Life Is Awesome!

I can’t believe how fast this week is going by.  Kinda sucks but on a bright note, I’ve been feeling really well physically.  The last three days have been quite good!  I did a couple hours of overtime on both Monday and Tuesday, but not tonight.  Actually, I left a little early today (vacation time) to go home and prepare for the Recreational Aircraft Association executive meeting.  We usually have it at one of the director’s office, but he was unavailable, so I had it at my apartment.  Being a total neat freak like my mother, I had to make sure the apartment was perfect before they arrived.  I even prepared a little plate of noms:

After some tidying, I worked on the agenda for the meeting.  It went quite well and the guys really seemed to like the kitties, which were wandering around them for the whole meeting.  Our next meeting with all of the members is this Monday.  We have our elections and it’s been suggested that since I’ve been nominated, I’ll probably be elected as president again.  I’ve been doing it for a couple years now and I really love it.  I’ll take on the position again!

I noticed something rather amusing the other night.  Pinky really loves to watch my Betta fish, McRosenkrantz.  I guess because they’re both pink, so they have a special bond.  I don’t think the fishy likes Pinky too much, as he puffs up around the gills whenever she’s around.  I guess he’s trying to make himself look big and spooky.  Here he is, looking fairly normal:

And then the scary pose:

Kinda cute!  Needless to say, Pinky doesn’t seem too intimidated.

Today’s symptoms: Felt quite good and had decent energy.  Had a fair bit of crushing pain in my right hand and forearm though. 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/29/2012 9:38 PM

Auto Show

My friend and I went to the Auto Show in Toronto today.  We drove to the Burlington GO station and took the train to Union Station in Toronto.  Fortunately, they only used the Convention Centre this year and not also the Sky Dome, like they did the last time I went.  That would have been a little too much walking for moi.

Here are some pics from the show:

Me in my dream car – a Toyota Corolla (I have a 2009 named Lola Corolla):

I like to keep my dreams attainable, that way I’m not disappointed!

I thought these would be great for the kitties:

I was really looking forward to seeing the new VW bus:

The Hotwheels car was neat too:

This funky concept car:

Here’s the view of one of the halls:

It was a great day!  The ride home was nice too:

I would certainly go again!

I’m hoping to go for a flight tomorrow.  It’s been insanely windy the last couple days but it’s finally dying down.

Today’s symptoms:  Felt quite good for most of the day.  Of course, I got fairly tired from the excitement and walking around at the show.  Totally worth it though.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/25/2012 8:58 PM

Another Fire!

It’s hard to believe but there was yet another fire within a block of my apartment.  I stood and watched this building burn earlier this week:

Actually, it was the smoke that wafted into the bedroom that clued me into what was going on outside.  The second floor is completely gutted.  Very sad considering there were three apartment units upstairs, one downstairs plus two or three businesses.  The fire marshall will be investigating on Tuesday.  Hopefully that was the last fire for a long time!

I’ve been a little behind on blogging this week as I’ve been so busy.  I’ve done overtime a few nights, had a union dinner through work and went to another hockey game.  The union dinner was really nice.   Great company and yummy noms:

A couple nights after the dinner, Jan and I went to another Maple Leafs game in Toronto.  She picked me up from work and drove to my apartment so we could have dinner before leaving for the game.  We were both shocked when we passed this Petro station and noticed how high gas went up:

Appartently gas prices are going to go up higher than ever this summer.  Ugh.

We weren’t in the same seats as the last game.  Unfortunately, Jan couldn’t see the whole rink over the hand rail in front of our seats.  I offered to let her sit on my coat, but she wouldn’t go for it.  Dork.

This is during the second period – the Leafs were doing so badly, the refs let them play with their entire team on the ice.  They still lost.

It was still a fun game.

I want to get one of these little remote control hot air balloons for the cats:

Here’s a shot of the CN Tower before we headed home:

It was a great night but we were both happy to get home and crawl into our beds.  I decided to be a rebel the next morning and take 45 minutes vacation time so I could sleep in a bit.  It made a big difference – I was tired today, but not as bad as I thought I would be.

