The 2010 Jingle Bell 5k Run/Walk for Arthritis

Sunday was a gorgeous, sunny day - the perfect day to take a walk!! So my team of 9 friends (and 3 dogs!) went down to Denver to walk a 5k through a park and around a lake to show our support in the battle against arthritis. The Denver walk this year had record-breaking attendance - there were more than 2,000 people there!

Apparently, this year was also a record-breaking year for fund-raising for the Rocky Mountain Chapter. One of the Arthritis Foundation volunteers told APL that we raised almost $90,000 for arthritis research with this walk!!! We had a lot of fun too!

I am also happy to report that Team Z was responsible for $3,300 of the funds raised that day!! We walked in honor of our donations from 71 people and 1 company (APL's work!) For those of you who donated, all of your names were on the back of my shirt when I walked - so you were all there with me!

I'm also super excited about the fact that my friends and family walked coast-to-coast against arthritis on Sunday. AML and MK ran in Baltimore (dressed as Christmas trees, no less!). Then we walked in Denver. Then my sister, her boyfriend, and their friend LB ran in Seattle. Between the three teams, my friends and family have donated about $4,000 to the Arthritis Foundation this December. And that is pretty amazing.

Thank you to everyone who supported Team Z!

I'm feeling a bit tired after the end of school and the walk, but I'm so glad that I participated. I hope I can get more involved with the Arthritis Foundation - doing positive things with my RA - from this point, forward!

Hair

I've been suspicious about this problem for a couple of weeks. At first, I tried to convince myself that I was overreacting. That I was just noticing something totally normal or I was just under too much stress. But, after watching the problem for a couple of weeks, I'm pretty certain it is not normal. I'm pretty certain something is wrong.

My hair is falling out. 

Not in huge quantities - I'm not going to be bald by next week or anything like that. But certainly a lot more hair is falling out than should be or usually does. Every time I touch my hair I come away with what seems like a handful. And more hair has been falling out in one shower than usually falls out in a week.

I know that a lot of the drugs I am on - particularly methotrexate - can be responsible for hair loss. Luckily, I have am appointment with my rheumatologist this upcoming week, so I can ask him what he thinks is causing it and what we can do about it. Hopefully we can find a way to stop it before it really becomes a problem.

In the meantime, it obviously doesn't make me feel particularly fantastic. Especially considering I have cold sores in both of my lips right now. My lips are a bloody mess - and not the cute, English slang kind of "bloody." The ugly, blood kind of bloody.

I know neither of these things are the end of the world. And I am very grateful that it isn't worse.  The cold sores are on my lips are not even that noticeable and no one but me can see the hair loss. But when I'm already tired and achy and a little bit grumpy, it can seem like a lot to bear. Especially when I can't help but picture myself bald and bloody on my wedding day. ~;o(

Mariah = RA + MS + JD

Yesterday I turned in my final final paper and I am now officially finished with law school and graduate school!! I now have several important letters I can put after my name: MS and JD.

Although I'm pretty exhausted and I can feel a big crash coming on, I am happy to report that I feel considerably more satisfied with this accomplishment than I felt over the summer when I finished my last law school class. I actually feel relieved and happy, which I'm pretty excited about!! And I'm also feeling pretty proud of myself - I may have been diagnosed with RA halfway through law/graduate school, but I still finished.

So that, my friends, is the end of THAT!! ~;o)

Enbrel Bruise

I am so very sorry to do this to you fine people, particularly considering the very uplifting content I have had on this blog recently, but I am faced with the overwhelming desire/need to share this monstrosity of a bruise with someone. Unfortunately, that someone is you. 

I thought about putting my ordinary "this is disgusting" warning on this post, but if you are already reading this, you have most likely already seen the disgusting image. Clearly something went wrong with my Enbrel injection this week. After APL gave it to me, the injection site on my thigh swelled up into a big, nasty lump. We iced it for several hours and the next morning I had what is almost certainly the most purple bruise I have ever had. It grosses me out every time I look at it, and somehow I thought it would help to make you look at it? Interesting logic, there, Mariah.

