Sunday Evening

Sunday, December 28, 2008

My younger brother (in life), Scott Shuford and his wife Kyle and their son Madison, came up on Friday to visit us and his uncle & aunt (in Lincoln). The drove up from near Aliso Viejo (sp?)in Southern California. Due to the distance, we don't get to see one another much, so ANY visit is a blessing and never long enough. Certainly one of the more significant things that has changed within me, due to this stinkin' disease, is that I NOW value my time and moments with my family and friends as I always should have, not as I have in the past; I value them as I do my ability to breathe. I've known Scotty since he was in 8th grade and I was a sophomore in high school. We have been brothers since that time; inseparable throughout '79 - 85' or '86 and after that, never out of touch. He's my brother. He's my friend. I cannot imagine life without him; he's a part of me, and I'm grateful to God for him.

We spent the day with them on Saturday, which was great, and closed the day at our house, just hanging out over snacks and a wonderful dinner prepared by CC. After dinner at some point, I don't know what time it was, the brain fog hit quick and I became unable to see again, as well as exhausted. CC helped me upstairs and into bed and then went and hung out more with them until they wanted to head home.

I woke up this morning and felt like I had been kicked in the stomach and chest, with my ribs in serious pain; in tears at a few points because I simply couldn't help it. CC had told me to take my meds right when I got up, but I got distracted with emails and thus the pain got worse faster and I ended up behind the pain curve.
I HATE being that way, and I ESPECIALLY HATE being that way around my family and visiting friends. I took my meds and they eventually took good effect and relieved me of the severe aspects of the hurt.

We went to Capitol Christian Church this morning and it was JUST what I was needing, selfishly anyway. If I get my act together soon, I'll post some of the pics I took; they do it up right.

I should also share that CC and I were able to buy a HUGE gift for Missy and Joshy; a XBox 360. Joshy's been on it ever since Christmas night, and now with Madison visiting, the two of them have been playing it like crazy and having a great time (except for when Joshy gets mad at it for beating him). The responses I got from my querey on Facebbok regarding which system to buy, were pretty well split down the middle between XBox 360 and Wii. I did tons of homework and research on both and decided that the XBox was more a better fit for us than the Wii.

I'm really getting tired so I'll be closing, but I need to share with you that one of my closest brothers, Harry Reynolds, was in a car accident on Christmas morning while on his way up from Long Beach to San Carlos. He's banged up and badly bruised but didn't break anything or end up with any internal injuries, praise God. His truck rolled multiple times and is done, so he needs a vehicle now and has very little to work with to make that happen, I think, so I share this because I'm asking for your prayerful support of him while he continues to recover. Please pray for his continued healing and that any torn ligaments or muscles will be supernaturally healed and mended and that God will provide for him another truck or vehicle to meet his needs ASAP. It breaks my heart not to be there with him and help in some way, so this is all I can think to do at this point. Please, do be praying for him during this time.

Also, prayers for the attacks to mellow out would be coveted as well...

Yesterday & today were very

Yesterday & today were very good days. At 3ish today I suffered another hit and was down over 5 hours.
Going to bed now.

Merry Christmas from the Orangevale Odums!

The Odums of Orangevale: 2008 in Review

The Odums of Orangevale
2008 in Review


Warmest greetings and God’s blessings to each of you who are reading this. We, as a family, believe that Jesus is the answer to every soul’s question, and especially during this time of celebrating the Christ Mass, i.e. Christmas, we are constantly reminded and always learning how much God truly does love and care for His people. It’s been years since we have sent out a *legit* Christmas card and family update, so, just two days before Christmas, we have created this collection of thoughts to share with you all.

