Author: Jen Rios

Pink Feet

So, last night, as I was getting ready for bed, my feet began to hurt and so my Mom took my socks off. My feet were pink! I kept my socks off during the night and my feet still kind of hurt now so I did not put my compression socks back on.

I asked my Mom if my feet hurt just because my compression socks are new and I have not worn them very much. That’s what I was hoping because I recently bought size 1 compression socks but what I’m finding out is because I have lost weight, I can no longer handle 30-40 compression and I need 20-30 compression I think.

My feet are no longer pink but they still kind of hurt. I just don’t know what to do with this… It’s going to take me a minute to think about these pink feet!

Re-Get Used to…

My pressure sores developed just after Easter in April. I wore my compression socks until about July or August. The wound care nurse who came to my house said that I needed to stop wearing my compression socks in order to allow my sores to heal.

That was a VERY difficult thing for me because I have been wearing my compression socks 24 hours a day since 2016?! But, those pressure sores DEFINITELY hurt A LOT so I stopped wearing them but

It was today when I decided to NOT deal with my throbbing feet anymore and I told my Mom that I think that I want to re-get used to wearing compression socks.

I had my Mom take pictures of my sores not too long ago and I think it is okay to put my socks back on. I remember when I got fitted for my power chair and I discussed pressure sores with Dave and he told me that once you get a pressure sore that the skin will forever be compromised. Well, these are my feet seven months after it started!:


My sores definitely STILL hurt and I wonder how much they really hurt because I can’t feel my feet anyway! I had my Mom take pictures of my feet every day to compare my healing but I did not put any of those horrible pictures on my blog because I think that is bad karma!

My Mom showed my brothers and doctors I have seen since they have healed. I showed one of my friends, Bert. She always wants to show a picture and I cringe every time because I STILL remember exactly how it felt!!!

A Concert from 2005

As I ate my dinner tonight, which, at this point, is just overnight oats because that is easy for me to eat. I continued listening to my U2 playlist on shuffle and some of the songs I have saved onto the playlist are from the 2005 Vertigo Tour from the Milan show. I went to that show in 2005 with a bunch of my colleagues! I was going to go with my brother, Steve, anyway but Mr. Astalos was going to that concert so we all drove together!

it was my first year teaching and I even had a countdown number written on my front board for how many days until the concert! My students were excited for me because it was my, “Ultimate, favorite band”!!!

I even bought a DVD of that concert in Chicago at Target because it was the same playlist! I remembered sitting on the floor in my first apartment going to that concert a few times. I think I went a couple times in our second apartment as well. I don’t even have a DVD player now so I can’t even watch it but I don’t even know where it is! Hearing these songs took me back to my first apartment and even back to that concert!!!

I heard three songs from Milan and I appreciated being transported back in my memory to that great time when I was still able-bodied! I’m going to post these songs in the order in which I heard them on my playlist:

That was the opening song for the concert and I remember that Bono popped up from a trap door underneath that stage and I remember I gasped when he did that and thought, “We are sharing the SAME air!”:

That song is one of my jams! But this next one means so much to me because it reminds me of my Dad! I listened to that song on loop on my way to work with my sunglasses on before the sun was even up but I didn’t want to go into work with the red eyes because I cried the entire ride there:

I was sitting in the disabled seats kind of far from the stage and Bono started singing one of my favorites and I started singing it with him but he could not hear me so he stopped and said, “You don’t know this one? Maybe next time.” I screamed that I was singing but he couldn’t hear me and they changed the song but I THINK they started this one because they knew I was there and it’s one of my jams for real!:

I seem to be pasting duplicates onto my page so I will just put this on the bottom and you can listen to it again if you want to! I am 40 and I am having difficulty seeing! Forgive me! It’s great music if you want to give it a click though…:

The best part of this playlist is that I didn’t think about my pain the entire time I thought of that memory and the entire time that I am writing this post!

For my Soul!!!

Last night, I watched this video. I powered through the ENTIRE 36 minutes! But I HAD to! It was for my soul!

I posted this video late last night onto Facebook but I had to go down the rabbit hole and so I posted this one too:

My mom let me delay her putting me into my bed by letting me watch these videos! I remembered seeing an interview with Kelly Clarkson with his daughter Eve and I could not remember her name but I knew it was crazy long! So I had to search for that video too!:

My trip down the rabbit hole continued because I love Irish accents!!!:

My Mom had to stop me after I watch this one because it was pretty early in the morning!!!

I am writing this blog post with my contacts on and my glasses so I could not see very well and my hand-eye coordination is not good so I posted this weird commercial so I put it at the bottom, you don’t have to watch it! I have no interest in getting a Mercedes!!! Oops!!!

Do You Want the ‘Real Time,’ or the ‘Pretend Time’?

Today started daylight savings time. I have a crystal clear memory of my Mom sitting in the front, passenger’s seat of our station wagon when we were in Texas and my Dad, who was driving, asked her what time it was. She would look at her watch and ask him, “Do you want the ‘real time’ or the ‘pretend time’?”

I remember her saying that often and it was ‘pretend time’ because we are in Texas and the ‘real time’ was in Michigan. I remember my Dad kind of getting irritated by that.

I had talked to my Mom about the time change coming on Sunday and I told her about this meme that I saw:

I told my Mom that I am just going to rely on my cell phone. She agreed with me. She was going to do that too. Until…

Once she gets me out of bed, she goes outside to tend to the leaves. I sit in my house taking my vitamins, drinking my shake, and praying. She was going to come back into the house to help me put my contacts in. She watches me as I put them in. My hands are no longer that steady so sometimes it takes a while.

She came into the house early today by one hour to put my contacts in and I couldn’t understand why she was here early. She had looked at the clock on the stove and I told her that clock is wrong that’s why we have to just rely on our phones, they are magic!

Last night we laughed about her talking about ‘real’ versus ‘pretend’ time and today we laughed about her coming into the house early. Both of our internal clocks are so messed up that we’re not sure how it’s going to affect us now but we will see!

Rando Tune #33

I like how I will hear a song and it’s the perfect song I needed to hear right at that moment! I listen to a lot of music these days because I can hear just fine but my eyes are a little wonky. I heard this one and it was one of my jams! I think it was when we were living in our second apartment and I was still driving. Number 33 was Sean‘s football number when he was 7.

A Successful Pillage & A ‘Poop Face’

I had a successful pillage today! My disease has progressed so much that I had to modify how I do this now. I had to add a table on my left to hold the pillbox as I am getting the pills out of a ramekin on my right. Today took longer but I didn’t drop any pills!:

I felt pretty accomplished, that is until Leia got out of bed and stood where I could see her from my chair. I started to laugh and I had to snap a picture!:

It looks like #MyGirlL had some skills to make sure that I saw the ‘poop face’ she was giving me!!! 😂😂😂