Author: Jen Rios

Brian’s Hands

Okay, I wanted to write about the fact that I have a medical device, but I never got around to it. I have a Guardian Medical device. I got it in 2016 or 17?

I had fallen in my house and my Mom researched the different medical device companies and we chose the one that I have now. I have decided to write about it because today, at 9:17, marked the third time that we had to use it in my house. We also had to use it once while we were at the dentist when there was snow on the ground.

My Mom used my device to call 911 and guys from Melvindale station 5 came. Brian, Mark, and Jon came in to my house. I had collapsed when my Mom was transferring me to my wheelchair. This heat ain’t no joke!!! I told them all how much I weigh and Mark told me that it was not a lot!

So, Brian was running point because he was the most seasoned. He came into my bathroom (because that’s where my Mom laid me down). Brian clasped his hands under my armpits and John took my left leg and Mark took my right and all three of them had me up pretty seamlessly and placed me into my wheelchair.

I used my joystick to put my chair all the way back so I could fall backward into it. Just like Diane told me to at RIM. Brian said that was really smart and I told him that’s what my wheelchair tech told me to do.

I have been physically lifted up by so many men, at Barwis, in medical situations, and it’s so uncomfortable! (It still is by the way!) I remember that when I used to fall at Barwis, and guys would come and pick me up, I knew all of them, so they would put their arms under mine and I would grab their thumbs with my hands. I remember the first time I did that with Adam, I think. He smirked at it. Maybe it was Michael?

I thought about that today because as three men had me in their arms in my hallway, I was quite uncomfortable! I didn’t know what to do with my hands, so I rested them on Brian’s hands.

As I was safely back in my chair, and Brian was talking to my Mom for her to sign some papers and getting a phone number for her, I looked out my window and saw red lights flashing!!! My Mom told them that we did not need all of the bells and whistles, but just needed someone to pick me up.

That’s so embarrassing! I’m wondering in this heat how many times this will happen? #MSsucks!!! 😒😒😒…

Upcoming, Sustained, 90+ Degree Weather

With this weather, I am not feeling well at all! I will ‘splain ya later about that in a bit but I am not looking forward to the upcoming, sustained, 90+ degree weather that are coming up… I have to leave my house in the middle of it…

I’m really not looking forward to that because it was warm when we left the a few days ago; coming back was really hard to come in from the heat to the air conditioning. My body was doing crazy things and it felt crazy!

“This Hell I’m Living?!”

I was telling my Mom about Anne Hathaway’s performance in Les Misérables. I told her that she’s sang beautifully, but I have no intention of watching that movie again because it was so heart wrenching!!!

Last night, I showed her videos of Anne Hathaway singing and Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman singing as well. This reel showed up today:

And somehow I cried too, watching her singing this with her shorn hair, which is just like mine now… would I describe what I’m living as ‘the hell I’m living’? It’s not fun to say the least and this weather is not helping. I have an appointment next week…

Rando Tune #60

I haven’t posted a Rando tune in a long time. The last one was a Christmas song on January 9. But I thought of this one today because I was thinking of my high school days and I remember jamming to this song with my friend in the car, with the windows rolled down:

Like a Nun

This morning as I groggily, ran my comb through my hair. There were no knots. Wait. What?! My hair is so short now. I have hair like a nun.

I do not like this at all, but it is necessary for me to have hair this short. I look like sister Mauritia.

She was a nun who worked in the office at my grade school. Me and my Mom were talking when I first told her that I have hair like a nun. I told her that I look like sister Mauritia. She was the meanest nun ever!!!

My Mom says that she was not mean, she was direct and she just didn’t care. I told my Mom that the translation is that she was terrifying! I was terrified of her! She even had the white whiskers on her chin. She was so mean that it was scary!!!!

My Mom told me recently that when she was the PTO president, she wanted to make a bulletin board in the hallway of all the teachers as children and then she would have a student guess which teacher was which child. So she asked sister Mauritia for a picture of her when she was young. She declined and did not participate.

Then my Mom told me that Sr. Mauritia told her that she had something for her to see. My Mom beautifully walked over and Sr. Mauritia showed her a black and white picture of a child smiling at the camera with Shirley Temple ringlets! Sr. Mauritia, the meanest nun at Saint Alphonsus has ringlets?!

I’m pretty sure that everyone I went to school with back, then, felt the same way because we were kids and she was mean and scary!!! I have hair like when she was a nun at my school now. #MSsucks!!! 😒😒😒…

Shorter OR Carmel Highlights

I got my haircut today. It’s shorter. Shorter than I ever thought it would be in my whole entire life! Here was what I went in with:

I told Christina that I think that I needed to be shorter with all of this heat. This is what I left with:

When she finished, before she waxed my eyebrows and face, I told her, “It’s a far cry from Carmel highlights!” She just got a somewhat somber face and said, “Yeah.”

When she was cutting my hair, probably 15 years ago, she always told me that she wanted to give me caramel highlights and she thought that would look beautiful! It is a far cry from that and she waxed my face today. I’m sorry that I can’t muster a smile because this weather is brutal!!!:

“Me too.”

I talked with Sean yesterday on his way home from work. He stopped to get gas and we were talking as he went into the gas station and I heard this song:

He told me that, “Wake up call” is gas station music now! I couldn’t believe that and I told him that I feel like I am in our second apartment. To which he answered, to my delight,”Mr too.”

Focused.

I’ve spent the last three days with tears streaming out of my eyes with no control over it. It’s been brutal! But now, I am focused.

I’ve already e-checked in for my appointments next week and I paid my bill in MiChart. Who would have thought that a urogram would be $200?!

I’ve entered into a payment plan to pay for that while I will go over the next two months to address that development with my doctor.

This is getting so serious, but I am focused. I absolutely love that it’s not supposed to rain until after our haircuts.

Brutal

This weather is absolutely brutal!!!

I can’t believe that it has been so warm for so much of this day! I got a headache today. I hadn’t felt the screwdriver in the right side of my head for a long time, but I felt it in full force today!!! Thank God that my air conditioning is fixed!!!

it’s difficult to breathe.