I know I haven't updated this in forever, but I will do it someday!
In the meantime, happy belated Halloween! My wheelchair is dressed as a Sir...
In the meantime, happy belated Halloween! My wheelchair is dressed as a Sir...
Friday, November 1, 2013
Saturday, May 4, 2013
April Showers
It has been quite a crazy time since spring break! (Even though I only posted about recently, that was way back in March for me.) I have been very much enjoying my improved strength and coordination and the extra freedom it gives me! Until a bit of a POTSie spell the past week, I hadn't used my wheelchair at all! I've been doing a lot of fun stuff with friends, but of course not as much as I would like. There's this crazy thing called grad school that tends to get in the way!
Neuroanatomy has been and still is driving me slightly crazy. Though I am interested in the subject enough that I'm thinking about specializing in that area, it is very, VERY hard. I have a solid background in science so I thought I knew roughly what I was in for. Nope. It was even harder than that. I haven't stressed about a class this much or felt more over my head since gen. chem. my first quarter of undergrad. Basically my feelings on neuro summed up:
And then...well I really don't want to go into this much, but I figure I should address the fact that my city was bombed. Basically, it's been horribel and sad and stressful. There is no way I can write about it eloquently, and I don't want to add to the piles of garbage that dilute the thoughtful, meaningful, and important pieces other's have written or filmed or photographed. It's one of those life changing things that I may never fully understand. I just want to say that I am extremely thankful for social media connecting me with my friends and news as things were happening, the police and everyone who kept us safe afterwards, and my friends and pretty much Boston in general for sticking together since then. A bunch of us here have pledged to do 31 acts of kindness during the month of May. For me, as well as for a lot of the people who are participating, I think it's some small way we can use the terrible thing that happened as fuel to do something positive. Feel free to check it out and join in!
May is looking pretty difficult as well, with surgery coming up (10 days Ahhhh!) and finals and all that. But a girl can still manage to have some fun. :0) There was a softball tournament for all the grad programs and despite my doctor forbidding me from playing sports and despite the fact that I couldn't hit, throw, or run, I decided that this was something that I must do. My friend Melanie organized our team so we made up for our lack of skill with some pretty fly uniforms! The night before a few people came over and we decorated these completely blinding neon shirts with our team name (Team Awesome) on the front and OT related nicknames on the back. I picked "Non-Compliant" because I feel it summed me up pretty well.
We were squashed very thoroughly in the game (we played against a team of all guys and some of them had, like actual baseball pants and their own gloves and stuff), but it was a blast! I mostly played (adapted) catch on the sidelines, but I did get to (adaptively) hit a ball during the last inning.
My dad asked if I got on base from my hit that night when he called and that was the first time it occurred to me that I should have done anything except celebrate the fact that I hit the ball and then walk off the field. Oh well! :0) I'm going to post the video I made of the game but first, I want to warn you that it contains some swears (sorry Grandma and Grandpa!). So, you know, only watch it if you are ok with that.
Oh, and side note, the blog is still under construction I'm fairly confident that none of the pull down menues at the top of the page work...yet. And I'm going to put new pictures in the slideshow...someday.
Neuroanatomy has been and still is driving me slightly crazy. Though I am interested in the subject enough that I'm thinking about specializing in that area, it is very, VERY hard. I have a solid background in science so I thought I knew roughly what I was in for. Nope. It was even harder than that. I haven't stressed about a class this much or felt more over my head since gen. chem. my first quarter of undergrad. Basically my feelings on neuro summed up:
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| I have no idea, but I better figure it out by next Thursday's final! |
And then...well I really don't want to go into this much, but I figure I should address the fact that my city was bombed. Basically, it's been horribel and sad and stressful. There is no way I can write about it eloquently, and I don't want to add to the piles of garbage that dilute the thoughtful, meaningful, and important pieces other's have written or filmed or photographed. It's one of those life changing things that I may never fully understand. I just want to say that I am extremely thankful for social media connecting me with my friends and news as things were happening, the police and everyone who kept us safe afterwards, and my friends and pretty much Boston in general for sticking together since then. A bunch of us here have pledged to do 31 acts of kindness during the month of May. For me, as well as for a lot of the people who are participating, I think it's some small way we can use the terrible thing that happened as fuel to do something positive. Feel free to check it out and join in!
