Swim A Mile

Taken from my Swim A Mile profile:

I first completed the Swim A Mile in 2007 just after beginning my attendance of Mills College. At the end of that school year, I became housebound with a crippling back injury that has led me through a surgery and a year of bed rest to an arthritic diagnosis and the long recovery I'm currently trying to wrap up. I'm hoping that my life will begin again soon, but I want to start reaching out into the world now. Because I have rediscovered my ability to swim, and because it is such a good cause, I could not think of a better full circle moment.

The Swim A Mile is many things to me this year. It is a mark of my own progress, and a hallalujah moment, but most importantly it is an opportunity to raise funds to help fight a crippling disease. I can't raise money swimming for my own illness, but I can feel good about bringing help to so many who need it. I am so excited to swim.

I hope that you can support me with a pledge, large or small. But even more so, I hope you can come out and watch me swim at 11:30 on Saturday, October 2nd at the Mills College pool. I intend to bring as big a crowd as will attend to witness this huge step in my life. I hope you will join us.

To donate, please visit this webpage: http://wsdvps4.wsdsecure.com/~wcrc.org/profiles/search. It will ask you for my nickname which is juliathollaug.

Thanks.

photo credit: http://neoneocon.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/suit_swim.jpg

Goal Tending

One of the main components of my attitude adjustment involved a shift in strategy at physical therapy. Instead of progressing slowly and letting my body fully acclimate to each change in my program, I asked my PT to push me really hard - to up reps and weights and lap numbers as fast as she deemed safe. I wanted to find a way to create at least an illusion of accomplishment for myself on a regular basis, and that plan has worked better than any of us imagined.

In the past six weeks, almost all of my capabilities at the gym have doubled. I now spend six hours at PT - up from my old standard of four. Consequently I am far stronger than I was, and am able to spend more time out of bed. I'm trying to set higher and higher fitness goals to work toward - right now, the end goal is a triathlon (because what couldn't I do if I could complete a triathlon?). I think that I couldn't ever be too strong considering the body I have to work with. The bones I can't control. The muscles, however, are another story - and the stronger my muscles are the less my skeleton will have to work. Hopefully now I can just keep getting stronger, nothing else bad will happen, and my life will be back before I know it.

I'll keep you posted.

photo credit: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/26/52660486_6ca085f7a8.jpg

Rose Garden

In my most recent Enbrel mailing from Pfizer, I found two articles clipped from "Arthritis Today." The first, which I found unremarkable in its simplicity, concerned exercise as a catalyst of health and pain relief. The second, however, captured my attention, for it detailed a recent study proving that exposure to beauty can lessen chronic pain. Specifically: when the pain is bad, one should seek out and look at something beautiful.

I don't know that I bought this fully when I read it. I believed it could have some merit, but I didn't intend to keep it in my arsenal of pain relief techniques simply because it seemed too simple. It can't be that easy, I thought. It shouldn't be, after what I've been though. That would not be right.

Today I went to the park with my cousins, and after rejecting the entry fee to the science museum my mom and I proceeded to wander through the groves and gardens aimlessly. I looked at this adventure as two of my three walks and an appropriate exercise in endurance, but as boredom set in my sciatica happily joined it. Frustrated, I found myself in the rose garden, solely with the intention to kill time in a place that I had formerly loved. Then, after twenty minutes of rose-viewing, my sciatica was gone.

I love roses. I have a thing for color, and immersing myself in swirls of vivid petals is my idea of a good time. I did not notice anything happening, nor did I believe that I would feel better - I had, in fact, resigned myself to blindly coping with the pain until I had access to an ice pack. But when I consciously thought about my body again, my leg was beautifully clear of pain.

I have an insane disease. I often liken it to the hydra - cut off a head and three more grow in its place. Today I learned a valuable lesson - when you are dealing with pain of mythological proportions, there is no room for cynicism. Especially when a proposed solution is as simple as opening an art book and soaking in Monet's brush strokes. Every little bit helps - even if it is as small as a flower.

photo credit: http://www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/rose-garden/pink-garden-roses.jpg

Endorphins

One of the perks of being someone's chronic patient is that, if they're good, they develop a vested interest in your recovery. Any knowledge or technique or idea they come across that might help you is flagged, bringing dimension after dimension into the treatment plan. This constant influx of information has helped me achieve step after step in my recovery, and one of the most epic is the idea my acupuncturist brought back from a seminar two weeks ago - a supplement of amino acids that replenishes endorphins in the brain.

From what I understand, chronic pain wears away healthy endorphins - which support a happy mindset. Thus, when slipping into a chronic pain cycle, replacing these endorphins can lift someone's spirits and help break the pattern in the brain and nervous system. Essentially, this functions as an anti-depressant AND a way to break the chronic pain cycle.

Since beginning this supplement, I have noticed a radical change in my outlook on life. Not only am I happier and more motivated to get well, but I find myself functioning with less fear and pain despite the fact that I am out doing things and working harder than ever at PT. It is night and day from two weeks ago. I never imagined there could be such an extreme shift in my life.

For all interested parties: DL-Phenylalanine. Czech it out. I still have a long way to go, but things are looking up.

photo credit: http://www.truthbehindmysmile.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/happy-face-ball.jpg