The Goose That Layed The Not-So-Golden Egg...

Sometimes I forget how tall I am...until gravity reminds me. 5 1/2 feet up in the air (major exaggeration...I'm barely 5'5" with springs in my shoes) seems like a long way down to the ground when falling...fortunately, I had a door frame that abruptly caught my HEAD in my fall today. And, perhaps it is the sustained HEAD INJURY that leads me to believe this was a *fortunate* thing?!?

Yeah. It was about time I had something semi-entertaining to report here on the ol' blog, eh? Of course, the fact my forehead looks like a goose squatted on it may not SEEM all that entertaining to most people...but alas...it is to me. LOL

OK. So, here's my story and I'm sticking to it...hehe...if BRAINCHEESE really IS my name...

Let me first preface this story with the fact I have been off all DMD medications since December 5th AND I've been feeling better than I have in a long, long while. I've awakened each day (after wiping the drool from the corner of my mouth) saying, "So, THIS is what my MS feels like unmedicated...hmmm." *Feeling better* certainly has NOT been without MS symptoms, but the symptoms I HAVE been having are minor and manageable.

I've also been working an unusual pattern of hours over the past couple of weeks, which I attribute to an increase in any symptomology I have at baseline. Whenever I have to work outside of my normal evening rhythm, my sleep (or lack thereof, aka, INSOMNIA) becomes highly disturbed. This only creates more physical/mental fatigue, which exacerbates my baseline symptoms...in other words, I am physically tired, mentally more *cloudy*, pain levels increase, spasticity in my legs gets tighter, and weakness in my left side becomes more pronounced. Whatever. Manageable is the key word here.

This week finally ended my stretch of peculiar hours (any work days I spend where MOST of the time is in daylight hours is "peculiar"...LOL), but with a bit of a bang. I slept only a couple of hours (seemed like minutes, but what do I know?!?) and had to pry myself out of bed at Dawn's Crack again this morning for a bright-and-bushy-tailed staff meeting. I noticed yesterday that my vision was becoming a bit *cloudy* (literally...not like my mentality/thinking!), but in my constant state of sustainable denial, I decided it IS time for my yearly eye exam and perhaps the progressive bifocals were needing a "fix" (shut up, youngin's! It WILL happen to you, too, one day...revenge). I also had been noticing my pain waking me more frequently in the night and a return of *log legs* was setting in upon rising up to walk (the symptom that taught me early on to STRETCH my legs before attempting ambulation, lest I perform a not-so-pretty Swan Dive into my walls). So, OK...I may have been swimming in the De Nile River for a week. Again...whatever.

Today's latest weirdness (which I cannot yet solely attribute to Multiple Sclerosis and continue my *swim*) hit me with a blast of dizziness after I returned home from my meeting...most unexpectedly. To the tune of, "The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall"!

I was futzing around doing something meaningful in my hallway (because EVERYTHING I do must be meaningful...which translates to "I have no idea what I was doing at the time") when the blast of dizziness hit me and my world did that spinning thing it does sometimes to MSers. If you've never had dizziness or vertigo, I pray you never do...but for those of us who get the *spins*, you KNOW what I'm talking about. This particular blast was a very sudden onset with no warning however, leaving me no time to claim my couch, turn on Oprah (or Dr. Phil or Judge Judy or...), and eat bonbons in my typical MS fashion.

I remember thinking, "Oops!", which is a highly intelligent thing to think. It's right up there with, "Oh, s#!+!"...neither thought does much to save me from the inevitable fall (but one is a more acceptable excited utterance than the other). And the next thing I remember thinking was, "Oops, oh s#!+, that effing hurt!" My door frame had managed to move itself right into my flight pattern, catching my forehead on the jam, and breaking my fall. Oh, and also nearly BREAKING MY NECK, too...but I'm still thankful for it. LOL Gawd knows hitting my head on my padded carpet might have left a nasty rug burn (without head injury) versus a big, ol' goose egg...and my story wouldn't be NEARLY as semi-entertaining.

I managed to pop up like a rock star (Keith Richard's style...ancient, old, and probably dead, but no one has checked on him), assess my new head injury, decide there was no permanent *drain bamage* or suturing required, and STILL made my way to my couch in time for Oprah. Oh, and I also did the one thing anyone with a head injury is never supposed to do right after sustaining a blow to the head...I took a nap. So, there.

The ice pack covering my egg head is now starting to get warm, Oprah is long since over, and I'm nauseated on bonbons...guess it's time to go to bed and see what surprises await me tomorrow. If I'm really lucky, maybe I'll get struck by lightening and live to write about it here on CHEESE! How's THAT for some planned semi-entertainment?!?

And, I'll let you know if this egg on my noggin' ever hatches...