I’m heading to the Auto Show in Toronto tomorrow.  I’ll be sure to take lots o’ pics to post on my blog.  Hopefully the weather is decent on Sunday as I really have a craving to fly.

Today’s symptoms:  Tired, but not major MS symptoms.  Just a few aches and pains.  No headache either! 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/24/2012 9:25 PM

Hit The Skies

I had planned to go for a flight today, although didn’t think I would be able to when I got up and looked outside this morning.  The clouds were quite low.  I checked the local METAR and the ceiling was only 2200′  Still, legal to fly. I was looking forward to trying my new camera mount on the outside of my plane.  I was a little nervous for the first 10 minutes of flight, constantly checking that the camera was still attached.  Fortunately, it was still there when I landed. 

I flew around Niagara, down to Port Colborne then over to Fort Erie and up to Niagara-On-The-Lake.  This pic is heading East toward Fort Erie – check out my cute little camera, clinging on for dear life on my wing strut:

There was tons of bridge traffic going into the States today, as it’s a long weekend (family day on Monday – and no, I don’t get it off).  Here are a few shots of the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, heading into Buffalo:

The Queenston Bridge from St. Catharines was no better:

The sign on the St. Catharines Skyway said the delay on the Queenston Bridge was one to two hours.  Yesterday, it was three.

I continued my flight north and passed over Fort George:

Then over downtown Niagara-On-The-Lake:

Here’s a closer look at the clock tower in the middle of the main street:

It was a great flight and I’m so happy with how the video turned out!

After hearing and seeing how long the wait was on the borders this weekend, Jan and I were thrilled with the fact that we have our Nexus cards.  We went over to the Factory Outlet Mall in Niagara Falls, NY yesterday.  Heading over the Whirlpool Bridge, which is only for Nexus card holders, there were three cars in front of us with a total wait of about one minute.

We passed this little number on the way to the mall:

I can’t even imagine how long that took!

During my Recreational Aircraft Association meeting last Monday, one of our members was wearing this shirt (he’s a little shorter than average):

He builds remote control airplanes, so it’s very fitting!  I think I need to get this shirt for my mother…

Today’s symptoms:  Felt a little weak when I first got up this morning, but once I got some fluids in me, I perked up quite a bit.  No headache today and very minimal MS-related aches and pains!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/19/2012 2:49 PM

Fire!

Had a rather interesting night.  I regularly hear sirens as there is a fire hall just a couple blocks away.  Around 2:00am last night, I heard the sirens passing my apartment building then stopping.  I looked out the window to see this sight:

I stood out on the balcony for over 20 minutes to watch.  I was really cold.  At one point, I looked behind me and noticed my apartment, which had a window.  This is when I clued into the fact that I could simply stand INSIDE the warm apartment and watch the action from the window.

This used to be an antiques shop, but was recently turned into an art gallery.  The grand opening was five days ago.  I was shocked to hear it was the owner who was caught running from the area with a gas can in her hand.  It sure will be interesting to hear the whole story.  I phoned up the St. Catharines Standard and asked if they wanted some pics from last night’s blaze.  I passed them on and they are going to post them on their Facebook page.

The first thing I thought of when I saw the fire was that there is an arsonist in the neighbourhood.  Just last week, this house which is about a block away from me was set on fire:

I haven’t heard the whole story yet but the Niagara Falls Police blotter did state that it was a suspicious fire.  There was a cop car in front of the house for the entire day following the incident.  A few days after that, I noticed fire trucks outside of this house:

 

I don’t think they were there too long so hopefully it was just a false alarm.

