And God Laughs
I told God my plans and He laughed. So now I am living, laughing, and loving according to His Plans.

A New Attitude


I am sleepy as I write this, so the odds of it making any sense at all are at best 50/50. :) Make your wagers now! This photograph is of the image on my new favorite T shirt from Zazzle. I may rely upon a wheelchair for mobility, but I still have attitude. For a while now I have been feeling like my life is stuck in this sick and twisted version of the movie Groundhog Day where each day is a repetition of the day before and there is no escape. I thrive on having to think, to problem solve, to be creative, to engage and interact, to create new ways that have never been tried before, to celebrate successes that to the outside world seem insignificant but to the world in which my heart dwells are achievements akin to climbing Mt. Everest backwards while blindfolded. For too many months my life has been on hold. I have been in a stagnant holding position, a medical limbo, a place of existing but not living my life to the fullest. That is not me. I need to live my life and live it out loud, to live it to the limits, to live with passion and pursuing the gifts I have been given and the marvel of truly being alive. I can either wait in this holding position to die, be that at age 35 or 75, and just wander through the intermittent time, or I can take control back in my life and live every single moment that I have no matter what life throws at me. I will rebel against this disorder that continually whispers "you can't" "you lost", "that is impossible" and throw in its face all that I can do, all that is not lost, all that is possible. I will chase my dreams, even if those dreams have been changed slightly, and I will not remain stagnant any longer. It will take time to get a plan of action in motion, but I am beginning the process. I am breaking free of the hold that this has had on my life and declaring that I will live my life boldly, unabashedly, in faith and mercy, and refusing to sacrifice a moment. I must create something powerful, something beautiful, something of change and impact from this situation. I must choose to live instead of just being alive. In the future I see myself returning to college to pursue a Master's Degree, regaining my independence so I no longer feel trapped by relying on others for my access to the world, and reclaiming the passions in my life. I, and only I, will define who I am and what I am capable of, and my life will be limited only by my ability to imagine and to believe and to create adaptations as needed.
If this sounds dramatic, I apologize but this past week has been rough emotionally. This was a break through to realize that life will not be like this forever and that I can change so much of my reality. This life is mine to life, or mine to surrender. I am a rebel with a cause again!
P.S. Please let me know if this does not make any sense and I will rewrite it when I am more awake. I am very groggy and sleepy but wanted to write this tonight.
1 comments:

I can't figure out how to 'follow' you...be your friend..or whatever it's called on blogspot..I'm sooo confused cuz I'm new. I hope you'll drop by and read my blogs and follow me...you're very interesting!!!


Job 8:21

"He will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy."



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Wild Olive

Wild Olive

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Creative Victory

This is Me

I am a thirty year old enigma who has defied every expectation ever placed upon me and refused every definition created for me. My greatest passion in life is to make a difference in the lives of children with special needs and their families. As a special education teacher I broke all of the unwritten rules to make sure that my kids received the services they needed and had a right to receive. I have never been so proud to be reprimanded before in my life. Now, due to unpredictable twists in life, I am learning first hand what life is like when you rely upon a wheelchair for mobility. I am a medical puzzle with the pieces slowly being identified and put together, and my medical bills alone could fund a small nation. It takes a village to keep me alive. :) However, I am not defined by the genetic misspellings. I am a teacher, a daughter, an aunt, a friend, a dreamer, a reader, an amateur photographer, a writer, an advocate, a star gazer, a world changer. I am stubborn, situationally shy, quick to use humor and wit to make others laugh or cope with a situation, sarcastic, fiercely independent, giving, compassionate (sometimes to a fault), protective of those I love, defiant of arbitrary boundaries, perfectionistic, self conscious, self assured (yes you can be both!), articulate and occasionally dramatic. And that is just what I could fit in two sentences! :)

Who's On First, What's On Second, I Don't Know! (Third Base!!)*

Simple Vocabulary Definitions for those who may not speak fluent medical :)

Undiagnosed Progressive Neurological Disorder- This is the diagnosis that is believed to make everything else fit together. It explains my frequent infections, my muscle weakness and dystonia, my dysautonomia, my cardiac issues, my inability to regulate blood pressure, my dysphagia, my ataxia, my severe fatigue, my extreme nausea, my gastrointestinal dysmotility and IBS like syndrome, my unbelievable migraines, my sensory changes in my arms and legs, my vision issues, my hearing loss (so much for blaming medication), and so much more. Going back to infancy and childhood, this would explain the severe apnea, the significantly delayed motor skills, the reason why I could never keep up with my peers in physical activities, the neurogenic bladder, the malfunctioning thyroid, and my frequent illnesses and vomiting. This is the diagnosis now being used since the DNA testing for Mitochondrial Disease came back odd and I can not afford the expenses of a workup at the Mayo Clinic. We are treating symptomatically.

Pan-Dysautonomia- "Pan" means that it impacts many different systems of my body, "dysautonomia" is a failure of my autonomic nervous system or the part of my brain that does all of the automatic things that do not require conscious thought like telling your heart to beat, regulating your blood pressure, adjusting your body temperature, maintaining balance in space, digesting food, hunger and thirst, etc. It is believed that I have had this from birth based upon my history of symptoms, including severe life threatening apnea as an infant, but the cause remains elusive at this time

Dystonia- abnormal muscle tone and spasticity, including painful spasms, that primarily impacts my feet and lower legs and is now starting to be a problem in my back

Ataxia- difficulty maintaining balance and coordinating/executing movements

Dysphagia- difficulty swallowing due to any number of causes including muscle weakness and poor muscle coordination

Adipsia- the absence of a sense of thirst



Other Medical Issues- Lupus Anticoagulant (autoimmune disease that causes me to tend to form blood clots and has already caused two deep vein blood clots and one mild stroke), Migraines, unknown connective tissue disorder, abnormal gastric motility, allergies, history of v-tach and severe sinus tachycardia, changes to my echocardiagram that include leaking valves and a new murmur, low blood pressure, ataxia, untreated PFO (small hole in my heart that increases the risk of stroke), chronic lymphadema in my left arm, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, Narcolepsy/Idiopathic CNS Hypersomnolance (believed to be a result of the dysautonomia and my brain's inability to regulate the sleep/wake cycle), mild hearing loss, malformed optic nerves, polycystic ovarian syndrome, pernicious anemia, vitamin deficiencies


* Title comes from an old Abbot and Costello routine that I chose to memorize in 6th grade and absolutely love.

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