Author: Jen Rios

One of these Things is NOT Like the Other

Today was the day to finally start my new Fall flavor package:

I am using my spring/summer box until my Fall flavor box gets used up. Let me ‘splain ya:

My Fall flavored box won’t come out until October 1 when I start watching Hocus Pocus! I am in the middle of finishing my chapstick from last fall., So, I put my four pack of Fall flavors in my spring box because the only chapstick I have left in there is one Strawberry Sorbet that I only use on Saturdays. I didn’t really like it but I’m not going to waste it so that’s taking a little time to get used up!

This box, which is my Fall flavor box will not come out until October 1. I have an extra tube of Salted Caramel, which I really don’t like but it came with my Christmas flavors so I have to use that up as well.

I will only use the Pomegranate flavor until October 1. The rest are sealed until my Fall flavors really come out! In the meantime, one of these things are not like the other!:

Handled.

This whole thing has taken me a couple days to get my thoughts together in order to write about them. But after my scheduled appointment with the specialist, a phone call from my medical supply company, and then my mom needed to speak with them, it’s all handled. Let me ‘splain ya:

So me and my Mom started noticing that I was having problems with some of my medical supplies. We thought about it for a little bit and then I messaged my PCP for her input on what was going on with me. The next morning I received the number that I needed to call. I had already written about the day. I spoke with Kiara and I was able to get an appointment three weeks from the day I called to make the appointment.

I was prepared to have an appointment six months out because that’s how it works. All the doctors I need to see, are specialists and it is extremely difficult to get in to see them.

We went to see that doctor last Friday, I explained to my Mom what was going to happen because I have had MS for so long, and I have been in this hospital system for equally as long! There was a problem after I signed in, so we had to wait to see the doctor, but we saw him.

I was not nervous at all and I just told him what I needed and he did that. Actually, he said that the nurse would do that after we left. My Mom called my medical supply company on Monday to see if my prescription was amended. They told my Mom that their nurse would be calling her back.

I need to first explain that how things are going now and it is very new to me! But I will explain it by what happened on Tuesday afternoon. My Mom had gone to her house to do some work and I was sleeping. I was going to call her when I woke up. Waking up for me now is a ‘stutter start.’ I had kind of awakened, but I still felt groggy so I put on an audio rosary to either fall back asleep, or wake up. As I was listening to the rosary, my phone started buzzing.

I picked up my phone as it was buzzing and looked at the display. It’s said, ‘J&B Medical Supply.’ That is my medical supply company. I think they have been my medical supply company for about a decade. How I was feeling, I could not even form any words in my mouth because I was not awake yet. I just let my phone buzz.

I actually let my rosary finish before I sat up in my bed, and I texted my Mom. After a little while, I thought to call her in case she missed the text. She answered, and said that she was on the phone with J &B.

There is no longer is any ‘Espace’ between me and my Mom and she answered all of the medical questions they needed because she knows it all even though we weren’t even in the same room! We talked when she got back to my house and we both agreed that I have been on this ride for a long time and after all that, it is handled.

Overwhelmed

The ‘complicated changing of the guard’ has begun as of this afternoon. I realized that my Cucumber Mint chapstick was getting low, but I thought I could handle it for the whole day today. But, it turns out that the scrape was a little too much for my lips, and I switched it to my leftover Pomegranate one:

This is what my spring flavored Chapstick looks like. I will finish the pomegranate one and then I will open my Fall flavors. I will keep this box by my remotes until October 1 because then it will be Pumpkin Spice time!

But, this afternoon, once I applied the Pomegranate chapstick to my lips, I was immediately taken back to my time at Barwis Methods! This was when Pomegranate just came out as a flavor so I was taken back to the summer of 2013!

I was still working and more able-bodied back then. Smelling that smell this afternoon, I completely got overwhelmed!!!

Rubble.

I had just gotten into bed last night when my Mom told me that she drove by St. Al’s and she took pictures. I laid there under my covers and just kind of grunted. She asked me if I wanted to see the pictures and I told her that I didn’t.

I didn’t think I could handle it because I knew that it’s going to be sad. I asked her what it looked like and she just said, “Rubble.” I let that word sink in for a moment and then I told her that I HAD TO see the pictures and she gave me her phone:

Once I looked at the picture, I gasped! I couldn’t even say anything. Mom was right, it’s rubble. Just as I was handing her the phone, I asked her to send the picture to me. Then I asked a rhetorical question. “Do you know how many memories I have on this plot of land?!”

My ENTIRE education is in that plot of land from kindergarten to 12th grade. The biggest thing that got me though was the fact that you can see the church in the back on the right. I received all of my sacraments in that church and my Dad was buried out of that church. I have seen the grade and I school for my entire life and now it is no longer there!

Rando Tune #45

Sean stopped by today and told me that my hair is really short and that I have a different haircut then he has seen on me for his entire life! I just let him know that my hair consistency is changing. I watched the second half of Love and Other Drugs today and I was taking my contacts out as the final song was playing and I just really like hearing it! I have had seen this movie so many times but this time I really paid attention to this song;

Rando Tune #44

I was mindlessly playing Tile Triple 3D on my phone trying to recover a bit MORE because I finished pillaging. I put on my U2 playlist and this song started and I put my phone down and just had to go back to the summer of 2000 just before college. I remember jammin’ to this tune and driving still. That was my last summer of being carefree!

Sucking!!! OR ‘Permission Slips’ OR Broken

I had that appointment with the specialist today. A few days ago, I was a little bit nervous, but then I wasn’t.

I explained to my Mom a few months ago that all of these doctors appointments are nothing more than to get them to sign the ‘permission slips’ that I tell them to sign. I definitely do NOT want to sound or be haughty or anything about this but I have had MS long enough to tell them what I need.

This doctor told me that the last time I was seen in this clinic, was in 2013. I told him what I needed and he put the request in the computer. We had to wait almost 2 hours to see him and I told my Mom that’s about right because I came to this clinic in 2001 (it’s the same specialty but I don’t think it was the same office) and I had to wait two hours then and when that doctor came in, he did not sit in the doctor’s stool, but sat in the chair next to me. I will never forget him looking at me and telling me that, “MS sucks!”

I remember being surprised, first off, that he sat in the chair next to me, and then for him to say that to me. I that was the first time I heard those words from a doctor and I think I may have looked at him almost teary-eyed, and said, “Yeah.” that was way back in 2001, I didn’t even know what to expect back then but I already knew that it started sucking!!!

Now, for the rest of the year, I just have two doctors appointments in September and then I am done with doctors for this year. I think it was in 2022 when I got my pressure sores on my heels that I understood how this is going to work with me having MS for this long and the fact that now I need multiple doctors in different specialties to handle me.

I was telling my Mom today, that two of the last three doctors we saw, told us, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I had to call the specialist after getting the referral off MyChart from my internist. I have been handling this for 21 years, but it turns out that probably in mid June that it to be ‘broken’ so that’s why I went to the doctor today. He signed off on everything and now I’m good to go!