Saving money

I've had this post running through my head all year, but have never sat down to write it.  But, now that I'm writing more, so here goes.

Really, we shouldn't still be hanging on to our 4 horses.  We're pretty much broke.  Nate's pay checks go to all the house bills, my small social security check goes to the horses, and we're on as much government support as they'll let us have... which is pretty much medicaid for the kids and me, sometimes food stamps when Nate has to cut his hours more for him to go to school.  Oh, and our house and nearly 7 acres was purchased through a subsidized loan program.  Anyway, things just keep getting more expensive all the time, and we found out how to make our own detergent when we moved last year and that helps not to be adding THAT expense.

 Here's the recipe we use:
1/3 bar of Zote soap

1/2 cup of Borax

3/4 - 1 cup of Washing Soda

You blend the Zote in a blender, it's best to cut it into small pieces as you add it in the blender because it likes to stick up the blades.  Then add all 3 ingredients together in a bowl/container, we use old formula containers that we can shake it up in and we ultimately store it in too.  I do NOT suggest blending all three together in the blender, it REALLY gumbs up the blades!  Two table spoons does the trick.

Then, with the horses, I've been letting their feet go longer in between trims and then Nate and I have really cut down on our grain.  Two years ago, almost everyone got some sort of grain.  This year, just Firecracker, Nate's old mare and that's only because she's missing a bunch of teeth and has too much trouble chewing hay.  Senior feed has increased in price almost $10 a bag in the last 2 years too.  So, we've been combining alfalfa pellets (for forage) and another pelleted grain.  It was Safe Choice, but that's been climbing too, so now we're doing a sweet feed that's somewhat pelleted.  And now Nate tells me THAT is going up in price, and that we may be putting her down soon just because of how expensive it is to feed her.  (and no, the cats do get their own food, this picture was from when Firecracker was on senior feed, and our new kitten at the time loved it)

Also, we're both VERY consistences of our fuel mileage.  As long as we keep our RPMs at or below around 2000 we both get around 30 miles a gallon, as long as we keep up with repairs - so we figure out our mileage every time we fill up either of our cars and know to look for things needing repair if the miles per gallon go down drastically.  I've also noticed that my Stratus gets better fuel mileage if I fill my tank before it gets much below half empty.  Since starting to watch my RPMs so closely, I've been amazed at the number of people who lay on the gas taking off from stop lights, etc.  I seem to notice it more with bigger, low fuel mileage vehicles like pick-ups and suburbans too. Wonder if they realize how much more money they're costing themselves in fuel use?  If they can afford to drive them daily, they probably don't care.

Have child, will continue to travel

Well, I WAS going to just write about my experiences going to PT over the last week, but as the title came into my head I couldn't help but think of my travels over this fall.

Life can get 'complicated' when you have MS, or kids, but double that when you're dealing with both.  Luckily I have some great friends who are willing to help me get around with both 'weights' in tow.  Most memorable is a friend who drove my car for me, as I'm fatigue prone and it was a long trip, and help me get Cody taken care of, since I have to use the power chair at home.  Then another who was looking for an auction comrade to go on another long trip to an out door auction.  I didn't even THINK that both kids would have to go with and that she'd have to help me with Cody, but she took me anyway!  SO, we load up the stroller, the walker, provisions for us and the baby and Cody, Jayda and I and head off to spend most of the day walking around in a big field, she pushing Cody and I pushing my walker (which comes in handy at an event like this because it has a seat :-)).  Oh, I miss the days of just jumping in the car and going somewhere, but thank God for people who look past all the luggage.

Now what originally prompted the post.  Last week I started going to Physical Therapy again, 1 part on my knees and the weak hip muscles adding to their pain and instability, 1 part on the MS - supposed to be aqua therapy.  I found out the therapy/fitness/medical plaza that I started seeing a chiropractor in 2 weeks ago ALSO has childcare available while you are in the building.  SO, I got my prescriptions sent there and started last Friday.  I did my 'land therapy' first, consecrating on my legs and glut/stabilizing muscles, and that went fine.  So I went and changed for the pool.  They have a nice little heated 'track pool' which is an oval with a current and an open rectangle in the middle with some steps.  Generally, 'we' (people with MS) are told to stay away from hot tubs and saunas because of the heat.  This is 92*, probably the same temp as my shower and bath water, and I never noticed any problems while I was in the water.  (OH MY, aqua therapy is a lot more work than I thought it'd be!!)  I got out, fine, and went and started changing, then I started getting weaker, and weaker, and w-e-a-k-e-r.  So I'm dressed, and looking at my suit and shorts sitting about 4 feet from me trying to figure out how I'm going to go over there, pick them up, and carry them out using the walker they'd let me use since we didn't know how I'd react to the workout.  Chair.  I can do about anything out of my power chair, I bet that if they have walkers here for people to barrow, the have wheel chairs.  So I go ask for one.  Mind you, I'm getting more and more wobbly this whole time, and I really don't think PTs like seeing you come up to them like that. lol  I was intending to clean up my stuff myself, but that was not going to happen, the PT I had with me in the pool got my suit and stuff for me and took me up front.  Asked if I was ready to go, well, no, going with the cane back to the child care center and getting a 20+ lb. boy out to and in the car, no, I need to sit more.  'Oh, we can help you get out to the car.', the 2 PTs who were with me then say.  'Baby and all?', I ask.  'Well yes', and they did.  They got Cody loaded in his stroller, both of us out to the car (I'm still in the chair!) and even loaded Cody and helped me with the stroller.  I was feeling better by now, but sat a while more and ate my granola bar and rested.  Today, they kept me to just land, and will start aqua therapy in a few weeks.

It seems like a LOT of things to do to get a baby out and about when you can't simply unbuckle them and carry them in.

Handicapped accessible...

I still don't like the term 'handicapped', but it's a lot more understood than, say, 'altered'.  Although... wouldn't it be fun to have 'altered tags' and 'altered parking spaces' - I'm envisioning someone swinging upside down from a trapeze for the emblem, rather than that darn chair.... 

Anyway, in my opinion (IMO), people's idea of 'handicapped accessible' varies as much as the different type of 'handicaps' out there.  Take 'handicapped' parking spaces that are located AWAY from the door....

 

... just because that's the 'easiest' place to put the ramp.  Guess what, not all 'handicapped' people use a ramp.  Some, like me, use a cane and need a shorter distance over the use of a ramp, though both would be best.  

OR, take for instance, take bathrooms.  My husband and I were at a store this summer and, suffering from a weak bladder, I suddenly needed to use a restroom.  No public restroom, but when they were told I sometimes have frequency incontinence, I was told I could go upstairs and use the employee one.  RIGHT.  Thank goodness I never worked in a place like this and broke my leg!  Yeah, we left.  SO, there are handicapped accessible parking spaces, and handicapped accessible stores.

