Vegas Recap....Kristi Style :)

I already sincerely apologize for my lack of blogging the past week! Don't think I haven't thought about it every day as I have I just have not found the time and ambition even though I am overjoyed with all I have to tell you.  I have had to re-evaluate my Crohns this week and make some choices that scare me and many that are undecided because of the "unknown" but Im not going to tell you about that today...maybe tomorrow.  Today is the day of Recap Vegas Style!

Friday 6am-Sioux Falls airport- Time to leave!
Let me just say I look extremely tired with some big curly hair but we were so excited.  Hard to leave our husbands and children but was so excited to experience what was next!  Well the beginning of our trip did not turn out as expected.  We ended up sitting in the airplane in Sioux Falls for 1 hour because someone forgot to put the water in the toilets!  How ironic don't you think!!!  I'm glad they put water in them just in case I needed to go but of course I didn't because I was to busy freaking out about missing our plane in Denver.  Thank goodness for calm Dani who continued to smile and say "they will just wait for us, right?"  I kept thinking I hope your right yet knew better.  We landed at 807 and our plane left at 808 :(  BOO DENVER!  So we thank goodness got on the next flight to Vegas at 950am.  Ate some McDonalds and prayed that our luggage made it to Vegas. 

 

We made it to Vegas with no hiccups including getting our luggage and soon the butterflies started in the cab which by the way is outlandishing expensive! $25!  And the driver work a long leather jacket with his hair greased back...Kinda thought I was riding with the Mafia. 

 

  Now we finally get to meet this "virtual" team whom we have only talked to via email.  What do you expect?! Are we who they think? Do we hug? High five? Smile?  Well I do what I do best and smile and hug!  It was awesome to finally meet them.  After checking in we went to the Expo and got our race packet and saw all the millions of vendors.  It was so overwhelming the amount of things you can use for running.  I was thinking "Crap, I have no clue I needed all this!"  I of course found the booth with all the sparkle hence our sparkle arm warmers and my sparkle headband.  And I found a workout tank top that says "Blood, sweat, and sparkle"!  How true is that?!  I was in heaven :)  I will post a pic when I finally wear it.  After the expo we rested for a bit and then met our team to go down to Fremont Street.  That was definetly a great bonding experience that we won't forget.  I swear we saw LMFAO performing, at some Subway, saw a man dressed in a bridesmaids dress with boobs, a girl with a pink see thru fish net dress and Santas "ho's".  Fremont street didn't disappoint as neither did the bus ride there and home! 

 

 

Saturday:  This was our day of sleeping in and shopping at H&M and Forever 21.  I am so glad we don't have those stores in Sioux Falls as I would be broke but there stuff is so so cute!  Saturday evening was the inspirational pasta party.  I can honestly say the amount of love and warmth I felt from that party was something I have never experienced before.  I had a hard time holding back tears as we went thru a tunnel of people just cheering for us, 1500 people who fundraised for Crohn's research many who don't even have the disease.  I couldn't believe it.  All of these people are helping me in some way and all with such pride and grace.  I mean who gets up in the morning saying I'm going to start raising money for people who have problems with their "poopers"!  Its a hard selling point! Words are indescrible for the feelings and I am forever grateful I will have that in my heart forever.  The speakers were outstanding...the director of CCFA, an 8 year old Crohn's patient, Mike McCready's wife from Pearl Jam, Next seasons Bachelor.  I am so excited for next year! I met some amazing new friends and fellow Crohnies which is so beneficial when you want to scream and shout about your disease!  HI JENNY!

