Sorry I've Been MIA

Man, I HATE it when JUNK invades my life.  I mean personal, icky junk.  It just wrecks everything.  But, I've spoken my piece, shared my heart, got a little crazy, and now it's time to go on.

So.  Yesterday I spent the day running errands and going out for lunch with Joanna...good heavens she is a patient woman.  We went to the bead store downtown Allegan (3D Beads)....I was JUST going to show Doreen where I got some magnets from, but ended up being there for probably 45 minutes.  I just HAD to look!  They rearranged the shop so it was nice and roomy and they had new sparkly stuff I just HAD to check out.  Doreen (the owner)  also convinced me to take a class with a lady there...so I'm going to!  Learn how to do wire wrapping.

Then we went to the Calico Rabbit in Plainwell.  I keep calling it the Calico Kitten, because, hey, isn't that what YOU think of when you say "Calico?" Mmmm-hm. Me too.  Anyway.  I basically only go to one booth there, the bead lady booth.  Well she had an ENTIRE BUCKET of individual beads for three cents each.  Mmm-hm.  I did.  I went through the whole. stinkin. basket. up at the counter, and Joanna patiently helped me dig through and look through them all for the ones I wanted.  Pretty soon the young lady at the counter was diggin' too!

As far as support goes, that's right up there with holding your hair back if you're puking, if you ask me.  All of the sudden I look up and it's 2:20 PM, and we haven't had lunch yet!  I was MORTIFIED!  I was like, OH my GOSH you must be STARVING!!  I was so zoned out I hadn't noticed....but as soon as I zoned back IN....sheesh!  I was ready to mow the bark off the twiggy tree outside!

Anywho.  Got more beads...which I need like a hole in the head....but also come other stuff to make some newer, different things.  SO.  If you want to, go check me out on facebook.  Go to https://www.facebook.com/MGKerriJewelry  and check it out.  You have til midnight tomorrow to save 30% on orders of $30.00 or more.

But anyway.  Thanks for your patience over the last few weeks....I haven't been blogging like I want to, but I've had so much personal gar-baj going on that I couldn't focus.  So I'm working on that.

Hope everyone is doing well!

What's Going On

Hey everyone...

Wow.  What a busy couple of weeks!  Add to that dealing with pneumonia for crying out loud.  I did a LITTLE better at restraining myself this year and saying "no" when I knew I had already done too much...but that's something I still need to get MUCH better at.

It's very difficult being a Type A personality with a disease that allows you to be anything BUT Type A.  Sometimes even a Type B is a stretch. 

I am not laid back.
I am not mellow.
I am not calm.
I am not a "go-with-the-flow" kind of girl.

I am a thinker, a planner, a scheduler, and I HATE change.  I am high maintenance!! Yeah, I know, I'm laughing too!

If there's one thing I know in my life, it's that every day will bring something different.  I can do all the planning in the world, but that doesn't mean any of it's going to happen.  And it drives. me. crazy.

But ya know what?  NONE of us is promised tomorrow.  The healthiest among us could be hit by a crosstown bus tomorrow. (yes, I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek, because I'm trying not to be morbid).

But seriously.  Just in the last 2 weeks, I personally know of 4 young, healthy people who have died suddenly.  Two were a brother and sister, 17 and 13. All four had their whole lives ahead of them.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that we all need to live in the moment.

I'm not saying don't be responsible or make long-range goals or plans, but I AM saying don't COUNT on them to fulfill you or make you happy.  You have to be okay with who you are today, because today may be all you have.

I don't know that I'm completely "okay" with me yet, today, in this moment.  But I'm learning.  Slowly, but I'm learning.  Cherish everyone in your life.  Don't wait to tell them you love them. If you want something, go for it.  Don't put it off until tomorrow.  Carpe diem!!  Seize the day!

Busy, Busy!

My goodness!  I'm so completely tired!  I FINALLY feel "over" my cold...yesterday I separated, washed, dried and folded five loads of laundry!  PLUS I made homemade apple crisp.  I KNOW!  Then today, I WAS just going to drop Jacob off at Shawn's and come home and work on jewelry and stuff, but I thought, well, I needed to look for a few specific things at Walmart, and I was almost halfway there....so I went to Wal-Mart. 

They had more than I needed, as usual...but I still needed something else.  So I went to a little store in Plainwell called the Calico Rabbit.  It's like a consignment shop, and I had gotten some AWESOME beads and polished stones there last week.  BUT, they didn't have what I was looking for.  But they also had more than I needed.