Most stores are not very 'disabled person' friendly, IMO.  Some of the bigger ones are better, providing scooters so that you are able to go all the way around the store AND be able to shop, but not all.  Even some of the ones that provide scooters still do not leave enough room between displays to be able to negotiate through.  Then, I've found the few department stores I've tried to shop at, don't have scooters, and where as you can find a manual wheel chair, good luck fitting it through any openings to actually LOOK at the clothes (or 'sport of your choice' items).

I really wish the architects and managers would consult with disabled people when they are designing the store's layouts.

Busy...

Why is it that summer's always have to be so busy?

The two main things, that have gotten sprinkled with countless other things and travels, is the growth of baby Cody and the bath room being nearly completed (finished enough to be inspected later today).

So, I know the dangers and warnings they have on crib bumpers now days, but I had to put one up and am finding many benefits.  After prying, PRYING, Cody's leg out from between his crib bars twice, thinking each time that I'd end up having to see where Nate stored the hacksaw, I decided that the bumper HAD to go up.
Along with keeping his legs in the crib, I've also been finding it helpful for helping me sneak out of his room after I lay him down.  It's terrible when you lay them down, and they're happy to see their blankey and 'friends' again, cooing, and just generally happy, and then they realize that you aren't looking in on them anymore and they start crying.  It's funny though, he definitely knows the sound of my chair and is already looking over the bumper if I came down the hall.

Speaking of my chair, all the doors are in, though, of course, now I'm trying to do 'fancy' things with them, such as turn around half way down the hall, and I've already dinged them up a little.

I'm just happy that the bathroom has gone from

and

to THIS!

(that's a pocket door on the right side of the pic)

Yay, I can take my chair into the bathroom and get into the bed rooms more easily, not to mention being able to get outside with my chair!!

managing... well everything

Yesterday was, well, interesting.  Drove the hour plus to Omaha, the 'big city' nearest to us, to make it there by 9:15 am so we could check in.  First off, I definitely have one of the best husbands out there, as he took the day off work so I didn't have to try and get Cody in the car, get through traffic, and go to my Dr.'s appointment by myself - and I remember that on days like today when he is rushing off to work in such a hurry that he barely says goodbye.  Traffic was the usual down town morning craziness, but we made it by 9... only to find out that the directions they sent ended in the middle of the Medical Center, with no mention of which building we were going to.  Hmm, who would have thought that that pertinent information was located on the SECOND page of the letter telling us what to bring to the appointment and not of the driving directions.  We managed to make it there only 20 minutes late... which of course meant that we had to reschedule for later.

We got lucky, after being a smidge grumpy about the confusion over the directions and that my hubby had taken the day off work to run Cody and me to the med center.   They were able to work me into an afternoon appointment.  SO, what to do for four hours in Omaha with a baby?  Well, I was planning on meeting a new friend that I'd made on Face Book face to face after the appointment, but before and having lunch with her worked out just fine.  Had a nice lunch and good conversation, and got back to the hospital just in time to get signed in and feed the baby in the waiting room - how often do you do that?!  Interesting to say the least.

I'd gone hoping the neurologist would refer me to a vascular surgeon so I could get checked out for CCSVI.  No such luck, but had a really good discussion with her about everything ms, and the latest news.  Kind of disappointing b/c she down played my grandma's recovery as having probably happened if she hadn't changed her diet all around.  CCSVI is still not PROVEN, so you aren't going to get any doctor on the band wagon with you regarding that, but she did point out 2 universities doing studies, in Alabama and at Buffalo, NY, and said that if I was still feeling strongly, to get in a study, rather than go to someone w/out any background in the phenominon.

We also talked about Lyme disease.  She has treated patients with Lyme before, and said that even if I would turn out to have Lyme, I'd treat each separately, the ms and the Lyme.  The key thing was, regarding Lyme, that if I did get a false negative on my western blot test, I wouldn't be getting better taking the current ms drug I'm on (Tysabri).

She made me feel a lot better about being on the Tysabri, with it's PML risk, and said that I am doing the thing she'd have me do if I were a patient of her's with being on the study that's checking Tysabri patients once a year for JC Virus antibodies.  She also said I should be getting my vitamin D levels checked every year.  All in all, I'm confident in my ms specialist/ PhD/APRN and I'll continue seeing her.

On the way back, we got chicken feed from the elevator we moved away from... always liked their stuff better and our chickens always layed better with it.  THEN, panic, we remembered that we had to pick the old mare up from the surgery she'd had that morning!  Here's a current picture of the old girl - she's 23.

She's still skinny, but she's looking better and better all the time... here's what she looked like when she came down this winter:

The reason she's so skinny, is because she's missing a lot of her teeth - 5 have came out of her mouth since I met her 5 years ago... some while the vet floated her teeth!

She can't chew hat or grass, she just balls it up for the most part and it falls out of her mouth.  That's why she was so skinny, she'd been treated like my husband's parents had always treated her - round bale of hay and oats and corn if she needed them.  Now, she eats pelleted alfalfa and Netrena Safe Choice pellets because they dissolve in her mouth.  She was eating Senior feed, either Nutrena or Purina, but they have gotten unbelievably expensive!  Firecracker has been with my husband since she was about six weeks old, bought off her mother (who had sold and the buyer d/n want the foal) at an auction.  He's done all the training on her and has been about the only one to have ridden her, so she's kind of his baby.  She's been breaking out in an abscess about once every winter for the past we don't know how many years.  After Nate and I had gotten married, I'd taken her to my vet to find out why, and he said that she happened to have an abscessed tooth, and that that could possibly have been breaking out her jaw.  He removed that tooth, but that wasn't the cause of the jaw abscessing, b/c it came back about once a year after that.  Now that she's back with us, and being a little more closely watched, I got the vet down here working on why she'd been abscessing.  Bone sequestrum, a piece of dead bone that has become separated during the process of necrosis from normal/sound bone.  It is a complication (sequela) of osteomyelitis. At any rate, I'd taken her, with my Clue for his yearly dental float, the day before - by myself, with Cody.  Firecracker had been operated on sucessfully that morning, and we had to run down, nearly an hour in the opposite direction, to pick her up.

Whew, what a day, 7 month old in tow, MS appointment for me for a second opinion on my treatment, feed for chickens, and mare picked up from the veterinarian's after her surgery... and the funny thing is, it just seems like a normal day now, writing about it. lol


 

Ridng at night... and possibly out of the darkness

I needed a ride to night, I NEEDED to get away.  Between the girl's arguing, not wanting to do what I ask and not being able to do what she says she will do completely (stinks when you need to follow behind your kid to make sure they completed whatever it was they're helping with), and the demands of an infant, I needed out.  So, after Nate got home and we got Cody fed, we ate, and changed and put to the baby to bed, Nate headed out to work in the garage.  Cody's asleep, Jayda's at a ball game with our neighbor, so I headed out to the garage, tell Nate to keep an ear to the house for if Cody should wake up, grab my helmet and head out.