2008 brought many, many blessings including:
• A 2 story rental home that’s closer to the kid’s school as well as giving both kids their own room and an office for me
• “Closure” to our home on Primrose
• 2 motorized chairs: one for our home here in Orangevale and one for me to use at my parent’s house in San Carlos
• Motorized adjustable beds (gifted to us by very dear family friends form the Bay Area) which allow us better sleep options and care ability during attack and recoveries.
• 2 chair/recliners for our living room (which are well suited for me to be in if during an attack.)
• A cell phone (daddy’s old one) for Missy. She’s “off the hook” happy about it……get it? “Off the hook”…um…okay…moving on now….
• Reconnection with friends from Jr. high, High school and even college and churches via Facebook.com
• Closer friendships and family relations.
• Blessings, prayers and support from our FOP, MPPC & TPC families

Missy says “COOKIE!!” (Missy loves random things and words, so her random word currently is “cookie”…don’t ask me, I only live here)
Okay, anyway, as we continue, Missy is up next and is standing tall (actually, she is taller than her mother, even as I type!) in the face of her oncoming teen years and scholastic academics. Wow. That read pretty cool. She’s’ doing great with her grades and is loving school.
Missy turned 14 this past September and is the most comfortable she’s ever been at school. Of course, she’s an eighth grader this year and is enjoying looking down the class ladder. While enjoying being in the *ruling grade* this year, she realizes that next year will bring a very different but exciting new year for her as she will begin…HIGH SCHOOL!!!! She can’t wait. Many of her friends are going to go to the same high school that she will attend, so she will have a core group of friends to transition with. Very cool!
She also played soccer this year and really enjoyed it, As the season progressed, she became more and more confident and accurate with her kicks and passes and she did a great job! She says that she especially enjoyed the weekly practice scrimmages with the boys’ teams and BEATING them!!! This year also brought many slumber parties and marathon cartoon watching, but the thing she loves most to do is…read. She is just devouring books, one after another! I just get dizzy trying to keep up with who is who in which book at what time in what part of what series…see what I mean? Her mom and I are so excited for her to have such a desire and ability to read like this at this age.

Joshua says “Hi!”
On May 6th of 2008, Joshua turned 9 years old; an occasion that was filled with fun and excitement. He notes that this was our first year in this home and he really likes this house the most!
He has been enjoying laser tag, playing as much as possible being that it is one of his favorite games to go and play with friends.
In Orangevale Soccer, he says he had a really fun time and even learned how to head the ball during a game (as well as practice).
His favorite games at school are Two-Touch and Prisoner (plus he loves to tease the girls at any opportunity, though he does not like getting the resulting *kick* that usually follows…) When asked what his favorite subject in school is, he said “recess”…smart guy. After much consideration, he says Reading is his *favorite* subject, if he had to choose. His grades accurately reflect his enjoyment of school and the hard work he puts in and we are very proud of him!
While at home, he says that playing video games on Daddy’s computer is the “funnest” thing to do, but he is always amazed by how many hours go away while he is battling in the universe in Lego Star Wars, as well as “Star Wars: Empire at War”. His longest game session to date is 8 hours and he wants to make it to 24 hours…Daddy doesn’t think that’s going to happen any time soon, but he can dream, can’t he? He also loves to ride his bike and rough-house with Annie, our dog (Annie, incidentally, outweighs him by a good thirty to forty pounds!) Joshy also loves playing with his Legos, making up battles with his toys (all over the house) and riding on his Daddy’s lap while on his motorized chair returning home from church.


CC says “Merry Christmas!”
Probably THE busiest Super Mom-Super Wife-Superwoman that has ever NOT donned a cape (not that we’ve seen anyway…). She handles all Odum inbound and outbound traffic, is the nurse for sick children and husband, often taking care of dishes, laundry, vacuuming and carpet cleaning ALL THE WHILE earning exemplary certificates from her work!!!... SIMULTANEOUSLY EVEN!!!!! She flat-out amazes me all the time.
This Christmas season, she has been able to decorate more to her liking because we have now gone through nearly all of our ‘garage Boxes” that we have toted from home to home for several years and many homes. This year, her decorations are perfectly and intentionally placed throughout the house, from one end to the other, including Christmas lights around the tree, the living room windows, fireplace, cabinet and even Annie’s crate! In spite of all of the different life circumstances that could be bringing her down to a crawl on all fronts, CC just keeps on getting it done and blessing everyone she comes into contact with. I am THE MOST BLESSED man on the planet…granted, I’m a tad bit biased, but it’s true! Whenever she is able to create a window of down-time, she likes to read, assemble a jigsaw or play a board game with me and the kids.


