Long overdue, but I'm back

It’s been a long time since I’ve written here. I’m sorry for that, it’s just that life has gotten hectic for me. Between being ill, exhausted, anxious, and trying to re-focus on wedding planning, I didn’t have the energy to write a proper entry. But now things are starting to level out and I hope that I'll be able to write more regularly again.

Health – I’m feeling a lot better, but I’m still extremely tired. I’m pretty sure I had a flare-up last week, which started on Tuesday evening with burning pain in my legs, pain behind both eyes, and dizziness. That continued into Wednesday, and by Wednesday evening my legs were burning so badly that all I could do was cry. My eyes also went blurry and by the end of the evening, I couldn’t make out my own fingers in front of my face. It was scary, but temporary. I got a last minute appointment with Dr. Friedberg last Friday and he confirmed that everything I was experiencing was MS-related. He told me to try to take the gabapentin more often to reduce the pain and REST. I’m still having a problem resting. I’m always so tired that I start to mistake it with laziness and end up pushing myself to keep going when I should try to take a nap. ::sigh:: One day I will learn to rest.

Medicine - Another good thing about seeing Dr. F was that we decided on my next injection therapy. Although I wanted to stay away from the interferons because they all list depression as a side effect, he strongly urged me to try Betaseron. We looked at the research and side effects and I finally agreed. He reassured me that if it doesn’t agree with me, I can change. So, I signed the paperwork and he sent off the information. I can say that the Betaplus people are incredibly fast because my start up kit and first month of injections arrived yesterday. I also spoke with my Betanurse today and she’s set to do the injection training on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, they don’t do the free first month, but the rep automatically entered me in their financial assistance program, so I’ll pay $50 a month. I think I can manage that.

Money – I’ve been incredibly money stressed over the past month. Because of the disability check timing, I made it through the whole month on only 3-days worth of payments. You can probably imagine what’s been going through my head with rent coming up and no check every time the mail comes. Luckily, one arrived today and we went directly to the bank. Phew, I’ll be able to sleep tonight.

Friends – I am happy to report that I’ve been seeing friends more often lately. Yay! It has really helped my mood and has meant more days in street clothes. Thanks to my friends I learned to crochet hats, visited a corset shop in the city, and reconnected with an old friend. I’m looking forward to more of this. Next time I need to spread it out some so that there is more time to rest between visits.

Fatigue – I’m so tired folks. More tired that I could ever imagine. And it just hits me without warning. I’ll wake up feeling well, get dressed and ready to go, then suddenly I feel like I just took a double dose of sleeping pills. Or, I wake up and I’m too tired to get dressed. I never realized how much energy it takes to shower, do my hair, or even brush my teeth. I’m at the point where it takes me like 2 hours to get dressed because I have to sit down the whole time. It makes me sad. Oh, and despite being completely exhausted, I still have insomnia.

Housing – I like the new apartment. It’s small enough for me to clean, there’s room for a garden, there’s a fitness center so I can stay in shape, and there are pools (even though I haven’t been in them). I don’t like that they are remodeling the apartment directly above us. I hate that they didn’t tell us that it was going to happen. I was so angry when I realized what was going on. From 8-5 everyday, there are random periods of loud construction noise. Usually, this noise starts up at 8, stops for a few hours, and then goes from 1-5 (when I try to lay back down to nap). This means no daytime napping. ::sigh::

Wedding – Last weekend we met with the florist at our venue. The appointment went well and she sounds like she’s right on track with what we want. We’ve started getting response cards and gifts already, so the weight of the upcoming event is starting to weigh on us. We have less than two months left and time is moving extremely quickly. I hoping to start working on the favors/place cards soon. Today we took Nilaja’s dress in for alterations and we’ll pick it up in a few weeks. My dress doesn’t actually need any alterations, but we will need to take it in to be bustled. I’m really excited!

I'm sure I'm missing something. Please feel free to comment here if you have questions or want more information. I'm not going to post a Free For All Friday post today, but may start that up again next week.