Tooting My Horn

Sectionals, 2009, Insulin Pump on My Back, Catch For a Score

Celebrating what I consistently do or in my words "Am great at" is the topic of today's d-blog!   Staying active has always been a part of my life since my mother first enrolled me in swim lessons at nine months old, ballet at 3, gymnastics at 10, and then soccer in 5th grade, the only girl on a boys' team.  Later I played volleyball, basketball, softball, and track.  In college, I continued to play volleyball. My late twenties led me to ultimate frisbee and I have been playing that for over fifteen years.

At the time of my diagnosis, I had been running up to 5 miles a day and playing ultimate frisbee.  But all of that stopped.  It was, as I have shared in a previous blog, scary to be dropping to a 42 in the middle of a run and making a 911 call to your husband to bring you a coke. It was embarrassing to eat candy while working out at the gym.  It was frustrating to realize to realize that I could just die while doing the one thing I loved and knew would help me live life longer. I let that sideline me.


Last May, I said, "Screw it!"  I won't get well if I sit on the sidelines, so I jumped back in and began to play through the pain in my Achilles and the lurking fear manifested by my chronic illness.    I have been great at working out this year.  By the end of this school year I will log an average of 12 miles per week or 500 miles, maybe more since August.  I am proud of overcoming obstacles to stay active in my life.  In writing this post, I realized that I am consistent at facing the obstacles in my life and staying active has always been one way that I have worked to surmount them.