three years; still running
(2nd weekend entry)
so many thoughts have been swimming through my mind lately. i'm a little frustrated and discouraged. my white blood cell count dropped, and it's wiping me out even more. and i'm sad right now for many reasons, not the least of which is that this weekend marked the 3-year anniversary of receiving a lupus diagnosis...something i don't like to talk about much in detail. it took six years to get the correct diagnosis for me and that pains me quite a bit on so many levels.
three years ago, i had just completed my master's degree. i'm not quite sure how i did it, because over the course of grad. school it started becoming evident that i needed a rheumatology consult. by late summer/early fall 2000, they suspected mild kidney involvement, and i was on the much-dreaded drug prednisone. i was super sick and my primary care doctor was like, "you have to get up to johns hopkins medical center ASAP". i was too weak to make the three hour trek up there by myself so i went over to my parents' house, and they drove me to baltimore. it was election day 2000. that night, i drifted in and out of sleep, waking up at intervals to see the t.v. still on, and those infamous butterfly ballots still being counted in florida: would it be bush or gore? it was at johns hopkins that i felt so alone for the first time.
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on a happier note: despite feeling so lousy lately, i still did the 5K heart run/walk today. it took my mind off a lot of stuff for a little while. i walked some of it, so i wasn't a top finisher, but i did earn my t-shirt and win two free smoothies, and a discount off of my next pair of running shoes!