So then I went to the bead store in downtown Allegan, and found PART of what I was looking for. (And a little more)....so I didn't get home til after 3PM and I had to put away groceries and make supper! (White chili...YUM!!)

Then I'm trying to put my pictures on my facebook page and it's giving me fits.  Ug.

Anyway....I am still alive.  No new news on my dad yet.  He had an MRI Monday morning, and they have an appointment on October 4 (Tuesday) to get all the results.  It's hard not to speculate.  I'm just trying to stay busy and not think about it.

SO....what's going on with you??

Also, check out my other blog and see some of the new stuff I'm doing!
www.kerriskreationsjewelry.blogspot.com

Joy and Happiness

I never realized how over the moon I would be about my 4 year old computer.  I am AT HOME, on MY computer, and it's WORKING. I had some hideous, nasty, spread out virus...it actually ate its way into my operating system...Every time I would delete it it would go away, but every time I went to google to search anything it reloaded and redirected me. 

Anyway. It's all just a bad memory now.  I'm home, happily clacking away at my keyboard that has the E, and S keys completely typed off, and the A and D keys are not far behind.  But who cares.  I know where they are.

Have an appointment with my neuro tomorrow about the port...you can be praying for that if you'd like.

This Sunday is Doug's work picnic at the fair.  We always have fun, because Jacob LOVES the animals and stuff, but he likes the rides too.  I don't know about you, but I'm not very confident in something you can slap up in a day that goes 100 feet in the air.  He LOVES the ferris wheel.  Ever since he was 3 he saw it and said, "I want to go on that."  I was like, I don't think so....but he did, and he LOVED it.  Last year, same thing.  This year probably too.

I enjoy the fair, but the germ factor freaks me right out.  I will probably have to heavily medicate so I don't have one day-long panic attack.  I need to buy stock in the antibacterial wipe business.  I'm putting SOMEbody's kid through college.

On the jewelry front, still taking orders!  Check out www.kerriskreationsjewelry.blogspot.com (or click the button in the upper left corner of my blog).  Also working on stuff for the craft show in November.

Well, I will let you know how tomorrow goes.  I'm so so so thankful to have my computer back!!! YAY!!!

New Vent!

So the first night I used the new vent it was a nightmare. Two hours, and air was leaking up past my palate and I was making weird little noises...crazy.

So the Airway Dude came out again and adjusted the settings a little bit. Plus, my hubby (a.k.a. McGuyver) took an old trach band from a Shiley trach and wrapped it around the adapter from my trach to the vent tube, and around my neck so the weight was pulling on my trach.

Then, I came up with the brilliant idea (it DOES happen once in a while!) of using a hair clip to clip the air hose to my night shirt so there's NO pulling at all when I move around.

I. Slept. All. Night. Long.

I woke up once to go potty, do suction, etc.

Oh, but I did have to also make some impromptu nose plugs....half a tissue rolled into a capsule like shape. Not terrible comfortable, but not uncomfortable enough to interrupt sleep, and that helped fix the air leak.

YAY!!!

So......Today is making jewelry and doing laundry...tomorrow hanging out, and then Monday: ROAD TRIP!!! Going to a huge outlet mall to meet ANOTHER friend from college and do a little shopping. Whoo to the Hoo!

Haven't been on the computer much because along with having a broken foot, Tracy is taking Master's classes and needs to be online some. But that's cool...gives me time for other stuff like sorting all my beads!

Hope everyone is doing well, and I'll be back atcha soon!

Updates

Okay.

I had an echocardiogram last Wednesday, and everything "seems" okay. I have to just wait and see. Which is like TORTURE to me. I shouldn't have asked any questions, because she said I have a leaky valve, but not which one, and told me the number, and a number for my pressures...but not which pressures...and everything overall looked OK. Partial information is worse than none. Now I'm going crazy trying to figure out what's what. And it's making me lose my mind. Slowly.

I also got my Shake-A-Lator VEST. It's bizarre. It reminds me of those old black and white TV shows where they show the people at the "fat farms" or "spa" or whatever with the belt around them that shakes them senseless! It's like going over a super bumpy road for 20 minutes. CRAZY. But it's already helping me get rid of stuff in my lungs. Now we just pray the insurance (MEDICARE) will cover its 80%, because it has a pretty steep pricetag.

