Verse of the week

"and He will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure."     Isaiah 33:6

Picture 101: EDS Snapshot

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Verse of the Week

"And though the LORD give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left."     Isaiah 30:20-21

My Art Studio!!!

Since I have more concentration and all I have started drawing more. With school almost finished I can't wait to get into it!! SO, I set up my own act/craft studio!!

My table.  I came home to it Saturday.

Its set up!!

I have to admit that I was hurting quite a bit after setting the table up.  Not sure how I would do it next time though.....probably ask someone else to help me!  At least its up :-)

Christmas in July :-)

Some supplies unexpectedly came this morning!

"The kitty" colored pencil drawing

I've always wanted to try drawing on black paper.  So the other day I did for the first time.  I picked out a photograph and watched a movie while I worked on it! It was SO much fun!!! Can't wait to get more of this paper soon :-)

Verse of the week

"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things."           ~ 1 Corinthians 13:7

Laughter is the best medicine

An Afternoon at the Fire Station

My brother and I headed down to the nice and cool station after getting some ice cream.  Took pictures, watched the Olympic trials, and um......I took a shot at pool but I have to say it was a disaster........need some serious practice there:-)  The hot weather has been a little bit of a challenge for POTS but hopefully not too many more weeks of this heat! And hopefully we will get some more rain like last night.  Just don't want the wind ;-)

My brother getting his gear on. 100 pounds with air pack and all!

The station's two year old ladder truck.  Pretty impressive in person!

Really??

I got so much done yesterday.  I cleaned, worked out, worked on my essay, went for a walk, got some baking done.   I mean, what else could you ask for?  I was feel pretty good :-)
Later this morning, I started getting some pain in my left shoulder.  Then it got really bad and started going down my arm, all the way to my hand.  My mom thought it must have been from carrying a water bottle on my walk.  Honestly, I thought that I wouldn't have to deal with that...........it wasn't THAT much weight.  SO, I called my physical therapist and he agreed that it was probably from carrying a water bottle. The weight pulling my 'straight' arm kind of tugged on my loose shoulder.  Usually, when it hurts or feels like the joint has slipped out of place in the socket, I can move my arm a certain way and it will pop back.  It didn't work this time.  So I'm not sure what happened to it: just what made it hurt.  

The game plan is to ice it and when I go for a walk I need to make sure that my elbow is bent when I carry my water bottle.  The act of accommodating with EDS!!! I'm not sure about you, but right now I'm thinking...........who usually has to worry about how they carry a simple water bottle??  At least it sounds crazy :P

As for a little update.  My ankle still the same.  My hip is a little worse.  I have an appointment with a really good hip doctor for.................hmm.......well...........December.  We are on the cancellation list, don't worry :-)  I was officially discharged several weeks ago! And my physical therapist did say I could go surfing in a few weeks!! I'm SO excited!!! I'm trying to figure out what kind of braces I'm going to need to get. 

As for tomorrow, it's a horseback riding trial and a 2nd art class in the morning.  We will see if I end up sleeping the afternoon away :-) Tomorrow is my active day.  I try to take one day off and rest between active days.  It seems to work fairly well.  I just need to still pace myself on the busy days and not pack too much stuff into them :-)

God Of My Everything

Just a little warning,  after the song at 3:29 there is absolutely nothing.  I'm not sure why but there is almost five minutes of 'absolute nothing' on the video.  Kinda odd :)  I hope y'all enjoy the song!

Three years later

2009

I wasn't all that pleased when I did this three years ago.  For the past few months, I've kept running into it and wanting to redo it and see if my watercolor skills have improved any since then.  Other than accidentally starting it on the wrong side of the paper, I'm more happy than last time with how it ended up.  Maybe in the next three years I'll try it again:-)

2012

"live life at your own pace" ??

That’s what you are told when diagnosed with POTS.  When I first heard that I kind of pushed it aside and ignored it, thinking it sounded really………….hmm…..can I say spoiled and……selfish.  I thought that if I just pushed through the fatigue and the ‘not feeling well’ and stopped slacking that I might be able to learn how to deal with it.   NOT a good idea.  I guess I'm sort of learning just what it might mean..........especially this week.  Sunday night I babysat a 2 1/2 year old.  For about an hour and a half, she literally screamed, fussed, cried ect.  It completely wore me OUT.  mom had to come over and put her to bed for me.....I was conked out on the sofa.  I think it was the noise and stress of trying to stop her crying that did it.  I ended up sleeping ok, and when I got back home in the morning I went back to bed.  I had planned on taking my last Chemistry test that morning because I had PT later in the morning and I had to babysit overnight again Monday night.  I figured that I would be too tired to it do later so it was basically then or never………so I thought. Mom was not convinced that I should take it because I bombed the same test a month or so prior partially because of fatigue and ‘brain fog’…….thanks to POTS!!  So I just rested for a little while and left for PT later that morning. 

The news with PT is short but a lot!  I have one more appointment before being discharged!!!!!!!!!!!! The other thing is I’m probably going to have to see a doctor for my hip to find out if they can’t do some non-surgical stuff to it.  And I’m not sure what’s going to happen to my ankle.  It still bothers me a bit and I now have tendonitis in it but it really doesn’t stop me from doing anything, only hurts occasionally. 

After PT and lunch, I slept most of the 2 hour drive home, and that’s including thirty minutes of waiting for mom to get out of the grocery store (something I never do).  Once I came home I went straight to bed and slept for about three hours.  Mom had to try to wake me up several times and each time I went right back to sleep.  I finally got up and had dinner.  Around that time I found out that the babysitting job had been canceled…………more sleep! I was in bed around eight thirty or nine and got up around nine thirty in the morning.  By then I think I felt like I was beginning to revive some, enough to take the test. 

This past week has been basically been about not overdoing it.  If I want or need to do something I have to prioritize and not do everything at once or in one day.  I’m not good at it and probably drive mom up the wall when I insist on doing stuff.  Hopefully I can get the hang of it SOON!

I can't say that "living life on your own pace" is selfish because sometimes you really don't have a choice.  You may insist on something but your body can insist on something entirely different and it usually wins.  It’s the admitting it and actually "living life at your own pace" that is the hard part. It’s not that you are giving up, it’s just you have to be more creative and unique with what you do and how.