It's almost dark, I probably SHOULD catch Cherokee, who's the only one who's been messed with since February, but the thought blinked through my mind in a split second and I called Clue.  What a doll, he comes from the tree line a 100 feet from the gate (not quickly mind you, but he cam a moseying :-)).  I saddled again on my own, Yay, getting stronger all the time, soon maybe I'll use my rough out again, instead of my light synthetic saddle. lol  Nate worries, so he'd joined us by the time I was getting ready for the final cinch tightening and getting on, and 'helped', but I wouldn't have needed him.

As I rode out with Clue into the south field, I had to laugh to myself.  Last time I'd ridden alone in the dark, it was on Clue, half drunk from riding through Brookings and mooching beers at different houses and the unit volley ball game and rode through the SDSU Cow/Calf unit on the way back to the stable - in the PITCH dark!  He was such a great horse then, and still is now. :-)  He'd even walked through the cows that night, and out along the hwy with cars going by w/out even a flinch.  Same tonight,  He wasn't sure about the dark bushes, but stayed where I put him after I said that we were riding the fence line.  Round bales in the dark are a little scary when they catch the house lights, but not if he gets the signal to eat and he can have a bite of grass in front of them. lol

I'm glad I'd just told Jayda of when I'd had a horse rear up and land on my leg, back b4 HS started, b/c I was insistent on her passing through some fence posts b/c there was no wire on them... didn't even dawn on me then that she'd probably thought I was asking her to go through a fence.  I was going to leave the pasture tonight through where they must have had a gate at one time, but nothing there now, and Clue wasn't gonna have it, probably thought it was a fence, plus, the house lights were probably interrupting his vision too.  Okay, we'll go out where we came in at and go around and go back in here so the light's shining on it and not in your eyes.  Non issue then.  I love having an old 'friend' around, who can sit for months, and still do great when you get a whim.  I didn't push Clue to go through the gate area b/c I guess I've grown up now, and didn't want to make the same mistake twice (btw, the mare who reared up and landed on my leg, was my first concussion and she busted every bone in my right foot in some why/shape/ or form).

I'm not completely strong yet, b/c all I felt up to for untacking was getting the bridle off... or maybe I'm just lazy 'cause of course Nate was back hovering over me and when he asked if I wanted him to get the saddle, I said 'heck yeah'.  I turned Clue out myself though, and had a good cry over the state of things.  I mean, my gawd, how did I get here?!  I used to swing up on his 16hh back bare back with no problem, and now I need help saddling and use a mounting block with him... all I can, and should do is focus on what I can do, and have already 'lost' and gotten back again.  I tacked up on my own, got on and off with out any help (other than the mounting block, lol), and took off and put away the bridle on my own.  Ah yes, caught and turned out by myself.

I'm gonna say it, keeps milling through my mind so maybe if I say it it'll go away, but I have to wonder if I wouldn't have fallen so far back if I hadn't been 'spit at' for being a forward thinker and asking for a way to be sure that I could take a break on the many days I was working 15 hour days.  Probably just comes down to me, and not handling the rejection that came with getting diagnosed with the dammed ms.  Could be part of why I never got hired again after all the interviews, having my confidence in myself and what my abilities now were all blown apart.  ... But it could be, that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be. :-)

My life's all tore up...

...well, my house is anyway!

We got this place is September, knowing I'd have to use the power chair once the baby was born, or before, as the case turned out to be.  It's on slab, so one level, with some stairs to a big room up stairs.  Perfect... except the people before didn't need a chair, and the doors barely fit me through.  I'd put a picture of what the door frames looked like from me hitting them half the time from getting a bad angle into the rooms, but they're gone.

I found a place that assists to disabled/handicapped/whatever with making their home accessible.  They have contractors bid on the job that needs to be done, and, of course my husband has been doing this kind of work for pretty much all of his working career and knows that he can do the job better, and for less $ than any regular contractor since he wouldn't have the extra expense that comes with having employees.  SO, we enter into the lovely reality of 'the job will get done by their date, but in my time (weekends)', and our house gets disrupted for about 2 months.  But, when he's done, all the doors and the bathroom will be handicapped accessible.

Love having my house improved, but could do with out the process.  I should have gotten a picture of the hall covered with door pieces, tools and a shop vac.  Maybe when the new doors go in.  Right now, and probably for the rest of the week, we have no doors on the bed rooms or bathroom.  Thank God we have 2 bathrooms in this place and that we're able to make the other small bathroom work!

"Big Pharma Behaving Badly" and why I dislike the NMSS

Big Pharma Behaving Badly (And Making Me Want to Vomit)

Shared off Wheelchair Kamikaze.   Funny that my first neuro put me on Rebif right away, and that I reacted to it poorly and had more lesions. I don't trust any of them. Makes you wonder if CCSVI tests and treatment aren't covered under insurance b/c the insurance companies are paid off by the drug companies!  Now, I'm not a total conspiracy freak, but you have to wonder how much of this goes on when things like this break out.

Always and forever will hate the Nat'l MS Society's slogan 'MS stops people from moving.'!  And if my ms suddenly paralyzes me... I am blaming them for putting that idea into my head.  DEPRESSION is what CAN stop people from moving, and not work to combat their ms!!

I just shared my grandmother's story of being 'bed ridden, blind and incontinent', as my dad explains it,  back in the 60's.  She  (mainly her sister) found a regimen that helped her recover from her ms - before drugs that 'modified the disease', and I knew her as a grandma who, like many others, used a cane and sometimes a walker.  Recover, not get 'paralized' and die, RECOVER - before all the new 'disease modifying' treatments.  Her story can be found on scribd.com.

I, personally, can tell a major difference in my abilities from day to day, depending on what state of mind I'm in.  I just had a baby, and was pretty much confined to a chair during the last trimester and the first few months after he was born.  I started physical therapy and am already, 6 months later, back to where I was before the pregnancy, mobility wise... and am even getting to where I can move him around using a stroller and not only the chair - AND, I was discharged today and declared 'no longer home bound'.  MS CAN be combated if you learn and do what your body needs!  I know that when my job fired me for asking for accommodations to be able to stay healthy and productive working their BS schedule, depression nearly got the better of me.  Aside from telling patients they're 'doomed', the slogan feeds into the already negative misconceptions of MS that helped give reason for my job to dismiss me.  Though, I should add that I have thought of the possibility that the MS diagnosis was just a good reason for them to get rid of me, and that they didn't like having a free thinker who might challenge the status quo, or at least question it.

Having MS does NOT mean your body WILL stop moving, as the NMSS likes to claim.  I called and complained directly to the organization, and was told that 'MS stops people from moving.' just 'fits' with their 'Join the movement' campaign.  My PT who's been visiting me out here usually deals with the geriatric, rather than MS, but she has seen some MS patients over the years, and I went off on her today about the NMSS after she discharged me, while I printed Grandma's letter off for her, and she agrees that telling people their disease will immobilize them will only cause depression and most likely take away all reason to strive to improve. 