The thing that is so disturbing about last night’s fire is that there was a woman and her cat living in the back of the unit.Pretty sad that the arsonist she could have killed someone.  I noticed a few police officers walking around the buildings behind my apartment, obviously looking for someone.  So glad they found her!  Here is the building today:

On a much less disturbing note, Boo is really weird.  For the last couple of nights, she has been trying to lick my eyes.  She pushes her enornmous schnoz into the corner of my eye then licks the lid.  Do you have any idea how painful it is to have a cat lick your eye?  Feels like she’s going to rip my eyelid right off!

I have the day off tomorrow but am going in during the morning to do some overtime.  Jan is going to come by around 9:45 to pick me up to go to Burlington.  Yes, it’s that time of the month already – time for my Tysabri infusion.  I’m hoping I feel well enough afterwards to go back to work and get a few more hours in.  We’ll see.  It seems I have been pushing myself a bit too much lately and I’ve been really tired again.  I’m thinking it has something to do with the dehydration issue too, because it’s not the typical bone-crushing, heaviness fatigue of MS.  I made an appointment to see my doctor next week so that she can possibly refer me to a urologist to try and figure out why I can’t retain fluids.

Today’s symptoms:  Felt quite a bit better today than I did yesterday.  My friend had to drive me home around 2:30 yesterday as I was so unbelievably weak and tired.  I’m thinking I really need to get this dehydration issue resolved pronto!  No major MS symptoms today – yea!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/15/2012 6:24 PM

Yea for Solid Food!

I’m feeling quite a bit better today.  I’m sure I just had a bad 24 hour bug, but of course things hang on to me quite a bit longer due to my corrupted immune system from the MS and Tysabri.  Actually, I have my next Tysabri infusion this Thursday.  I’ll have to check with them that it’s ok to go ahead with it after being sick recently.  The drug lowers the immune system so you can’t be “ill” at the time of the infusion. 

I probably should have just rested again today but boredom and stubbornness took over and I decided to visit Jan.  As usual, she was completely thrilled to see me!  Hehehe!  After a quick stop at my bank, we headed over to Tim Hortons.  Soon after we sat down, I noticed an EMS supervisor pulled up.  When he came in, I asked him how I can send a “thank you/sorry for being a pain in the butt” card.  He said that I can send him an email with the message and he would be sure to pass it on.  How nice is that?  Sincerely!  I’ll be sure to compose my message after finishing this post.

The rest of our day was quite productive – perhaps a little too much.  I sure was pooped out after I got home.  We loaded up her car with stuff we’re bringing to the office for an upcoming auction.  Hopefully the roads will be clear after the snowfall for Jan’s drive here tomorrow.  I’m sure she’s thrilled about visiting with her grandchildren.  I left my empty laundry bag on the bed and, as usual, little Pinky crawled in.  That cat is obsessed with bags:

She’s such a dork.

Looks like the weather is going to be sunny and above freezing on Monday.  If I’m feeling well, I think I’ll take a couple hours vacation leave from work and go for a flight.  A friend made a a clamp to attach my video camera to the wing strut of my plane.  I can’t wait to take video of my aerobatics with the camera outside of Vyctor.

Speaking of video/pictures….my friend in Hamilton said that she saw an interesting site the other day.  Matt Dillon was filming across the road:

Actually, it was her co-worker who snapped this pic.  My friend was out for her walk at the time.  It was rather amusing when she emailed me, totally bummed that she missed it.  A few minutes later, she emailed “I just saw his legs!!!!!”  Tee hee!

Today’s symptoms: Still a tad weak but feeling so much better than the last four days.  MS symptoms-wise, not too much to report!  I’m hoping the second CCSVI surgery is the cause of feeling better and it lasts for a long time.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/11/2012 9:02 PM

Still Sickola

 I was really hoping to be feeling better today but I’m actually weaker today than I was yesterday. My alarm went off at 6:23 and I was shocked at how hard it was to just reach over and turn it off. Ugh. I went back to sleep on and off for another hour and attempted to get up and moving again. It didn’t happen. So, I spent yet another day in bed like a blob. At least I had lots of company, such as this tripod of kitties:

The two speckled kitties, Boo and Abby (whose dating name would be Booby – Blue Footed, of course):

Pinky did a big ol’ stretch when I shifted in the bed:

Little (well, sorta big and heavy) Abby stayed perched up on my shoulder for about fifteen minutes:

I now have multiple stress factors in my shoulder and upper arm.

