I am officially moved into my new apartment that I am sharing with my mother, and the apartment is awesome. However, moving is perhaps one of the most frustrating and exhausting processes on earth. We have boxes stacked in every room in the apartment except the bathroom, and our goal is to have everything unpacked and put away and organized by Christmas. What is scary to think about is the fact that I could literally throw away every single box I have that is still packed, and other than missing my journals, I  would have every single thing I *need* and could replace anything else easily. Needless to say, as I unpack I am very carefully sorting through items and either donating or throwing away any items I have not used in the past 4-6 months. Possessions have never been a big deal for me, and I am driven in life by making memories and interacting with others, not with acquiring things. I am actually most happy when I have just the basics that I need and a few wants.
So when we moved into the apartment we apparently forgot to make some sacrificial offering to the toilet gods because on the second day the toilet made a strange sound and then proceeded to do a very realistic impersonation of Old Faithful. Water was not running over the edge, it was erupting from the toilet. Before I remembered the wall shut off valve it had flooded not just the bathroom but the entire hallway. Maintenance showed up 30 minutes after we called carrying nothing more than a plunger. Um, Dude, we're gonna need a bigger boat. An hour later, the toilet is precariously "fixed" and he has made an attempt at the flood with a wet dry vac and we go to bed with fans blowing in the hallway to dry the carpet. I am especially thankful that I choose to get carpet without padding to make it easier to maneuver my wheelchair because that makes this mess a lot less of an issue. Three days later I have prayed over the toilet and flushed it, and it is refilling when I hear a sound that I can only describe as the sound one would expect to hear if the bowels of the earth opened up and proceeded to suck down Niagra Falls as the toiled completely drained of water. Apparently somewhere along the six stories of pipe there was an obstruction, and that god awful sound was the sound of it breaking away. Either that or the toilet gods decided we had paid our dues and removed the curse. I still pray before I flush the toilet and try not to get too close to it unless necessary.
Amidst the chaos of moving I also had my follow up appointment for the Botox injections to determine how well the first round of injections had worked and plan for what the next round will target and such. It was a very short appointment, which frustrated me as I drove 90 minutes each way just to talk to the doctor for 5 minutes - no exam even. I am getting new braces made as my old ones never fit right and now totally do not fit right since I have achieved a more normal position and the ability to have my legs positioned and held in even more normal positions. This time I am getting KAFOs, or Knee Ankle Foot Orthotics, because when I stand and walk I lock all of my joints for stability. The problem with this is that I have joint hypermobility and to lock my knees I actually hyper-extend them which is causing pain and throwing me even further off balance. So the KAFOs will provide the locked knee support without allowing me to hyper extend my knees.
Right now I am temporarily set up with the internet running from the main phone line in the middle of the living room because the phone guy failed to install phone service in all of the rooms of the house when he came out, and the soonest they can come back out is Tuesday. So my internet access is still limited as it is a hassle to finagle it out here. Which is okay because I have not been feeling up to doing much more than working with my mom on a box or two a day and then resting. I don't know if I have some sort of infection or if the dysautonomia is just warning me that I have been pushing too hard for too long.
I will try to update from the box piles again soon, for all three people reading this LOL :)

just moved and hooking up computer is low priority compared to mountains of boxes so will be offline for a while.

Two weeks. The magical number for maximum effects from the Botox injections in my legs to be seen. I still have a large bruise from one of the injections that apparently went awry, but it is slowly fading from angry blue black to shades of purple and yellow-green. So how much can change in two weeks? Well, a lot. The spasticity in my legs is reduced and my feet at rest are much closer to a natural, neutral position. When I wear my braces it is no longer a wrestling match to try to get my feet into them and I can stand with my feet facing forward for short periods of time (before the knee and hip rotation kicks in and turns them). My feet are the closest to being flat on the ground that they have been in almost 2 years. Toes are unchanged, which means they are still curled tightly under and unable to be straightened. But perhaps next time with the injections on the bottoms of my feet (yikes!) we can get my feet fully flat and my toes to relax some. It is hard to tell how much is permanent contractures and how much is still just spasticity in the toes. Side effects were not too bad, but I do have increased weakness in my legs and have to be very careful when doing any weight bearing that I am safely supported and when in my wheelchair I still must use the straps on my footrests to hold my legs in proper alignment. Other than that, I felt kind of generally yucky for a day or two (could have been an autonomic response to the trauma of the multiple injections) and bruised and that was it. Definitely worth the short term pain for the longer term gains!!!
Just in an unrelated note, the Dysautonomia has been kicking my butt recently and I am currently living on soggy cheerios and green tea and Zofran and headache meds and muscle meds and BP meds and sleeping, sleeping, sleeping.