In My Spare Time...And I've Been Meaning To...

So, I've had some MAJOR spare time on my hands these past few days as I "take it easy", per doctor's orders, and try to LET the Solumedrol take affect WITHOUT spinning wildly into that steroid mania (for which I am famous!).

Saint EB and I started our own, private book club (of two) a week or so ago right after I became filled with cabin fever and decided to find something to read. I have had the book in the pix on my shelf not long after it was published in 1998...and not because the EVIL OPRAH recommended it either! I bought it after reading Wally Lamb's FIRST novel, "She's Come Undone". He's an excellent writer at the very least of compliments.

I DID start the novel in 1998, but put it down after I realized it was about Schizophrenia, twins, domestic/family violence, family dysfunction through the generations, and riddled with physiological references. I WORK in the psychiatric field after all...I generally get enough of this topic on a daily basis! But, it was bothering me that I paid good money for a most likely good read and had not picked the book back up in 9 years. So, whether out of pure and simple penny-pinching behavior, or being "drawn" to it by some cosmic force greater than myself, I grabbed it off the shelf and started reading again...AND told Saint EB about it.

Saint EB IS competitive! She ran out and bought the book (rather than waiting for my gifting of it to her) and began pouring through the pages...she, unlike me, is an avid reader, educated, and intelligent! LOL I am slow to comprehend and often reread pages before I realized I've already scanned the page of text (I HAVE BRAIN LESIONS! Give me a break...). So, of course, she has already finished the book and I remain with about a 100 pages left to read, which I hope to complete tonight...we CAN only discuss the subject up to my point of reference, so we're both antsy for me to git 'er done.

I read most of yesterday as I was lying about, face flushed and hot from steroid overload, and stomach ravenous for what I call "pregnancy food"...pickles, ice cream, sour kraut, apples, candy...actually just about anything left edible in my frig!

Today I have managed to get juiced up again with SolyMed #2, go out for brunch with Saint EB, drive to a few condo open house places (Saint EB is "shopping"), return home to catch the remainder of the Seahawks vs. Bengals football game, AND water my outside plants. This, of course, was ALL done to avoid any type of cleaning, paying bills, or sorting through the stacks of papers in my office! I'm no dummy...LOL

I head in for two very early dayshifts at work on Monday and Tuesday (why God, why?!?) AND get my final dose of SolyMed at 4:00PM tomorrow...then, it's off to the land of precarious footing with oral Prednisone...no need to discuss the possible pitfalls that lay waiting on THAT road. Been there, done that, here on CHEESE before!

And I've been meaning to mention two websites I've recently become aware of, but have not taken the time to do so (at least I don't THINK I have...but again, I HAVE BRAIN LESIONS! Give me a break if I already did...).

The first is a website called "Patients Like Me" at http://www.patientslikeme.com/ . I received an email from one of the website administrators several weeks ago, bidding me to check it out, and I did. It originally grew from the aspirations (I believe) of a couple of brother's who's sibling had ALS. They were trying to create a community for ALS patients as well as a resource for ALS patients to track their symptoms, treatments, etc. They have expanded the site to include Multiple Sclerosis patients as well. I have loaded a bit of my medical history onto the site under BRAINCHEESE and have been "half-arsed" keeping it up. It's a nice site, but a bit cumbersome for my liking...especially when I have a MedicAlert zip drive key/program that already does everything the website does for me and more (you, TOO, can have this high-tech and overly priced computer data storage key by joining MedicAlert for a yearly fee, then paying around $54.00 more for the data key! But hey, you DO get a piece of that fine jewelry they sell to wear around your wrist or neck, alerting unsuspecting police, fire, and rescue you are NOT drunk...you just have MS! BUT...the Patients Like Me site IS free...).

The second site I have been tracking is a blog written by Sean Spence, who has MS, AND is riding a 1500 mile trek right now to New York City on his bicycle and documenting his trip as he goes...he ALSO sent me an email alerting me to his blog. And since the dude HAS MS and is accomplishing this great feat, I thought he was deserving of a mention here on CHEESE. His blog address is: http://www.missouritomanhattan.com/ . Seems like a motivate fellow, raising awareness of Multiple Sclerosis as he goes!

I know I mentioned only two sites I FORGOT to mention...this third site is one I've ALREADY mentioned but, since my mind wonders, I decided to plug it again because Sean's ride just reminded me of it...and THIS blog entry brought me to tears. It's the boys riding the Bike The US For MS ride through the northern United States...I really LOVE these guys AND their humor and inspiration (and it seems the September theme has been cycling, so I'll give them a mention again).

Off to read now...and avoid ANYTHING remotely resembling cleaning/work/paying bills...because I'm "resting"...yeah, that's the ticket...LOL