Optometrist

Over the last few weeks, I've been having problems with my left eye, such as blurry vision, eyelid twitching, dryness, increased light sensitivity, and such. It got to the point where I was concerned there might be a real problem, so I made an appointment with an optometrist.

He was a cute young guy, and actually knew what I was talking about when I told him I have EDS. It was truly refreshing. Due to the EDS, he recommended a full work-up, and dilated my pupils, and did the yellow dye drops to check for scratches, and shone really bright lights into my eyes at all angles, and then again, because he thought he might have seen something.

Apparently the puff of air they blow in your eye to check for pressure showed that I have a bit higher pressure than they like to see, and he wants me to come back in the next few weeks for another test.

The test he wants me to take is a baseline test to check for the development of glaucoma. So that's fun. I do not have glaucoma at present, but I do apparently have enough of a warning sign that he wants a baseline test, to check for any progressive, yet slow, changes.

The blurriness is apparently due to a clogged tear duct, and I should add more omega-3's to my diet, and use eye drops. The other thing he found that could be attributing to the dryness and blurriness is that my left eye doesn't close all the way when I blink. Kinda weird.

Cold Season, As Usual

I've been sick for about 3 weeks. Not anything too bad, but energy-sucking nonetheless. It's been cold-type body aches, chest tightness, coughing, can't get to seep, etc. and I've had enough of it.

I would prefer the types of colds I got as a kid. The ones where you're really sick for 3-5 days, you take those days off, lay in bed, eat some soup, then you feel better. Not this really mild, but horribly exhausting blah that I've been getting the last few years.

Also, I have a new twitch in my left eye, which seems to have developed along with pretty bad light sensitivity and dryness.

It turns out that my suspected dislocated rib/sternum, was in fact 2 dislocated ribs at the sternum. They have since gone back in, and popped back out, and gone back in again. The shoulder twitching is not getting better, and my joints seem to be getting looser and looser.

I've been dislocating both shoulders every night while I'm asleep, along with my left collar bone, ribs at my sternum, and at my spine, both hips, jaw... There is no position I can sleep in without dislocating something. I've been piling my bed with pillows, and comforters, and blankets, and nothing seems to help. Even going to bed heavily medicated doesn't do it. It feels like so many things would be so much better if I could just sleep.

I spent my entire allotment of spoons this weekend on making stew and cleaning the dishes. The rest of the time I spent flopping around like a fish out of water trying to get comfortable, and snoozing on and off.

It's time to start mattress shopping. I need to go lay on about 100 different mattresses for a bit to see if aything is comfortable.

I'm a Dumb@$$

Just thought you all should know, my spiffy toe shoes made me cocky, and I had the brilliant idea that I could run... Turns out, I can run. I just shouldn't run. Ever again. Because holymotherofgod it hurts like hell.

So I ran on Sunday night, about half a block, because I was on my way to work to supervise an after-hours lot move. I was doing the nice thing, having a vehicle re-parked so it wouldn't block our gate on Monday morning when all the cars come in. My hubby had our car, so I had to walk to work, and it took me longer than I thought it would, so when I was about 3 blocks away, I decided to run for it, because I didn't want the tow truck to leave without moving the vehicle.

You know, the old saying "no good deed goes unpunished," is pretty accurate.

Also, it astounds me how utterly, utterly stupid I can be some days.

New injuries: possible dislocated/subluxed sternum; or one of the ribs dislocated where it attaches to the sternum. Either way, extremely painful, and it has me slightly worried. At first I thought it was just the pressure of my stupid bra between my boobs, but I looked, and it wasn't red, or bruised looking. It is just extremely sensitive to pressure right now, and it feels like there might be a lump there that wasn't before (but for now I'm just assuming it's either the end of a rib, or swollen tissue).

I had a great few minutes laying in bed with both hips, both shoulders, an ankle, and a collar bone dislocated or subluxed. That was kinda painful...

I spent all day yesterday pretty drugged up on pain killers. And my drug-induced haze only brought my pain down to about a 5 or 6. Hooray for medications that work! *Rolling my eyes* Grrr...

But the good news is: that really annoying vertebra I haven't been able to crack in forever - finally cracked when I was trying to manoeuvre my sternum and ribs back to where they're supposed to be.

Can't Sleep... Clown Will Eat Me...

Not quite, but between the lovely ghost, and the psychotic cat, and the two babies that live downstairs, and scream at the top of their lungs 24/7, I haven't been getting the rest I need.

Also, my bed is too hard, and 3 layers of down comforter are not enough softness.

The ghost, in the last few weeks, has broken many things electronic, including 2 laptops, 1 desktop, a DVD player, and a something... Brain fog will not permit me to tell you... The ghost has also stolen my dad's book... which is really not nice.

Then there's the mysteriously opening, and closing of doors, the human voices which could only be coming from within my house (when I know for a fact that I'm alone), as I would not hear them otherwise, etc.

My hips and knees are still adjusting to my awesome shoes, but I haven't had to use my cane, and the pain seems to be the good-muscle-building type, instead of the bad-injured-something type.

I seem to have done something to my neck, but damned if I know what it is, or how to fix it. Hot, cold, and massage don't seem to have done anything, and the muscles are hard as rocks. I also have a vertebra in my spine which is not aligned correctly... So I'll have to call my chiropractor and set up an appointment sometime in the near-ish future.

It seems like that's all for updates, and interesting stuff... Really annoying, as every time I have a blog post idea, I'm not around a computer, and all the little notes I make just go *poof* and are eaten by gremlins.

Guess What I Finally Did?

I climbed a freakin' mountain! I am so proud of me!

I decided on Friday that I was going to climb a mountain on Saturday. I texted my mom to see if she was up for it, and Saturday morning at 9:30 we set out.

