Susan: Masters Swimmer from Arizona

Why do I swim?

I seem to be one of the few in Masters Swimming who never swam on a team as a child or a young adult. My mother had us take swimming lessons so that we wouldn't drown in the lake where we summered, so I have always known how to swim.

I had been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis when I was 19, and had a total colectomy and ileal-anal anastomosis pouch (j-pouch) procedure when I was 25. Unfortunately, I was among the small percentage of j-pouch patients that had chronic pouchitis. The pouchitis was managed with daily antibiotics, and I had a fairly normal life with it for a number of years. At the age of 36 my workout partner convinced me that lap swimming would be an important addition to our fitness routine. She had been on the swim team in college, and introduced me to previously unknown concepts, like flip turns, pull buoys and drills. After she moved away, I continued to swim and started working out with the adult group that met 3 mornings a week. My ability to work out consistently was hampered by problems with my j-pouch. About once a year I would have to have minor surgery and a month or two of recovery time.

When I was 39 my j-pouch function had deteriorated considerably, and after 4 abscesses and a number of fistulas, I was ready to go back to an ileostomy. I had tremendous support from my family, and a terrific medical team, but the transition back to "the bag" after thinking I would never need it again was difficult.

Getting back into swimming after this surgery took a long time, I had to get used to the changes in my body, feel confident that the ostomy appliance would do its job, and overcome my self-consciousness about wearing a bathing suit and changing in a public change room. I started by sitting in the bathtub with water up over my appliance, and checked for leaks, lifting, or any other problems. Then I went for short swims in the local pool, gradually increasing the time until I was swimming a full hour.

Before I get in the pool I empty my pouch, and I wear a patterned suit to help disguise the irregular contours of my belly. When I shower in a public area, I leave on the bottom half of my suit and walk to a toilet stall to take off my suit and dry off. Then I leave the towel wrapped around my lower half until I am comfortably clothed.

About a year after the surgery I started swimming with a Masters Swimming team. With the high caliber coaching I got, my swimming and general fitness level improved. My coaches encouraged me to swim in one of the swim meets. Having never swum in a meet, I was hesitant, so I took the opportunity to go to a meet, help out with timing the events and see what it was all about. One of the events I timed was the 1500 meter freestyle (the metric mile), and one of the swimmers I timed was an 80 year old man who had one leg amputated at the hip. He placed first in his age group for the event (actually, he was the only one in his age group, which is all the more to his credit). I was incredibly inspired by watching this. After all, my ostomy doesn't show, and it doesn't affect how I swim. Missing a leg does affect your swimming, and is pretty difficult to hide in a swim suit! Yet there he was, for all to see, swimming his event. If he could do it, well, what was stopping me?

The next swim meet was a small, local meet and I entered 4 events. I had set pretty modest goals for the meet. I wanted to not disqualify myself and not to lose my goggles when I dove in. I felt like the biggest winner at the meet. I didn't win any events, or even place well in my age group. But I had gotten out there and competed, in spite of my ostomy, or maybe because of it. I have since competed in a couple of other meets, swam the La Jolla Rough Water swim twice and have made some real breakthroughs in my stroke technique. I am looking forward to my next meet because I know that I will set some personal best times!

So why do I get up at 5 am four mornings a week and swim? It is not just because it is great exercise that I can do for the rest of my life. It is because every time I swim, I prove to myself that I can do anything I want to; the only real limitation is what is inside my head.

Masters Swimming is an organized program of swimming for adults, 18 years of age and older. Local clubs or teams conduct workout programs, and there are local, national and international competitions. More information about US Masters Swimming can be found at: www.usms.org

For encouragement in getting into the pool email me at: MightyMouse5_0@hotmail.com