Pinky Became a Lamp

This weekend was yet another mix of good and bad, as they’ve been the last couple of months.  Saturday was not good at all physically – very weak, aches and pains all over, fatigued…typical MS stuff.  Sunday morning was so much better.  I slept really well that night and I was feeling well enough to go for a flight.  There was the annual brekkie fly-in at the Sexsmith Airport (Exeter).  After a mostly smooth, hour and ten minute flight, we arrived at the COPA Flight 177 breakfast, which we hadn’t been to in about three years.

It was so nice to see many familiar faces.  It was also nice to see this very yummy breakfast:

We had the pleasure of watching others come and go:

And checked out some of the parked aircraft, like this converted German attack Helicopter:

Then it was back to Vyctor to head on out:

The flight home was about the same length, as there was little wind.  We flew over the old St. Catharines General Hospital, almost completely demolished:

Once back home, we just chilled for a bit until eventually deciding to make dinner.  I was walking into the kitchen to get stuff started, when Pinky got up from the couch.  Mike noticed some bruising by her bum.  I couldn’t believe it – another abscess.  We went through this a couple years ago, of course on the weekend when my vet wasn’t open.  I did take her to the St. Catharines Animal Hospital, just down the road.  We were so grateful for their weekend hours.  Much of the staff stayed later than closing time to get Pinky’s abscess surgically drained.  She came through the surgery well and we took her home right away.  Do you like my new lamp?

Poor little thing.  I still had the satellite dish from her previous abscess surgery.

Pink vacuum:

She is healing well.  They left the incision open so it can drain, and it looks to be slowly closing.

Today’s symptoms: It was not a good day, with much worse than normal weakness and fatigue.  It makes it very hard to get through the work day.  I see my doctor about this again next month and I’m so hopeful we figure out why this is happening.  It’s to the point where I’m pretty much house-bound 3-5 days a week anymore.  😦

 

 

Another Trip to CWHM

This weekend was a mixed bag.  Saturday was a nice, clear day, but I was too weak to even leave the apartment.  Sunday I woke up feeling a fair bit better, which was great because we were scheduled to go back to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum.  Mike and I had such a great time there a few weeks ago, that we decided to invite our Recreational Aircraft Association folks to go back with us.  This was scheduled for Sunday with the Lancaster Berlin Blitz virtual reality starting at 9:00.  We had a small group, but all showed up before the doors opened.  The plan was to do the virtual reality in two groups first, then go upstairs for our 10:00 F18 simulator session.

We loved seeing it again.  We finished with only a bit of time before the F18’s.  Mike and I had to run around the museum a bit to gather everyone back together, so we could show them where to go.  In a group of four and then three, we all did the 20 minute training session.  Then it was time to climb into the simulators:

Oops!

He aimed for the wrong blue thing!

Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.  After the second group went through, we all went downstairs for lunch.  Afterwards, Mike, another member and myself had a wonderful tour with a guide of the planes outside.  Very interesting stories we had the pleasure of hearing.  We weren’t able to spend too much time in the museum because I was getting very fatigued.

Once back home, we just chilled for the rest of the day because I was pretty spent.

On Monday, I had enough energy to go for a short flight around Niagara. The Walmart at the PEN Centre is coming along nicely.

It was only about a 45 minute flight, but it was great to get up.  When we got back, I was pooped from the flight so we just relaxed with the kitties and watched a movie (Sybil – a little over three hours long).

Tuesday was awful.  I was the weakest I’ve been in a long time.  I had a hard time making it through the day, and I never left the apartment.  Last night, I think Abby could detect that I was feeling really cruddy and gave me a loving headbutt:

Little Peanut’s smiling face helped me to smile as well:

Today’s symptoms: Still felt quite weak today, but not nearly as bad as yesterday.  Felt too poorly to go out again.  It’s always a struggle to remain positive when I’m feeling so badly, but I’m trying (my little mother says I’m very trying…..hehe).  This extra weakness seems to make most of my “regular” MS symptoms feel worse.  I’m looking forward to some relief tomorrow – paws crossed!

Guess What Day It Is???