I was quite surprised when I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat, only to look over and see it was Mya.  She asked why Boo’s arm was working its way around her neck:

I then heard a husky little voice answer “You’re mine, sucka!”

I said “Seriously Boo?  Do you really want to go there?”  She winked at me and continued cleaning herself.  Fortunately, there were no further incidents.

Clearly I have nothing exciting to report, being in bed all day. Hopefully I’ll wake up tomorrow feeling much better so I can at least put in a second day of work for the week. Ugh!

Today’s symptoms: Feeling really weak with tons of aches and pains.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/9/2012 7:42 PM

 

911

Had an interesting experience last night – one I hope I don’t have again. At around 4:00, I started to feel quite nauseous at work. My friend gave me some Tums, as neither of us had any Gravol. I thought I was going to be sick so I ran to the bathroom. Two people in there said that if I was sick, they would be too! I told them I would refrain and went outside for some fresh air. It was a little after 4:30 when I decided I needed to go home. A friend who lives in my building (the one I mentioned in my previous blog that had a cookie under her tire!) drove me home. I was sick twice in the downstairs bathroom, then my friend escorted me up to my apartment. That’s when things got pretty bad. I was sick every five to ten minutes. Dehydration was becoming a problemo. Within two hours, my heart rate felt erratic and slowing down, I was having a hard time breathing and my hands went numb and blue. I phoned my mother and she came up to St. Catherines. I was really out of it at that point and she called 911. The ambulance came about twenty minutes later. There were three paramedics – I believe one was in training. They were all so nice and caring. Little Mya and Boo came over to greet them. My mother said Mya was crawling on their equipment. One of the paramedics said she was very nosy. I was sick again while they were there. I sat down and had an IV put in to get a shot of Gravol. I had a fever of about 101, so they asked that I not put a sweater on and only covered me with a sheet, once we got down to the stretcher in the lobby. Once in the ambulance, I started asking for water. Obviously they couldn’t give any to me since I wouldn’t keep it down. I don’t ever remember being that dehydrated and thirsty in my life. I guess that’s why I annoyingly asked for water about 7,364 times that night. I want to send the paramedics a card, thanking them for their kindness and professionalism, plus tell them how sorry I am for annoying the heck out of them with my constant pleas for water. Anyway, Jan and Chuck met me at the hospital. They couldn’t wait with me while I was on the gurney in the hall, as it was too small of a space. To shut me up, the paramedic gave me 250ml of saline. It wasn’t even dripping, rather pouring through the line since I was so dehydrated. The male paramedic pointed out to the trainee that my colour was starting to come back. There were no beds available so they put me in a wheel chair and rolled me out into the rather full waiting room. The chair was quite uncomfortable and all I wanted to do was to lay on the floor and sleep. I then continued with my annoying pleas for water with my mother. She wouldn’t give in. Chuck went and asked if I could have a drink but was told no. Then I came up with a plan. I am extremely against lying and have a very hard time even uttering a white lie. However, I was desperate. I told Jan that I really needed to pee. Hello! How is that possible if I was totally dehydrated. After begging for a few minutes, she finally relented and wheeled me down to the washroom. I was going to pretend to pee then get a drink from the tap while washing my hands. It didn’t happen. I darted over to the sink and drank out of my hand. I could hear Jan in the background saying “Come on! Stop it! Knock it off! Blah, blah, blah.”. She told me that I suck while she wheeled me back go the waiting room. *sheepish grin* I decided to kick Jan and Chuck off of the chairs as I just needed to lay down. Not very comfortable lying across three chairs with huge gaps between them. I think this is when I overheard someone say the wait time for a bed was nine to ten hours. I then decided to go home. Jan asked the nurse if I could and she asked her to bring me to the triage area. She took my blood pressure which was back up to my normal 90/60. She told me to only take a sip of water or apple juice every fifteen minutes. Then she told us about the “brat” foods that I could eat tomorrow. I think she said it stood for bread, rice, apples and toast. I think it should have been burritos, rigatoni, apple pie and Tostitos. Hmmmmm… Chuck brought the car up out front while Jan drove to a convenience store to get me a jug of apple juice. I ran into bed, still wearing my coat when we got home. Jan stayed for a little bit before driving back home. I was sick a couple more times, before trying to sleep. For some reason, I thought the nurse said only move every fifteen minutes rather than only sip fluids. Really makes no sense but for about four hours, I only let myself reposition every fifteen minutes. What a dork!!!

