Hmm...this is the post that shall remain titleless

Mr. Glass P.C., a.k.a. The Forlorn Purple Cat, here. I had a thought today. Well, okay, I had more than just one, but only one pertinent to this...conversation? I suppose it usually takes more than one person to have a conversation, but I do talk to myself a lot, so maybe this does count. In fact, earlier I corrected myself verbally, without realizing it, while on the phone with a perfect stranger.

Anyway...my thought was...if I am Mr. Glass, does that make my husband Mrs. Glass? I can't say that he'd be too thrilled with that. I'm sure he'd rather see himself as Bruce Willis, whose character's name doesn't come to mind, so I'll call him Mr. Anti-Glass. Or maybe Mrs. Anti-Glass? I'm confused.

At any rate, Mr. or Mrs. Anti-Glass married to Mr. Glass? Doesn't really sound like a match made in Heaven, even if opposites really do attract. Don't get me wrong, though, we really are two totally different people. I'm some sort of freeform shape that probably resembles a circle, albeit a circle that is totally out of control of it's usual boundaries and looks more like a round squiggly line, and he is a square. That's not a bad thing, cuz he's not always a perfect square. Sometimes he stretches into a rectangle. And sometimes--and only sometimes--he's a square with a squiggle somewhere in the line. Not all squiggly, mind you, just a squiggle here or there. ^_-

I guess what I mean is, he's not the same as me, so he can't be Mrs. Glass, and he's far from my nemesis, so he can't really be Mr. or Mrs. Anti-Glass. Maybe I should just call him Bruce Willis. I could enjoy that. I'm married to Bruce Willis. There, sounds nice enough to me! ^_^

Status Update #5, for reals this time ^_-

I am now officially a Copaxone pincushion. The injections aren’t as bad as I expected and the needle is rather thin, so I don’t really feel it go in. The medicine, on the other hand, stings. I’ve shot myself in the arm and the leg so far, and when I used my leg, it ached for about 30 minutes and it hurt to walk on it during that time, as well. BUT - the pain and stinging isn’t unbearable and definitely isn’t comparable at all to the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life. I’ve heard that in time it could get better, so I’ll hope for that.

The most common side effect is a reaction at the injection site. I didn’t have any problems on my arm, although I did develop a large hive on my leg that went away over the course of the evening. Each site was tender the next day, with my arm being more tender than my leg, and each site still has a slight bruise and small puncture mark. I have not experienced any other issues.

I hope that I respond well to Copaxone (as far as the treatment itself goes) since, out of the four possible medications, it has the least amount of side effects and I now know how I react to it. The other three meds have flu-like symptoms as side effects, among others, that can hit pretty hard (ie: violent chills that will not go away - yikes!). Obviously, since I haven’t tried the other meds, I can’t say how I’d react to them. I’ve read that Copaxone can take a while build up in the system and can take as much as 3 - 6 months to begin working.

In other good news, I heard back from the CDF (Chronic Disease Fund) and I qualify for financial assistance to help with the cost of Copaxone. Right now, I am covered on a trial basis pending official enrollment in the program (I must submit an application within 30-days). This has given my spirit a tremendous boost, especially since it seemed like several things were hitting us at once and now we have one less thing to worry about. Yay! (I’d jump for joy if half my butt wasn’t numb right now - LOL ^_^)

I’ve been having a good week, too. Until today, I haven’t had any problems with my legs and I even took the stairs instead of using the elevator while running errands yesterday. I don’t think I’ve been able to use the stairs in two months over there, which is a big deal since I’m claustrophobic and hate elevators. As far as today goes, once I’m up and moving I’ve been doing okay, it’s the transition from the chair to standing that’s been giving me problems. My knee wants to buckle until it decides that it’s okay with walking. (I guess my knees are just set in their ways today!)

And...I know I’m rambling, but I just have to say that I finally watched the premiere of Fringe and also caught the new episode last night. It’s got me hooked so far. I like the characters, the storylines are intriguing, and the premise is promising. My only gripe with last night’s ep is that the whole brain eating thing screamed SYLAR, SYLAR!, even though I couldn’t hear it. I knew another show had done something with brain eating, but couldn’t put my finger on it until this morning when the USA Today ran an article about Heroes. Duh! So, it was a little lame, but still neat nonetheless. I really hope this show has learned lessons from others (Lost, Heroes, The X-Files, etc) and doesn’t fall into the same pitfalls. We shall see.