Off the NMSS home page:

The National MS Society is a collective of passionate individuals who want to do something about MS now—to move together toward a world free of multiple sclerosis. MS stops people from moving. We exist to make sure it doesn't.
We help each person address the challenges of living with MS through our 50-state network of chapters. The Society helps people affected by MS by funding cutting-edge research, driving change through advocacy, facilitating professional education, and providing programs and services that help people with MS and their families move their lives forward.

• We are moving research forward by relentlessly pursuing prevention, treatment and cure.
• We are moving to reach out and respond to individuals, families and communities living with multiple sclerosis.
• We are moving politicians and legislation to champion the needs of people with MS through activism, advocacy and influence.
• We are moving to mobilize the millions of people who want to do something about MS now.

How the heck does the society 'make sure MS doesn't stop people from moving'?!  All I've seen from them, is that they educate.  Which they do do well, but I have to wonder also if what they put out isn't just support of the 'Big Pharma' companies' prerogative.  Back when I was first diagnosed, I knew of Grandma's recovery and was(am) on a yahoo group of people with MS (MSers) who are very anti conventional meds and swear by diet and supplements.  I called the NMSS, asking about if there was any specific research into any of this, and if there wasn't, if they would find someone and fund them in finding scientific evidence of legitimate nutritional treatments for MS.  I was practically laughed at and told it'd 'never happen, there's no money in that line of thinking.'

And THAT is why I get a little 'prickly' when the Nat'l MS Society is mentioned.

Being a Mom

I'm a little late with Mother's Day, but I've been thinking how great, and sometimes awful motherhood is.  I got a forward for mother's day, that I got reminded of this morning: located at the end of this post...

This morning, and for about the last week, my 6 month old grabs my figures and proceeds to chew on them.  Poor guy's going to be pushing teeth through any day now, but he's really been handling it well.  This is my attempt at sketching what I picture the photo of us going to Cody's room this morning would look like if there'd been someone else here to snap one.  I used to draw all the time back in school (B.C. - before children! LOL) and you can tell I was able to get up and snap a pic of the chair... Cody and I, not so hot coming out of my imagination.  What had happened was this, I was carrying Cody on my lap (like usual) and had the bottle in my hand.  Cody bent over (I didn't get that captured in my art... oops, lol) and was chewing on my knuckle as I drove us down to his room.

My girl, however, is showing that she just entered the 'Tween Zone'.  And a frustrating kind of Twilight Zone it can be!  Lat week, she spent at least a portion of everyday either yelling at me and/or freaking out over something.  I think we've found the solution though, we'd already been increasing her chores and help with the animals, hoping that would help discipline her, but what seems to be doing the trick is having an hour later bed time.  Go figure?!  It had been at 8 pm since she was younger, b/c she'd freak out in the morning, etc. if she got less sleep.  When we moved her bed time up to 9 this weekend, b/c she's now 10, with the stipulation that any 'flak' and it goes back to 8, she's been an absolute charm.  Oh dear, it just struck me that Cody will (most likely) be in the 'terrible two' phase right when Jayda starts menstruating!  God help us.

Before I was a Mom, 
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom, 
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom, 
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom, 
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom, 
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body..
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom, 
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom

The letter that was published in Prevention Magazine

This is the best way I have found to share my grandma's letter about her recovery from ms.  Now, mind you, 'recovery' does not mean cured.  In talking to my parents, she would have problems and 'relapse' anytime she deviated from what is laid out in these pages. A little bit like, say, recovery from alcoholism.  Certain steps must be kept up to prevent relapse.

 http://www.scribd.com/collections/3006149/My-grandmother-s-MS

I plan to try a lot of her nutritional regimen.   I have already enacted taking 2000 IUs of D3 a day, and Calcium/magnesium.  I've been taking cranberry tabs for several years now to help advert UTIs as well.  I have not started back in a multi vitamin yet, after getting off the prenatal vitamin after I stopped breast feeding - procrastinating going through what Grandma laid out and what the toxic levels are and ordering one.

Where ms comes from and how to get over it

I don't know the answer to either of those things, but I do have some leads.  MS drives me crazy, and the doctors, and the drugs.  MS, 'Multiple Sclerosis'... literally 'Many Scars'.  What the heck?!  The doctor and the drug companies figure they can treat my 'scars'?  Whatever.  What I have learned in life is that scars can't be healed, they are the healing of damage that has occurred, I can look at my arms and hands and see that -  these now small scars are what is left of a run in with a barb wire fence a couple years ago (look at the lower left hand corner and a still red mark in my hand in the lower right).

So,  why don't I hear about them finding out WHY ms patient's brains and spinal cords have scars?  Because they don't know why.  My grandmother's recovery from the throws of ms prompted me to write about this today.  At the end of this, I am going to attach a letter she had written about her experience with ms and how she recovered from it.  Recovered you say, got back what she'd lost anyway.  When I knew her I would have never guessed she had ms, she was just another old woman with a walker, and my grandmother.  Dad told me she was bedridden, blind and incontinent in the '60s.  I know you can recover from ms, because I feel that that is what I have been doing with my PT, and I need to do more of the diet stuff that she outlined in her letter.

They THINK it's an auto immune disease, so the current 'main stream' (doctor recommended) treatments suppress the immune system... I liked this site that came up when I googled my question for explaining ms: http://neurology.ucsf.edu/msc/faq.htm

I also like About.com:

Causes of Multiple Sclerosis:

No one knows what causes multiple sclerosis (MS). Four main theories have emerged to attempt to explain MS. Each of these theories can explain a piece of the MS puzzle, but none explain everything. It is likely that the cause of MS is a complicated interaction of these four theories: the immune system, the environment, infectious diseases and genetics.

Though no one knows why, most researchers agree that multiple sclerosis (MS) is caused by the immune system attacking the body. Specifically, the immune system’s T-cells attack cells in the brain and spinal cord, damaging the outer sheath (myelin) of nerves. The damage impacts how well those nerves function – the source of MS symptoms and disability. The disease-modifying treatments work by using different mechanisms to prevent the body’s immune system from attacking the nervous system. 
Okay, how do they know it's the immune system attacking the nerves...?

Environmental:

People in certain regions and areas have a higher risk for MS than others. By studying people who move from one area to another, researchers have learned that individual risk changes based on location. They have concluded that some exposure in the environment increases the risk for MS.
MS occurs more in places farther from the equator. Some researchers to believe that vitamin D may be involved in MS. Vitamin D is produced by the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight. In regions far from the equator, the atmosphere filters out more of the sun’s rays which decreases vitamin D production in the body. 
Sure, I was born in SD and spent most of my life there and in MN...

Infection:

Viruses are known to cause damage similar to that seen in MS. Some researchers believe that infections may somehow trigger the immune system to attack nerve cells. Basically, the virus (or bacteria) that causes an initial infection “looks” like a nerve cell. The immune system develops T-cells to fight off the virus. Those T-cells remain in your body after the infection is gone and become confused when they “see” a nerve cell, mistaking it for an invader. The result is that your immune system attacks your nervous system. 
Possibly...

