Moving to a new location....

I have started a new blog for the formation of our new group.  Our new blog is at http://fibromyalgianetworkofmidmichigan.blogspot.com. Our group is called Fibromyalgia Network of Mid Michigan.  Please come over and see what we are doing..

http://fibromyalgianetworkofmidmichigan.blogspot.com/

ANNOUNCING...... Fibromyalgia Network of Mid Michigan

Well our beginning is just around the corner.  I am organizing the initial meetings and working on a good day and time for our meetings.  Any input is appreciated. We will be meeting at Brown Corners Church in Clare Michigan.  Please contact Michelle at FibroNetworkofMidMichigan@hotmail.com for more information...

WELCOME to the revised site

So the journey begins...  I am embarking on finishing something I started a couple of years ago.  I have felt called to begin a Support Group for those in Chronic Pain in my hometown.  I ask that you feel free to leave comments for me or others members.  Please be patient as I work to put this together.

Paint under my fingernails, will it ever come off????

It has too long since I last posted and I apologize for that.  My Mom is retiring up here to Michigan and I have been VERY busy getting her new home ready for her.  I am in the midst of painting EVERY square inch.  Now let me explain to you how much I detest painting.  I would rather cut the grass, weed the garden and give the dogs a bath just to get out of one day of painting.  I have no choice though because she is moving in less than 10 days....  The clock is ticking so needless to say, I am not on the computer as much as I wish I were.

BUT this is the reality, it is my Mom and I am more than willing and mostly happy to do something to make her feel as if she is moving into a dream home for her...  She has been a ministers wife and then after my father passed away she has lived in apartments most all of her life.  This is the first time she can choose her favorite colors to paint her walls.  It may seem like a simple thing, but her excitement is a bit contagious....  SO here I am painting my heart out with paint under my fingernails......

Here's to happy painting...

Michelle

A Give-Away Chance from The Selling Sisters

There is a blog I love to read that has been very helpful in my "other" life as an ebay seller and they are having a give-away and I wanted to share it with you all.  The blog is fun to read as it is written by 2 sisters who actually live cross-country.  It is called The Selling Sisters and I think anyone would enjoy, but at the very least pop on over and check it out, just click on their name it is a link to the give-away...  Have fun

Are we coming to end of the diagnoses journey?

After my last post I had seen the Specialist who had informed my husband and myself that she was diagnosing me with MS or Multiple Sclerosis.  It was not a huge or terrible shock to us, we had heard those words before 4 years earlier with the first positive Spinal Tap, so we plowed forward to make plans to get "our proverbial ducks in a row".  I made an appointment with my Family Dr. and requested that he order all the test that the Neurologist would need to make his diagnoses, so I would walk in his door with everything in hand.  My Family Dr. has always worked under the assumption that I had Fibromyalgia, because when I entered his practice I had just been diagnosed with that from a reputable Rheumatologist.  As we sat there discussing the looming appointment he was looking through all my past medical records and he said he agreed with the previous Dr's opinion, he was diagnosing me with MS as well.  He had never seen all the evidence laid out before him, because we had always assumed it was the Fibromyalgia.  Once he saw the 2 positive Spinal Taps and he already knew my symptoms, he agreed immediately and ordered the tests.

So now I have 2 DR.'s that have diagnoses me with MS and I my test scheduled.  My Spinal Tap is this Friday Morning, yipppee!!!!!  The The full scale MRI's are the end of the month.  Most people don't understand when my husband Greg and I say this is an answer to prayer.  I mean "How in the world can a chronic debilitating disease be an answer to prayer?"  It is really quite simple.  I have been ill for over 10 years and to FINALLY be so close to an actual and REAL answer, is the end of my journey.  Well maybe that is not worded correctly.  It is not the end of my journey, it is really the beginning of a really BIG, NEW journey.  This journey though I will have some support through it (besides my husband who has NEVER wavered).  I will have the medical community treating SOMETHING, instead of chasing phantoms.

So where are you in your journey this week???  Any changes in your condition?  Remember to leave notes in the comments section for communicating with one another.

Gentle Hugs-

Michelle

What Now?