I took the day off today and I’m so happy to say that I felt quite good!  I met up with my father for breakfast at Lane’s Family Restaurant in Stevensville.  It was a very nice meal.  We’ve been there a few times now and it’s always good.  After filling our bellies, we went just down the road to Safari Niagara.  It’s not officially open yet (May 18th) but my father does carpentry for them, so I got a behind the scenes tour.  Here are just some of the awesome animals we saw:

Drooling for some noms:

Look of uncertainty:

I wanted to boop his nose (but I like my hand too much):

Nom nom nom:

Bouncy room:

   

Jan-sized horse:

And how perfect was this – Hump Day!!!  Woo hoo!

It was such a good time.  I hope they have great weather for the opening of the park on Saturday.

I came home to my own little zoo.  Actually, all four of the kitties seemed to be very well behaved for the day, as nothing was amiss or out of place.  I had to take something to perk me up to get me through the day.  It was still in effect when I got home and I spent about two hours cleaning (including gecko Peanut’s tank)  and tended to all the crickets (new batch of quite a few hundred!) and other things here and there.  It was such a great day and very productive.

Today’s symptoms: I’ve been having issues sleeping over the last few days.  It’s certainly affecting how I feel and the intensity of my MS symptoms, so paws crossed for better nights starting tonight!  My normal stuff going on the last few days = lots of nerve pain and fatigue.  My headaches seem to be a bit worse than usual (I always have a headache to some degree, since I was in my last teens), but they’re known to fluctuate for seemingly no reason.  I’m going to assume it’s going to start better tomorrow.  (Woo hoo!)

Naughty By (Mother) Nature

Mother Nature was not my friend this weekend.  It was the Walk for MS on Sunday, and I was so happy to wake up to blue skies, after a day of fog Saturday.  By the time we got to the airport for around 9:00am, thick fog was rolling in.  We couldn’t see to the other side of the airport:

I let my ground contacts at the MS Walk base in Port Dalhousie know that I was socked in by fog, just a few minutes from them.  I was just a tad bummed:

We could hardly see the tower, as we were driving through the airport:

It was quite the let down, but not much we could do.  Here are some pics from previous MS Walks I’ve flown over.  2010:

2014:

2015:

2018:

The day on Saturday went a little more as planned.  Mike and I met up with my friend from Hamilton, and we hit the casino.  After he gambled for a bit and we got tickets for Rock Around The Clock, we hit the always yummy Grand Buffet.  The food was great and afterwards, the show was great.

It was a good weekend.  I had one little more nice thing happen – my little gecko Peanut let me know that he was interested in becoming a pilot:

I’m so proud.

Today’s symptoms: I did not feel well today.  Very fatigued and weak again and lots of nerve pain.  Paws crossed tomorrow is a better day.

Kinda Lame But Cute

When my tiny, little grandmother (yes, shorter than my little mother), lived in a nursing home, she had a toy flower stuck through the handle of her closet. When she passed, I took the flower and did the same. It’s been in my closet door handle for over ten years now. It always bugs me when I see it, all droopy and leaning. Looks sad, the stem slid down too far and would never stay up and the top flower petal is slumped down:

I have no idea why I haven’t fixed it over all these years and allowed it to bug me for so long. Well, I went to a funeral of a family member today. The mood was understandably quite low for much of the day, but lifted by being around many family members. After getting home, I went to my bedroom closet for my loungey clothes. I see my flower and asked myself again why I haven’t secured it properly yet so it looks happy. It made me think of my grandmother and the memories with her. Then I thought of how many times I saw the sad looking flower and have been bothered by how it looked. Something from my wonderful Nanny deserves better than that. So voilà:

He looks happy now and I feel so much better when I see it. Makes the memories feel even nicer. It sounds silly and kinda lame, but it is much more to me than it looks on the outside. I love the thoughts of my grandmother it invokes.

Today’s symptoms: I felt a bit better today than I did yesterday. Because it was a long day, I had to take a few wake up pills, so I didn’t full out crash until later in the afternoon. This was quite nice, since my typical crash time over the last few weeks. I appreciate every small positive that my body decides to throw at me.