RACE DAY!  Dani said it all too way.  This morning was very somber and quiet in our room.  Grabbed our breakfast, ate in mostly silence and both kept looking at each other thinking "we are going to run 13.1 miles in less than 6 hours.  Holy crap!  I'm going to puke!"  I had a stomach ache all day and of course used the bathroom at least 10 times and all I thought was please dont have this happen on the strip!  Once we were all bussed to our race we sat in our corral area for at least 30 minutes before we actually started our race and Dani stood in line with me at the portapotty so I could get my "nervous" peeing done.  We started running aroun 510pm with a wind advisory.  We both thought at least the wind can push us for a bit.  The race itself was fantastic.  I felt honestly great the whole time and had a HUGE SMILE on my face which surprised me.  It was the greatest feeling to know that you were accomplishing something big with all of these strangers cheering for us along the strip.  I think it was our awesome tutus that drew the crowd towards us.  Glad we met up with awesome Coach Erin on Mile 8 because that was the ghetto area of Fremont street with limited lights and she was a great encouragement booster.  Once I hit Mile 10 I can say I thought I was going to die....I didn't however....WE CROSSED THE FINISH LINE TOGETHER WITH A SMILE!  I felt like my legs where going to fall off and my body was going to fall over but it didn't.  We got our medal, drank some fluid and basically stared at everything in awe that we just completed this amazing experience! And it was more than we could have asked for.  My amazing uncle John from here was at the finish line which warmed my heart knowing that kind of love and support I have surrounding me in good times and in bad!  It was so wonderful to see him :)  I also was so excited that as we checked in to the Team Challenge tent saying we were off the race and safe I met this awesome blogger Lauren whom I found via her blog about a month before.  I was so bummed because I knew she was in Vegas but hadn't met her yet and off course the last day and literally last hours I met her!  It was great to see you and your orange hair Lauren! 

Ok I think I probably have took up enough of your time as I could talk forever about this experience!  I am thankful for the love and support I have from all of you and plan to continue to be an advocate for my disease during the good times and bad! 

What?! Its Over!!!

I cannot believe that its over! What am I gonna do with myself? Train for another one! I loved it, I am definitely running more 1/2 marathons next year. I was a little confused when we stepped off the bus and saw the crowd, wondering why in the hell did we start with such a big race! Its the second largest race in Nevada! If I haven't told you yet, there was 50,000 people running! 1,500 Team Challenge runners!!! Crazy!!! I asked Kristi why we didn't start with a small one and move forward.....Go big or go home!!! After the race started, I couldn't imagine running any other one. The atmosphere was amazing! The strip was crowded with people cheering for you! Bands every mile to keep you going, watching people get married! And a extremely large preying mantis with fire coming out of its antennas!!! It was crazy!!!
Our weekend in Vegas will be a weekend I'm sure either of us will forget. We met some pretty awesome people there from our team Minnesota. The Inspirational pasta party was well.......inspirational! I really cant imagine running without running for a cause. I hope I am able to get on Team Challenge again. Maybe next time Ill be running in Hawaii! All the teams from Team Challenge had such great energy, it was so amazing being in the same room with them. Hearing how much people had raised for this cause was also incredible. One person alone raised $70,000!!! Can you believe that?! I want to do that!!
Sunday morning when we woke up was pretty somber. We really didn't have much to say to each other except...."I'm nervous." I'm getting nervous now." I'm really nervous" We then met our team at 200 in the lobby and got our team picture and then walked to the buses that took us to the beginning of the race. I have never seen so much orange in my life!!! Or so many port-a-potties! There was pink ones too! Kristi and I were in corral 28 with two other of our teammates. We had to walk about a mile or two from there to get to the starting line. We lined up at 430 and when we reached the starting line it was 510! They were letting waves of people go every 45-50 seconds! I am very proud to say that we beat the time we had in our heads and that we didn't walk!!! Mile 10 was the worst, but when we rounded the corner there was the strip again! And we made the strip our bitch!!! We finished at 2hrs 33min then had to walk a mile to our Team Challenge tent to let them know we were alive. Then we had to go pick up our bag of personals in UPS truck, ONE UPS truck had 1,000 bags in it in NO particular order! So when we were there to pick it up you had to give them your bib number and then they would dig thru 1,000 bags to find that number! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! We watched the Ballagio fountains 3 times!!!! So once we finally got our bags we had to walk another mile or 2 to our hotel room! Once we made it there and showered we went to a pizzeria and got our supper!! How enjoyable was that!!!! Pizza had never tasted so good!!