Finally...new House last night!! Yay! I’m hopeless, I know, but I love the show. It still uses the exact same formula from week to week - someone’s dying, don’t know why, a little blood, a seizure, a long list of potential diagnosis, the usual “So-and-so is going to die in 24-hours if we can’t figure this out...”...and then at the last minute, bam!, House saves the day (well, unless the patient dies, which has happened, too, but that doesn’t mean that House didn’t figure out. Come on, the man’s a genius, of course he knows everything, right? Right?). ^_^ At any rate, I’m hooked for now and am still enjoying the distraction in all of its syndicated glory. Give it another month...I bet I’ll be over it by then.

I know I said “finally” but I lied. FINALLY - RIP Gus and Shawn, and Mr. Monk until January. :-(

Status Update #5?

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am about one step away from starting the meds. I've been in contact with the plethora of people needed to get this started and the Rx is currently ready to be picked up. The only hold up now is that the injector was on back order. It has since come into stock and should be on its way to my house as we speak. As soon as it comes in and I pick up the Rx, I'll schedule a nurse to come to my house and show me how to do the injections. I'd say that within a week I'll be able to start.

As far as how I've been doing, every day is hit or miss; there is little to no consistency. I have noticed, however, a pattern from week to week. I experience the most symptoms on Fridays, so much so that I've left work early on a few occasions. On Saturdays, I usually feel ok, but have intermittent strong symptoms, and on Sundays, I'm wiped out and can do very little. I'm usually very tired and sleep most of the day, or I'm just too exhausted and weak to do much. Mondays - Thursdays are in the realm of hit or miss. There are good days and bad days, but I've noticed a worsening progression as the week goes on, and I'm usually pretty wiped out by the end of any work day.

I am now experiencing problems in both arms and both legs - usually not at the same time, although today is an exception. I take 2 gabapentin and 2 benedryl to help with sleep and if I'm not out by 9:30pm, I have a heck of time getting up in the morning. Even with those pills helping, I'm still a relatively light sleeper - Lucien continues to wake me up at least once per night. (There is a picture of this little angel (and the rest of my angels) under my blog posts. He has the big picture in the center.)

The good news is that I'll be attending a meeting with the local MS chapter tomorrow and I've been in contact with a woman who has had MS for a number of years now. She helped me put my symptoms into perspective and gave me an idea of what to expect. She shared some tips to help with the medication, too, and I was very greatful for our conversation. While I'm still struggling with the emotional toll, her words definately lifted the cloud that had been hanging over me.

On another note, my husband would say that I need help with a House obsession. ^_^ I really don't like watching tv and I'm reluctant to seek out new shows to watch (case in point, Fringe - despite my intense curiousity, I recorded the premiere and still haven't watched it), but I recently watched House for the first time and really liked it. And of course, since it seems to be USA's newest syndicated golden child, it's on all the time, so it's on our tv all the time, too. I'm sure I'll tire of it eventually - it follows the same format in every single episode - but for now its holding my interest and offers a good distraction from everything else.

So...that's that...Bye!

Random Things

I love twilight this time of year. The sun sets a bit earlier and the crispness of fall hangs right around the corner. It's nice to sit out back and enjoy the evenings listening to the birds and crickets, or watching butterflies and grasshoppers flit about. And this past thursday, I found a few extra bonuses that I've never noticed before.

Earlier this summer, my aunt introduced me to moon flowers and gave me a few small plantings from her garden. I didn't expect them to bloom this year, so it was a big suprise to find a bloom ready to go at any time. I kept checking and checking and finally got to see it open. The flower itself is much larger than I expected it to be and has a delightful fragrance, both delicate and citrusy, much like a fainter version of my Pope John Paul II rose. It's a very pleasant and graceful flower and I can't wait for it to multiply and grow taller so that I can see it from my windows. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger pictures.

Friends and family know that I have a bit of a weird streak in me. Okay, so maybe "a bit" is an understatement...especially given my next wonderous discovery. How I never noticed this before is beyond me. I love spending time outside, especially in the evening and at night, and I pretty much always have, whether it was during my childhood when I'd be out late playing flashlight tag or when I was older and just enjoyed sitting on the grass under the moon. I have always liked bugs and I love cicadas - not only listening to them, but also watching them fly or listening to them croak in protest when I pick them up. Soooo...for the last few nights I've been watching the robins throw brown chunks around our yard while they peck at them, but I couldn't figure out what the "chunks" actually were. That is, until after I finished marveling at my new moon flower and my husband noticed that all over our yard, cicadas ready to escape their larval shells were crawling in the grass. I of course couldn't resist the chance to play with them...and of course just had to share...

The final thing I discovered that night is that my cat, the youngest one, Lucien, likes to play with bubbles.

On another note, my husband found a baby bunny while he was mowing the yard a few weeks ago and it's such a cute little thing that I figured I'd share since I'm already posting other pictures.

Have a good rest of the night!