Whatever went wrong, I hope we can avoid it in the future, because it looks like it is going to take several weeks for this bruise to heal. You could fit two quarters on top of that bruise. If I got one of these every time I did an Enbrel injection, I'd look like a dalmatian and/or APL would get investigated for spousal abuse. 

In the meantime, please excuse the nonsensical-ness of this post. I am trying to finish my last graduate school paper EVER and I am having extreme difficulty concentrating on it!!

My Incredibles (updated!)

Everyone reading this blog knows that, over the past two and a half years, I have done little more than deal with RA and try to stay healthy enough to graduate from my dual degree program at CU. I really haven't had the time (or energy) for much else. But I am finally about to graduate - this very week, in fact!! 

In celebration of my graduation (and accomplishing it despite RA), APL, River, and I will be walking in the Denver Jingle Bell 5k Run/Walk for the Arthritis Foundation on Sunday as Team Z. We'll be joined by 6 local friends: RK, MM, AN, PN, TL,  HL, and CV (plus two more canine friends - Buddy and Charlie!). We'll also be walking "with" my sister, her boyfriend, and their friend LB, who will be participating in the Seattle event. And of course MK and AML and their friends, who will be running in Baltimore.

Right now, Team Z is actually the top fund raising team in Denver. We have raised MORE THAN $3,000 Arthritis Foundation!! This amount is more than SIX times our original fund raising goal!!! And, if you count the funds raised by our "sister" teams in Baltimore and Seattle, my friends and family are responsible for contributing over $4,000 to the Arthritis Foundation this December!! So thank you! I am so very excited to make such an amazing contribution to the Arthritis Foundation and to do something so positive with my RA.

But, honestly, what has been most amazing to me in this whole fund raising experience is not the amounts that people have donated, or even the impressive total we have raised. What has meant the most to me is that so many people have donated. My parents and my sister and my aunts and uncles and cousins. Austin's grandma and aunts and uncles and cousins. My future in-laws and their friends. My sister's friends (some of whom I've never even met). Friends in Bolder who can't join us for the walk. Friends from high school. My friends from college (some of whom I have barely talked to in the past 5 years). Law school friends. My neighbor. My roommate. Austin's work.

Whether you contributed $10 or $200, when I walk that 5k on Sunday I know I will have the love and support of SEVENTY PEOPLE. And that is worth more to me than I can say.

So thank you. All of you. So much.

TEAM Z - CURRENT TOTAL: $3,300

Specifically, I'd like to thank (in alphabetical order):

1. AJ K.
2. Alex L.
3. Alex N.
4. Angel P.
5. Andrew L.
6. Antoinette C.
7. Azad B.
8. Barbara L.
9. Becky P.
10. Becky Z.
11. Ben L.
12. Benjamin C.
13. Bernie F.
14. Brian K. 
15. Carlos V.
16. Carole D.
17. Charlie L.
18. Chris D.
19. Debra S.
20. Elise A.
21. Erica K.
22. Ernie T.
23. Ernie Z.
24. Everon Technology Services
25. Gesa L.
26. Halli B.
27. Hayley L.
28. Hilary L.
29. Jack D.
30. Jack Z.
31. Jake A.
32. Jan R.
33. Jess T.
34. Jessica P.
35. Jia T.
36. Jill C.
37. Jody L.
38. John T.
39. JoyT.
40. Kathy A.
41. Kelly A.
42. Kipp C. 
43. Laura S. 
44. Lauren K.
45. Leanne H. 
46. Libby C.
47. Leo D.
48. Lindsey B.
49. Logan B.
50. Louise F.
51. Marian S.
52. Marianne Z.
53. Matt M.
54. Meghan K.
55. Mike T.
56. Mindy L.
57. Nancy K.
58. Nick K.
59. Paris N.
60. Paul D.
61. Rebecca K.
62. Sallie J.
63. Sarah Z.
64. Shar R.
65. Steve C.
66. Steve S.
67. Stuart R. 
68. Sylvia Z.
69. Tei L.
70. Tim L.
71. Tracy R.
72. Wendy Z.

