This is a very personal post for me. I never used to be someone who thought very much about exercise. I didn’t like it, I wasn’t good at any team sports and I really didn’t see much of a purpose.
When I started my first job, I started to realize that if I was going to help anyone else, I had to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. I was not going to be able to get away with the whole idea of “do as I say, not as I do” so I started going to the gym. Not very faithfully or consistently in the beginning, but I kept going.
Just before starting out on my own, I had taken the trip of a lifetime after residency. Four friends, exploring Italy, Germany, Switzerland. Backpacking, staying in cheap hostels and seeing the sights. On a few of our excursions, one of the women said she was too tired or wasn’t interested in tagging along. We all thought this was a little odd. After all, when were we ever going to get to do this again as a crew? So, we said nothing, let her do her thing and went on our way.
Fast forward a few years and we started to have some understanding of why she didn’t want to join us. She had been starting to have some issues with her balance and she didn’t want anyone to know. She knew something was wrong and had started the process of having tests done to see if anyone could figure it out. Meanwhile, her balance got worse, her fine motor coordination started to deteriorate, she had tremors, her speech was slurred. By a couple of years later she could no longer work, she had to use a walker to go out of the house and she was having significant issues with her speech.
When Ritu was 42 she had to be placed in a nursing home when her mother could no longer look after her at home. She required help with everything from dressing to feeding. She could no longer walk, she could hardly talk because she couldn’t coordinate her speech. It took years but she had gotten a diagnosis of olivopontocerebellar atrophy (basically meaning that the part of her brain responsible for balance, motor skills, speech and coordination was slowly shrinking). There is no cure. You know exactly what is happening to you and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Not once however, have I ever heard her complain. She always smiles and is as positive as anyone I have ever met.
My friend had her ability to do anything taken away from her.
I NEVER take for granted that I have a body that functions, that moves the way I want it to when I want it to. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t do something because I can…
Nothing is guaranteed in life. Two years ago I had an accident riding a horse. I fell off, landed on my back on frozen ground and had multiple spinal fractures. For about eight weeks I wasn’t sure what my ability to exercise would be because even brushing my hair caused enough pain to make me want to vomit. It could have been so much worse than what it was so when I was given the all clear by the spine surgeon, I was back to weight lifting. The day I didn’t have pain that I could only describe as someone trying to stab their way out of my back, I went for a 6km run…because I could!
There are days when I have a lot of pain, but I still get out. I do it because I know I need to do this. I need to keep moving. I need to use the body I have been given to the best of my ability. There are people who have lost this ability…Ritu is one of them.
I run for Ritu.
Dr. McKay – MDWL Physician and Co-founder
