Month: September 2014

When I got into Barwis yesterday, Phil was working with another client when he told me to pull the table to right in front of the TV.  My appointment was moved to 7:00 and the Lions game was starting at 7:10.  I told him, “Okay, love knows no bounds!  Anything for Matty!”  I think Phil thought I was joking, but I started pushing the table over.  I pushed a little and it barely moved so I rethought my strategy.  I rolled around the table so I was in a position to pull the end of the table.

I pulled and that was a little bit easier.  Phil called over to me that I had 20 minutes and I responded, “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.”  I pulled the table about 10 yards on a diagonal when Phil came over and folded and picked the table up.  I followed him and was excited because they started showing footage of the players getting ready.

Before I even realized it, I saw Matthew Stafford and yelled out, “I LOVE YOU, MATTY!”  I only yell that at my TV when I am home watching the game.  My son tells me that I’m weird EVERY time I say it but I don’t care.  I’ve had a thing for #9 since he came to Detroit.  Most people make fun of me but I REALLY don’t care!

Phil put me on the table and began to stretch me out and we both could see the TV.  I told him that Matty was going to throw 2 TDs in the first quarter.  The first touchdown was Calvin Johnson running it in and I felt like I was at home because I threw my arms up and, “Woo-Hooed” at the top of my lungs.  I have talked about seeing a game at BDub’s often with Mr. Curl.  Sean and I ended up at BDub’s for a preseason game but it didn’t feel right.  I like my TV better!  I wasn’t comfortable to yell at the TV there though.

I was comfortable enough at Barwis!  I don’t know how many times I yelled my love for Stafford but it was a lot.  Phil said he would NEVER go to a game with me.  I think it would be different though.  For instance, I will NEVER call Stafford “Matty” to his face and I think I would be a little more low-key but you never know.  I told Phil that he was just jealous and told him that I will yell, “I love you, Phil!” the next time I come to Barwis.  He laughed.  I don’t think he believes that I will but I WILL because I’m comfortable there.

We really couldn’t see the TV that well based on how far from the TV we were.  Phil said that if I didn’t mind being stretched in my chair, we could go into the break room because there was a bigger TV in there.   Well, YEAH!!!  We went to the break room and Matty threw his touchdown pass to Johnson.  I yelled and threw my arms up!  I was SO excited!!!  We were up 14-0.  Phil kept telling me to relax my legs but I just couldn’t!

My time was up and Phil took me to my car.  I tried grabbing his fist but he grabbed my hand instead, shook it, and yelled, “Joystick!” I felt a bit looser and listened to the end of the second quarter on the way home.  The Lions won so for one brief, shining moment we are on top of both the Packers AND the Bears in the NFC North!

Phil came out to get me from my car yesterday.  It was REALLY warm!  It was SO warm that it had officially graduated from just being warm to being HOT.   My Mom has told me that it is not ladylike to say “hot” but rather, I should say “warm.”  But yesterday, it was just ridiculous so it was HOT.  I get to the chairs where Phil was sitting and I emphatically say, “It’s HOT!!!”  Phil looks at me and says, “Thank you Weather Rock Rios.”  He stretched me at the chairs and told me that they just got a new stander and that I was going to try it out.  Periodically, I would make the statement that it was hot to which Phil would respond by calling me a weather rock.

Then we moved over to the plyo boxes for more stretching.  I remained sitting in my chair and  kept making the statement of it being hot.  Phil sat on the box and kept calling me a weather rock.  He looked at me and told me that I looked like I was drunk.  I told him that he doesn’t know what I look like when I’m drunk!  I don’t drink anymore.  My body can’t handle it.  Retrospectively, I realize that that comment was the beginning of my demise due to the heat.

Phil pushed me over to the new stander.  I asked him what it was called.  It’s also called the Easy Stand Evolv but it has a glider option so it looks different.  As he put me into the stander and strapped my feet in, my hands went numb.  He cranked the stander up and almost immediately, I knew that I liked the other one better.

He he cranked it up all the way and told me to use the handles to glide.  Yeah!  That WASNT happening!  I tried to push the handles and my feet moved the slightest bit.  Yeah. No!  I stood for three minutes and then rested.  My speech started to slur a bit.  I didn’t speak as much as I stood in the stander.  Phil went to get me a towel because I was way past “glistening” and was sweating profusely.  I stood 4 times for 3 minutes each time for a total of 12 minutes.  Dan came over and talked to me for a little and it was VERY obvious to me that my speech had worsened.  It sounded CRAZY in my head!!!  Phil took me out of the stander and put me into my chair.

 He wheeled me out to my car and put me in.  I put my fist out after he stowed my chair.  He just grabbed it, shook it, yelled, “Joystick!,” told me to watch some good football this weekend, and shut my door.  I had trouble turning the key in my ignition as he stowed my chair.  I blasted my air even higher when he shut my door.  I sat there and willed my hands to NOT be numb.  It didn’t work.  I was just going to have to wait this one out.  I drive with my hands so them being numb is NOT an option for me and driving.

After a bit, I was able to call my Mom and ask about my son.  I told her that I would be awhile because I needed to cool down before I drove.  She asked me how my time at Barwis was and I just replied, “It was hard” and began to cry.  I cried because I was frustrated, not because it was too difficult.  The temperature gauge on my dashboard read 93 degrees and had to sit in my car with my air blasting for 30 minutes before my hands felt normal enough to drive.  MS is a REALLY, REALLY mean disease and it only gets MORE frustrating as time goes by.

I was a bit tired when I headed to Barwis.  My right hand had gone numb toward the end of work so Mr. Curl helped me gather my things and he got me into my car.  I had to battle construction on my way so I ended up being a little late once I arrived to Barwis.  Phil helped me get out of my car and he stretched my legs a bit at the chairs.  My legs felt SUPER tight and stretching me was difficult for both of us I think.  It didn’t feel so good on my part and my body was REALLY resisting the stretch for him.

He told me to go to the table after I did a few manual leg curls.  I knew it.  I wasn’t walking or standing today.  The stretch was difficult enough!  Once on the table, I laid on my back and my legs felt gnarled up.  Phil stretched and stretched me but my legs weren’t feeling any more relaxed.  He left my legs alone for a minute and asked me how I felt.  I told him that it hurt.  He replied, “Hurts so good.”  I told him that my Dad used to say that and that, “No, it hurts SO bad(ly) – (I hold an English degree so I SHOULD use adverbs correctly but I said “bad” instead of “badly” because it was opposed to “good” and not “goodly” but I digress…)

Phil started stretching me some more and eventually, my legs started to feel a little bit better.  It was only a little bit better but I have learned that a little bit is better than nothing.  “Little by little, a little becomes a lot” is SO true!!!  Waiting stinks so badly, but what else am I going to do?!  It seems that the longer I have MS, the more I am faced with being effected by outside forces.  I CAN’T handle being stressed out as well as I used to (not like I EVER handled it very well but…)  I think it interesting that I can’t (it’s now CAN’T and not DON’T) handle when I run late, or am faced with construction, or properly function in the heat.  And by “interesting” I mean “stinks!”  It’s frustrating but this is how it is now.

Phil took me out to my car and when I extended my fist, he just grabbed it, shook it, and yelled, “Joystick!”  He told me that I did a good job as he closed my door.  I thought about that as I drove away.  My legs DID feel a little bit better even though the stretch hurt SO badly.  Maybe I can sum up yesterday at Barwis as “It hurt so good” after all because the end result was better than it was: so it was “good.”  Hmmm?