Help Leslie raise money

15 years ago, while I was a freshman in College, I was diagnosed with IBD. Since then it has been a merry-go-round of starting a medication, doing fantastic on it, and then for whatever reason, having it stop working and landing me in the hospital. The most recent hospital stay I had was in October and November of 2022. 

I went to the hospital and left three times (I hate hospitals), trying to stay home and just be on prednisone but not being able to get out of bed, eat food, having a fever and very fast heart rate, and losing 30 pounds in a couple weeks, kept sending me back to the ER. I was on a dosage of steroids they would give to a Horse, and started Stelara, but nothing was helping. After a few weeks, the GI Doctor on call suggested I try a one pill a day medication called Rinvoq because they had free samples at the office. Turns out, they were out of samples and the drug rep was in the DR, of course! Lucky for me, they had expired samples of another pill called Xeljanz. He suggested I try it, because if the pill didn't work, then I was looking at surgery to have my colon removed and do what's called a J-Pouch surgery. (Google it, modern medicine is pretty cool!) Since I had been doing so well on Remicade for the past three years, I didn't even realize that surgery could be on the horizon for me, let alone maybe that week! Luckily, the Xeljanz has worked!!! I was given my life back, and I thank my lucky stars every day that it has worked so well. 

I also realize there are so many people out there in my exact situation who are not as lucky. Medication and surgery are not cures, and definitely not without their downsides. I just hope everyday that mine keeps working because I know all too well what happens when it doesn't. I am running the Falmouth Race to raise money for the Crohns and Colitis Foundation, for myself and others like me who have to deal with hospital stays, surgeries, expensive af medication, insurance companies!!!, and so much more anxiety and stress that comes with having a chronic illness. 

A few months ago, I couldn't even walk to the car to go to a Doctor appointment, so running this race and fundraising for CCF this year has even more meaning to me and I hope you will support me in raising money to help patients and caregivers and to help fund the search for a cure.