4 year on (well I am a couple of days early) and things are still developing and although the
blog may not have been as active this year as it has been previously this is
because it has continued to create other ways to achieve goals so there is less
need to post lots of information, although I do have a couple of posts coming
up on Xiapex and a new paper which has some potential interest.
Blog things:
The Facebook page had continued to grow and this really
helped with the patient survey (more on that later) and it is now up to well
over 400 likes and more and more are coming, most people get referred to the
Facebook group as it is easier to discuss things and it is more private. In
terms of page-views things have been pretty steady this year and the blog has
now hit over 220,000 page-views but neither of the above matters when you
consider the wider picture… By far and away the most valuable post I have done
this year is on the mental impact of Ledderhose and what a major impact it can
have on your life. The post on this really seemed to hit home with many people
and really made me reflect back to where I was with this condition in 2012,
despite just getting married to a super amazing person I was down and in pain
because of this condition.
Still other things that have happened this year.
The International Dupuytren’s Symposium
Without a doubt the highlight of the year for me (in terms
of Ledderhose related things). The trip to Holland was fantastic as not only
did I get to put address the results of the patient survey but I go to meet
Wolfgang from the IDS in person and introduce myself and the charity to the top
doctors in the field. It was nice to catch up with Anna and I got to see Dr
Shaffer in person for the first time since I finished my treatment. I won’t go
into detail on the conference itself as all the details can be found below.
DART was started
I was not involved in the set-up of DART but it is a
fantastic Facebook group that is looking into all avenues of Radiotherapy for
Dupuytren’s, the group has really taken off and has lots of interesting
discussions and got patients and doctors working together on a common goal.
Running and Weight loss
This is probably the overall highlight of my year. I have
been overweight for so long and holding on to the extra weight was the last
thing that the foot inflicted on me. Do not get me wrong the foot was not the
cause but it certainly hindered me losing weight and contributed to some of the
extra pounds. This year my wife and I embarked on a massive challenge to lose a
lot of weight with my goal being to lose over 100lbs and we decided to try a
low-carb diet and if it didn’t work then we would try something else. Well the
low carb diet worked really well and the weight feel off, I noticed straight
away that my foot was feeling much better and still don’t know if it was
because of the low carb diet or the weight loss but feel it was a combination
of both. As a result of the weight loss and a lot of hard work my running has
also improved, I have gone from just about being about to run 5k in around 34 minutes
to targeting sub 20 (not far off either) and I am now training for a half marathon
with ambitions to complete a marathon sometime in 2017. So far my foot has been
coping really well and I can’t believe I am running 30+ miles a week.
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