Another Great Weekend

It was a decent week.  Despite having to have a not-so-fun medical test on my birthday, it still turned out to be a great day.  I was still smiling after my dinner at the Mandarin the night before.  There were about nine of us that went out for noms that night.

On Friday, my friend came over and we had some drinks, put up my Christmas tree, watched some movies, and had Swiss Chalet.  Yet another great night.  The cats seemed to think so too.  As soon as they smelled the chicken, they came a’running:

My friend didn’t seem to mind Mya and Pinky up on her lap while she was trying to eat.  Such goobers.

Another friend from work dropped off my old cat tent I gave her, as her little fur ball doesn’t seem to care for it too much.  I figured I would donate it to the cat donation centre at the Seaway Mall.  I may have to remove a few kitties from it first:

After a long evening of frolicking, Boo was relieved to crawl into bed.  Rather than just resting, she decided to make a few goofy faces first:

I was invited over to my friend’s house on Saturday, to visit his family, which consists of four and a half corgis.  I honestly tried to remain vertical for my visit, but was quickly thrown to the ground and mobbed by a slew of cuties:

As you can see, their “half” corgi is an adorable little puppy, sitting on my head.

And here I am getting nommed:

Part way through my visit, it was meal time:

Two of the dogs eat in their crates.  They all had specific areas where they inhaled their food:

Everyone was quite pooped after being so active and slurping back their noms.  Even little puppy-head could no longer stay conscious:

It was such a great visit – what a wonderful family!

After I got home, I finished getting my fudge ready for the pot luck at the Flying Club that night.  My mother was also kind enough to make some brownies.  Every time I make fudge and use the airplane cookie cutter, I promise myself that I’ll never do it again.  It’s such a total pain to get the fudge out in one piece.  Fortunately, they turned out ok, along with the little gingies I made:

There was a great turn out at the dinner, with some really yum-o food.  I had a great time.  I was glad that I didn’t have too much fudge to bring home – just a few airplanes.

I made sure I played with the Club kitty before heading home at night:

I told Abby about the dogs and cat I visited that day.  She wasn’t impressed:

Notice how her right leg is extended – I managed to take this picture just before she gave me a back-hander.

So, another great weekend.  The only bad part was this tragic scene my mother and I noticed in the Tim Hortons parking lot.  Yup, that’s a decapitated gingerbread Santa:

Poor fella.

Today’s symptoms: A tad low on energy today.  Like yesterday lots of MS pain, mostly in my arms and hands.  I’ll sleep well tonight so I’m raring to go tomorrow!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 11/25/2012 8:44 PM

Flight to Reading, PA

I had one of the best weekends I’ve had in a while.  On Saturday, I drove over to Jan’s.  She baked me a birthday cake (since she won’t see me on Wednesday) and gave me some awesome pressies!  In return, I clambered up on the roof and cleaned her gutters:

 

 

This was the first time I had to use a ladder to get up there, since I used to climb up the TV aerial.  She just had it removed this summer.

Hello, Jan!

After the roofage, we went to the Seaway Mall, then to Zehrs for groceries.  We dropped the noms off at home then went to the Lazy Loon at the Log Cabin in Fonthill for dinner.  As usual, the food was awesome.  Thanks again to my cute, little mother for a great day!

I needed to get a good night’s sleep on Saturday as I had a big day planned for Sunday.  My friend and I were flying to Reading, Pennsylvania to visit the Mid Atlantic Air Museum.  We took off around 8:30 and flew about 20 minutes to stop at Buffalo Airport to clear customs.  The customs officer met us at the plane as soon as we landed.  We were then cleared to pay ramp fees and depart for Reading.  It was a little more than two hours to get there.  It was quite hazy on the way down, so I decided to refrain from taking any scenic pics until the weather cleared on the way back.  I did snap these of the nuclear cooling towers though:

While taking the pics, I asked my co-pilot to fly the plane (not a prob since he’s a pilot).  He kept trying to discretely veer away from the stacks, but I noticed and quickly slammed down on the opposite rudder peddle to whip us right back over the towering stacks of heat and filth.  Tee hee!

