Author: Jen Rios

Wednesday I had a rough day so I decided to watch this movie:

I have seen Love and Other Drugs so many times since it came out and I first saw it in my house. I’m not sure what’s going on, but it hit me really hard this time! I cried a lot!!!

Thursday I thought of a different movie which I own so I watched that one:

This movie has been one of my faves since high school! But now that I am an adult, my focus changes each time I watch it. I absolutely love it though! I am not surprised that I can still cry so much at Sense and Sensibility!

I watched a completely different movie today and I cried as well:

I first watched Finding Forrester at my Parents’ house. I didn’t fall in love with it for a while but I really dig it now and yes, I cried during this one too! I’m just kind of having a hard time right now and I’m finding that it’s helpful to get lost in an oldie but goodie movie!!!

So, last Thursday, when I went to my doctor’s appointment, I always get a blood pressure! I have been doing that for years! But this time, the machine read my blood pressure wrong and the nurse was quite alarmed!

She kept the blood pressure cuff on me and had me wait and she wanted me to calm down so it would take another reading. She left the room and it began squeezing my arm.

I was reminded of a cartoon, I think it was an MTV cartoon in the early 2000s and this guy I used to know, told me about it, and he shared it with me. So I think it was some kind of alien he is in a doctor’s office and he takes blood pressure cuff and puts it around his neck, but then it begins squeezing his neck.

He called it a “Kevorkian scarf.” Well, it was kind of hurting my arm because it squeezed my arm about four or five times and I reminded of that video I saw. When I got home, this is what my arm looked like:

She saw the marks on my arm and said they would go away, but today, I still have hickeys on my arm!

Well, this recovery is a doozy, the dooziest! It was a “Four-fer,” technically. I didn’t leave the house for two of those days but my sleep was effected, and there are consequences for that! I am feeling those consequences right now!

it is extremely startling to, just ‘not.’ These days, my brain does not function right away, and I don’t know what’s going on. It takes a moment for things to register, but the fact that there is a delay kind of bugs, me and by kind of I mean A WHOLE LOT! Coming up on 23 years MS will do it to you I suppose…

I pillaged today with my mouthguard on and it was the groaaniest of the groans that I have had to date while doing it!

September’s ‘go time’ was a success, but just barely… it hasn’t felt this difficult since March but recovering today, I’m realizing a few things. I didn’t put my contacts in NOT because I didn’t want to but because I couldn’t.

This is the first ‘go time’ recovery where I am a little bit concerned about how things are progressing… This is the first time where ‘I can’t.’ it takes a minute for my brain to warm up now and when I am asked questions, I just stare at my Mom unable to answer. That’s been happening lately…

I bought my Mom and I matching shirts a couple Christmases ago and I had bought myself a version of the shirt in a different color before I bought us, the same colored shirts and today, before my Mom took Leia for a walk, noticed that we were matchers sort of…

I convinced her to take a picture with me before she left, but this was the second day of ‘go time’ so just look at my face?!:

Our shirts say ‘Grace’ with a little heart as a period after it. I thought it was cute and my Mom likes hearts, so that’s why I got us matching shirts. As I love that kind of thing!!!

I finished ‘go time’ for September but at my appointment, she told me that I have to make my next mammogram sooner rather than later. So it looks like I’m having another appointment this year! I jinxed myself!!!

My brother just took my Mom to pick up the van for our ‘go-time’ this month. I am sitting in my living room in silence going through my final walk-through for the year in my head. I still have scheduled van rentals for October, November, December. I have to keep my short haircut up and. I have to go to a Cidermill in October! Duh?!

Naturopath and haircut tomorrow and a weight and bloodwork on Thursday. I do not have any more scheduled doctors appointment for the year. Now, I know that there could be an emergency at any point, but I really feel like I am getting into ‘cruise control’ mode with this mean disease! I will write more about this after ‘go-time.’

I think that I will call Margaret at Creative Mobility to schedule my appointments for next year. I will know my March date in 2024 because I will need to schedule my next appointment with Dr. Chamas on Thursday.

I had this year scheduled, but not until April because I had to wait for schedules to open up to see my neurologist. I will get a jump on 2024, but I think I have tomorrow set in my head. I never thought that my life would be like this, ONLY this…; but it is. I can schedule appointments and rent vans and I will probably start on Monday for 2024.