The long, hot summer

Ahhh, I love the fall season, and summer here in San Antonio is finally over. The temperature is now in the high 80s to low 90s, such lovely fall weather.

Of course it isn’t! The heat has been intolerable this year. We reached 100 degrees in May and stayed really hot. We had 59 days of 100 or 100+ temperatures.

Enough on the past weather. Looking forward to cooler days that will allow me to be more active. Heat and humidity don’t mix well with Transverse Myelitis.

Abuela

I always liked my abuela Lola more than I did either of my parents. She was always very old – she wasn’t a young woman when my mom was born – and she was stubborn! Last night I dreamt about her. I seldom have dreams about her, but when I do they are always intense and there is never anyone else from the family with us. Not as far as I can remember. I usually dream with her when I am super stressed out, like I have been during the last few weeks. I guess I am subconsciously looking for some comfort by hanging out with my abuelita. In one dream she told me, “I have to leave you now because you know I’m dead.”  To which I sadly replied “ok, goodbye.”

Adios …. hasta pronto

I am going to miss Pedro a lot. We didn’t think he would stay this long, almost a year.

 

 

I thought he was visiting for a few weeks! Ha, ha … that’s my family for you! Well, we got lucky and both of us are sad to see him go.

 

Broke

I get in a really bad mood when I am more broke than usual. This will be the case for the entire summer.

Second Life

Second Life can be many things for different people. For me, and I am sure many other disabled people, it offers a gateway into a world where my disability doesn’t exist. There I can explore, learn and have fun without suffering from extreme fatigue, and without the use of my cane or wheelchair, I can even fly!

Recently I started volunteering at Virtual Ability Island, a resource, training and mentoring sim on Second Life for new residents who are disabled and also for others. Second Life can be a great experience or it can be scary and difficult. For a disabled person it can be particularly challenging. There is a great deal of technology to learn and so much to do you can become overwhelmed, or just not know where to start. Virtual Ability Island offers great training, basic and advanced, as well as special events and programs for people with physical and mental disabilities, or anyone who is interested.  The mentoring program is terrific, it has enabled me not only to help others, but to make friends as well, and learn from the people who visit the Island. This wonderful service is made possible by the Alliance Library System (a consortium of 259 libraries) and Virtual Ability, Inc. For more information visit Virtual Ability at http://www.virtualability.org

Tossing my wheelchair into the sea!

Jose

This charming gentleman is coming to visit.

Jose ~ mi sobrino mayor.

Quote of the week

Allá ellos que son blancos y se entienden. ~ Anonymous (Puerto Rican)

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

You can probably relax and read a little while getting an MRI just as this fellow is doing.

 

However, it’s a little harder to do when your head is in the opposite direction, in what is called a cage, for an hour and a half!

This is an image of an opened-MRI naturally its a lot better than a closed one where you are slid into what feels like a short tunnel. Can I hear you say panic attack. Now, not all opened-MRI machines are the same. I’ve been in one that was a little more enclosed than the one pictured above but it had a periscope attached to the cage that allowed the patient to look around the room; its kind of hard to describe. And yesterday I was in a supposedly opened-MRI machine that was not very opened at all. It was a long exam (in total about 3 hours but they are doing it on two separate days), and I wasn’t given earplugs or a panic button. The panic button (that’s the real term, I didn’t make it up) is actually a round ball that you can squeeze and ask the technician to STOP before you die (the exam is harmless, but you feel like you can die, at least thats how it feels to me).

I’m tolerating these more (after all I’ve had 6). Even the god-awful noise is less bothersome. I have never had to squeeze the panic ball (ok, in the hospital where they had only closed machines and no panic button I had to be partially sedated before going in.) I just hope I’m done with these for awhile. 

Oh, the reason for this current MRI is to check my brain to get a better understanding of spots that showed up in other MRIs (I have a new, more thorough neurologist) and to try and figure out why I have difficulties breathing at times. So yeah, definitely worth the hassle.

The New Me

I am feeling a lot more chipper since I got a new computer. Welcome to the 21st Century!!! I justified the purchase of this bad boy – MAC BOOK, on the very real facts that

1) I have been through hell and high water and needed a real pick-me-up (flowers are not enough!);

2) I am homebound (yuck, I hate that word – someone give me a better term) and spend 70% of my day online (I made up that number but I am online a lot);

3) I came across unexpected money (I could have used it to pay bills but see # 1 & 2 above) ; and

4) my iBook is almost 6 years old and is falling apart.

So there, no guilt, just a very happy new me.

Just thinkin’

I hate having two kitchens to keep clean.