You know how it feels when you think you just might have a grip on something finally and all of a sudden the game plan changes?  Well yesterday was one of these days for me.  I had my long awaited appointment with the new Dr.  She is an Infectious Disease Doctor and it was assumed that I had probably come in contact with some funky parasite or bug at some point in my adult life and it was causing all these problems.  This new Dr. was going to get to the bottom of the problem..  Well we hit a snag.  She begins looking over my massive pile of lab work from the last 10 years, concentrating on the last 2 years mainly and looks at myself and my husband and asked who my Dr's were.  I tell her and she keeps writing feverishly..  Now to go back a little and give you a little history, I was tested for low spinal fluid pressure 4 years ago in regards to my headaches and they did a Spinal Tap.  It came back probable for MS.  I ran all over Michigan for 1 year seeing specialists only to be told you have all the symptoms, but your MRI's are clear, so you don't have MS.  fast forward to a 2 years ago.  I am talking tom my Neurologist and I Saul to him aren't we supposed to do a final Spinal Tap to rule out MS and he said "Yep your right".  We schedule it and I have it done.  A week later I get a call saying it is coming back negative for MS.  I get my copy don't really pay attention and putt in my notebook that I keep my records in.  Fast forward to yesterday.  This new Dr is comparing the 2 Spinal Taps and she sees the Dr's handwriting on the bottom of the second one and cant Reed it and  asks me if I know what  it says.  I told her it Said d to call me and tell me it was negative.  She got very upset and said that this test is not negative for MS, It is decreased by 1 from the previous test.  First test showed 4 + more bands and this test showed 3 bands, but the big deal is you are not supposed to have any in your system EVER unless you have MS primarily or a couple of other diseases.  So I have unofficially DX'ed with MS  and am looking for a Dr in Michigan who knows the head from there rear end.  Any suggestions??

Ever have one of those days.. or weeks??

Disclaimer:  I don't generally post the same thing to both blogs but this one seems to apply greatly for me this week so I apologize to anyone who reads both..

Have you ever had one of those days that turns into one of those weeks? Well boy am I having one this week. It is far too deep to go into , but needless to say I want a do-over.. I want to do-over the entire week.I think I am bound to do better at listing in my store, because I won't allow myself to become so distracted. (yeah, right) I will do better with my housework, I will actually blow dry my hair and maybe put on some make-up. One of the down falls of working at home ,I have found, is I have let myself go a bit. I don't do my hair daily. I don't do my make-up except on Sundays for church, which saves money on make-up, but REALLY how attractive can that be to my wonderful, husband.








You know what.. I am going to get up in the morning and I am going to blow dry my hair AND put on my make-up. I work my eBay business full time and tomorrow I am going to treat it like that, a full-time job. Lets see if I get more done in an 8 hour shift. I feel an experiment coming on.... Stay tuned...







Michelle

Well it is decided we will keep a separate blog for the Chronic Pain Crowd...

There were several reason that went into this decision and the main one is privacy.  I know that there are times that I speak rather bluntly about some symptoms and I know that I may not want all my friends who read the regular "MY Life" blog to have to endure that.  I am sure you all feel the same way.  You don't know these people and you certainly don't know my circle of friends so how in the world would you feel comfortable speaking about IBS on a separate page of a main blog when with just one click someone is reading a recipe.  NO-  This is the best answer.  I may get a bit behind at times and may need a kick in the behind to be reminded to post, because my memory is the worst.  That being said we can begin with the go stuff....

This is for you all, not me.  I know the blog lay-out is not really great for communication, but if we use the comment section we should be about to talk with each other and have some dialog.  I might be able to figure out some kind of feature on here to make that easier, but until then we will just use the comments to leave "comments" obviously and to leave messages for one another and of course once you are comfortable with one another you can connect up with your email addys.  I will start a blog roll on here so we have each others blog address and can go to each of them and "like" them so we get notified of each others updates.  BUT give me a few days to figure out how to get it all done...

Gentle Hugs-
Michelle

So maybe I will keep both sites up..

This is the original Chronic Pain site....I am having problem with people being able to post to the page onmy personal blog so how bout we just have our own and it will give us some privacy as well now that I think of it..  We can speak a bit more bluntly if needed about symptoms that we may not want our other fiends to know so much about.  What do you say.. Keep the page on my personal site ?  Or have our own blog some privacy?
Michelle

PS- Please try to leave a comment so we now if it works......