Eventually, we arrived at the Reading Airport:

Our first stop was the museum:

My friend checked us in at the museum office while I flew over to the little pilot’s room (shouldn’t have drank that coffee before the flight!).  We had a tour guide take us around the hangar, which was totally packed.  He gave us info about every plane – it was really interesting!

We then headed out to the ramp to check out the outside aircraft:

The best looking plane can be seen in the distance:

I mentioned that to our tour guide but he didn’t seem too impressed.  Oh well.

Back inside, we befriended the museum cat:

Errrrr…perhaps “befriended” wasn’t the right word:

Om, nom, nom!

Speaking of noms, after fueling up Vyctor, we taxied across the airport to the restaurant, Malibooz:

I got a rather yummy turkey club salad:

Before leaving, we contacted customs to let them know we would be arriving in St. Catharines in about two and a half hours (land around 6:00pm), then filed our flight plan.  Little Vyc was eagerly awaiting us:

Back in the air, the smog was still too heavy for any decent pics:

Half way through the flight, it didn’t really matter any more as the sun set.

We heard that there was a bit of an incident at the St. Catharines Airport in the afternoon.  My friend called and made sure all of the runways were open.  We were informed they were.  Unfortunately, when we got close to Buffalo and listened to the ATIS report (gives hourly updates on the runways and weather), we heard the runway with the lights was closed.  This meant we could not land there.  I let Buffalo know that I was diverting to Welland.  We called someone at the Flying Club and asked them to pick us up in Welland.  Poor Vyctor would be left outside in a foreign airport, overnight in the cold.  I felt so bad for him.

I didn’t arrive home until around 7:45 that night.  Needless to say, I was very pooped, but it was worth every second of my amazing day!

Today, I actually managed to get into work for my 7:15 start time.  Barely though.  I had to take vacation leave at around 1:30 and drive over to the St. Catharines Airport.  I was kindly given a lift out to Welland where I was reunited with my plane.  I tweaked his little spinner and he seemed to forgive me for his abandonment.  Before flying home, I headed over Port Colborne to take a picture of the submarine that was being transported from Hamilton out to Port Burwell (west of Dunnville on Lake Erie):

Kinda cool to see!

I’m hoping for a good sleep tonight.  I have another great day to look forward to tomorrow.  A bunch of us from work are meeting at the Mandarin for my birthday.  Yum!

Today’s symptoms: Really tired, but who wouldn’t be after that amazing day yesterday.  Had a bit more MS-related pain today than normal, but that was really my only complaint.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 11/19/2012 7:45 PM

Long Weekend – Yea!

Had yet another bad week physically.  I’m having a test on the 21st of this month that will hopefully shed some light on why I keep having these lousy dehydration issues (unable to retain fluids).

On Monday, Jan picked me up at work and we drove down to the Niagara Falls Hospital for my annual MRI (this was my eleventh).  As I’m on Tysabri to treat my MS, there is a chance of getting PML, which is a fatal brain infection.  My neurologist want me to have a yearly MRI to check if there are any signs of PML.  The technician at the hospital remembered me from last year, which was rather nice!  Everything went smoothly, including the IV that I had to get part way through the test.  Since I was having my Tysabri infusion the next day, I decided to leave the IV line in my arm, thinking she could use it tomorrow and I wouldn’t have to be poked twice.

Once home, I decided to scroll through my MRI images, which I picked up (on a DVD) before leaving the hospital.  Most people see the first few snowflakes as the first sign of winter.  I had something much more exciting – I noticed a cute little pair of mittens at the back of my brain:

How cute are they?  Not too sure what to say about my Spock ears though….

