I Run Crooked for TM Awareness

I was diagnosed in 2011 with asthma, and in 2012 with osteoarthritis in most of my joints. In 2014, I was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis after suffering some severe right lower quadrant issues. In October of 2014, they also added a diagnosis of 7 bulging discs and told me I shouldn't run.

So what do I do? Decide to run the Pittsburgh Half-Marathon. Limp and all.

I'm running and asking for donations to go to The Transverse Myelitis Association. $13 donations, in fact, to reflect the distance I'm running. Share it with your friends and family, my goal is 500 people to donate $13 for TM and other rare neuroimmunologic disorders.

"Transverse myelitis (TM) is a rare inflammatory disease causing injury to the spinal cord with varying degrees of weakness, sensory alterations, and autonomic dysfunction (the part of the nervous system that controls involuntary activity, such as the heart, breathing, the digestive system, and reflexes). 

TM has a conservatively estimated incidence of between 1 and 8 new cases per million per year, or approximately 1400 new cases each year. Although this disease affects people of all ages, with a range of six months to 88 years, there are bimodal peaks between the ages of 10 to 19 years and 30 to 39 years. In addition, approximately 25% of cases are in children. There is no gender or familial association with TM." (from The Transverse Myelitis Association, http://www.myelitis.org)

Some TM patients make complete recoveries, some TM patients make some recovery (the group in which I fall), and others make little to no recovery.

I'm running for all of us. Just a little crookedly.