May is looking pretty difficult as well, with surgery coming up (10 days Ahhhh!) and finals and all that. But a girl can still manage to have some fun. :0) There was a softball tournament for all the grad programs and despite my doctor forbidding me from playing sports and despite the fact that I couldn't hit, throw, or run, I decided that this was something that I must do. My friend Melanie organized our team so we made up for our lack of skill with some pretty fly uniforms! The night before a few people came over and we decorated these completely blinding neon shirts with our team name (Team Awesome) on the front and OT related nicknames on the back. I picked "Non-Compliant" because I feel it summed me up pretty well.
We were squashed very thoroughly in the game (we played against a team of all guys and some of them had, like actual baseball pants and their own gloves and stuff), but it was a blast! I mostly played (adapted) catch on the sidelines, but I did get to (adaptively) hit a ball during the last inning.
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| Just like Buster! |
My dad asked if I got on base from my hit that night when he called and that was the first time it occurred to me that I should have done anything except celebrate the fact that I hit the ball and then walk off the field. Oh well! :0) I'm going to post the video I made of the game but first, I want to warn you that it contains some swears (sorry Grandma and Grandpa!). So, you know, only watch it if you are ok with that.
 |
| Blogger is being a dillhole, so you have to click here for the video. |
Oh, and side note, the blog is still under construction I'm fairly confident that none of the pull down menues at the top of the page work...yet. And I'm going to put new pictures in the slideshow...someday.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Spring Break Part 4 - Washington DC (fun stuff!)
It wasn't all medical stuff and misery in DC. I got to do some awesome tourist and friend and family visiting stuff too. Que pictures of adventures...
Museum of crime and punishment with ROOMIE (aka Stephanie)...
Newseum day...
Me on either side of the same section of the Berlin Wall...
I did other stuff too, like catch up with my friend Chloe and watch quirky movies with my cousin and her cousins. Good times were had. :0)
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| Subway Gals |
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| Dad photobombing my picture of the capital |
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| Ah, much better! |
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| I have never been to DC when this wasn't under construction... |
At the Smithsonian...
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| Butterfly garden!!!! |
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| This jerk hitched a ride on my chair |
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| And some more fangirling was had when I saw Global Flipping Mamas being sold at the Smithsonian! |
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| And the cool part was I recognized the products before I saw the label! |
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| Another thing to remind me of SAS. I think I need one of these in my dorm room... |
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| Rawr! |
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| Mom orchestrated this pose :0) |
Botanical Gardens....
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| Can you tell they are related or what?!? (My mom and my cousin) |
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| Hubba hubba |
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Newseum day...
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| Dan's politician photo |
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| In Soviet Berlin, we have no smiles. |
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| My first memory! |
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| Asked my brother to get me condiments at lunch. Does he know a POTSie or what? |
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| We all became enamored by this elevator wall... |
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| DIY sushi for dinner! |
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| Awweeee! |
Monday, April 29, 2013
Spring Break Part 3 - Washington DC (Medical Stuff)
The problem with waiting so long to post is that I kind of forget the exact order of things. So I think my first day in DC was a doctor appointment day, but I'm really not sure if that is 100% true. But let's go with it.
For a more detailed account of the appointments and test and stuff, you can see my caringbridge site.
For a basic summary, I had a bunch of really horrendous tests and FINALLY GOT SOME ANSWERS!!!!
I have some instability at various levels in my spine with flexion and extension. But then with rotation, my C1 and C2 are way to wibbly wobbly. I guess during the test I was only one or two degrees away from dislocating my neck under my own muscle power! Yikes! So that means several things:
1. I am apparently lucky to still be alive and not a quadriplegic
The doc explained it that my brainstem and spinal cord is like a banana And you can only twist a banana so much until you start to have problems.
