Today is Day #2 of my 51/51 Challenge and I’m pumped up! I logged 4,614 steps on my Virgin HealthMiles monitor yesterday before I joined 189 second cousins to celebrate the end of a perfect holiday season! I walked 2 miles on Al Saner Track and skipped all desserts last night, so I hope that's considered a start. The score is still 0/51 - (0 pounds lost in my 51st year), so TishTrek continues...
In the 1980’s and 90’s, I was in control. I was strong. I could run five miles at a clip and cycle 50 miles from Rutgers University to Pt. Pleasant, NJ every single time I made up my mind to do so. I arrived on this earth without expert skills for organized sports, so I got creative and used my energy to simply become everyone else’s biggest fan. I raced in 10 Lion’s Club Inner Tube Races in the Atlantic Ocean and had such fun in my teenage years executing leg kicks on the Antrim School Football Field as the first ever Pt. Pleasant Beach High School Mascot. Yes – I was the Garnet Gull, (A dancing bird – beak and all - prepared to take on any Radio City Rockette on a good day!)
In 1995, confidence turned to chaos. I had never really known fear until I was terrified by a phenomenon I could not predict, identify, control, or talk about. Without a moment’s notice, my body would literally drop to the ground as if someone had released helium from a balloon. It happened everywhere. For three years, following every such incident, one fabulous emergency medical technical unit (EMT) after another picked me up in New York City, Bayonne, Jersey City, at work, at home, on the New Jersey Turnpike and successfully delivered me to the nearest hospital. The symptoms that put me in hospitals refused to show up when medical technology was watching until one day the experts - who never gave up on me - discovered that without warning my heart rate would drop into the high teens and low 20’s. I was 41 years old, when I had a dual-chamber pacemaker installed. But there I was - the luckiest woman on earth because my heart rate had never gone to zero while I slept.
First I felt relief, but denial and disbelief lingered for years after the device was inserted in my chest. All I did was joke about becoming the Energizer Battery Lady or the self-appointed President of the Pacesetters Club. My sense of humor overpowered my abilty to focus on what I needed to do to embrace this life-altering event. I suppose it was my coping mechanism, but avoiding what I eventually had to face resulted in letting myself down. How come I didn't walk out of that hospital and immediately take charge of all the things I could control to give myself a greater shot at maximum long-term survival? The Energizer Battery Lady finally stopped laughing.
This 2010 Journey – losing 51 pounds in my 51st year - is called “TishTrek” because I'm celebrating the actual rebirth of my heart that started on November 14th, 2000. Wish me luck as I work hard to get to Day #3. I’m going to win!
Best regards,
Everybody’s Cousin Tish
Score: 0/51
Quote of the Day: “What you avoid controls you.”
Author - Elizabeth B. Brown
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