That's a picture of my toes and the wonderful view from inside the ice caves at Moose Mountain.

There is a 6km hike from the parking lot to the base of the mountain, then the trek up the mountain, exploring the cave, falling carefully down the shale to get down the mountain, then the 6km trek back to the car. All of this took 11 hours from the time mom picked us up until we were back at home. "We" being my husband and I, my mom and step-dad. They also picked up my Opa's mobility scooter for the 6km each direction, but it ran out of power on the way back, and we mostly used it to transport supplies like snacks, first aid and lots of water.

After returning home, I took some pain meds, and went to bed. I stayed in bed mostly asleep for 17 hours. It was necessary recovery time... I spent all day yesterday relaxing, and had a really long hot shower (after waking up from another 12-13 hours of sleep)... Sitting in the tub, because my legs didn't want me to stand that long... But considering all of the obstacles that have kept me from climbing that mountain for a DECADE, I'm really proud of myself for making it all the way.

Most ridiculous part of the trip? No injuries for me! No dislocations, subluxations, just a tiny little scrape on my thumb knuckle. My step-dad fell partway down the mountain... only 10 or 15 feet. And it was more of a roll, recover, roll, recover. He got a couple of scrapes on his elbows. My mom apparently did almost the same thing. She had to throw the bag she was carrying in order to not fall. Hubby only got the extreme muscle/joint aches, as well as the exhaustion. We also took mom's puppy (he just turned 1 on Thursday last week) and he made it all the way up to the caves without injury, and as soon as we got back to the car he passed out on the back seat... Only to be awoken by the smells of beef jerky.

Today is my 4th anniversary being married to my hubby, and we're still making people sick with all of our lovey-dovey hand holding, and the fact that we don't fight. Ever. Yay us!

It's been a pretty amazing weekend, and a pretty amazing 4 years with my hubby. I think I found my groove.

Hoping all of you are finding your slice of happy on this wonderful September day!

New Shoes, and a Sippy Cup

For my birthday, I went out and got a pair of Vibram Five Fingers shoes.

The part where it says they improve balance, is an understatement. Since I've started wearing these shoes nearly 2 weeks ago, I haven't had to use my cane at all, my feet aren't dislocating all over the place, and my hips are happier than they've been in a long time.

The only unhappy part of me seems to be my knees. These shoes don't have much for soles, so they don't have much for padding, which means they teach you (through negative reinforcement) to step more lightly. It seems that in regular running/walking shoes, I was walking so far to the outside of my foot that I was causing everything to be completely out of whack, and with the padding in the shoes, I was stepping more heavily than I should have been, which may have been causing the extraordinary hip pain.

But these shoes! They're comfortable! It feels like you're barefoot, so that's the biggest plus for me. With the proprioception/balance issues, most of my non-visual balance comes from the pressure in different parts of my feet, and in normal shoes all of that information feedback is dulled to the point where it's practically non-existent. I'm not saying these shoes are for everyone, but for me, they're wonderful. I may never go back to normal shoes until I find it impossible to wiggle my toes into their places.

Now on to the sippy cup part of the post. I was sitting at the computer, watching a movie, and I turned my chair so I could get up and walk over to my meds... When *Crash, Splash, Drip... drip... drip...* there went my full glass of juice. It went all over the desk, the carpet, and the floor rolly thing the chairs are on. Luckily it didn't get into any of the computers, monitors, keyboards, or anywhere else that would have caused damage... So after I spent half an hour cleaning all of the juicy bits, I went to the kitchen, and grabbed a coffee travel mug, and I've been using that ever since. Added benefits: less easy to spill, not as heavy as a glass, and it keeps my juice cold longer! I just feel a bit disappointed in myself that I had to resort to that. I feel like once again, I am growing younger instead of older.

I swear, I had more to post about, but this brain fog thing is no joke. I was at supper with my author friend, and his author friends, and my hubby and roommate, and I was in the middle of a sentence, and I lost my thought. It was like, "Hey, speaking of -insert topic- I was wondering..." and that's as far as the thought train took me. It was about 3 or 4 days later that I remembered what I was about to ask.

I Miss Saturdays...

I slept through three Saturdays in a row...

One of them was understandable, as I had been drinking the night before, but it really sucks when your weekend gets cut in half because the body says "Must... Sleep... NOW!"

My left hip has been bothering me a lot lately. More than usual. So I went to the doctor to see if I could have an x-ray to check for deterioration/damage due to the ridiculous number of dislocations/subluxations I've had, and it turns out my hip is fine. No damage. Which is good news for my hip, but it doesn't explain the pain... So the doctor wants me to go see my geneticist, and have him refer me to a rheumatologist, and maybe send me for an MRI. Not fun. I'm tired of all the tests coming back normal. I was hoping for something like "you have a hairline fracture" or "look at the little bits of bone you've chipped off your hip" because something could be DONE to fix me then.

I also saw another neurologist about my twitching issues, and apparently the doctor that referred me to her didn't send any of the appropriate paperwork, and I didn't have it with me, because I thought they would have it there. Apparently the last neurologist wanted to send me for some heart related tests, and never did, so this lady is going to send me for some. Maybe. If she remembers. (Do I sound bitter or frustrated?)

Yesterday was weird. I had practically zero proprioception, and I was dizzy like you wouldn't believe (who am I kidding, the people reading this are the ONLY ones who would believe), and I was wobbling around as though I'd had a lot to drink. I was also twitching way more than is usual lately, so it might be related to my blood pressure... I had trouble locating my pulse. When I did find it, it was very slow, and very weak. I tried eating, and drinking lots of water to help with blood pressure. The only thing that seemed to help was walking home from work. But that just exhausted me, so once I got home, I curled up into a nice little ball and threw in a DVD of Dead Like Me.