Obviously, I didn’t go to work today. Actually, I started to black out (not fully though) after going to the bathroom this morning. I’m going to spend the next two days laying here like a blob. I hope to be back to work on Thursday. The nurse said that I probably have a gastro-intestinal bug. I’ll limit myself to only getting up to use the bathroom and refill my water bottle and apple juice mug. At least I have the little goobers to keep me company!

Today’s symptoms:  Feeling very weak with tons of pretty bad pains and aches all over the place.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/7/2012 1:10 PM

Breakfast In Waterloo

Finally, the weather was nice today so a friend and I went to Waterloo for breakfast.  We passed quite a few planes on the way.  Whichever tower we were on frequency with at the time let us know about the ones that were fairly close.  None were close enough that we had to change altitude or heading though.  I love seeing other planes fly under little Vyctor!

 Waterloo airport has such a nice restaurant.  I decided to splurge and have a big honkin’ plate o’pancakes:

Great noms, great view!

Taxiing over to the runway on the way back, I managed to snap a pic of this Bearskin Airline plane:

We patiently waited for this guy to land before being cleared onto the runway:

My co-pilot snapped a few pics as we departed:

It was a great flight!  Looks like the weather is going to be nice again tomorrow but I won’t be going flying.  My little mother is coming up for a visit in the morning then I’m going to a Superbowl party in the afternoon.  I really don’t like football at all, but I’m going to be with some fun folks from work.  One of the gals lives in my building.  I noticed she had a cookie under her tire when I parked next to her today:

I’ll ask her tomorrow at the party if she picked it up and ate it.

Check out Mya’s mug in this pic.  Pinky was walking by while she made this face.  I could faintly hear her say “Are you talking to me, Pink?”

Today’s symptoms:  Great energy!  Felt pretty bad yesterday and actually had to go home around noon.  Really low  energy and very weak.  Glad things are better today!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/4/2012 8:21 PM

Jungle

Ok, the weather is still kinda off plus I’ve been doing overtime at work.  Therefore, still flightless.  This weekend has to have flying weather, gosh darn-it!  If not, I’m considering filing a grievance with Environment Canada.

Obviously, I have no flight pictures to post so I’ll just share a few of the gals.  Abby was sitting next to my pillow when I woke up the other morning.  She’s on steroids and has put on a little weight.  I guess it was just my angle, but her head looked insanely small compared to her body.  This picture doesn’t make her seem out of proportion at all:

Check out the cute little roll between her tail and back leg.  Tee hee!

My next largest kitty is Pinky.  She rarely looks into the camera when I’m snapping her pic.  I got fairly close this time:

I was at Lil Jan’s this weekend and noticed that she decided to redecorate the den.  I think she’s going for a jungle theme:

I must say, very convincing, mother!  I was just waiting for Tarzan to walk up behind me and tap my shoulder.

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty good.  A little drained emotionally which has affected my energy level.  Still, I was able to stay conscious all day and did three hours of overtime on top of my regular day.  Really looking forward to going to bed tonight!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 2/1/2012 9:13 PM