We wish her the best as she battles focal dystonia / runner's dystonia / repetitive exercise dystonia. Just yesterday on our weekly all-staff conference call, I had remarked I found it odd she hadn't been on any of the NBC broadcasts this winter. Here is her post from instagram.https://www.letsrun.com/news/2022/02/kara-goucher-announces-she-has-been-diagnosed-with-runners-dystonia/
Kara Goucher wrote:
For the past year I have been quietly battling for my health. After a fall in December 2020, I had a hard time staying on my feet while out running. It felt like I was slipping and it was scary, I’d throw my arms out for balance. After falling while crossing a road into traffic, Adam made me go to my doctor. This lead me to a neurologist who discovered lack of sensation in my legs and lesions in my brain. I had a lumbar puncture that was negative for MS. My doctor encouraged me to get back outside and slowly I started to feel better.
This fall the symptoms came back in a more intense way. I started drifting the left and falling again. A brain scan showed no changes. I began to struggle to walk outside, unable to control my legs or have confidence they would stay planted. I saw a new neurologist and she gave me an EMG. The test diagnosed neuropathy in my hands and feet. She got me in to see a neurological movement specialist. He diagnosed me with focal dystonia, for me runners dystonia. I started a Parkinsons medication and slowly improved. I could walk normally and run on gravel surfaces or my treadmill. But running on a road or a sidewalk would cause me to be pulled to the left and slip.
This past week I was a patient in the neurology department at the Mayo Clinic. The doctor confirmed repetitive exercise dystonia, and tried to tell me, as gently as possible, that the more I run the worse my symptoms will get. I have to drastically cut back or not only will I lose the ability to run at all, I will struggle to walk as well.
I am thankful that it isn’t MS or ALS or some of the other things we had to rule out. But losing running in the way I love it, is something I’m struggling to accept. People have said I’m addicted to running and they are right. I loved running before I knew I was good at it. It made me feel alive, to push, to feel my lungs expand. It has been one of the most glorious aspects of my life. From the silent meditation on a solo run to representing my country at the Olympic Games. I’m not sure where running ends and I begin, we are so entertained as one. I’m unsure what the future holds, but I’m trying to embrace it.