Happy Halloween!
I am definitely a cat this Halloween! I received my leopard print AFO (ankle-foot orthosis) and am practicing walking on it. Not doing such a great job as I had a fall today. I had it fitted yesterday and practiced walking on it. It seemed to help me walk at a normal pace and with more confidence, probably too much as I tripped over my right foot today. Lesson learned, I need to move with intention, yes, yes to my therapy friends, practice mindfulness!
Today was such a relief as we went for a follow-up to see Travis's cardiologist. We were both a bit nervous as we had booked our flights and hotels for Italy, and were worried about his results. He had an ECG and everything is normal! The Dr said that chances of a reoccurrence were slim and that usually it would happen early, meaning he most likely would have had it by now. He said that what Travis had (Pericarditis) is common, which surprised us as we hadn't heard of it before and the Dr said it's because it isn't as "sexy" as a heart attack! In fact he said, if you had to come & see me, this is the best possible occasion for it! What a way to put a positive in an extremely frightening experience! Travis will have another follow up in 3 months time and the Doc gave his approval for Travis to drink Italian wine, cheers!
We are busy getting ready for our trip on Monday and brought up the suitcases, only to find a big hole right through my bag! Good thing we checked early (at least I haven't lost my organizational skills), so we went to the Bay as they had a 60% off luggage sale. Due to the recommendation of Travis's coworker we bought a hard cased "Hayes" 4 wheel bag. The 4 wheels are awesome, it will be so much easier for me to get around with. Thank you Kass :)
Awesome thing for today: Uncle Geoff flying into Venice for 1 night to spend time with Travis & I!!!
I am definitely a cat this Halloween! I received my leopard print AFO (ankle-foot orthosis) and am practicing walking on it. Not doing such a great job as I had a fall today. I had it fitted yesterday and practiced walking on it. It seemed to help me walk at a normal pace and with more confidence, probably too much as I tripped over my right foot today. Lesson learned, I need to move with intention, yes, yes to my therapy friends, practice mindfulness!
Today was such a relief as we went for a follow-up to see Travis's cardiologist. We were both a bit nervous as we had booked our flights and hotels for Italy, and were worried about his results. He had an ECG and everything is normal! The Dr said that chances of a reoccurrence were slim and that usually it would happen early, meaning he most likely would have had it by now. He said that what Travis had (Pericarditis) is common, which surprised us as we hadn't heard of it before and the Dr said it's because it isn't as "sexy" as a heart attack! In fact he said, if you had to come & see me, this is the best possible occasion for it! What a way to put a positive in an extremely frightening experience! Travis will have another follow up in 3 months time and the Doc gave his approval for Travis to drink Italian wine, cheers!
We are busy getting ready for our trip on Monday and brought up the suitcases, only to find a big hole right through my bag! Good thing we checked early (at least I haven't lost my organizational skills), so we went to the Bay as they had a 60% off luggage sale. Due to the recommendation of Travis's coworker we bought a hard cased "Hayes" 4 wheel bag. The 4 wheels are awesome, it will be so much easier for me to get around with. Thank you Kass :)
Awesome thing for today: Uncle Geoff flying into Venice for 1 night to spend time with Travis & I!!!
 |
How it All Started
Some people were wondering when & how I first noticed symptoms. The first symptoms I noticed were leg cramps at night in my calves. The first time I felt that something was wrong was when Travis & I went ice skating on the canal this February for Winterlude, the South African was better at skating than the Canadian (wha????) my legs just didn't seem to work properly. In March I tried to run and my legs wouldn't do what my brain was telling them to. Then I noticed that I started tripping over my own feet and when I stumbled my legs would collapse. We travelled to Namibia in April/May and I noticed that my legs wouldn't lift me up, I had to use my arms to crawl into the jeep, and I couldn't just jump from boulder to boulder when looking for cave art. Back at work I noticed that I was shaky when filling up my tea. During the summer I noticed that I was unsteady wearing wedges on my summer shoes and when walking across the street, I had to wait for there to be no cars, I could no longer dodge traffic! Thank goodness I had just gotten a family Doctor this year and had a physical in July. I told her about my symptoms and she asked me to stand on my heels and lift up my toes, I couldn't do it. She ordered a head and back MRI, my back was fine and the head came back with hypertension in the brain so she ordered a contrast MRI and gave me a referral to a neurologist. On September 19th I met with the neurologist who gave me an EMG and literally shocked me (my muscles) and immediately gave me the diagnosis of ALS. He said, in fact, the hypertension of the brain was nothing to worry about, which sucks for me as I still have to live with Migraines!
RSS Feed
