The Chronicles of being Chronically Rad: March 2014

So I embarked on my new journey of learning how to sew. I needed a way to get energy out in a creative way, which is interesting because I am more of a left-brain user. So I started a small project for a very special friend couple of weeks ago, but today decided to start working on some projects to sale. My ultimate goal for the next couple of months to is to raise money for my Take Steps Walk in June to help raise money to bring awareness and fund research, and since I don't like to flat out ask for money, I figured I could sew some sh$% and open an etsy shop in hopes that someone might buy something. As seen in the pic above, these twist-bow headbands are one of many things that are on my agenda to master.
With that said, I had a very frustrating day trying to make that damn thing. The machine did not want to be homies today and I almost gave up. I mean if I could fight colitis, then I sure as hell couldn't let a damn machine get the best of me. SO I took a nice little break and then came back to it, and what do you know, I finished one and it didn't come out too shabby for my first try! A very special friend is going to get this one, but trust me, I splurged on lots of fabric and cool prints, so I have my hands full this next week trying to make more.

So the lesson of the day... don't give up on your goals. I know it sounds super cheesy, and hey, what's life without a little cheese? But it's totally true. When sh$& gets frustrating, step back, take a deep breathe, and then get back and tackle that shit. Thank you Mother Sewing Machine for reminding me of this.

P.S.- If you would like to make a donation directly to my team or learn more about why I am raising money, please visit my CCFA Take Steps personal site.

http://tinyurl.com/teamchronicallyrad

Much love world!

Hi all! SO I have been fighting the urge give into the cliché of blogging when something horrible happens to you. But it turns out that journaling is a great way for me to release energy, so why not share what I have been journaling with the world? I mean it is a better source than Facebook, and recently it feels like I have been turning more to lovely world of FB to vent my energies. I need a healthier outlet- that’s where this comes in. Maybe someone will actually read this, and even better, actually get something out of it, but if all else fells, at least my thoughts were released into the universe for the universe to as she wishes with them.

So now on the juicy stuff… As you can see my last post was at least 2 years ago. Well, a lot has changed since. The major is that I got extremely sick from the devil disease Ulcerative Colitis. It was hell that came upon and unleased its wrath with what feels like overnight. In fact, it didn’t happen overnight. It was a long process of me not listening to my body and after my half marathon in DC (April 2013), my body threw in the flag. Within a week, I was sick in bed for days with stomach pain and the other gross UC symptoms that I will spare you from. Within the next, I got my office butt scope and got the official diagnosis. Within that next week I ended up in the ER, twice! Two weeks later was the start of the longest hospital stay of my life. I spent two weeks in the hospital in Austin, and then was jet flown to Oakland, and spent another two weeks in the hospital there. To top it off, I was flown on my 30^th birthday, so I spent that milestone hooked up to an IV and on pain meds. So the outcome was that I needed IV steroids and strong meds, so I was started on Remicade and released. Oh- did I mention I had to undergo 3 blood transfusions through the whole process? So back to the story, after two Remicade sessions, it was decided that it was not working so they switched me to Humira, another hardcore drug, and I stayed on that for a few months, with no results. I also started seeing a functional med doctor who put me on supplements and a super strict diet. After doing that for about two months, I made the difficult decision to have the surgery. Why difficult you ask? Well because I can name one out of 500 people that thought it was the best idea. My family made me feel like I was giving up and not fighting hard enough so I felt like I was disappointing everyone when said “F-it, let’s cut this shit out”. I decided that I could only fight one battle and my battle with UC needed to end sooner rather than later. So, I had my colon cut out on October 18, 2013. During the first surgery, the removed the entire colon and formed a j-pouch with my small intestine. I was given a temporary ileostomy, which basically means I had a poop bag on my stomach. That saga in itself is a blog on its own (note to self, write about my short life with an ileostomy). On January 9, 2014, I had my second, and fingers crossed final surgery. The reversed the ileostomy and now I live on a fully functioning j-pouch. In regular terms, that means that I have gone back to pooping out my rear. J

So today marks exactly 11 weeks post-op, and while things are absolutely not perfect, they are much better than being sick in a hospital bed. I still battle with diet, nutrition, bouts of depression, and overall, just feeling well. BUT (yes, in all caps), I am slowly getting my life back. I am back to doing small social outings such as eating out with friends and starting to get motivation to get back to training and running. I am back to living a gluten and dairy free lifestyle. I have gotten off of the Prozac and am now learning to use other natural forms to help with my anxiety and dark thoughts. Every day is a fight, but every day I feel blessed and grateful to have my life. This whole ordeal has really taught me so much about myself. You will see throughout this new blogging journey, that I will be completely honest with myself and with the universe because really I can’t afford to be anything other than honest.