Live Love Laugh with Carol
Contact Carol
  • Home
  • Love Story
  • ALS
  • Blog
  • Tips & Tricks
  • Gallery
  • Travel
  • Media
  • Calendar
  • DONATE

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

10/31/2013

4 Comments

 
Picture
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!!! 

Picture

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!
4 Comments
Heather
10/31/2013 01:05:00 pm

Leopard never looked so good Lovey!

So glad you both are wine-endorsed for Italy (that's a medically mandated Rx right?)!

Hugs and kisses to you two and the furry meowsers too xxoo til soon

Reply
Dad - Allan
10/31/2013 03:27:26 pm

Thanks for the details on how it started, and updates on Trav's Pericarditis Carol (I cut and paste that to get it right :-) Nice looking walking shoes you have there, may they serve you well on your Italy adventure. Story of the suitcase made me smile. Suitcases are one of the most common items seen out on the road during Auckland's annual 'put out any old stuff you don't want on the road' event. Our area was last week, didn't have much to go out this year (should have had a good look at those old suitcases) ask Trav about the road phenomenon, I wonder if he experienced it?

Reply
Julie Levesque
11/1/2013 02:26:09 am

Have a great trip, take a lot of picture to show us!
Will be thinking about you guys! sending you a big hug xox

Reply
Emma
11/3/2013 10:14:14 pm

Just caught up on a few blogposts, so grateful to read of Trav's good news and that you are both in the clear for your trip to Italy :) :) :)

Thanks also for sharing about 'how it all started' - was also wondering what the early signs were - so it was very helpful to understand. Must have been such a scary process, but grateful you got it correctly diagnosed early. Respect to you for continuing to live life to the fullest, and I am SO grateful we had Namibian adventures together. Family time together is priceless :)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Carol Jean Skinner (née Sharman)
    born October 19
    lives in Ottawa, Canada

    Archives

    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    RSS Feed

carol skinner  - rolyskinner@gmail.com
travis skinner - skinnertravis@gmail.com