I Run These Towns

I had been receiving IV infusions of Remicade, a biologic treatment Crohn's, for 14 years as I entered 2016. It was becoming clear that what had been a miracle drug was not having the same response. As we entered the new year I was cycling through antibiotics and trying to figure out next steps. Despite my health challenges I continued running. I completed the Shamrock Shuffle 8k in Chicago in March and the Gazelle Girl Half Marathon in Grand Rapids in April. I was still competing (with myself) at a level that made me happy.  In April my son brought home Norovirus from daycare, and it cycled through our family. I couldn't seem to recover from the bug. I couldn't shake extraordinary abdominal pain.  My doctor ordered lab work, so I headed to the lab around the corner from my office. I don't have an aversion to needles and have had lab work completed more times than I can count. On this day the nurse was unable to find a vein, and I inexplicably passed out. When I came ...

In November of 2014 I preparing was to take grenades during Michigan's lame duck legislative session. Our legislative sessions run two years then reset. That makes the last few weeks of a session, known here as lame duck, really crazy. It's a time where anything (or sometimes nothing) can happen.  I was having lunch with a colleague, sitting down for the first time that day. As we got our food my phone rang, and it was our adoption agency. I'm not generally one to answer the phone during lunch, but this was different. The caseworker (the same one we'd worked with 18 months before) informed me we had been chosen by a birth mother who was having a boy in a few weeks. The due date was a little uncertain, but if all went well we'd be parents before the holidays. So that's how my colleague, not my husband, became the first person to know we were having a baby. My husband was negotiating a transportation funding package on behalf of the Governor's team, and he did...