Genetic:

A person’s chances of developing MS increase if he or she has a relative with MS. Researchers believe that certain genetic combinations increase the likelihood of a person to develop MS. However the increase in risk is not high enough to call MS a “genetic disease.” Instead, it seems that genes are one factor, among many, that determine a person’s risk for MS. Your chances of developing MS are:

• 1 in 1000 if you have no relatives with MS
• 1 in 100 if you have a second-degree relative (grandparent, aunt, uncle, etc.) with MS
• 1 in 40 if you have a parent or sibling with MS
• 1 in 4 if your identical twin has MS 

Yep, my grandmother had ms.

Not found in a basic search is the veins and circulatory system being involved, or CCSVI.  CCVSI.org defines CCSVI as "“Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency,” a condition where people have obstructed blood flow in the veins that drain the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord). Research indicates that CCSVI is significantly correlated with multiple sclerosis."  A 2009 article in Nutrion & Life say that

Research is suggesting that blocked veins in the neck prevent blood from draining from the head triggering plaque formations that cause MS.

Multiple Sclerosis is a neurological, progressive disease where the insulating myelin sheaths that protect the brain and spinal cord are damaged, resulting in poor nerve conduction and messaging. Symptoms and disability vary significantly depending upon which parts of the brain and spinal cord are affected as well as the stage of the disease, but eventually sufferers develop cognitive as well as physical symptoms, including decreasing ability to walk, move and see. MS tends to strike young people more frequently than older, and women 2 to 3 times more frequently than men. MS has always been considered an auto-immune disease, where the body attacks itself, but why this happens has not been understood.
Well, Dr. Paolo Zamboni, a physician in Ferrara Italy, may have figured it out. His wife suffered from MS, and after treating her 4 years ago, she has not had another acute attack, and her MS symptoms are gone. Furthermore, he has treated a total of 118 MS patients since then, and 100% of them had dramatic improvements in their symptoms.
What Dr. Zamboni discovered was that all the MS patients that he examined via Doppler ultrasound had blockages in the veins in the neck that drain the brain or in the azygos vein in the thorax. When he looked at people that did not have MS, both healthy as well as those that suffered from neurological problems other than MS, none of them had vein blockages. When he used angioplasty to unblock the veins, right away after surgery his MS patients noticed differences in how they felt. Two years post surgery, 100% of those that did not have re-narrowing of the veins had no MS relapses. If there was a relapse, a re-narrowing of the veins was found. So it appears that narrowing veins are directly linked to the progression of the disease.
Veins are the pipes that return de-oxygenated blood to the lungs and heart. Veins are not pressurized by the heart pumping to keep them open like arteries are (arteries carry oxygenated blood to the brain and body), so veins will collapse with external pressure. If a major vein like the jugular vein in the neck is narrowed or closed and the blood cannot drain properly from the head, a back-flow problem can develop, where the venous blood is actually going the wrong way. So a situation develops where blood is being pumped into the head, but has trouble getting out, pressure builds in the veins inside the brain, forcing the blood into the gray matter, creating damage.
If venous drainage is poor, iron accumulates in the brain causing cells to die, inflammation, immune problems, and the plaque lesions known to be found in those with MS. Dr. Zamboni found in post mortem studies of MS patients that the plaque lesions in the brain all had a vein at its center. And interestingly enough, the plaque lesions developed on the opposite side to the normal flow direction, suggesting that the blood was actually flowing the wrong way.
It is hypothesised that the inability to drain blood causes inflammation, excess iron deposition in the brain causing free radicals which kill cells, damaging the blood-brain barrier, and causing plaque lesions possibly triggering the auto-immune response in MS. For this reason, if this hypothesis is correct, it is vital that MS patients get their veins screened and cleared as early as possible after their diagnosis, so that plaque damage can be minimized.
However, this is still a very new idea, and many physicians either have not heard about this theory, or are not yet convinced that poor brain drainage may be the trigger for MS, so patients that want this treatment are having difficulty finding physicians that will do it.

Full article: Are vein blockages the trigger for Multiple Sclerosis? | Trusted.MD Network http://trusted.md/blog/vreni_gurd/2009/12/06/are_vein_blockages_the_trigger_for_multiple_sclerosis#ixzz1LQBD4VTe
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Research they are doing, and have found a definite correlation, but the doctors, mine anyway, want definitive proof before they'll send people for the treatment - Liberation Treatment.  So, many people are going to the coast, namely CA and FL, to get tested and have the procedure, and paying out of pocket.  What I have seen on Face Book looks promising, but those are the ones who have done it and it has helped.  I've yet to see the statistics on how many the Liberation Treatment has relieved of their ms symptoms.

Stem cells have also been used,  but I do not know to what amount and sucess.  I'm definitely hearing less of them than I did a few years ago.

Now to grandma, and a test of my computer skills in trying to share the 10 pages that I scanned... I don't know how to easily link this, so I will just put the letter here... which I can't figure out either, so more learning to do on my part, and I will share my grandma's regimen for getting over ms at another time.

 

Another ride

Well, I got another ride in this weekend, my 8th since having Cody.  Coming 'back' this time after having a kid has been a lot harder, and slower than my first, 10 years ago.  I'd like to blame the ms, but I am coming to realize that the added time, and age, has a lot to do with it too.  I've been working as hard as I dare on my PT, which is hard when you don't know when your tank is going to be empty... like today, for example, doing some of my exercises AND organizing and going through clothes for my little man.  I'm definitely feeling it in my back!  But, I can tell it's helping and that I'm getting stronger.

Anyway, the ride.  It was a rather uneventful one and probably only an hour long, But I can say that the biggest moment came at the beginning when we were deciding if my instructor should go get my mounting block or not and I just stuck my foot in the stirrup.  Then she made sure it was secure and I got on w/out a push.  I just walked, working more on my horse's roundness and obedience, and letting my instructor figure out where I was, physically.  THEN, I got OFF the best I have since I started riding again!  Most dismounts have looked like 'controlled falling', as on friend who rode with me called it, or required someone pulling me off the horse.  This time, I grabbed the mane up fairly high on the neck and used that to lift myself up and out of the saddle so I could swing my leg over.  It worked!  And lowering myself to the ground went 'easy-peesy' as well.  I now know for certain that I can 'get back' what seemed to have been 'lost', and I plan to start working through riding exercises set up to strength and secure your seat.  I am grateful that if my job had to 'let me go', that they sent me through the instructor accreditation program first so that I was able to learn these exercises, designed for teaching beginner riding students.

