Lil Miss Working Dog

Shelby did great today on paratransit, lying down on the wheelchair lift and holding on for dear life as it moved. On the return lift when the HandiDogs instructor supervised us getting on board, the driver told her they usually take assistance dogs on board first then the owner/chair user. The instructor laughed and told him he would "never get this dog away from her owner." LOL That's my Shelby girl! Class went much better than last week as well, I am happy to report.

I realized that my National Brain Tumor Foundation's Angel Adventure Day is one week after my return from next week's surgery in Baltimore. With everything going on between prepwork to put the house on the market, DH's surgery, my sudden surgery, my mom visiting, and Shelby's training, I haven't been able to put nearly as much into it as I was able to last year. I feel badly about it.

Pardon me asking but if you are able, would you be able to spare even $5? Neurological research is so critically important. It is a terribly underfunded area when it comes to grants and sponsorships, and brain disease is devastating. Even if someone recovers, so-called recovery is typically partial. We are left with permanent life-altering and often debilitating side effects. While we struggle throughout every single day, our families are left to cope and pick up the pieces. Nothing is ever the same.

That is why we need your help. If everyone found $5 to give, which is of course tax-deductible since it is a 501(c)(3), it would make an astounding difference.

While new discoveries funded by your help may be too late for some of us, it gives us hope and courage to get through the days simply to know our children may take advantage of wonderful scientific and medical advances.

There is a link on the right side of the page. If you follow, you will find the donation page--and my family's deep gratitude.

DH's minor outpatient surgery today for a sort-of hernia went fine. He's been going back and forth between watching television and snoozing. All is well.

We have our flights and hotel but not the rental car yet. A generous friend is trying to work it out for us to use her accrued points for the car; hopefully we will know tomorrow if it will work out. It is so kind of her!

There is so much to do I'm a bit flustered which I guess is why I'm sitting here instead of getting things done. Thursday is just a particularly exhausting day because of Shelby's class. I'll work on a couple little things tonight (I hope).

New York, Chiari Institute, Testing

I spoke with my NY nurse yesterday and today. On Tuesday I'm going to my local radiology facility for a DEXA bone scan, x-rays of the cervical spine, MRI of the c-spine, an and MRI of the brain.

Two days after that I will be 3 months post-op from my arterial surgery, so the imaging should be good and accurate. A bonus is I have to stop taking vitamins and minerals for the rest of the week!

Other than that, the situation is just lousy in general. I dread the whole darn thing and what will come afterward.

When we fall behind

I planned to spend the weekend in Phoenix as a friend was being thrown a surprise baby shower. I made the trip up on Friday, and I couldn't tell you the last time I drove that distance so it was tiring to say the least. I knew it would be, but I really didn't want to miss this.

I got there, drugged up, and watched a couple of movies with S and her husband (in college, the two of us were roommates in the dorms and the guys were roommates as well).

Yesterday (Saturday) her mom came up and the three us went out. By 11:30 we had been to Babies-R-Us, Target, Dollar Tree, and Costco.

*YELPS*

Thankfully I took my disabled parking tag out of my car and gave it to S's mom to use while we were out. I can't imagine otherwise, especially at Costco (warehouse club).

It became abundantly clear neither of them had any understanding of the extent of my limitations. It was frustrating but what was most difficult to handle was inside, the emotions. S and I used to go dancing nearly every weekend. We would get up at 2-3 a.m. and start snowfights. We played mud tug-o-war. We did several-mile walk-run races, and won, landing us as the town's top 5 o'clock news story.

After all the shopping, and not long before the secret shower, S's mom took us to lunch. Before we left the restaurant, I started getting sick. Literally. I had to force myself out of the restroom for us to leave. The problem?

I couldn't go to the shower, and I couldn't explain anything. I also knew they would be late because of me, though S didn't know about it. Her mom did, which is why she came to town as well.

In tears, I had them drive us back to S's house. I said I didn't want them to miss out on the rest of their "shopping" because of me, but I have this admittedly-weird thing about being sick in other people's homes. It's bad enough and one thing to get sick in your own bathroom but another thing entirely to do it at a friend's. Worse yet, I didn't know S's friend hosting the shower. Sick at a stranger's home? No can do.

I think S's husband was pretty upset and frustrated with me. I could tell by his eyes, though he is too nice a person to ever say anything like that.

And so, I left Phoenix a day early, and missed the baby shower. I feel terrible about it but I know there was no other option. I hope S understands. I wrote her an email a couple hours ago (around 3 a.m., sheesh).

It had been a year and a half since we'd seen each other. I've had I think 5 surgeries since then, most of them pretty serious, involving brain, spine, artery, a ruptured appendix, etc.

Should I have said something during all the running around? I don't know. I don't regret that I didn't. I didn't want to mess up what was supposed to be a special day for her. I wanted to keep my situation as low-key as possible.

S's life has moved on while mine is at a standstill. I just wish she knew, and I don't know how to tell.

Lately I've been feeling strong
And you've been falling behind
Oh tell me what went wrong
'Cus I can't read your mind

-Divinyls, "I'm On Your Side"

So long old Chiari blog

The entire site where I had my blog is going to shut down. They are switching the blogs to another location entirely and I do not like it whatsoever. Instead of copying and pasting hundreds of posts over to here, I'm basically starting over--no worries though, I have a copy of everything I wrote!

To get things started, here is my last entry from the other site, done yesterday.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 3:03 PM PDT

These were all done this morning.

We are having quite a downpour right now. What a nice change.