Thanks again to EVERYONE that helped us get there! I hope we did not disappoint!

A little motivation

This is the song I have been listening to, to get me motivated!! LOVE IT!!

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!!!

I cant believe we are actually leaving for Vegas tomorrow morning. We have been thinking about this since August and now here we are! I'm just gonna start rambling on about what I'm thinking, so it might be a little all over the place :)
I'm a little nervous about the race, i have been slipping a little bit in the training department :/ I have heard though that there is so many distractions there that get you pumped up and you continue on. I have been watching the videos on YouTube and cant believe I am going to get to experience it too! I'm so ready for it all!!
Thank you to everyone that donated and helped us out with our fundraising. We truly appreciated it!
I almost teared up last night as I was thinking about putting Trav and Kristi's name on my singlet. Its an honor to do this for so many people. I hope I can do this again, its just an amazing feeling!
We finally get to meet our teammates from Minn.! We have been emailing them since Aug and now we get to meet them face to face, so we are both pretty excited about that. We are all going zip lining Friday night as a team!! Whoop! Whoop!

We will be blogging again tomorrow to update you all and maybe throughout the wknd. I hope we can get some good pictures to share with you all. I'm having a hard time finding room in my suitcase for a camera
Maybe on Sunday you can all say a little prayer in hopes that Kristi is feeling well enough to run 13.1 miles.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!! Wish us luck!!!!!

4 days and counting!

4 DAYS AND COUNTING.......LET ME JUST SAY I AM SO EXCITED AND I JUST CAN'T HIDE IT...I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW I THINK LIKE IT!  Ok thats enough singing :) 

 

I am really praying that this is a fresh new week for me and going to Las Vegas will be just what I need to get over this slump I am in.  After this great 4 day holiday weekend, I had time to realize how thankful I am for everything around me and how I can't give up on myself because all of those "things" need me and of course I need them. God is just testing my skills and I'm hoping this is his hardest test yet, it can only get easier right?! 

Right now, our biggest dilemma is what are we going to pack?  I think Dani and myself have been going back and forth about what to pack, what are we going to do, how cold is it, tennis shoes and then some, etc...We just can't figure it out!  We will and I know we will look cute the entire time even if its jeans, a jacket and tennis shoes :) 

I have so many mixed emotions currently about this trip that I can't even describe how I am feeling right now.  My stomach is mixed with butterflies, anxiety, and excitment just because I have NO CLUE what we are going to experience.  It can only be awesome I'm sure and I can't wait to tell you all about it! 

10 medications...REALLY!

Well as I told all of you, I met a new GI doctor last Wednesday and have experienced some rapid changes in the past 5 days for both good and bad.  I really really liked her and I think God must have had a reason for pushing me to make that call because she really worked me over to say the least.  I have not been feeling well for the past couple of weeks and have been struggling with that because you know we leave for Las Vegas in 11 days and I can't be down in the dumps for that!  But I have a feeling I'm going to have to take it easy which is ok because I have an extremely supportive friend who will understand when we can't stay out til 2am :) 

So my new GI doctor visited with me about my medications and 14 year history and provided me all sorts of tasks I needed to do in the next couple of days.  All before Vegas!
1. 14 tubes of Labwork...Yes I wrote 14 tubes...I really thought I was going to not have any blood left when she was done
2. A DEXA scan (aka. the old lady bone scan)
3. A colonoscopy in 2 days! Yes too much information already :)
4. A new powder packet to take daily

AND THE RESULTS....
1. Vitamin D level is low (1 medication weekly), iron is low (Vitron C daily) calcium is low (Calcium twice daily), continue multivitamin, OH and my quantiferon (aka TB skin test) was positive which means I have tuberculosis!  Now that was devastating to me...Tuberculosis!  Are you kidding me?!  Well it is latent, so don't worry you can be around me but it was most likely developed from me taking Humira injections which was suppose to be helping my Crohns...Instead it gives me TB!  So now I have to take 2 different medications for 9 months straight and I should be ok.  I guess I have taken ok lightly..
2. Don't know these results yet
3.  Yes it gets worse....My scope was not good.  I have another stricture/narrowing where my last 2 prior bowel obstruction surgeries. :( So my Crohn's is active which is not good for me as we prepare for running 13.1 miles!  She was unable to get her scope thru that narrowing so now I have to drink barium for a MRI to view my small intestine to make sure their is not active Crohn's up there.  She also took some biopsies on areas of interest so we are waiting for those results!

