Back on his feet

Cole Stidfole compared the sensation that pulsed through his lower body to a mixture of flexible concrete and hot liquid.

At first, he said, his legs felt heavy. Then, they started to burn.

“You know how you feel at the end of a race when your legs don’t want to work at all?” Stidfole asked. “That’s how I felt at the beginning, even before I started running. They just wouldn’t move.”

From February to April 2016, the sensation tormented him. The seasons changed. His pain did not.

Stidfole, the reigning Gatorade Alabama Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year from Oak Mountain High School, was forced to miss his junior track season this spring after suffering extensive nerve damage in his legs and feet. But thanks to the unconventional treatment of a long-sought diagnosis, the OMHS senior is now on the mend.  

He’ll be trying to make up for lost time this cross-country season.  

 “Everybody gets knocked down, and he was knocked down,” said Cole’s father, Andy Stidfole. “But the measure of the character is what you do after you’ve been knocked down.”

Searching for answers

Cole Stidfole first experienced the sensation in his legs at the state indoor meet in early February, but initially, he wrote it off.

He had developed bronchitis the week before, and figured he was still dealing with its lingering effects.

“I’m just sick, so I’ll just push through as hard as I can,” Cole Stidfole recalled.

Although he placed third in the Class 7A 3,200-meter race, the pain radiating through his pencil-thin legs didn’t subside in the days after the meet.

Rather, it began to worsen — and spread.

“At first, we thought it was just his legs,” Andy Stidfole said, “and then he said, ‘Dad, I used to be able to do 100 pushups in a row, and now I can’t even do 20.’ It worked its way up. He just felt it in his legs because that’s what he was using and pushing on.”

Eventually, Cole Stidfole’s condition got to the point where he lost feeling in parts of his legs and feet. He also said he couldn’t stand or walk without experiencing the burning pain, and he would nearly pass out from fatigue as his strength dwindled.

Two meets into outdoor track, he pulled the plug on his season, washing away a prime opportunity to raise his recruiting stock.

He did not run at all for six weeks.

“He had been running for basically five years training for May of his junior year,” Andy Stidfole said, “and he got that taken away from him.”

 All along, the family searched for answers.  They found none for three months.

 Jodi Stidfole, Cole’s mother, said visits to the pediatrician, orthopedist, chiropractor and physical therapist all ended the same.

“Every doctor we went to was just like, ‘I’ve never seen this before. I’ve never heard of it,’” Jodi Stidfole said. “They were clueless.”

An examination by a neurologist in late April finally yielded a different outcome.

After drawing more than 20 vials of blood, shoving a needle deep into her patient’s foot and testing muscle reaction via shock therapy, Cole Stidfole’s neurologist gave the family a polarizing verdict. They were told he had developed idiopathic peripheral neuropathy, a diagnosis indicating nerve damage, loss of feeling and loss of reflexes (peripheral neuropathy) caused by an unidentified source (idiopathic).

There was no conclusive evidence as to what triggered the condition, and the Stidfoles were told that no surefire treatment existed that guaranteed symptom reversal.

“I was in shock. I was just like, ‘How did this happen to me?’” Cole Stidfole said. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to run again. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to fix it or not. It was just kind of sad and depressing to think about.”

An unconventional treatment

On May 6, Cole Stidfole sat in a chair at Trina Health in Fairhope.

Surrounded by elderly patients who sought to reverse the effects of diabetes, he stayed glued to his seat for nearly four hours as an IV pumped glucose into his slender frame.

Every 12 minutes, he self-administered a finger prick. He had to ensure his blood sugar level remained in check.

May 6 marked the second day of Cole Stidfole’s initial back-to-back Artificial Pancreas Treatment for idiopathic peripheral neuropathy. Recommended by his neurologist as a potential solution, the FDA-cleared treatment uses glucose to stimulate the release of insulin, which tells the liver to produce the enzymes required for proper metabolism. In turn, cells are provided with fuel for self-repair and regeneration.