This picture is not from Sunday, but is my first ride after Cody on January 10th.  Perhaps I'll remember to bring my camera more places now that I'm writing this. :-)

Of horses... and 'being rural'

I talked about hippotherapy already, but after reading a post on a horse group I am on, I realized I haven't talked about horses changing your life yet.  Anyway, a book was brought up, talking about the alternate reality of horse ownership:

Women are From Venus and so Are Their Horses

Overview

A Grown Man's Musings on the Opposite Sex in the Saddle

Description

MENNO KALMANN with illustrations by JEANNE KLOEPFER

A Great Gift Book

The world of horsemanship is teeming with women and girls who are totally devoted to their trusty steeds. Often, fathers or husbands are involved as well, dragged unwillingly and unknowingly into this alternate reality. One such man is the author of this book, whose life revolves entirely around his wife and her horses. He really doesn't feel connected to horses in any way; he doesn't speak the jargon, and he is locked in an unending struggle with stables, horse trailers, and arenas. Regular nocturnal rude awakenings have been his lot. His experiences include helping a mare give birth, calling the veterinarian any number of times, and of course, packing up and accompanying his wife to competitions long before daybreak.

I'm thinking I just may need to read this one.  Regardless,  I guess I never really thought of the horse world being an 'alternate reality', but that would have been because it WAS my reality. Ever since I was a little girl I gravitated towards the equine.  Grandpa always would recount the tale of a little girl, maybe 3, feeding a donkey at a historical park, with her arm in the animal's mouth up to her elbow.  He got me out and did I go running because the donkey tried to eat me?  No.  I went back to picking grass and feeding it. 

I grew up in town, the biggest city in South Dakota (a little over 100,000), for what ever that is worth.  Always preferred the country though, spending as much time as I could get, over in Minnesota at the farm my grandpa lived and worked on.  Getting to ride along in the combine or grain truck around harvest time was a highlight of my year.  Then, when I was about eight, I met the neighbor kids, and their horses.  Thus started my journey into this 'alternate reality' that is the horse world.  One of the poems that defines me yet is;
“The daughter who won’t lift a finger in the house is the same child who cycles madly off in the pouring rain to spend all morning mucking out a stable.” ~ Samantha Armstrong 

Most everything was experiential learning, and luckily, I survived unscathed.   Once I got older, about 13, I finally got my parents talked into letting me take riding lessons.  I was going to learn to jump, and go on to competing in the Olympics.  And so I did... learn about jumping.  I started showing, and pushing harder for my own horse.  'Yes', once my parents were sure I could and would take care of it.

I helped pay for my lessons by cleaning stalls at the stable where I took them.  Finally, at 16, my parents conceded and allowed my grandmother to buy me my first horse.  My parents and I did the 'shopping', and really, none of us knew a thing about buying a horse.  Dad steered me away from a couple that I'm very glad he did, thinking back to my trial rides.  Mom came with when we looked at Clue - a 16 hand, green broke three year old quarter horse... I fell in love at first sight, and I doubt much would have deterred me.  The deal was, I had to do my best for paying all the expenses, as well as doing all the care.  Most kids rejoice at a snow day off from school, I did too, but not because I would spend the day lounging about and watching TV.  No, I knew the stable manager would be calling me up and would come pick me up on her way to the barn and I'd be spending my day helping feed and water all the horses in the barn and cleaning stalls.  Those really where great days, just the barn manager and myself breaking ice in buckets, getting feed to the horses and letting each horse have a run in the arena while their stall got cleaned.  It was quiet and very systematic, those days were the simplest and smoothest, just because there were never any interruptions or things, like school, that had to be rushed off for.

We had many adventures early on.  Leaving for shows before the sun was up, him dragging me across the dewy grass because he didn't want to load, Clue thinking a canter cue meant to throw a buck in for good measure, getting a fourth in an english equitation class despite the bucking.  We did a lot of trail riding, and shows, both english and western, and some jumping.  I knew nothing of how to properly teach a horse to jump... really, only barely knew myself looking at my position in the pictures.  Luckily for both of us, Clue got diagnosed with DJD (Degenerative Joint Disease - arthritis) only a little bit after I got him and we stopped pushing the jumping. 

We started learning dressage... and Clue quit bucking - at least when working on dressage things.  Flat classes (pleasure and equitation shows), group trail rides and team penning were still game... oh, and most certainly if we (I) thought we should try and run games (barrels, poles, etc.).  I still have Clue, and I'm not entirely sure why, other than sentimental reasons and that I know him so well, or at least think I do.  He really is a good horse, he just has never really been able to become the all-star all around horse I was hoping for.  Rather, I conformed and changed my riding endeavors to match him, and now he fits me pretty well.  Luckily for both of us, after my ms diagnosis, and having left him at my mother-in-law's for two years while we got moved and started down in Nebraska, I took an interest in actually learning to communicate with horses and not just 'do' things with them.  I figured our first ride after so much time off would be a major rodeo, so, for the first time in my life, I employed a trainer to work the buck out of him.  She did a lot of ground work and natural horsemanship, and he didn't buck!  Now, mildly disabled, I have started on another leg of my journey with horses.

I have no idea why someone would think that horses are an alternative lifestyle.  Everyone has something they spend every extra dime on, and even choose to go without certain things for, don't they?  Many (non horse) people believe that if you have horses you must have a lot of money.  Yes, they are expensive, but no more so than, say, owning a big dog and driving a nicer car.  I don't remember the last time I went and bought myself new clothes, other than to replace something that had worn out or didn't fit anymore.  What's wrong with going places with mud and manure on your clothes and shoes?  Hay in your hair?  Horse snot on your shoulder?  Waking up an hour earlier than you'd need to just so you can get chores done?  Isn't a whole lot different than baby food on your shirt.  Yeah, want to talk about expensive 'pets'... ever look into how much it costs to raise a child?! lol  If Nate and I didn't have our horses, we might have a few more 'toys', and maybe my husband would go hunting as much as he'd like to, but we wouldn't be as happy.  The horses bring a peace of mind, and balance to our lives, for myself anyway.

Oh, 'being rural'.  I may cover this another day, but I can tell you I am far happier 'out in the sticks' looking at our neighbor's field, my horses in the pasture, and listening to the rooster crowing than I ever have been in town... except maybe in college when I lived next to the Cow/Calf Unit at school and could see the cows every day. 

If your life get's turned upside down, turn it inside out

The last few months of my pregnancy and following my son's birth, I would have been lost without my power chair.  I got one of the new(er? - new to me anyway) strollers with the car seat that hooks into it, thinking that after Cody was born I would move him around the house with that to avoid falling with him.  That didn't happen.  The power chair made everything easier, and I didn't hurt so much and didn't have to worry so much about getting my new baby into a stroller and not falling standing there.  It's been 5 months now since Cody was born.  I have been using my walker more and even 'free walking' recently during the times when he is sleeping, but always using the chair when working with him.  The whole time though, I've had the old saying 'use it or loose it' sitting in the back of my mind, wondering if I was still using my legs, etc. enough not to loose them.

Yesterday was a breaking point for me, of sorts.  Ultimately, I decided that I had been catering to my limitations, with trying to do things 'normally' only now and then.  I'm now going to 'play normal' by trying to do as much as I can the way I used to before the ms and before my body went completely haywire with the pregnancy added in, and only do things in a 'disabled' fashion as my body says 'enough' and I know I need to be doing less.   For instance, I usually sit in my chair to mix Cody's bottles and today I've mixed all of them while standing, after having even walked from his room with them after feeding him.  Talk about feeling completely out of shape!  Yesterday, I actually moved Cody around like I'd originally planned with the stroller,  stood up while I changed him, and fed him on the couch rather than my chair.  Probably will only be a once a day thing until I get stronger, but worrisome PTs be damned, Cody's bigger and using that chair all the time is going to bury me.