I'm waiting to hear about a cough assist machine, and I have a pulmonary function test on the 29th. My goodness. Appointments like crazy! Then of course, I have my 3 plasmapheresis treatments July 6, 8 and 11, and thank the LORD two of my docs were willing to work me in on those days; one being Dr. Lovy, the best pulmonologist in the WORLD and the other is my endocrinologist, Janette, who is the BEST P.A. in the world!!! They are all at At. Mary's, which is an hour from here, so making a trip, especially for a 15 minute diabetic check up is out of the question with gas at $4.00 a gallon. So thanks so much to those two docs for helping us out!

Other than that....I never did get Jacob's cold all the way, HALLELUJAH, and today, I got up at 7:30, had breakfast (thank you hubby), my coffee, and then Doug took Jacob to "throw hay" or something like that. Everyone was so impressed with Jacob. How grown up he is for a 4 year old, how well he speaks, how well behaved he was...I guess I'm not doing such a bad job after all!

But while they were gone, I swept the mudroom AND stairs (with a BROOM!), sorted and washed 3 loads of laundry, did the dishes and did my 20 minute Shake-A-Lator treatment. GO ME!

Don't forget, June is National Myasthenia Gravis Awareness Month!

Stay tuned next week for the start of a series of reviews on Reflecting Him, a Bible study by Carla McDougal.

Exciting News

My dream is to be healthy enough to go to churches and organizations about and speak about chronic illness and how to take care of one another. I think some people don't understand the importance of physical and emotion support for the chronically ill.

Well, Pastor Chad from Allegan Bible Church stopped to see me yesterday, and we talked about some wonderful opportunities. He mentioned that part of the problem is that some folks don't understand that they have gifts that are essential to chronically ill people, but they don't see them as important.

For example, he had a woman come up to him and say, "I'd love to help, but I don't know how. All I really know how to do is clean." I was like, THAT IS HUGE!!! There are SO many things that SHOULD be done in my house every day. Cleaning machines, tubing, filters, vacuuming, etc. I'm allergic to dust. With a hole in my neck with no filter to my lungs, there's a lot that should be done that just doesn't get done to protect my airway. There's just not enough energy.

Think about what you love to do. Or what you're good at doing. Some people seriously have a gift for cleaning. So donate some time to someone in need. Do you like to cook? Make some extra when you're making a meal. Throw it in the freezer. Ask your pastor if he knows of anyone in need of a meal. You don't have to walk on water or have a ton of money to help someone.

And face it, if it comes down to taking care of my son or cleaning all of the filters on my machines, Jacob gets priority. It's all about balance. It's all about how much change I wake up with in my pocket, and how much I can handle.

Anyway....the exciting news. Pastor Chad is going to facilitate a video of me, getting my message out, and put it on his church's website. We are hoping and praying that it will also be on Love INC's website, since they are national. That way, I WILL be able to get my message out from my own home! Plus, the man coming to do the video is going to show me how to do it myself.
YAY!

I'll keep you posted!

Not Waiting for the Shoe to Drop

I'm reeeaaalllly trying to NOT think about the proverbial "other shoe" dropping. It's tough though! I am still in the mindset of remembering where I WAS physically last month, as a matter of reference. I need to remember how easily I went down hill, how gradually, and how bad I got. It will take much more time to completely recover, but I'm getting there! Even my knee and leg are feeling better from my fall! Hallelujah.

I have to pace myself; like when we run errands, we have to stick to 2 or 3 stores MAX, not 8 or 9~!! I also had a great suggestion from a fellowMG'er. She sets an alarm clock to go off then makes herself stop wherever she is and rests.

How are YOU all doing? I would really like to hear about something WONDERFUL in your life. Please leave a comment and tell me something going on in your life right now that is FABULOUS. I know there's SOMETHING. So let's share, and encourage one another!

Update on Jacob

{Sigh}

We have a cast. Just cannot catch a break.

The x-rays showed a shadow on the back side of the bone just above the elbow. This depicts an injury that would require a cast, whether or not there is a fracture. They believe there is a fracture however. So that means 6-8 weeks in a cast. We have to go see a bone doctor tomorrow to make sure he agrees with the family doc. They mentioned surgery MAY be a possibility and I was like, that's what THEY think. I saw the x-ray. There is no need for surgery, and if he says that, we will go elsewhere. We'll keep you posted.