UNC Kidney Kare 5K Runners

Rob and I decided to sign up to run in the upcoming UNC Kidney Center Kidney Kare 5K run. Click here for the link.

We just signed up today. The race is March 20, exactly 5 weeks away. That's not a lot of time to get aerobically ready to complete a 5K race, but that's okay. I just want to finish the 5K with as little walking as possible. When I run, I'm sure I'll be jogging at a very slow pace (at least, slow for me), and I'm okay with that. If it turns into a jog for a few minutes, walk for 1 minute, jog again, then walk...repeating until I cross the finish line, that's great and I will count that as a successful finish!

There is a "Dialysis Patient" category for the run which is really cool. Also, a category for people who have already had a kidney transplant. I wonder if we can get our friend who dialyzes with Rob to consider doing it with us? (hint, hint! Not naming any names...) And maybe we can ask our new friend who we just met through Facebook who was successfully transplanted back in 2007. Hmmm, this could be fun!

So...we've got 35 days to "get in shape" before the "race". I put both of those in quotes because they mean something totally different to us than they used to.

A handful of years ago, a friend and I were discussing big life kind of questions, and I was asked, "Danielle, what do you think the meaning of life is?"

I answered, "To achieve success in every thing I do, especially in bike racing and swimming." Of course my answer wasn't just that, as it included "get married and buy a house with a white picket fence and pop out 2 or 3 kids" and to "teach and lead others to live happy, successful lives". Which is kind of funny, because at the time, I thought I was happy and on my way to a successful life, when in reality, I was far from it!

Exercise and competition drove me daily. I dreamed about it and thought constantly about exercise and being the best that I could be. A day without exercise (aside from structured rest days) was horrible and I would beat myself up in my head, telling myself I was lazy and I'd amount to nothing if I stayed in that pattern. When I would see the results of good training, grabbing a podium finish at a race, it made me prideful.

Now, "get in shape" to me, means treating my body in a way that is healthy; choosing to eat healthy foods, eating snacks and desserts in moderation, and exercising moderately to achieve a healthy amount of aerobic fitness. But as of yesterday, I was not treating my body in a way that is healthy. I've fallen into a rut of no exercise, eat what you want, when you want. And my excuse for this 2.5 year rut is, well, that's just not who I am anymore. Who I used to be was Danielle: the bike racer and swim coach. Those were the 2 things that mattered the most to me. Who am I now? I'll take a stab at my new definition. Danielle: a born again Christian who loves God, a devoted wife to Rob, who seeks to serve others before serving myself (falling into selfishness). I'm not a bike racer by any stretch of the imagination anymore. And I'm not a swim coach anymore...well, not like I used to be.

So why am I wanting to "get in shape" and complete this 5K? Is it to raise kidney awareness? Not really. Is it so that I can lose a little bit of weight and hopefully fit back into my closet full of size 10 pants? No, although that would be nice (chuckle, chuckle). Is it an attempt to add a part of my old life into my new life, while giving glory to God for that addition? No, I don't think so.

I still don't have a definite answer for why I want to "get in shape" and complete this 5K...but I'm thinking it has something to do with my new meaning of life, the part about serving others. It takes a certain amount of energy and physical fitness to serve others with joy in my heart. Overweight and sluggish is how I've been feeling after doing anything remotely active with children or cleaning my house. I don't know about you, but overweight and sluggish isn't a joyful feeling. But is it really all about "feelings"? No. Is it all about what I do, and why I do it? I think yes, I may be getting close...

I'm sorry I'm rambling on like this! But think about this:

Have you ever really thought about the things you fill your life with, the things you do...and WHY you do them? I'm not talking about the basic life necessities like making dinner or brushing your teeth, duh, we all know why we do those things...but why do I choose to ride my bike? Why do I read my Bible? Why do I jog or go for a hike with my dogs? Why do I pray? Go for a swim? Take a nap? Waste a couple hours on the internet? Help my neighbor do something they can't do by themselves? Talk with a close friend, listen to their problems, pray for them?

Well, my brain is done! I've rambled on for too long!

But I sure am excited about this Kidney Kare run!

First Day of the Second Month Randomness

Rob is at dialysis right now and I'm praying that he gets a good night's rest while dialyzing. He usually does sleep pretty good while at the nocturnal clinic, but sometimes he doesn't for whatever reason. He just switched jobs within his company, so now he is working a Mon-Fri 9 to 6pm cubicle job. I'm a little scared that Rob will get too sleepy to perform his work duties to the best of his ability on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, after he comes off from his treatment. For the past 8 months or so, since he's been on nocturnal, he usually had to go into work at noon or 1pm on Tuesday and Thursdays, giving him extra time to snooze after coming home from treatment. But as it stands for tomorrow morning, he will likely get home at 6:15-6:30am, and will need to be in the shower, getting ready for work starting at 7am. That doesn't give him a lot of time to take an after dialysis nap. I will just pray about it and give this worry over to God, because there's no point in me stressing out over it!

For dinner tonight, I made Rob's new favorite recipe, which can be found on the back of a Stove Top cornbread stuffing mix box. They call it "Easy Chicken Bake" which sounds so generic! So I decided to change the name of it and call it "Totally Yummy Chicken Casserole"!

To finish my blog post tonight, I will write about one thing from my random brainstorm flow chart that I did last week. See pic here, if you don't know what I'm talking about.

I guess I'll start by telling you about how I got to the word "filter" from my starting word of kidney. For those of you reading this who are very familiar with dialysis, you don't need me to explain, I'm certain of that. But for those who are not very familiar with dialysis, this should help!

You know the picture you see when you first see our blog? The one where Rob is sleeping and there's a super-cute little beagle on his lap? That cylindrical tube thing labeled NxStage is the filter. You'll see one tube coming out of the top of the filter that is dark red from the continuous pumping of Rob's blood, and another tube that looks clear/empty, but it is not. That one is filled with a continuous pumping flow of a liquid called "dialysate" (die-al-uh-sate). So, the filter acts as an artificial kidney, because Rob's kidneys don't work like they should. At least they didn't when that picture was taken. (it was taken in November 2008)

But now, Rob doesn't even have any kidneys in his body at all, as they were removed last summer. A lot of people are totally shocked when we tell them that Rob doesn't have kidneys. They say things like, "Umm, don't you NEED kidneys?" or "Seriously, why aren't you dead?" Yes, some people are trying to be funny when they ask these questions, but others, nope, they are dead serious. So we take this to be a great time to educate others about dialysis and how it works. And there's no way to describe it without mentioning the word "filter". Hence, my flow from the word Kidney to Filter, in my brainstorm flow chart.

That tube labeled NxStage has probably a thousand paper-thin semi-permeable membranes that Rob's blood passes next to. The dialysate acts as a magnet of sorts, and pulls off the yucky stuff in Rob's blood, by way of osmosis. That yucky stuff goes into the waste line and is disposed of, and the cleaner blood is returned to Rob's body. This process happens numerous times during a single dialysis treatment. Each time the blood passes by the membranes inside the NxStage filter, it gets cleaner and cleaner. So if you've ever wondered what your own healthy kidneys did all day, besides producing urine, now you know! They filter out all the "yucky" stuff that our body doesn't need, mainly extra salts and minerals and pharmaceuticals.

That's all for now! I hope everyone reading this has a great day/night!