I love how the last physical therapist I saw before Cody was born put it, 'The pregancy has compromised your ms.'  Isn't that the truth.  It's normal for women to experience changes in their pelvis when they are pregnant and after they have the baby, but add in spastic muscles trying to pull everything every which way, and you end up with a sacral joint that locks and/or pops and clicks.  Now, with having fallen back to the chair to be able to care for Cody (and contribute at least SOME to the house work, etc.), I have really slid down hill and gotten worse much quicker than I was guessing I would following the pregnancy.  The PTs have helped me greatly, but I have to wonder if sometimes they get overly cautious.

Today is my first day trying to do everything on my feet.  So far, I've only used my chair about half the time and boy am I tired!  Is amazing how many muscles you use just for standing and walking and how quickly, at least if you have ms, you get out of shape when you stop using them on a regular basis.  I know that if I keep picking at what the ms keeps trying to knock out, I may just end up at a neutral point where I don't get worse... and I can keep up the hope that I may even end up better.

Actually, in reading through this trying to correct my clumsy finger typos, I just realized how it really isn't amazing how out of shape you get if you stop walking, etc. as much as you did, and it isn't just because I have ms.  When I was 14 I broke my foot and wore a cast for 6 - 8 weeks - WEEKS, and my calf muscles where disgustingly atrophied to the point my lower leg made me think of pictures I'd seen of POWs and people in the holocaust concentration camps who had been starved.  So, why would I think my whole body would be any different if I had quit using it to the extent I had been.

All we can do each day is try our best and keep working to make ourselves and our situation better.

Loved

I'll start out why it's so strange for me to feel loved by a good number of people.  Funny thing, it really only comes down to a handful of people that got me feeling this way; suspicious, unworthy of others caring for me and rejected.  I moved to an entirely new state, and therefore a new 'culture' in a lot of ways, for a job.  The people at the job were very helpful and made me feel like they were friendly at least, if not cared about me, and even helped me some with the two, mainly one, person who had been filling in for the position and knowledge I was told was the main reason I was hired and, I believe, was feeling rejected themselves.  Anyway, to sum up what is making my back ache just thinking about, I got my diagnosis of ms and went from a very outgoing, active person to someone who was unsure of what my body would do and cautious enough to try for accommodations so I knew I could manage my body and not let anything slip in my job.  I was moved to a 'temporary part time position' (fired)... with my boss ultimately saying 'ms didn't fit the image'.  Then, that summer afterwards, I ran into a couple people who didn't understand me doing the same things and having 'limitations' (like horse show judges, I mean WHY would someone who should be in a therapeutic riding situation be trying to SHOW?!).

Why I was feeling so loved the other night:  I've made some very supportive friends who have been there for me this whole time (including at the before mentioned show....), and a few more have been showing their support more recently, but it really hit home on Wednesday.  I, naturally, have not been able to get out and ride very much since having Cody, and wasn't riding a lot before hand, what with being pregnant and all.  Needless to say, I am horribly out of shape and even out of practice for doing much (you wouldn't think it'd matter... but apparently it does!).  I had put a call out letting the people I was going to ride with know I was going to need help, since I hate the idea of just 'expecting' people to take care of me, lol, thinking back to me as a child... my mantra was, "I can do it myself".  Well, one of my longest 'trusted people' was going to be at the ride, and I was comforted by the fact I would only be 'troubling' one person.  She had an amazing opportunity come up, and, as I probably would have, took it.  Well, I knew some at the ride had offered their support before, so despite some worry on my husband's part, I went anyway... praying for God's help on the way to the state park.  He gave it, through all the wonderful people of the group I've been riding with and am friends with online.  Immediately, the leader of the group came over and asked it I needed help.  Now, I have proven I can saddle with my dressage saddle on my own, but knew I'd be more secure in my western saddle.  So, I timidly asked if she would saddle for me.  She did!  And her and another friend helped me with all of it - bushing, saddling and getting stuff out of the trailer.  So I then went and ate, since we were riding out soon.  Then I go to get on my horse.  Me being me, I don't disturb anyone and call people over, because 'I can do it myself'.  Yeah, well I'd sent the horse I'd brought with off to a trainer... ultimately like having them go learn a different language and you not speaking it.  Anyway, he didn't like my using his head for my walking aid, like I'd been doing the last several years, and pulled back.  I landed on my butt, disturbed people anyway because all those near came over, and everything just washed over me and I had tears rolling down my face.  (also a major dislike of mine, though unfortunately, I am getting more used to it because it also appears to go with the ms)  I got some assistance back up, we joked, I started laughing at the situation and everyone reassured me they were amazed by my not letting the ms get me down... and really, hadn't I JUST had a baby not that long ago.  So we rode.  Almost an hour into the ride, I know I'm getting tired and call it quits.  Had another friend, actually a couple, offer to go back to the trailer with me and help - I said I just needed one person to change their ride and help and the one friend and I headed back.  Goodness, I'd been having some trouble with my dismount, but after some active riding, it was NOT going to happen.  Ended up having to have her push my leg up over the cantle, but I finally got on the ground, safely.  THEN, she untacked my horse for me.

I don't know why I'm so amazed by the show of support and acceptance of my limitations, but I am.  Maybe it was this added on to the assistance I got from my 'show friend's husband when I went to the show last weekend without my husband (who is usually my 'stable boy', as he likes to call helping me).  Maybe it's from those early experiences of my ms either being ignored of rejected.  Maybe it was God.  What ever the reason, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of being loved and cared for as I started my drive home.  It's hard for me, because I know it is impossible for me to pay the kindnesses back completely... and I'm left here wondering how long I have lived feeling that I can't let people be more helpful to me than I can be for them.  I've often wondered what God's purpose for allowing me to get ms is, perhaps that is one of the reasons - to teach me it does not matter how much work I can do for others, or money I can give them, that I am valuable and loved just for being me.  And God HASN'T allowed me to loose everything, and I can still be useful... just not in the ways I used to be.

Hippotherapy

By definition, according to http://www.brighthub.com/health/alternative-medicine/articles/16082.aspx, "Hippotherapy is a physical, occupational, or speech and language therapy treatment method that is based on the movement of a horse. The patient is made to ride a horse and is monitored by the therapist. It is generally used to treat the neurological disorders that accompany multiple sclerosis.", among many other disorders.

