Good Morning!
I decided to blog this morning before I go to sleep since my days and nights are flipped again. I got up so late yesterday that I never got around to blogging. Just throws my normal schedule off. Not that my life has much of a schedule--or is very normal at all, for that matter--ROFL!
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I grabbed the camera a few times when I got up last night just to show you why Karma doesn't always get her beauty sleep--ROFL!
She always has to keep an eye on me...
...just to keep track of what I am up to, I guess.
Even if she's so tired she can hardly keep her eyes open...
...any time I get up, she wakes up.
Karma sleeps with one ear open, I guess--hehe!
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Thunderstorms passed thru here all night Wednesday night and Thursday morning. I just heard on the news that there were 54 tornadoes in North Dakota and Minnesota yesterday!! Whew! None in town here, but I wonder what the damages were?
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I slept the day away yesterday and got up at almost 6pm. By the time I woke up the sky had cleared and the sun was out. Muggy still. I did make it over last night to get gas before my one coupon expired (can use up to three of them) and saved almost $5.00!! Whoohoo! And then I stopped over at JoAnn's to look for flower dies to cut our own paper flowers. Nothing interesting there. Maybe will try to hit the other three craft places over the next few days? We have JoAnn's, Michael's, and Hobby Lobby in Fargo and then our local K&Krafts over in Moorhead.
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Been catching up online! Watched the end of season one of True Blood. The second season is coming out on DVD on the 22nd, so I'll get it whenever I'm next in line. Have it at the top of my list. It's kind of grown on me, I guess. Some great characters...if they don't keep killing them off!! Looks like they may have just killed off another one I really enjoyed? :(
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On the instant netflix I watched I Remember Me:
Kim Snyder was a filmmaker looking forward to her next project when, one day, she was overcome by what she thought was the flu -- but later found out her disease was much more debilitating. In this touching documentary, Snyder chronicles her struggles with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, an illness that's still a mystery to many doctors. Includes interviews with other famous sufferers, including director Blake Edwards and athlete Michelle Akers.
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This documentary came out in 2000. Fibromyalgia was often diagnosed as CFS. Still can be. Seems to me fibro is just chronic fatigue plus guaranteed chronic pain. I could really relate to what this woman went thru--is going thru--and the many people she talked to. She researched and discovered clusters of people who came down with this weird fatigue disease after having flu-like symptoms back to 1934 in Los Angeles. The center for disease control ignored it over the years. More women get it than men--so they said it was in their hysterical heads, of course. ;) Hey--some of my own family and friends thought it was in my head and didn't believe me. That was devastating!
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I know I have heard there's a current theory that fibro might be caused by a virus, but they haven't proved anything yet. All I knew was I came down with a bad case of mono, had to quit my double jobs, moved up to Fargo/Moorhead to go to college in 1999...and I never recovered. I was never the same.
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I had always thought it was the mono that started it somehow. But I caught everything that went around the college because my immune system was compromised--all the five years I was there I was sick. That first year I caught something every single month, I think. Had the flu 2-3 times, respiratory illnesses, bronchitis, walking pneumonia, etc. After seeing this documentary, it makes me wonder if I didn't catch it then--one of those times I had the flu? If they do find out it is a virus--that's where and when I got it.
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I could really relate to mourning the person you used to be. You are a completely different person. Physically altered. And not for the better! She said that there are some people who do basically recover--between 4-12%. And it sounded to me like about the same percentage of suicides. There are a range of degrees that a person can be effected. This one poor young man of 16 was reduced to being totally bedridden and couldn't even dress or feed himself. I feel very fortunate.
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Anyways, it was very interesting to me, naturally. If anyone wanted to have a better idea of what the chronically ill with CFS (or fibro) live with...you could check this documentary out. Maybe one day they will find a cure. :)
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" We are all made of starstuff."
Carl Sagan
9 comments:
Sounds like Karma has "mommy ears" - the kind that let a mom hear her kid while she's asleep or in the shower or miles away.
Fibro sounds horrible. I know several people with it - and you - Rita, have the best attitude and it's so... inspiring to me.
I wish someone could find a cure soon, and fix your "starstuff".
Karma is your guard cat and she protects you and watches over you very well. Loved those pics.
I hope one day they do find a cure. It would be a godsend to so many people.
I wrote a long blog comment but deleted most of it and shortened it to this. I do know a little about the kind of pain that drags you down and is always there. A little over three years ago, I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in my neck after 8 weeks of physical therapy 3 times a week (2 herniated and 2 bulging discs showed up in an MRI) and was also diagnosed with scoliosis six months before that. They don't know how long I've had the scoliosis and don't know why I was never diagnosed with it before. When I saw the xrays, it made me cry. It's not easy living with constant pain.
*hugs to you*
Karma is like a watch dog. lol
I'm so sorry you are dealing with chronic pain. And fatigue. It is so unfair. I, too, hope they are able to find a cure in our lifetime.
Interesting...
Kero is like that. You think he's sleeping, but you just slightly move and he's up and on full alert.
Awww Karma is such a good kitty looking out for her mommy, I love your cats name by the way!! Im so sorry your sleep schedule is off, hopefully it will work itself out soon :o)
Iggy--Ha! I think I was born with "mommy ears"! :):) Thanks so much, Iggy! I admire you, too!! I think starstuff is the one part that remains untouched by the earthly woes. :)
AliceKay--Aha! You are another who lives with constant pain! Difficult to explain to people--but there are more people who do than we care to imagine--for a variety of reasons. Like my doctor said when he diagnosed me--"the good news is you're not dying-the bad news is you will feel like you are". (He understood me well by that time and knew that would really make me laugh!) *hugs back to ya* :):)
Deanna--Karma is like a watch dog--hehe! Wouldn't that be something if they did find a cure! For so many people!! :):)
Toriz--Yup! Karma wakes up, too--but she is often on half-alert--ROFL! She is only able to sleep if I am in bed or in my favorite chair. Unless she finally gets so overtired that she goes and hides under the bed for a few hours--ROFL!
Lynn--My sleep goes around the clock a lot. Having trouble sleeping is just another part of the fibro. I always prefer to be awake during the day, of course, but am glad to sleep whenever I can. You sleep lightly and keep waking up all the time with the fibro--another reason you never feel rested. Just "normal" for my abnormal life--hehe! ;)
Karma looks quite regal in that last pic. :)
I'm so glad the tornadoes didn't hit your area but I feel for all those who did get hit. It was shown on our news here.
'I Remember Me' sounds like a very interesting documentary. The neighbour across the road in our previous home suffered with CFS and I'd often send my sons over to help her with yard work. I've read about how debilitating it can be but it must feel all the more compounded when other people make out like it's all in your head.
Enjoy your weekend, Rita ~ :)
Serena--I just posted a link (Sunday) that I hope works. A father sacrificed his life to save his daughter! This story has stuck with me. Especially with Father's Day today. Talk about a hero dad!
I guess now today I will tarry--hehe! :)
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