Step 2 is on the way!

I had my follow up with Dr. Lavery on Wednesday and things went really well. It was kind of funny, but his nurse Marlene told me that she didn't even recognize me because I have lost so much weight. That felt pretty good! I had to do some labs to make sure I'm not anemic or malnourished or anything. Those all came back great. I also had to do a manometery test. It's a test to make sure your sphincter muscles are functioning properly so that you will be able to "hold it" when you get the urge to go to the bathroom. They also check to make sure that you can feel when you need to go (that there isn't nerve damage, etc.). Yes, the test is as fun and awesome as it sounds. Happily, I passed it so I'm ready to go.

On October 16th I will run my half marathon (more about that in a minute!). On October 19th I will go up to Cleveland for Pre-Op Day (a.k.a The Day of One Thousand Appointments) and on the 20th I will have my Step 2 surgery for construction of my j-pouch. Back in March it seemed like this day would never get here and now it's just over a month away. Wow. This has been quite the amazing journey.

Another funny thing happened during my visit. Dr. Lavery was asking me about my weight loss and I told him I'd been following a healthy diet and running. He wanted to know how much I run each week and then he was asking about the half marathon. At some point, I realized we weren't having a medical conversation anymore, it was more of that blatant curiosity and disbelief that a non-runner has when we runners start talking about our training and races. He wanted to know if I was competitive and I told him only with my myself. Then he wanted to know how long it would take me to run the half. I told him I hope to finish between 2:20 and 2:30 which made him laugh and state, "That's a damn long time to run!" Yes, yes it is! Oh well, I'm one of those weird people who think that's a fun time so, go me!

You might notice that I said between 2:20 and 2:30 up there and you might be thinking to yourself, "Oh really now?" Yes, really. I'm all psyched up after the quarter marathon from last weekend. 1:11:57!!! I was really hoping to go 1:15 and see how it felt. Instead, I smashed that all apart. While I know I ran well and didn't leave anything on the table, I know I can go just a little harder on race day when I know I don't have to continue training in the week to follow. I'm very excited. I can't wait to see what I can do. :-)

Oh, I did have a leak this morning with my beloved new Coloplast system. :sigh: Another shower at 4:30 in the morning. I don't know how that is when it happens, but at least it beats being out and about or busy with the kids when it strikes. I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what appliance I am using if it's a matter of that secondary opening striking. Not much I can do about that except be a little more careful about what I'm eating (got a little carried away with raw veggies yesterday!) and drink, drink, drink to keep things moving along and thinned down. It was kind of weird because it didn't even phase me or upset me or anything. I just kept thinking about how soon all of this is going to be over and I got myself back to bed as quickly as I could.