 “What it does is it goes in your pancreas, the glucose, and that kicks on your pancreas to make new cells, which replaces the old ones that are messed up,” Cole Stidfole said. “It’s not very fun, but it’s worth it.”

In an ideal world, Cole Stidfole would have been 45 minutes away in Gulf Shores, preparing to defend his state outdoor track title in the 3,200 meters. It was Day One of the state meet, and hundreds of high school athletes had convened on the coast. He would have been one of them, but instead, he was toeing a different kind of starting line.

 “They’ve never treated somebody with this Artificial Pancreas Treatment before that wasn’t diabetic,” Jodi Stidfole said. “So Cole’s kind of like a test case, and so far they’re real happy with the results.”

Cole Stidfole said he noticed a near-immediate difference.

He attended the state track meet after completing his pair of preliminary treatments, and said he felt energized enough to jog with teammates before and after their races. After his third treatment one week later, he said he was able to run through his neighborhood for 15 to 20 minutes.

The progress hasn’t stopped.

He has regained feeling and reflexes in his legs and feet, and at last, the burning sensation is gone.

“After the first couple treatments, they didn’t hurt walking around or standing up or anything like that,” Cole Stidfole said of his legs. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is great. It’s actually working,’ and then now I can run, and there’s no burning, so it’s working pretty well.’”

Since the Trina Health location in Fairhope is the closest center that offers the Artificial Pancreas Treatment, the southbound trip became a ritual for the Stidfoles this summer. From May through late June, Cole Stidfole received weekly treatments. Then, he switched to biweekly treatments.

Although he’s been pleased with the results, Andy Stidfole said he needs to see his son make it through a full season of training with no complications to be fully convinced of the treatment’s effectiveness. If everything goes according to plan,  Andy and Jodi Stidfole said the goal is for their son to be completely recovered and weaned off the treatment by Christmas.

Kyle Dudley, Cole Stidfole’s coach at Oak Mountain, has witnessed firsthand the woes endured by the Eagles’ star runner. Through all the trials of the past seven months, Dudley said one thing hasn’t wavered: Cole Stidfole’s composure.

“I think in that situation it’s understandable to kind of run a gamut of negative emotions, but he really never showed any of them,” Dudley said. “He was always positive, never showed any signs of anger or hurt or discouragement, always just looked at it as a challenge, and he’s handled it as well as I could have possibly asked him to handle it.”

Gearing up for the season

When Cole Stidfole clocked the fastest 5K time in the state of Alabama last fall, Andy Stidfole was told by fellow parents that his phone wouldn’t stop ringing come July 1. That’s the day when college coaches are allowed to start contacting rising seniors who have merited their recruiting interest.

The events of this past spring altered that reality.   

Although Cole Stidfole received recruiting mail from traditional distance running powerhouses like the University of Wisconsin and Syracuse University during his junior year, his conspicuous absence from spring race results took a toll on his allure.

In the days leading up to July 1, Andy Stidfole said he predicted that his phone wouldn’t ring it all. “That’s basically what happened,” he said.

If Cole Stidfole has it his way, the lines shouldn’t stay silent much longer.

This summer, he has been running under the generous guideline prescribed by his neurologist: Train as if there were no issues.

 It’s a message he’s taken to heart.

“She said any nerve damage that was done, you’re not going to make it worse,” Andy Stidfole said.

As he’s regained his strength, Cole Stidfole’s mileage and tempo have both increased. By midsummer, he was back to running 40 miles a week.

This fall, he said he wants to come back strong. “I don’t want anybody to beat me,” he said.

Those are fighting words from someone who has been temporarily stripped of the ability to do what he loves — fighting words from someone determined to prove himself.

His motivation, he said, is at an all-time high.

 “Never take anything for granted and always give 110 percent every day,” Cole Stidfole said of his new motto. “Because it can be taken away from you at any moment.”

He may have been knocked down, but he is back on his feet.