Honorees
Meet Keaton McNamara:
Keaton McNamara just turned 13, and was diagnosed with IBD in April of 2007 at the age of 10. Ulcerative Colitis runs in Keaton’s family, and both his uncle and half brother are afflicted with IBD, so he is in good company!
Keaton started 7th grade this year at Westmark School in Encino, where they embrace him for “who he is”.
Keaton is under the wonderful care of Dr. Marla Dubinsky, and she continuously works hard to help Keaton find a way to be in remission from his Crohn’s Disease. Plagued with “stomach aches” since 2nd grade, his symptoms presented themselves in 4th grade. It was a scary time, but since we had a history of IBD, we were fortunate to waste no time in getting a quick and proper diagnosis. Keaton has been through many, many meds, running the gamut looking for remission. He was on pretty much all the various meds possible, had an allergic reaction to 6MP, and had a short -lived success on Remicade. Keaton had a rough time this past summer and fall, and had to go on Prednisone for a while. He also visited Cedars for a weekend this fall to get rehydrated and to have steroids by IV after a major flare up. Keaton recently began taking Humira by injection every two weeks, is also taking methotrexate once a week. This seems to be helping, and has kept Keaton in remission for the past few months! (Thanks Dr. Dubinsky!!!!!)
Keaton went to Camp Oasis this past summer for the first time, and found it to be a true “oasis”. This camp brings kids with IBD together, and gives them a safe place to share their experiences. They do all kinds of fun activities together and spend a fabulous week trying new things. He found that he easily made friends with the campers and counselors. He felt accepted and enjoyed the camaraderie that Camp Oasis provides. Keaton had a blast, and not only made friends, but enjoyed the activities and learned many new bathroom jokes! He looks forward to going back this summer. His mother joined him at the Painted Turtle for family camp this past October, which was tremendous for both of them.
When at home and feeling well, Keaton is very active. He rides his bike, enjoys movies and movie making, loves building Legos, reads comic books, and can’t wait to start driving!
Meet Chris Smith:
Hi Team Challenge LA! My name is Christopher Smith and I have been invited to be the team’s honored member for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) Napa ½ Marathon fundraiser. I was a sufferer of Ulcerative Colitis, a cancer survivor, and a former Team Challenge runner. Here, I want to introduce my dog Carmen, my loyal Jack Russell terrier, share a little something about my experience with Crohn’s and Colitis, and talk about why I think this ½ marathon is so worthwhile.
At 15 I was diagnosed with either ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease. They couldn’t figure out which. I was fortunate though, my primary care physician zeroed in on the symptoms very quickly. This is rare, I have heard so many stories of those who had to go from doctor to doctor, treatment to treatment, test to test, before they were correctly diagnosed. I lived with the disease for 20 years since that point with little impact on my life. I would have flair ups, of course, but my disease always responded well and quickly to medication. In fact, it responded so well that I never really considered myself sick or endangered. However, last summer this all changed.
Starting about 18 months ago, my flair ups became more regular and over the last summer I could not get off the steroid used to control my colitis during aggravated periods. After several appointments and examinations, my doctor finally identified that I had ulcerative colitis and that I also needed surgery…major surgery. As you can imagine, that gave me a shock. I didn’t want to believe it. After all, I didn’t feel sick: Carmen and I were training for a ½ marathon!
Of course, I went for a second opinion, a third and a fourth: I didn’t want surgery to be my only option. I also continued training with Team Challenge and fundraising for the Vegas ½ Marathon last December. These specialists all said the same thing and the reality of having surgery set in.
In October I went in for the operation, and, per my surgeon, the initial procedure went well. Of course, I was asleep so I will have to trust her. The next six days are now a total blur. In the days following the surgery I developed an infection, an infection that got worse and worse. By day six I was in septic shock, the number one cause of death in ICUs in America. My kidneys failed, my blood-pressure spiked and then plummeted, they tried to find my heartbeat with an ultrasound and couldn’t. My body was failing one organ at a time.
My surgeon finally rushed me into a second surgery, where she had to essentially clean me out and I was put to sleep for a week while my body tried to fight off what remained of the infection. That was just the first stage of recovery; this former runner had to learn to walk again, to eat again, and to breathe again. I also learned those masses in my colon were now malignant. Fortunately, the cancer had not gone to any of the lymph nodes and I would not need radiation treatments.
With a walker in hand, I was released from the hospital after being there nearly a month. God was I thrilled to be home and to see Carmen! Three weeks later I was walking around the block. Two more weeks and I was up to a mile. Now three months after being released, with Carmen at my side, I am starting to jog a few blocks, do light weights, and am well on my way to rebuilding my strength. I am excited I am at a place now where I will be able to join you for some of your practices and actually walk and run with you.
While I was learning to walk again, my 65 year old mother jumped in and decided to run the Las Vegas ½ marathon that I had been training for in my place. She has jogged for years but never more than 5 or 6 miles. Soon she was out training with my dog, running up and down the streets of Santa Monica. She kept this training up while commuting between my parents’ home outside of Seattle and coming down to help take care of me. She ran the Vegas ½ marathon in December in 30-degree weather. If that isn’t motivation to believe you can do this race, I don’t know what is.
I never want anyone else to have to go through what I went through. That is where this race and raising money for CCFA comes in. CCFA has funded critical research to find solutions from Crohn’s and Colitis. Because of research like that funded through CCFA, I was able to have a surgery that treatment my disease and find the cancer relatively early. And more research can be done to help create even better solutions for these diseases, better treatment options, and, most importantly, improve the quality of life for those with these diseases.
If it is anything like the team I was on, a number of you are familiar with Crohn’s and Colitis, either because you have the disease yourself or someone close to you does. For those of you who don’t, you will quickly learn the importance of fundraising for a cure and will be inspired by those around you on the team. I personally thank you for choosing to do this race. I told my team they looked younger and healthier by the time they reached the race, I am sure you will have the same experience.
Best of luck in training; I plan to see you out on the training course.
Christopher
updated 6/10/2010