Monday, October 27, 2008

The end of the day




Saturday night I fought in my first professional MMA fight. I won. It has been a very stressful experience training, making weight, and dealing with Ulcerative Colitis. I was flaring enough to have my prednisone put back up to 40mg/day a week before the fight. The whole ordeal just make me realize how great my family, friends, coaches, and training partners really are. I could not have accomplished any of this without them.

During the middle of the first round I took a body kick that fractured one of my ribs. I felt the impact and the crunch on my side. I didn’t realize how much damage it did till I came back to the corner for the second round. I could barely breath, once the bell sounded I bit down on my mouthpiece and told myself “I’ll die before I quit”. At the end of the day the only person you are ever accountable to is yourself. I knew that if I didn’t answer the bell and fight to the end that I’d never forgive myself. Believe in the power of one.









Thursday, October 16, 2008

Scared

Up until Monday I had been doing very well with my treatment. My prednisone dosage was tapered from 60mg to 10mg, I was enjoying life to its fullest. Monday I had full blown flare up symptoms, and thus my prednisone dosage was put back up to 40mg. As my prednisone dosage tapered I was able to come down to 153lbs. But now that I’m up to 40mg this week I’m up to 157lbs. I must weigh in next Saturday to compete at 155lbs, I watch my diet religiously. Hopefully I can get it under control and start tapering again.

Next week I go to my doctor’s office again for blood work. The doctor is going to see if I can get on 6mp, I’m overjoyed. 6mp comes with a whole slew on nasty side effects, just like Prednisone.

Minor:
loss of appetite
abdominal pain
sore mouth
nausea
vomiting
diarrhea
dark discoloration of skin
itching
rash
Major:
severe joint pain
severe upper abdominal pain (pancreatitis)
fever
unusual fatigue
weakness
sore throat
abnormal bleeding or bruising
yellow color to skin or eyes

I’m tired, I’m scared, and some days I feel great and ready to take on the world. Then there are days like this where it seems that I’m losing everything I love. What is worse the disease or the drugs we use to treat it? Prednisone make me feel normal, too bad it will rot your body from the inside out. 6mp? Who knows…maybe I’ll develop a rare form of cancer while suppressing my testosterone production.