7 years old and I am learning how to be a better runner everyday.  I have had so many setbacks and I always get it up stronger and better…So when I learned I got into the Nike Half Marathon, I decided to train properly and take the learnings from my last race and be better.   Failures happen for a reason, they are meant to help us learn to be better; to be stronger…So here I begin training for my race on October 20th, I am going to lace up and go for a long run and be proud of all that I have accomplished over the 7 years – running 7 miles without stopping, taking a 1 minute off my time and most importantly enjoy every minute of it!