Team Challenge Progress: Week of 9.16 to 9.22

Thank you to my supporters during the past week... now several weeks into the Team Challenge program, things are still going strong!  Because of your generous donations, I am very close to the $2,000 fundraising mark for The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America.  Check out my status bar on my donation page.  Can't wait to run those 13.1 miles for you all!

This week's donor honor roll:

• Jenny Enright
• Marge Holzem
• Marv Holzem
• Alexandra Lingle
• B. K. Holzem Enterprises

Training/Crohn's progress:

I have started my training program this past week (see my last post for the whole schedule), and while I did not adhere to things perfectly, I have started working on my speed and endurance.  I did do some fartlek work and did my tempo, speed-building run mid-week.  As expected, going back up on prednisone has helped quench some of the pain in my right knee... making running more comfortable in that respect.

With regard to the Crohn's, my GI system has not really improved since this "flare" got going.  It is pretty frustrating to know that things were sort of in control a couple of weeks ago, and then they just sporadically snapped back out of hand.  So now, my gastroenterologist and I have reached the point in my treatment where it its time to test my response to a medication that we have been avoiding up to this point... methotrexate.  For those of you who don't know, methotrexate is an immunosuppressant drug that tends not to be first-line therapy for Crohn's in women of child-bearing years.  Methotrexate is a pregnancy category X medication, which means that this drug should not be used during pregnancy because it is a known teratogen (i.e. can cause developmental defects for the fetus).  Taking this drug does not prohibit me from ever getting pregnant... this drug would just need to be stopped before that can happen.  Am I worried about taking this medication?  Sure, I would have rather avoided it.  But research shows that having active Crohn's during pregnancy is one of the worst things for the developing fetus, so it's not like I could get pregnant until this disease gets under control anyway.  I need to be well first, and then worry other things in life later.  I will always keep running no matter what is going on (I do slow up if I need to)... running through it all keeps me feeling in control of something!