Author: Jen Rios

Flight of the Navigator

I had just finished my dinner when my Mom was taking Leia out for a walk. We had already decided on the movie we were going to watch tonight, but I checked to see if Love and Other Drugs was available and it was. It was on Hulu.

I started the movie just as my Mom was leaving with Leia. She told me that she did not want to watch this movie and we decided on a different one. I told her that I was just going to watch it until she came back. I think I got about 20 minutes in before my Mom got back with Leia. She told me that we could just continue watching Love and Other Drugs.

I thought about it for a moment, and she went into the kitchen to heat up some more of her food. I started telling my Mom about the movie and the more I told about it, the more I realized that she should NOT watch it!


We watched this movie a few nights ago because we found it on Disney+. This movie reminds me of my aunt Rita! I am back at her house, having ‘tea on the veranda’ with her. That’s probably why I dig the Golden Girls because their wicker living room furniture was like the furniture in my aunt’s sunroom, which she called her ‘veranda!’

Watching this movie again took me right back there and I have known so many of these lines for all of my life!!!:

From my Living Room

So, I had my neurology appointment on Friday and she told me that she signed everything that I needed her to and if nothing changes, I won’t see her again until next year.

I know that nothing will change before our appointment next year! I’m sure my symptoms will get worse throughout the year but I will just deal with it. I’ve been dealing with this for WAY TOO LONG!!!

I was thinking about how I used to walk down the hallway at the clinic and Dr. Elias (who is now retired along with his nurse) used to watch me check my gait. I didn’t think much of not walking down the hall anymore and just running my heel down the opposite shin. It wasn’t until I could not do that anymore when I really started to realize that it’s getting serious!

But I guess my life with MS has always been serious. I got pregnant with Sean four months after I was diagnosed and was in college. Once I had him, it was a race to finish my degree and get a job! We got our first apartment August 1, 2005. I was a teacher, and therefore could only afford to see my neurologist once a year because that is a specialist appointment and therefore more expensive! I’m a single mom!

It was at my second to last speech pathology appointment, where Meira suggested that I go virtual for my appointments because it will be easier for me because we won’t need to rent a van.

I can do that for my Neurology appointment because they are not going to give me a cure but I need to see my internist twice a year to get blood work in a weight, so those will NOT be virtual. My optometrist in my neuro ophthalmologist have to see my eyeballs, so those are NOT virtual either.

But I guess this kind of makes me feel 21st-century, because I will see my neurologist annually just virtually from my living room.

Tolerable

I had my virtual appointment with my neurologist yesterday. it was quite uneventful, and even mundane because I have been doing these for 22 years!

At this point, I still can do all of the testing with my arms and if I rub my fingers like I’m snapping by my ears, It sounds the same in both ears. We talked about my vision and I told her that Dr. Harris says that my vision in my left eye at 20/70 is respectable.

She reviewed that I no longer want to do MRIs and I agreed with that. I think I am at a ‘good place’ with this disease, but it’s NOT a ‘good place’ at all, but that’s where I am! 22 years in, I am pretty sure that this disease has stone everything said it can at me and I’m still here tolerable I suppose.

Summer of Tim Bits!

I was watching the second half of the Hallmark movie with Meghan Markle and it and I heard a commercial with this song. I don’t even know what the commercial was about because I wasn’t looking at the TV so I don’t know what they were selling, but I liked hearing this song! It took me way back to our second department and the summer of Tim Bits!:

So Weird!

Today marks the first day that I have NOT worn my compression socks since having my pressure sores. I woke up too late in the day and I need to wake up to early tomorrow for my virtual neurology appointment. feelsI weird! But I must say, I am pretty sure that this will be a one time thing. My legs feel so weird!

August 2023 Faves

I was thinking about when I lived in our first apartment, we were going back to school for my second year teaching And I really have to put Gavin on here, but I can’t stop thinking about Sinead O’Connor so:

I constantly think about the fact that I could have gone to see Gavin Degraw at Saint Andrews Hall in Detroit! That was before he had really made it big and it would’ve been a pretty cool intimate setting! I was too concerned about work the next morning! Retrospectively, I have seen him perform, but that was at DTE, I. should’ve gone to the concert in 2006!!!:

“Chair-y” NOT “Cherry”?!

So, I am kind of tripping out about my childhood heroes dying now! For me, Sinead O’Connor was personal, because I fell asleep, listening to her music oh many times because my brother who slept in the room below mine listen to the album.

I saw Kyle Brent see this on GMFB even though I don’t watch that anymore:

I just saw this tribute and it really got me thinking:

I remember, watching PeeWee’s Playhouse with my brothers! I remember watching his movies and it was a couple years ago team song to PeeWee’s playhouse, and I did not know that her name was “Chair-y” NOT “Cherry” like I thought for my entire childhood! That’s crazy!

I’m not sure if I will re-watch his movies again because I am 41 years old and I think that it may be too dumb now but I do remember him and eating egg, salad sandwiches and their picnic, the Alamo does not have a basement.

I will NEVER forget that, “LargeMarge” sent peewee to that biker bar, where he danced to avoid being killed! Actually, there was a big long ‘hang them tattoo him then we kill him’ or something like that. I’m going to have to re-watch this movie!

Vindicating

I have been thinking about this since Monday. I think it’s a vindicating to hear hear that a reference I made off of the cuff kind of resonates! And resonates with people who know what they’re talking about! Let me ‘splain ya:

Once Dr. Harris came into the room, he asked how my vision is going, and I told him that I no longer see an HD and just SD.

He completely understands that because he is an optometrist, and he explained that reference to my Mom. He also told us that he only pays for the SD Netflix subscription. His kids don’t like it, but he says that’s what he likes!

My ‘bad eye’ this time around was 20/70. He said that my vision will fluctuate, but that is very respectable! I liked hearing that, but my vision is bad and it’s not going to get better. I’m just slowing down the process. With my right eye, I just see the big E but I have three letters to look at with my left eye and I cannot see them clearly all of the time!

My prescription stayed the same for a second year, even though I know I am not seeing as clearly as I used to!!! it’s even blurrier than this without my contacts on:

Let’s NOT be Crazy?!

I had my Mom cancel the van rental for my eye appointment to get readers for her August 23. I thought about this a lot and right after we had my eye appointment, I need to just space out the appointments!

We have been discussing this, and I told my Mom, let’s not be crazy?! This heat is insane for me and I already have it scheduled teeth cleaning on Tuesday! So, we’re getting our teeth cleaned just like Sean and I used to. We get our teeth cleaned at the same time. I have been going to that dentist office forever! I think I was seven when I started!

I just have to double check that my Mom will cancel my appointment with her phone because that’s where she receives the text confirmations because I changed my contact number to her number because I’m not really reliable on the phone anymore. Isn’t that crazy to say?! My Dad used to pay me to NOT talk!!!