I have been saying that my riding helps me since I first started having symptoms, and yesterday was no exception.  Actually, I've been saying I was better on four legs then I was on my own two for MANY years.  Anyway, I've been doing PT in my home for a while now (3.5 weeks), trying to get strong and steady enough that I felt safe taking Cody out with me to appointments, etc. on my own.  It has been helping, but apparently, my three and a half hours sitting and riding my 'therapy horse', Cherokee, Sunday tipped the scales.  I did more yesterday than I have been doing, and then I had energy, etc. to do.  Did some cleaning - standing, not staying in the power chair!  I mostly just walked around Sunday, but did get in a little trotting and cantering.  I also threw my leg over the saddle horn a few times, side saddle style, which got easier each time I did it.  That's why I refer to Cherokee as my 'therapy horse', because he's pretty rock solid on not doing anything 'stupid' and actually served AS a therapy horse for a summer. 

I must have been a little more tired than I thought, lol, because I didn't think what I wrote above was making sense, so I just saved to and am finishing the page today.  It wasn't too bad, but did need a few adjustments to make the sentences flow a little better. :-)

Back to hippotherapy;  two years ago, pre - having my baby,  I was back to cantering already.  Whereas riding in general is helpful, Nate noticed a definite difference/improvement in my own gait after I'd cantered a little.  I am now on the search for either what research has already been done, or someone willing to do research on how the different gaits of a horse affect the body and the nervous system.  I'll keep the blog posted on anything I find out.














.

Why must we try to pack as much as possible into weekends?

Really, it was a great weekend... but I will fully admit to crying at one point near the end of the daylight (obviously, the day is not yet over for me at a little b411 pm here... but I'll finish on Mon.).  I'll just go through each day;

Friday: Wasn't too bad,  It started out like every other day, plus a visit from our friendly extension agent to get some advise on our 'new' pasture land, and how to manage our horses on about the same # of acres... 4.5 (we have the pony, lol).  Jayda's friend stayed with us for the weekend, so she got off the bus with her.  I sent them to play after their snack, and then managed the job Nate had given them of cleaning up the rest of the shingles the wind had spread when he re shingled the other weekend.  Not a problem, and the girls where happy when he got home and paid them for the great job they did.  Movie.  Not TOO late getting to bed for the kids, but I remembered, at about 10:30) that we should do some baking for the sale the next day.  Late night for Nate and I.

Saturday: Slept in a bit, but got up in time for breakfast and chores before heading to Beatrice for the 4H bake sale.  Sat and sold baked goods with the 2 leaders for about 4 hours, with the kids periodically coming by the table.  TSC when they have chicks and a dog rescue in is so much fun! lol  Finished the sale, and then walked around the store for grain and salt licks and answer Jayda's plees for things.  Now, remember I'm mostly in the power chair during the week days so I can take care of the baby, so now I'm using my cane so I don't loose ALL my muscle, so this is a marathon for me.  Home a little before 4, and have a pretty relaxed night.

Sunday:  Up and make sure everyone gets breakfast, and then take the friend back and Jayda and I head to church, still using just my cane.  Been wanting to ride with friends forever, and around the new place, so combined both.  New chicken and rabbit 4H leader we'd sold things with Saturday came out to my place and we rode down to the rec area a mile south of us.  I was really hoping to explore the rec area, but we pretty much made it down there and around enough to realize the first entrance wasn't the one you wanted to go to if you wanted to explore.  I was getting tired, so we decided to head back.  STILL can't get used to being the one who calls it quits before everyone else!  Got back and my body said done.  Luckily I'd grabbed the shorter horse and could get my foot onto the mounting block enough that I just kinda slid off. lol  Talked with the PT this morning about what muscles are out of shape so bad that I have so much trouble dismounting, and got new exercises.

It's a shame we have to pack so much into a weekend to get it all done.  Still doesn't seem like it should have been that much to completely exhaust me like it did.  Hate too how I can tell when I've over done it because I get emotional. lol. 

The cause of incontinence in ms?

Something that no one wants to talk about, or even mention, but I think I may be learning ways to curb it some, so thought I should share.  I've not suffered full blown urinary incontinence, as of yet, which research has shown magnesium hydroxide to help.  But I have had the other type.... bleck, and so did my grandmother who had ms, which I'm glad we found her record of what she did with her ms.  She said magnesium helped her with her incontinence as well.  Anyway, the other episodes I had of it were 'loose' and due to bladder infections - the only sign I may have an infection too, btw.  But I've had a couple that where just my sphincter not holding, not too big an issue.  After reading Grandma's notes, I realized I'd forgotten my magnesium pill the night before these episodes.  Well, just all the more reason to take my supplements I guess!

European American

The first time I heard of someone refer to themselves as that I thought they were crazy.  But are they?  I just filled out a poll and it listed, under 'which racial group do you most closely identify yourself with'; white, black/African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, or other.  Why is it 'just' White, when it's not 'just' Black, Red or Yellow?  Silly thing to contemplate, I know, but when one part of my family was here during the revolution, and the other part has been here 3 generations, I don't understand why they list White as a race, and break up the other 'colors'.  Just pondering....

Not in the box

Or at least I must be out of the box, b/c I sure as heck don't fit in anyone else's box.  I love how I heard once of how ms affects a person, I'm 'just aging prematurely'.  Yeah, okay, I can see that... so what, am I an 80 year old running around (well trying to anyway, lol) in a 30 year old's body?  I used to do about everything with horses out there; jumping, chasing cattle and harnessing and driving drafts... but now I don't hardly dare go above a walk.  Hopefully I can get that turned around this summer though.  I'd gotten up to cantering b4 getting pregnant, so I know what and how to do it, now with the baby, it's just a matter of if I'll be able to get out enough to start my in saddle exercise program.  Another thing that doesn't make sense from my vent yesterday... why would they send me to a certification class is they already had me in my temporary part time position.  Oh well, it's given me the tools to help myself, and contribute more to kids learning how to ride, when the opportunity presents itself. 

Being a mother puts you out of a 'normal' box anyway, but then to be a mother with limitations, hmph.  So, since my walking isn't so hot, I 'drive' my baby boy around using a power chair.  So far, with his mattress on the highest level, I can still get him in and out of his crib alright.  But, we are looking at putting hinges on the crib side somewhere so I won't have to try and stand the baby gets older, and bigger.
http://www.disabledparents.net/crib.html

Can you go out and buy one of those, not that I've found.  Good thing my husband is a carpenter!  Now to deside if we want to copy the one above, or make a side that fold down... which my PT thought the baby could crawl out on....  Hmm.... right, we'll see.  My oldest is 9, and the baby's less than 6 months old right now, talk about a learning curve!  I've found I've forgotten about all that I learned with the first, if I ever did truly 'learn' anything.  Wow have things changed, namely the car seats!  I need to get myself strong enough to be able to put the giant stroller the car seat hooks into, in the trunk, and then I can take the little guy out into the world and stop having PT in my home, which is strange, b/c the usually work with the elderly and I think they don't quite know what to do with a younger momma... though I think they enjoy seeing the baby when they come out.

Fine for now... mind's racing with 'in the future's, which reminds me, I wonder if we have room for a piano and if I can still play with my 'fuzzy' fingers...?