New day

Well today was my first day taking on some additional classes because a colleague had to step away. I added two classes to my Monday and Wednesday load and though it was tiring for my first day it was SO rewarding. I absolutely love teaching and interacting with students. Though tired I am thrilled, if that makes any sense.

Hello

Well I am doing my best to update. I am doing ok, teaching is so rewarding for me. I have students in both of my classes forming study and focus groups. They are doing what I always hope for, students allowing me to work with them to do well. I was also asked to step up and take on a couple more classes to help a colleague. I am not sure how long it will be for, if for the rest of the semester I will do that. I am helping in my practice too as I having validation on my being needed. Between personal referrals, court referrals and current clients I have a full load. I am doing ok, headaches are maintaining and I am exercising my leg the best I can. The muscles seem to possibly increasing in the spasms at night. I will exercise the leg and see if that off sets it, if not I will call my doctor and maybe up the medications.

Same old song

I apologize for not updating in quite a while. I have still been using the oxygen and it is still working on keeping my headaches at bay. Praise God! I am so happy to report that. I know when I have a client in front of me telling me they do not want to be put on a medication I understand and also try to avoid it. In my situation I was bugged that my neurologist did not want to just write a script because I thought that is what I needed. Tired of those severe headaches I just wanted them gone and thought how could the oxygen help and then of course the inconvenience of wearing the thin tubes like you wear in the hospital. It works and I trust my neurologist 100% as now my leg spasms seem to be returning when I try to go to sleep at night. I am trying to increase my exercises and use my stim device more. I had to avoid using it because I needed a new off and on switch for my foot. It came and I wore it yesterday and the spasms were reduced a lot last night. I will avoid using my restrictive brace and see if it helps.

Day after Day

A lot has happened and yet not much has changed, does that make sense? To date I have had my oxygen machine for about eight weeks and use it about 85 percent of the time and it actually IS helping with my headaches. I used it only about half of the time in the first four weeks because I did not believe that would help. My neurologist, Dr. Smith, has been accurate every time including this time. My last serious headache was back around December 5th time frame so this is fantastic. I do not know if it will help anyone else but wearing oxygen at night works.

I am back to teaching for the Spring semester and things are going well for me. I also am feeling a little more energy most of time, which I am attributing to the oxygen at night. Since on the oxygen I do not wake up during the night at all. I was waking up two to three times a night but able to go back to sleep once on my new medications from Dr. Smith. Since the oxygen though like I say I sleep through the night which is a real blessing.

Sunday football

Well before the games started I thought I would clear the driveway up a bit. We didn't get enough snow for the plow so I decided to clean it up myself. I shoveled some to the sides and then figured I would snow blow the rest of it. My son and daughter-in-law came over yesterday and filled up my gas can for me. They were very thoughtful to help. So after my shoveling I did some snow blowing and cleaned up my driveway.

Last night I had a little episode of adventure, which may be an over statement. My doorbell rang two times at about 8:30 in the evening. As I struggled to get up, go to the door and answer it I quickly learned it was a case of 'ding dong ditch'. I was reminded of my youth and friends who use to play it. Then I thought about how many people did they play their joke on who experienced difficulty to answer a door for no one. I sat looking out the front window in the dark for a few minuets after I closed and locked the door with the lights off. As I sat there I thought even if I were to see them what would I do, "chase them"? How funny I thought so I made my way back to the family room and figured if it rang again I just do not get up. In the end children will be children.

Snowy day

Well more of the same old stuff falling from the sky. I was actually hoping we would get a little bit of snow so my plow guy would show up. We did not get enough so now I need to decide if I will brave the cold and such tomorrow to shovel it. I went to church for our 5 o'clock service and I decided to go without my brace or stim unit. I was hoping it would be ok and all went fairly well until I went to leave. As I was walking down the aisle leaving I almost walked on the ankle again as my left foot turned sideways like it does. I forgot about the ankle I think because of my brace and stim unit being used constantly for so long. I should remember why I am wearing them, which is more than just the paralysis.

Snow

Well over the night we had our first dose of the snow to come. I hired someone to plow the driveway for me so I went out because I needed to run an errand. While I was trying to clean my car off I had what seemed like an impossible task. It seemed impossible because of the ten or twelve inches of snow that was around my car. I had not put my brace on because it was a quick errand. The snow was not the nice fluffy snow but the heavy type. With the amount of snow on my car and trying to maneuver around the car cleaning it off proved to be extremely difficult. When I came home with all the snow in the driveway I assumed my plower did not come so I would fix it. I fired up the snowblower and managed to clear the whole driveway going slow. It felt good to accomplish the goal. I also did my neighbor's apron where the plows had buried it to help her out (she has the same snow plow man). I called her to tell her and she informed me he had cleared our driveways about 4 a.m. . That being the case I had no idea we had gotten that much snow. I am glad I did not call him to ask where he was. As of now we have about a foot so far with more coming. I love it!