 If you'd still like to join or donate to Team Z in Denver, please click here. (If you want to walk with us, registration closes online Friday at noon!! Again, please feel free to join us - even if we've never met!!)

To join or donate to MK & AML's team in Baltimore, please click here.

To join or donate to my sister's team in Seattle, please click here.

Jingle all the way!! 

Giving Thanks

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year - and I have so much to be thankful for!!

I'm thankful that my mom got to come and visit for a whole week! We went shopping, cooked, ate at a delicious restaurant, cheered in a bar when The Rapids won the MLS Championship, and we even took her to our favorite bar to play trivia, which I think she really enjoyed. It was really nice to get to spend some relaxing time with her.

I'm also thankful that my sister, my godmother and her husband, and our friend MS could join us for our delicious thanksgiving dinner. It was great to see them all, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves - cooking, talking, laughing, and obviously eating all evening! We even watched some old family videos, which was a lot of fun. We also got to go to the Denver Zoo with my mom, sister, RK, & MM on Friday. It was a beautiful day and all the animals were out playing. After my mom left, we spent an evening in with my sister and MS playing silly video games and laughing so hard it made my belly hurt. 

I'm thankful that the iron supplements seem to be helping and I am feeling at least a little bit better. Not perfect, not as well as I would like, but better helps a lot. 

I'm thankful that I am so close to graduating from law/graduate school. I have two more presentations to give - one today and one Saturday (yuck! Saturday!). I have two papers to finish, but  I have already finished rough drafts of both. I can't wait to finally be done with something that has been such a challenge since getting diagnosed with RA, and I am so thankful that I hung in there and accomplished it!

I am also beyond thankful for the unbelievable support I have received from friends and family in my efforts to fund raise for the Jingle Bell 5K Walk/Run For Arthritis. Our team is up to six people and three dogs!! And it looks like my dad might be able to come out for the weekend and walk with us too. 

Most unbelievably, Team Z has already raised $1,595 for the Arthritis Foundation - fully triple my original fund raising goal!!! And there's still two weeks until the event!! I am so very thankful to everyone who contributed. It means so much to me.

If you are interested in making a monetary donation, I'd love it if you would support Team Z or AML & MK's team (who inspired us to start) 

Support Team Z (raised $1,595 so far!!)

Support And A Partridge in a Pear Tree (raised $385 so far!!)

Or join us!! I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I'm really excited about it!

Gratitude!

Since I started my fund raising efforts for the Jingle Bell 5K Walk/Run for Arthritis yesterday afternoon, Team Z has already raised $575 for the Arthritis Foundation - quickly surpassing my original fund-raising goal of $500!!! We've had donations pour in from my family, from APL's family, from friends, and from family friends. It has been an amazing response, and I feel so much gratitude for all this support that I could absolutely burst!!

UPDATE: Not two seconds after I published this post, our total went up to $775!!!!! I can't tell you how excited I am about this!!

With more than three weeks to go until the actual event, I've upped our fund-raising goal to $1,000 - and I'm really excited about trying to reach it. If you are interested in making a monetary donation to support arthritis research, I'd love it if you would support Team Z or AML & MK's team (who inspired us to start)

Support Team Z  (raised $775 so far!!)

Support And A Partridge in a Pear Tree (raised $317.50 so far!!)

And, for serious: if you read this blog and happen to live in Colorado, please think about joining our team and walking with us! We'd love to have you! The more the merrier!! Seeing as I share so much on this blog, you pretty much know me already - and I'd love to meet you! ~;o) Join Team Z!

If you don't live in Colorado, there are Jingle Bell 5Ks happening all over the country! Find One Near You. Do it. You won't regret it. ~;o)

Team Z!

