In 2004, life was just getting good. I had come back to work at my alma mater in a great office of about 30 people. Austin had just recovered from testicular cancer and we were changing our lifestyles in many ways for the better. The stress of Austin's illness was slowly wearing away and we had selected two (what we thought were) lifelong physical activities we both enjoyed: walking on the Iowa State campus and disc golfing.
I couldn't have imagined a better place to be, not to mention that is my #1 recommendation for living by findyourspot.com. In 2005 and 2006 I won the Iowa Games in disc golf. I was seriously exploring the possibility of turning professional, however, I was starting to enjoy the sport less. We were playing daily and I noticed my fatigue level increasing so I decided to take a few days off here and there. I also noticed some pain localized to my knees, but I still felt pretty strong. I wasn't too worried about it at the time because I had several surgeries by this point and knew that my "knees were bad." In 2007 things turned poor quickly. I noticed it especially after I played recreational volleyball - I couldn't walk for a few days after-wards. So I gave up volleyball. I began to notice that I couldn't handle walking the hills playing disc golf so I played half of the hilly course or only the flat course. Within a few week's time I couldn't do that either. I thought I had the perfect solution to the problem - crutches!! I thought I could play forever if I just used crutches. That didn't work for long AND I began using for every day use for longer walks (i.e. Iowa State football games). Ok, so I can't play my lifelong chosen sport and it's getting tough to walk around in stores without assistance.
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