Wednesday, July 29, 2009

My story and welcome to it!

Where to begin? Well, perhaps first up is why am I jumping on the bandwagon and joining the blogging world? I guess the best reason that I can give is that I like to write and I like to have a voice. I also would like to be able to use this as an outlet to reach my family and friends, to share a part of my world. So, I'll start at the beginning....
For those of you who don't know me, I have been married to my best friend (Jim) for the last 28 years. Together, we share two children-Michelle is 27 and the mother to our only granddaughter Bella, and Tim is 23. All three of them are currently living with us in a home that we share with our two dogs, Roxie and Chester. I have a large family that is diverse and somewhat difficult to keep track of, but I'll do my best to give you the short version. My mom (Judy)and dad (Lou) were married, had me and my 2 sisters and divorced. Mom found love and married again when I was young-7 I think. "Dad" (Pete) had 3 kids from his first marriage and together they have one daughter, who was born 2 days after my 10th birthday. My father was remarried (Doris) that same year to a woman who had 5 children and they together they decided that 'Eight is Enough'. 34 years later, my Father's wife passed away rather suddenly and a year later he was introduced to the woman who would become his third wife, Marlena. Let me just say that I don't have any hard feeling regarding my parent's divorce. Their marriage was not meant to be and both are happier people by not being married to one another. I never considered myself to be from a 'broken home', my home was more 'normal' than many and I never doubted my parents' love for me. 'Nuff said.
Onward. Three years ago I was diagnossed with an adult onset form of Muscular Dystrophy, DMD 2. The road to a diagnosis was long, but I will give you the highlights. I always knew something was not quite right and often told my doctors that I felt like my limbs didn't always get the messages from my brain. I was usually dismissed and just began to think that I just nuts. I had been having symptoms (though I didn't know that's what they were yet) since my late teens, early 20's. Then one morning I woke up and had a 'cramping' in my shoulder. I thought that I had slept on it badly but when I didn't go away after a few days, I saw my doctor. Without an examination, I was dismissed as being under stress even after telling the dr. that I wasn't under any undue stress, she said to call if I didn't feel better in 3-4 weeks and she would then refer me to a neurologist. Since my insurance didn't require a referral, I scheduled an appointment with a neurologist on my own. After weeks of tests that all came back negative, my dr. decided to do an Electromyography (EMG), which is a nerve conduction study. The results showed something was amiss, but he didn't know what.
If you are still with me, I'll sign off for now and post the rest of the story later.
Karen

1 comment:

  1. I don't know how to post this, so I am writing as "Anonymous"! But I want to say that I am really glad you're writing a blog. You really DO need a voice, a place to think, and,I hope,a place to laugh. My little grandson who is two cannot say "Grandma" yet. So he points to me and says "I want THAT"! So I am now officially "THAT" in my family. That's good for a chuckle, isn't it? You and Terry and I must do the Ruby Tuesday thing again soon!Love you.

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