Author: Jen Rios

Today, when my Mom walked into my room to get me out of my bed, the back of my right shoulder was itching. I put my left hand in my shirt to scratch it and then I smiled pretty broadly. My Mom asked about that.

I’m not very talkative in the morning, but I continued smiling, and just told her, “I scratch; you move.” I had that warm memory in my mind as my Mom was taking the covers off of me. I explained that Sean told me that I have the best nails to scratch backs, but I suck at scratching them!

I think that was the beginning of the loss of control of my hands. I just told him, “I scratch; you move.” I would then just raise my left hand and shake it, and he would take his shirt off and move himself to make it, so that I was scratching his back.

I was thinking of that memory with fondness because my Mom cut all of my nails to the nub yesterday because I need to not have them to put my contacts in and to take them out of my eyes. Yeah, I still wear my contacts, even though I wear glasses with a prism on them.

I will see my optometrist in July, but I won’t see my neural ophthalmologist until next year.

My YouTube feed has gotten pretty boring with the writer strike going on, but somehow I was able to see this clip and I watched the entire five minute video, and I cried! I cried, because I no longer can control my emotions at all, and I was reminded of driving to Barwis with 11-year-old Sean next to me.

The specific memory, I was thinking of was days after Robin Williams died, and we were listening to The Pulse on the way to Barwis for my training. Sean didn’t mind coming with me back then because professional athletes were training at the same time I was.

The DJ started speaking and mentioned Robin Williams death and challenged the listeners to call in and tell them then favorite low-key Robin Williams movie, and give a reason. Oh, that was easy for me! Duh! Good Will Hunting and my reason for this being my choice was the ease with which Robin Williams dropped an F-bomb!

I was still driving when Sean was 11 so I had him call the radio station and I told him what to say when they answered the phone! He was not connected and I was glad because retrospectively, I now realize that was NOT appropriate at all!!!

So, we think that Leia has stopped scratching but we think that’s because she restarted steroids now. She’s started her second dose of the therapy to help with her allergies. my Mom told me that Leia could be on those therapy shots for allergies for a year before it starts to work.

It was at Leia’s last appointment where the doctor said that we should start and to mitigate some of the scratching while we see if the therapy shots will work. When we finally got her tested for allergies, she is allergic to all kinds of weeds and grass from outside and dust from inside as well.

My Mom let her outside to do her business a few days ago and she called her in after a while and she could not see her in the yard so she started shaking the pill pockets bag so she would come running.

I could tell that she had gotten into some thing because my Mom exclaimed, “Oh! You bad girl!” I told my Mom not to show me pictures until we got what we needed to get done finished and then I forgot about it so she texted me these pictures a couple days ago:

When my Mom showed me these pictures, she told me that Leia has found a new lounge spot in the backyard. It’s underneath the bushes! I was thinking about all we have gone through with her and all the scratching, and how long she has been on steroids and the fact that she is on shots for her allergies, which are outside allergies and she comes in all full of stuff!

We love her so much, and i’d just shook my head! She had just gotten a bath a couple days before, so my Mom just wiped her off.