So let's just say in a nut shell...I'm a MESS!  I'm still angry at it but I'm hoping that I can change my focus and look at the positive of this.  God only gives you what you can handle right!  So please keep praying for me as I know you all are!

I wish you only knew.....

Sorry we haven’t wrote anything in a couple of weeks when we were suppose to be blogging for 30 days….Lets just say I haven’t felt the best and life is super crazy as you all know.  We are 14 days away from leaving for Las Vegas and experiencing something that is going to be life changing and I am having a Debby Downer moment!  I currently HATE HATE HATE my Crohn’s and I’m struggling to even type this.  I found this amazing blog a while back called Forward is a pace and she named her intestines and when she was having a rough day she would write to her intestine because it helped relieve what she was feeling…Well I’m going to try that and see if it helps! 

 

I asked the kids what I should name my Crohn’s/intestines and Lily just looked at me weird.  10 minutes later she comes back to me and states “Monster” because it is so mean to you and I am scared of it L  So my intestines are now named Monster.

 

Dear Monster,

I hate what you do to me and to my mind.  You have made my life a living hell the past 2 weeks and it sounds like you are only to get worse and I cannot stand to even think about it.  It drives me insane that I look “fine” on the outside when I have so much pain on the inside.  I always wonder what it would be like to just feel good for once but I honestly don’t remember what that would even feel like.  When people ask me how does it feel, I want to ask how does it feel to feel normal?  I have had 4 stupid surgeries because of you and probably have another one soon on the horizon because you are rearing your ugly head.  WHY do you have to be closing again in the same spot that I had my last 2 surgeries on?  Don’t you understand that my life is to busy to be out for weeks on end….I have 3 kids that need me and a job I love to do.  I don’t feel like its fair that this a continuous battle because I am at my breaking point and ready to give up on you and quit fighting so hard.  Maybe you are doing this right now because you know that I will get another look at things when I am with the Team Challenge crew…I hope my thought is right on that because I need a positive right now!

 

I am so grateful for my parents and all the love and support they have given me especially over the past couple of days.  I know they love me dearly and are scared at the same time but put a smile on their face so I don’t think they are worried.  Its ok to be worried? Because I am extremely worried.  I’m so scared that some day I’m going to not be able to take care of my kids and that just tears me to pieces.  They are the reason I get up everyday yet lately I have not been the mom they probably want.  My mind is 5 million other places than at home with them.

 

Some days I’m surprised Brian listens to me complain about my pain but I think it has become 2^nd nature after 10 years of being together.  However I feel extremely guilty for not being the “normal & healthy” wife that most husbands get to have.  I am the sickly one that is in constant pain, with all sorts of mood changes, tired all the time, have to stop at every store to use the bathroom , and can’t understand why GOD choose me.  I do know that there are days he runs from what he is feeling especially when I’m not feeling well and try’s to avoid discussing it which is ok.  I’m just glad that he has been there for me during my hospitalizations and will take care of the kids when I’m not well.  I don’t know another man that would sit in the bathroom with me and have a conversation.

 

Lets just say Monster you are pissing me off and this is the week that I am suppose to be thankful for what I have.  Well I am extremely thankful for who and what I have around me but not what I have inside me.  I feel like I could type forever about all the negative feelings I currently have but I don’t want to let that occupy me.  Lets hope that over the next couple of days I can gain some positive feelings and I promise I will share them with you!

 

 

I stole this picture shamelessly from Lauren's blog...

 

If you have a minute, check out Lauren's blog...She says it exactly how I feel.

http://www.forwardisapace.com/2012/06/what-i-wish-you-knew/