Month: November 2022

Real-Time Diminishment

Real-So, I noticed this yesterday when I was watching mass with Father Mike Schmitz. I already had my contacts in and my glasses on and I’ve been following that virtual front view mass for about a year and a half now but I noticed real-time diminishment of my sight. I texted my friend this this morning (when I woke up):

This fact is very new to me and it’s a lot to process! I cannot help but hear that from almost 22 years ago telling me that I was going to go blind…

Routine OR My Mama Didn’t Raise No Fool!

I talked with Sean on the phone yesterday and I explained to him what I was doing. I had just gotten out of bed and I was taking my morning vitamins and drinking my shake while I was praying. I told him that I was going to eat my lunch shortly which is overnight oats and he told me that my life is extremely, “Routine.” I agreed with him and said, “Absolutely! But I’m okay with that.”

I really appreciate that I am totally fine with how my life has been playing out in terms of my abilities. Of course, I would LOVE to NOT have MS but my Mom and I are working well together and I am just going with it!

I was thinking specifically about my life being routine because it has been for the last few years. I think it must have been three years ago where I started drinking a shake for breakfast because it was easier for me.

What I found is that drinking my nutrition in the morning was better for me instead of eating them because it takes too long to digest. It was probably about two years ago when I started drinking both my breakfast and lunch and would just have a limited list of food for dinner.

So, I place an order from Target when I get paid each month. Among a few medical supplies, I order three boxes of Atkins shakes. Well, last month, when my Mom opened up the box, they gave me the wrong kind! They gave me one box of milk chocolate and not dark chocolate which is what I have been drinking for a long while now. I remember posting this picture on Twitter back when I used to watch GMFB and when Nate Burleson was still on the show:

I searched through tons of pictures in my blog to find it. And this morning, I took a picture of the shake I drank today because I wanted to compare the two:

Now, I will be drinking these for the next eight days because you know that my Mama did not raise no fool! I emailed Target when I realized That part of my order was wrong and I got the immediate response of, “Throw it out, donate, recycle it“ and they let me keep it so you know I am drinking it because it is free!!!

Ugh!!!

Today was the first snowfall of the season and I had forgotten how terrible it makes me feel but, now, I remember because I feel every bit of the moisture in the air and subsequently my body!!!

It’s pillage day for me and it kind of took a little bit longer because I am dragging a little bit!:


it’s just going to take me a minute to get used to snow on the ground and more moisture in the air! Ugh!!!

9 Years

I just realized today when I was talking with Sean and my Mom that I pposted my very first blog post 9 years ago, today! I thought to write something important today but I don’t feel well at all! I will leave you with this:


This song reminds me of undergrad. It was summer time and I was deeply immersed in this album!!!:

Pink Feet

So, last night, as I was getting ready for bed, my feet began to hurt and so my Mom took my socks off. My feet were pink! I kept my socks off during the night and my feet still kind of hurt now so I did not put my compression socks back on.

I asked my Mom if my feet hurt just because my compression socks are new and I have not worn them very much. That’s what I was hoping because I recently bought size 1 compression socks but what I’m finding out is because I have lost weight, I can no longer handle 30-40 compression and I need 20-30 compression I think.

My feet are no longer pink but they still kind of hurt. I just don’t know what to do with this… It’s going to take me a minute to think about these pink feet!

Re-Get Used to…

My pressure sores developed just after Easter in April. I wore my compression socks until about July or August. The wound care nurse who came to my house said that I needed to stop wearing my compression socks in order to allow my sores to heal.

That was a VERY difficult thing for me because I have been wearing my compression socks 24 hours a day since 2016?! But, those pressure sores DEFINITELY hurt A LOT so I stopped wearing them but

It was today when I decided to NOT deal with my throbbing feet anymore and I told my Mom that I think that I want to re-get used to wearing compression socks.

I had my Mom take pictures of my sores not too long ago and I think it is okay to put my socks back on. I remember when I got fitted for my power chair and I discussed pressure sores with Dave and he told me that once you get a pressure sore that the skin will forever be compromised. Well, these are my feet seven months after it started!:


My sores definitely STILL hurt and I wonder how much they really hurt because I can’t feel my feet anyway! I had my Mom take pictures of my feet every day to compare my healing but I did not put any of those horrible pictures on my blog because I think that is bad karma!

My Mom showed my brothers and doctors I have seen since they have healed. I showed one of my friends, Bert. She always wants to show a picture and I cringe every time because I STILL remember exactly how it felt!!!

A Concert from 2005

As I ate my dinner tonight, which, at this point, is just overnight oats because that is easy for me to eat. I continued listening to my U2 playlist on shuffle and some of the songs I have saved onto the playlist are from the 2005 Vertigo Tour from the Milan show. I went to that show in 2005 with a bunch of my colleagues! I was going to go with my brother, Steve, anyway but Mr. Astalos was going to that concert so we all drove together!

it was my first year teaching and I even had a countdown number written on my front board for how many days until the concert! My students were excited for me because it was my, “Ultimate, favorite band”!!!

I even bought a DVD of that concert in Chicago at Target because it was the same playlist! I remembered sitting on the floor in my first apartment going to that concert a few times. I think I went a couple times in our second apartment as well. I don’t even have a DVD player now so I can’t even watch it but I don’t even know where it is! Hearing these songs took me back to my first apartment and even back to that concert!!!

I heard three songs from Milan and I appreciated being transported back in my memory to that great time when I was still able-bodied! I’m going to post these songs in the order in which I heard them on my playlist:

That was the opening song for the concert and I remember that Bono popped up from a trap door underneath that stage and I remember I gasped when he did that and thought, “We are sharing the SAME air!”:

That song is one of my jams! But this next one means so much to me because it reminds me of my Dad! I listened to that song on loop on my way to work with my sunglasses on before the sun was even up but I didn’t want to go into work with the red eyes because I cried the entire ride there:

I was sitting in the disabled seats kind of far from the stage and Bono started singing one of my favorites and I started singing it with him but he could not hear me so he stopped and said, “You don’t know this one? Maybe next time.” I screamed that I was singing but he couldn’t hear me and they changed the song but I THINK they started this one because they knew I was there and it’s one of my jams for real!:

I seem to be pasting duplicates onto my page so I will just put this on the bottom and you can listen to it again if you want to! I am 40 and I am having difficulty seeing! Forgive me! It’s great music if you want to give it a click though…:

The best part of this playlist is that I didn’t think about my pain the entire time I thought of that memory and the entire time that I am writing this post!