Help Me PR for BCH!!
Hi Everyone & thanks for visiting my page! It was my goal to run the BayState Marathon this October and get a Personal Record (PR) on the course. Unfortunately Coronavirus had other plans - but I wasn't going to let it take all of my 2020 goals with it. On October 18th I will set out to run 26.2 miles on my own; and there is no better motivation to get to through every mile than running for one of the best hospitals in the world.
I am running for Team Extra Mile which is a part of the BCH Miles for Miracles program. “Miles for Miracles” is not just a term the that is used because it is catchy. We run miles because Boston Children's Hospital truly turns so many children’s stories into miracle stories. Erin's story is one of them.
In December 2018, after nights of excruciating pain in her shoulder, Erin walked into the Boston Children’s Hospital Emergency department desperate for an answer. Other hospitals assumed the pain derived from the fact that she was a 16 year old, 3 season, varsity athlete - therefore it must be muscular. Send her home with muscle relaxers and throw a heating pad on it - she’ll be fine. But it had only gotten worse. A BCH nurse took one look at Erin and knew she could not send her home one more time without being as thorough as possible. After about 12 hours in the ER, she finally had an answer. A tumor was growing right in the middle of her spinal cord at shoulder level. It may have only taken a few more months of assuming this pain was muscular for the tumor to paralyze her.
5 days is all it took for the BCH Neurology Department to come up with a plan to get the tumor out. An 8 hour surgery left the Doctors estimating they had removed about 70% of the tumor - just enough to relieve the pain. So you can imagine that it was an emotional moment when MRIs revealed that 99% of the tumor was removed. 3 nights in the ICU, learning how to move again, walk again, even just to text her friends again. She was told she may never be able to play sports again - right before her senior year. That is rough on any 16 year old, but the nurses, doctors, PAs, PTs, OTs, etc. came in and brightened Erin’s day every time. It takes patience, empathy, and kindness to help someone heal and improve as quickly as Erin was able to. So quickly in fact that only 4 days after her surgery, on Christmas night, she was able to walk up the stairs to her grandmother's house and surprise her whole family at the Christmas party - an actual Christmas miracle.
Her story doesn't end there. Erin was told she had to refrain from sports for 3 months. So almost 3 months to the day, she was given the okay to play in her club soccer game. But you’d be a fool to think playing was enough for Erin - obviously she had to score a goal her first game back. She was improving on the soccer field at a rate that had everyone in awe. In her senior year at OA she was captain of the soccer and basketball teams. She faced obstacles with positivity, dedication, and hard work. She also finished the soccer season as the #2 scorer in the Hockomock League. Erin was a leader on and off the field/court. A role model to so many. She is my own inspiration to stay strong through adversity, and to fight through every inch of those 26.2 miles. She is the strongest girl I know. She is my little sister. And if it were not for Boston Children’s Hospital, my little sister would not be the smiling, energetic, positive 18 year old she is today who is headed off to college on her own this fall.
That is why I run. Stories like Erin’s are only possible because of how thorough and efficient the BCH staff was with a symptom that could have easily been brushed off and ignored - in fact it had been. Beyond her diagnosis, they were there for Erin and our family in every way we needed them to be. BCH doesn’t just preach miracles, they create them.
Running 26.2 miles is the least I can do. Support me, support the hospital, and support every child that walks through that door looking for their own miracle. They deserve one.
Thank You all:)