2. I have to wear a beast of a neck brace anytime I'm moving to prevent a dislocation
3. I am having surgery on May 14th to get my C1 and C2 fused
They are taking a part of my rib (que Adam and Eve jokes) and using it to stick my C1 and C2 vertebra together. I will be in the hospital for about three days, laying in bed for about eight days, and then I can fly home from DC to do the rest of recovery.
I was skeptical about the wibbly wobbly neck being the cause of my shaky time, but it's been several weeks of wearing the neck brace and I haven't really had shaky time! I had a local neurologist appointment last Tuesday and they said my reflexes and strength and stuff look better too! I'm so flipping excited that I found out what was causing the weakness and that I can control it. Before, I worried that I would just waste away not knowing what was happening or I would find out that what was causing the weakness was progressive. Plus, I only need one surgery to fix it. I may have other fusion surgeries or the tethered cord surgery in my future, but it's not something I have to worry about yet. :0)
And here is my looking fly in my super sexy neck brace:
For a more detailed account of the appointments and test and stuff, you can see my caringbridge site.
For a basic summary, I had a bunch of really horrendous tests and FINALLY GOT SOME ANSWERS!!!!
I have some instability at various levels in my spine with flexion and extension. But then with rotation, my C1 and C2 are way to wibbly wobbly. I guess during the test I was only one or two degrees away from dislocating my neck under my own muscle power! Yikes! So that means several things:
1. I am apparently lucky to still be alive and not a quadriplegic
The doc explained it that my brainstem and spinal cord is like a banana And you can only twist a banana so much until you start to have problems.
2. I have to wear a beast of a neck brace anytime I'm moving to prevent a dislocation
3. I am having surgery on May 14th to get my C1 and C2 fused
They are taking a part of my rib (que Adam and Eve jokes) and using it to stick my C1 and C2 vertebra together. I will be in the hospital for about three days, laying in bed for about eight days, and then I can fly home from DC to do the rest of recovery.
I was skeptical about the wibbly wobbly neck being the cause of my shaky time, but it's been several weeks of wearing the neck brace and I haven't really had shaky time! I had a local neurologist appointment last Tuesday and they said my reflexes and strength and stuff look better too! I'm so flipping excited that I found out what was causing the weakness and that I can control it. Before, I worried that I would just waste away not knowing what was happening or I would find out that what was causing the weakness was progressive. Plus, I only need one surgery to fix it. I may have other fusion surgeries or the tethered cord surgery in my future, but it's not something I have to worry about yet. :0)
And here is my looking fly in my super sexy neck brace:
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| I'll have to get a more recent picture up now that I have decorated it with stickers! |
Sunday, April 28, 2013
New York Part 2 - Fangirling
Some of you may know about my slight obsession with a British TV show called Doctor Who. Well, when I was in NYC, I dragged my parents around Central Park in the freezing cold so I could take pictures where some scenes of the show were filmed. And I couldn't just do this all calm-like. No, I went five-year-old style giddy and probably embarrassed my parents by looking like this:
Ok, so here are my pics from a truly fantastic day in the park.
And yes, I gave my parents a lengthy explanation about how the weeping angels were quantum locked and blah blah blah and I used to much jargon that I think they thought I was talking about something I learned in school at first...
Oh, that was a good day!
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| Except I was also holding a sonic screwdriver. |
Ok, so here are my pics from a truly fantastic day in the park.
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| Don't Blink. |
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| Don't even Blink. |
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| Not quite the right rock yet... |
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| Ah, there is the right rock. |
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| So now I must take eleventy-billion pictures... |
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| Including this one of my dad |
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| And the fountain |
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| And when we realized this was also the fountain from Friends, Mom and Dad got a little fangirly too... |
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| Wrong bench but I tried. |
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| The bridge |
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| Oh and this was welded into the floor of the bridge. I really don't want it to just be a coincidence... |
Oh, that was a good day!
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