October 8, 2008

Whoozer! Has it been over a month since I've updated this???? Guess that's a silly question.

Anyhoo, the latest news is that I was in the hospital at the end of August with what they finally decided was serotonin syndrome, which was because two of the medicines I was taking, Lexapro for anxiety and Seroquel to help me sleep, were both serotonin uptake drugs, meant to make a person feel better. To much serotonin can make a person very sick. Of course, I'd be that person. All three of my hospitalizations have been related to medications and their side effects. Because of this I stopped all my medicines, except the muscle relaxers and and ambien to sleep. Last week we added baclofen a new muscle relaxer. I'm taking a very small dose to see how my body reacts to it. So far, it has reduced my twitching significantly and taken away the "squishy" sensations I had in my legs....yippee!

Many people hadn't realized that I do still walk. I walk around the house every day, but make sure my wheelchair is close in case I get weak. I use the super duper wheelchair when we go out. I don't risk falling in public! Not only would I be mortified, I'd hate to get hurt in the process. My new lift was delivered last week. The lift is used to transport me from bed to bath or to pick me up off the floor. I don't need the transporting yet and pray I don't have to use it to scrap my bootie off the floor! It came with only one wheel having a brake, which doesn't seem safe to me at all. When I questioned it, the company suggested I "try it. one brake should work." I was like "Nope. Not gonna happen. I won't be a guinea pig, cause my luck I'll end up back in the hospital!" The sling (part my body rests in) allows for my hind end to just dangle. I don't like that idea either, so were swapping swings.

More exciting news is that I nominated my brother for an leadership award with ALS TDI and he won!! He's going to Cambridge, MA for their summit meeting the weekend of the walk. This is great because he'll be able to hear the latest in cutting edge research and see the leading doctors in the ALS field.

We're getting ready for the 2ND annual cookout at the cove, which we host the Friday evening before the walk. We're also doing some spring cleaning and repair projects, all to get ready for our friends and family that are coming in for the walk.

If you haven't register to be on Ami's Awesome Army team for the walk, please do! Even if your a virtual walker, please sign up! Goto http://walktn.alsa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=WLK_TN_SignUp.....please, please, please sign up.

I also want to see Hip hip hooray! for Darrin's dad Ray. He raised almost $700 at his first annual horseshoe tournament! and still has folks bringing in more donations! Way to go Pap!!!

Chase is getting ready to run for vice president of the student council and Deke is going to the allergist Friday to figure out what's been making him itchy and bumpy.

Our next travel plans are a road trip to the Kansas Yoder's for Thanksgiving and Chase, Shirley and I are going to Puerto Rico at Christmas.

We plan on renovating our bathroom shower, so that I can use a shower chair in it. Which means we'll take out the 6 inch lip and make a ramp.

I hope I've caught everyone up!

Love,
Ami