I recently found out that my future brother-in-law, AML, and his awesome girlfriend, MK, are running in the Jingle Bell 5K Run/Walk for Arthritis in Baltimore, Maryland on Sunday, December 12th. MK told me she was running in honor of me, because I am an inspiration. This made me feel so good that MK became an inspiration for me! APL and I (and River too!) have decided to walk in the event in Denver, Colorado on the same day! Here's a great video about the event.

I've never been a part of an event like this, and I'm not totally positive about being able to walk 5K pain-free, but I'm really excited to try! I've wanted to get involved with the Arthritis Foundation for a while now - and a couple of days after graduation seems like the perfect time to start!! Hopefully I will be able to raise a little bit of money and get some of our local friends to walk with us. And maybe I'll get the opportunity to meet some new friends who understand what it's like to deal with RA or other kinds of arthritis. That would be amazing too.

If you read this blog and happen to live in Colorado, please think about joining our team and walking with us! We'd love to have you! The more the merrier!! Seeing as I share so much on this blog, you pretty much know me already - and I'd love to meet you! ~;o) Join Team Z!

If you don't live in Colorado, there are Jingle Bell 5Ks happening all over the country! Find One Near You.

If you are interested in making a monetary donation to support arthritis research, I'd love it if you would support our team or AML & MK's team (who inspired us to start)

Support Team Z  (raised $370 so far!!)

Support And A Partridge in a Pear Tree (raised $285 so far!!)

In any event, this is the first time - probably EVER - that I have actually thought about my RA and felt excited because of it. I'm excited to get involved! And it's a great feeling!

Iron Party

My most recent blood tests finally came back and apparently I'm anemic. Somehow, my body has developed a major iron deficiency. To celebrate finally having a test that produced a result that actually meant something, APL made an amazing steak dinner on Saturday night. This obviously also served the dual purpose of giving my body some (apparently) much needed iron. We also had broccoli with our steak, so it was like one big, iron party.

The instructions from my doctor include taking 325mg of ferrous sulphate every morning on an empty stomach with a glass of orange juice, which to me sounds like a recipe for barfing, but whatever. If I don't barf, I'm supposed to try to add a second dose later in the day. The doctor says I may need to take iron supplements for as long as six months to rebuild my body's stores of iron. No news on what caused this deficiency in the first place or what it means for the long term.

Here's the rub: I was diagnosed with anemia right before getting diagnosed with RA, so I used to take iron supplements. But, I'm pretty sure APL had me stop taking the supplements because he did some research which found that iron supplements could actually cause joint pain. So taking the supplements could possibly make my anemia better, but make my joint pain worse. I've only traded voicemails with the doctor at this point, so I haven't been able to ask what she thinks of this possibility. I'll have to see if APL still has information on this, as this issue obviously merits a bit more research.

In any event, right now I don't have time for research - at least of the health variety. I just need to finish the semester and graduate already. So for now I'm just going to take the iron supplements. Because, quite honestly, right now I'd trade a little joint pain for some extra energy and a break from this headache that has been pounding for weeks.

Well, Crap

Warning: This post contains details about my compromised immune system that you may consider to be too much information. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

Well....crap. Literally. I just left the house for the first time in four days to go down to student health to get yet another blood test (an iron deficiency test this time, I think). The lab tech had a hard time actually finding a vein to use, because my veins are not so good to begin with and they are all still bruised and traumatized from the two times I had to get blood drawn on Monday.

When he finished drawing blood, the lab tech handed me a brown paper bag and asked if I knew what to do with it.  Put my lunch in it? Well...sort of: now the doctor wants a stool sample. Awesome. I have to poop in a cup and deliver it back to student health within half an hour afterwards. I will spare you any more detail than that.

Suffice to say that, considering the way she is testing absolutely everything, I'm beginning to think that the doctor has zero idea what is wrong with me.