Friday, October 16, 2009

What happened to Fall?

It seems like just yesterday I was enjoying the beautiful fall weather that we have been enjoying.  Oh yeah, it was!  Okay not yesterday but surely last weekend.  Almost overnight the weather has changed and it is beginning to feel more like winter than fall.  This morning the thermometerr read 38!  It has been raining since yesterday, today is a miserable, gloomy day and the forecast is calling for rain all weekend.  I guess I can say good bye to the brightly colored leaves of fall. 
More importantly to me, anyway  is the efffect that this type of weather has on me and my functionality.  I can tell you this, it isn't prettty!  My hands and feet swell up, my grip becomes increasingly difficult to open-the myotonia really rears its ugly head.  Yesterday I experienced another new symptom or effect of this disease.  I was at work and during a conversation  with a co-worker the muscles in my neck & throat, including my larynx and trachea tightened up to the point that I was temporarily unable to speak. Can you imagine?  Me!  Unable to speak!  After a momentary panic attack, everything relaxed and I was able to regain my control.  It only lasted seconds really, but it sure felt like longer.  Swallowing has also become a bit more diffiicult.  Perhaps it will  help me to loose weight-one can only hope!  Overall, moving in general has become more difficult.  I sometims walk like a 90 year old woman.  Like I said, it isn't pretty-but it's me! 


(Remember Georgette from Oliver & Company?)

So that is my current tale of woe.  Overall, it doesn't change the way I live much.  Sometimes I do opt out of family activities, I might take the elevator at work as opposed to the stairs, and I might take advantage of the handicaped parking spaces when running (or waking in my case) errands.  I do have a Handicaped Parking tag for my car, but I don't always use it.  Which brings up a good point, just because you can't see  a peersons' handicap doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.  To the outside, I may look like just another middle aged woman, I don't use a cane, I'm not in a wheelchair and my disability isn't always aparant.  I have had my share of dirty looks and snide comments about parking in the marked spots and quite frankly it is not necessary. Be compassionate, be caring, be open minded, be kind.  Kindness maters.   Often we are too concerned with our own lives and our own problems to take notice of others' or to be quick to judge.  I know  that I am guilty of that at times.  I try not to be, but it happens.  But I am also helpful and I try to be kind not just to my family and friends but to strangers as well.  So, I challenge you all to do something nice, something unexpected for another person this week.  I will.  Tell me what you did and how that person reacted, I'd love to know.  It doesn't have to be a grand gesture, anything will do. 
I'll leave it at that.  Have a great weekend, be kind, enjoy your family & friends, take time for yourself, count your blessings and remember to thank God for all of those blessings!
See you next week!!

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