5 Years

5 years ago
On August 6, 2007, my life changed. I woke up with a normal, functioning GI system. I went to bed (on a 13 hour flight to Israel after throwing up for five straight hours) a completely different person. A sick person. A person doctors could not treat; a person who eventually ended up visiting two top surgeons at Cornell who both recommended having my colon removed. My life also changed that summer when I got my job at Merrill Lynch, which was an amazing job with wonderful people at a company I wish still existed because I wanted to stay there forever.

[Taken approx 3 hours before I became permanently sick]

4 years ago
At the very end of the summer of 2008, my life changed. The stomach issues I thought were just a weird thing that would go away were worse than ever. I felt uncomfortable, miserable and obsessed constantly about how my life changed so much in one year and wondering if I would ever be back to normal. Up until summer hit, I spent my weekends in my bed. But I love summer and I love warm weather and I was tired of being single and I decided to start dating. I met my ex at the very end of the summer.  At the exact same time as that? Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch and I actually cried, knowing that the ideal job situation I enjoyed for the last year couldn’t last much longer.  And with both these events, my life changed. For the better? Not so much, but I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason and I wouldn’t be where I am today if this didn’t happen.

[My brother and I on a ferry to Bainbridge Island]

3 years ago
In the summer of 2009, my life changed. I will always remember summer 2009 for being rainy, cloudy and cold. Almost every weekend sucked. But the summer was marked by something else. After reading blogs for awhile by then, I decided to try something I never considered: running. I wanted a way to exercise outdoors and I wanted an exercise I could do anywhere, and the bloggers I read who were running and racing made it look like fun. My first attempts were slow and difficult. My knee hurt; I tried running too fast and felt like death. For some reason, I kept trying and a couple of months after I ran for 25 minutes for the first time, I ran my first race. And I unknowingly set myself on a crazy course I could not having possibly imaged for myself, because really, a marathon? That is the summer I became a runner.

   
[My very first race]

2 years ago
By August, 2010 my life changed. My stomach was doing so much better, I thought the worst was finally over. I felt awesome all the time. I didn’t get bloated after my meals. I was single, and summer is the absolute greatest time to be single after a crappy relationship. I was taking Core Fusion. I was running a lot. I held my first backyard party. I traveled to the Hamptons to help film a Core Fusion class with YogaVibes. I hiked the Appalachian and stood in New York and New Jersey simultaneously (having no idea I would live in New Jersey two years later). I spent Labor Day weekend in the Smoky Mountains at my baby brother‘s wedding to girl who was already a sister to me. I  felt strong from my first six-months of strength-based exercise; I felt more confident and happy with myself than I ever was before. And while all those things were absolutely amazing, the GI improvements were unfortunately short-lived; a couple of months after summer ended, my stomach took a turn for the worse and it’s been bad ever since. So while everything was pretty great that summer, my life did change, but not in the way I so desperately hoped.

    

1 year ago
On August 8, 2011 (one year ago today), my life changed. I started my new job.

[Thanks to my daily email from Timehop Abe.]

I didn’t feel 100% confident in my decision. I wanted to leave the company I was at (a position I also didn’t feel totally comfortable taking) and didn’t want to make the same mistake again. But I was also excited. I knew it would be a challenge, and more than anything, I needed to be challenged. I stepped off the PATH train into a world I never knew existed until my interview: Jersey City. I mean, I knew Jersey City existed, but I didn’t know it was so nice. So pretty. So quiet.

I made the right decision by accepting this job for more than just the work (which absolutely was the right choice for me, as it turns out). Not only did I accomplish more at work in one year than I ever have before, accepting this job led to Andy and I moving to Jersey City in our first apartment together which was the greatest thing that could have happened for us. Both sick of Manhattan, both unable to afford anything decent — if I didn’t work in Jersey City, we never would have known this incredible world with tons of farmer’s markets, great restaurants, cute bars, pretty parks and cleaner air was an option. And I can still get to my beloved workout Refine Method in 30 minutes (priorities, right!).

[Jersey City!]

The one thing that hasn’t changed? My GI issues. I am practically as lost now as I was in 2007 when it all began. While I can manage my symptoms a lot better (which happens to cost a LOT of money), I am frustrated and upset. When I got sick, I  thought it was just a weird bug that would go away; I never expected it to become a 5+ year ordeal. I can’t even believe it’s been that long; it feels like yesterday that this all began. Yet here I am, five years later, thousands of dollars poorer and without many answers. So while I plan to contact a new GI doctor soon (in case science changed since I saw the surgeons), I am frustrated. But I’m also happy that my life events of the past five years led me where I am today.

I don’t know what will happen with my medical stuff by this time next year. But I do know that by this time next year, my life will be completely different for multiple reasons. While some of the reasons are really sad, there are more that are happy. I’m excited to watch the year unfold. A lot can happen in five years — but even more can happen in six.

And I will leave you all at that.