At races, most people have no qualms about asking Melisa Callison how she lost her right leg. What might render them speechless is when Callison wraps up her story thusly: "I consider myself lucky."
Callison, a 42-year-old West Sacramento resident and a recognizable figure on the regional distance- running scene with her carbon-fiber prosthetic leg, just laughs. "They'll say, 'Lucky? With a leg amputation?' I'll say, 'Yeah.' "
Given how debilitating Callison's genetic disorder, neurofibromatosis, could have been – brain tumors, blindness, scoliosis, severe learning diabilities – the removal of a limb at age 3 1/2 definitely is not the worst-case scenario.
After all, Callison has run marathons on her fancy prosthetic leg called the Flex Run. How bad could her affliction be?
Pretty bad, actually.
Neurofibromatosis is a chronic, progressive nervous system condition in which tumors grow on nerves throughout the body. It also can affect bones, skin, eyes and the brain. Its cause is unknown, a cure elusive and treatment options limited.
One in 3,000 babies born have the genetic marker for the condition, and Callison was 10 months old when doctors found she had it. She had fractured her right leg learning to walk and, despite numerous surgeries, it would not heal. She also had the telltale "cafe au lait" spots at various points on her body.
After the amputation, Callison lived what she recalls as a normal life, hoping the symptoms would not be too limiting. And they haven't been.
"I get these little benign tumors at the peripheral nerves," Callison says. "The older I get, the more I get. In December, I had one surgically removed on my foot just because it was ugly."
Aside from those "cosmetic annoyances," Callison has built a successful career as a respiratory therapist at Sutter Davis hospital and has become a self-dubbed "fitness freak." She cycles, swims and at one time was a buffed body-builder.
Lately, running has been her passion. Her most recent triumph: completing the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon last Sunday, raising funds for a 5-year-old girl who has the same condition Callison has.
"I started dating a runner – he was a barefoot runner – and he used to take me to running events with him," Callison says. "We're not together now, but I'm still running."
Callison recalls her first race, the 5K walk at the 2004 Cowtown Marathon.
"I was using a new type of walking leg, and my stump was just like hamburger," she says. "The liner caused a sore, which caused a splitting along an old scar line. The leg itself weighed over 5 pounds. I limped across the finish line, crying, and my leg was bleeding. It was not a great first experience."
Yet it was not painful enough to make her quit.
Callison called prosthetist Bryan Hayes – "my leg man, who went out on a limb for me," she says, sardonically – and acquired her pricey ($10,000 retail), fancy and springy, carbon-fiber Flex Run.
After Hayes made adjustments, Callison tried the Flex Run out on the American River college track in fall 2006. She wore knee and elbow pads, fearing she would fall.
She didn't fall; she took off.
"That first step I took – the only way to describe it is it felt like I had a mini-trampoline on my right foot," Callison says. "I ran about 50 yards. At that point, I was so out of shape, cardio-wise. I just started to practice with it."
Her first race with the new leg was the 2006 Cowtown 5K, which she finished in 41 minutes. Less than a year later, she finished her first marathon, San Diego's Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, in 7 hours, 17 minutes, 36 seconds.
Slow, yes. But Callison is progressively lowering her times through core weight training and improving her cardiovascular fitness.
One obstacle she has easily overcome is body mechanics. Her prosthetic leg is an inch and a half longer than her left leg, which would seemingly throw off her gait.
Not so, says Callison.
"Because I'm moving so fast when I run, it affects my gait more when I walk," she says. "I've not had injuries from that. But I have had plantar fasciitis in my (left) foot. It took me a year to get over it."
But Callison knows people don't want to hear about problems with her "good" leg. It's that sleek Flex Run that draws attention.
"After the Zoo Zoom race (a 5k in Sacramento), these two kids with their mom came up to ask me about it," Callison says. "I even took it off and let them hold the leg."
Call The Bee's Sam McManis, (916) 321-1145.