Anyway, I started to have some regrets about leaving the IV line in, as it looked yucky and made me a little queasy:

Anyway, I showed up for my Tysabri IV the next day, only to find the nurse could not use the line in my arm.  It makes sense – if anything went wrong with the infusion, she would be to blame even though it wasn’t her line.  Oh well, we ripped that bad boy out and attempted a new IV in the other arm.  Unfortunately, the vein she put it into didn’t co-operate and that one had to be removed as well.  We ended up putting it in just above where the MRI IV was placed.  Three IV’s in two days – blah!  Oh well, the infusion went well.  After it was done, I drove over to Jack Astor’s and met up with some friends from work for dinner.  I was seriously craving a steak and so glad I ordered one:

Honestly, it was one of the best steaks I’ve ever had.  Needless to say, that plate went back into the kitchen totally clean.  So did this little dish of fries my friend split with us:

Great noms and company.

Back home that night, my sore arms and I climbed into bed.  Needless to say, I wasn’t alone as I had four little naked goobers join me:

It’s a king size bed but feels like a single….I wonder why?

Had another cute experience today.  A co-worker brought her new little chihuahua puppy in to work for a visit:

Here he is nomming my thumb:

Speaking of coworkers, one of mine saw these adorable plane earrings while she was out shopping the other week, and was kind enough to pick them up for me.  How sweet is that?

Since I’m having a bit of a rough time physically, all of the above mentioned things have really helped keep my spirits up.  As things don’t seem to be improving much, and have continued to get worse over the last year, it’s hard to keep positive sometimes.  I always feel worse physically when I get down emotionally, so I know how important it is to focus on the good things and keep smiling.  Easier said than done, but the effort is worth it.

Today’s symptoms:  My fatigue level wasn’t as bad as it was over the last week.  Still experiencing fluid retention issues, which are getting worse.  Hoping the test in a couple weeks will provide some answers.  Lots of aches and pains today in my arms (MS related, not from the IVs), plus a pretty bad headache.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 11/9/2012 8:56 PM

Another Not-So-Good Week

I had another pretty bad week symptom-wise.  I arrived to work late and/or had to leave early three of the four days I worked.  Things were a tad better yesterday and a bit better today.  Still dealing with a lot of fatigue and more pain than normal.  I have a MRI in Niagara Falls on Monday, so we’ll see if there have been any changes since the one I had last year.  Paws crossed it’s still all good.

 

No matter how poopy I feel in the morning, I always have a reason to wake up with a smile on my face.  Look at the little goobers I get to wake up to:

And of course, little Abby who just turned four on Halloween:

I actually got a picture of Mya while singing happy birthday to her:

A little off key, but she meant well.

I noticed a big honkin’ plane flying out to the west this morning.  I tried to get a shot but I was at full zoomage and could still hardly see him:

I thought it was the Lancaster, but then realized what it was when I arrived at the airport for a flight:

Not the Lancaster, but the Herc.  Duh!

I had a really brief flight today.  I was feeling pretty down emotionally because of how bad my symptoms have been lately.  Thought a flight would pick me up a bit, but it just wasn’t happening.  The poopola weather didn’t help either:

At least it didn’t stop the troops at the Fort.  Not too sure what they were doing today:

I only flew for about twenty minutes.  Then went out for a coffee with a good friend, which brightened my day more than my flight.  I know I’m going to feel better tomorrow, physically and emotionally.

Paws crossed for good weather tomorrow, although the morning isn’t looking too good.  I have an aerobatic flight booked at 9:00 and one at 11:00.  It looks like it’s supposed to be mostly cloudy in the morning, then clear up in the afternoon.  Fortunately, my 9:00 folks will be available later in the day as well, so we’ll more than likely get the flight in.

Today’s symptoms:  Less fatigue and pain today than over the last few days.  Not sure why things have turned around and I seem to be having more bad days than good.  Let’s hope they turn back around soon – enough of this silliness!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 11/2/2012 7:50 PM