Wade says “Step by step, rung by rung…Merry Christmas!”
See?! THAT’S what happens when you are listening to Huey Lewis while thinking of a title for your next person’s paragraph (which in THIS case just happened to be mine!) Let that be a lesson to you writers out there. Don’t Huey and write.
Okay, this letter will be going to some folks who may not know what has been going on with me or us for the last few years, so those of you who are in the know, please forgive the familiar information while I share a somewhat brief “Catch me up”: In September of 2006, after only 3 years at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church as their Director of Media Technologies and over 8 years in the Media Ministry itself, and over 20 years as a live Sound/Recording Engineer in the Christian Music Industry as a songwriter/arranger, musician & vocalist…, my working tenure in those trades came to an abrupt close after I was diagnosed with a rare debilitating and progressive muscle disease called Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis (HKPP). Essentially, HKPP means that my body does not process or utilize potassium correctly, and as a result, I suffer attacks of paralysis and seizure-like episodes of muscle spasms, sometimes even daily. Each attack results in some degree of permanent muscle damage and resulting chronic pain. That’s the quick and short of it.
As a result, our family world has changed in dramatic ways, as has our income, our outflow and our faithful infrastructure. God has PROVEN to me that He cares for the lowly, the fallen, the broken, the fallible and the obviously tarnished. During a time of prayer in my house a few months ago, with a very good friend, I heard my own voice say “…my body may be broken, but my spirit is not” and that single phrase pretty well encapsulates my battled frame of mind, from day to day. He does not give us more than we can handle WITH HIM and believe me, I AM THANKFUL He is with me, even now. Though I cannot drive anymore or walk long distances (I now have a motorized chair), my depth of gratitude for “the simple things” I have taken for granted, has deepened immeasurably and seems to deepen a bit each day. If it was Thanksgiving, I would list some of the many, many things that I am tangibly thankful for now, and that list would likely read of obvious simple things like being able to still walk, to be able to still see, to hold my wife and my children and to just go out to dinner…
This year has brought me back in touch with friends and family that I have not seen or connected with in quite some time, prior to this year. I became connected with Facebook.com and before too long, I was connecting with people form my past as well as folks from my present and those relationships have proven very encouraging and a source of strength to me. My hope and prayer is that 2009 will bring wellness, happiness, stability and warmth of friendships and love of family to our home, even every day of the New Year.


Shadow says “…MeowwwRauuuuw” (which I think means “Merry Christmas. Now leave me until I demand more food. You may leave now.”)
CC brought Shadow home to us while we were living in Orange County, just a month or so after we had gotten married in September of 1989. Shadow considered herself “Feline Grand Poobah, Queen of the Roost” until 1984 when I brought home an adorable kitten (Jazzy) from outside the local Safeway where his owner was giving away his kitten siblings on a very cold winter’s night. The last straw for Shadow’s rule was In September of that same year when Missy was born; from that time one, Shadow developed her own little “Kitty-tude” in response to loosing her position as Feline Grand Poobah and has maintained it ever since. She too, has been a faithful, yet ever-so-slightly-temperamental feline companion over these past many years.
In 2007, we lost our beloved Jazzy, rather suddenly to a sudden kidney illness and it took a few months for ALL of us, including Shadow, to get through the mourning and heartbreak.
This year, 2008, brought Shadow’s 19th birthday and, though she is now a very skinny “Shadowcat”, her personality is ever present and she is just as cranky as she ever was and just a tad hard of hearing.


Annie says “…Woof…rrrrrrwoof…rrrrrrrrruuf woof!” (which I’m pretty sure means “I love you all, now WHERE’S THE CAT WHO’S LIVING UPSTAIRS IN YOUR BEDROOM??? I WANNA PLAY TAG!!!)
Annie’s 3rd birthday was this year and she has reached her nominal weight of 95 lbs. She is our Doberman/Hound/Shepherd mix and family companion. Just a few months back, while the kids and I were upstairs and CC was at work, a “visitor” decided to “visit” our home through the rear sliding glass door. I heard the door, as did Annie, but I never got to meet our “visitor” because Annie chased him into the back yard and over our side fence where he made it out to the street and into the neighborhood. I have always hoped that our dog would “do the right thing” when confronted with a thief or an attacker, and I am THOROUGHLY confident that we are as safe as can be with our beloved Annie on the watch. She is my pal and my guard when I am home alone when the kids are in school and CC is at work. I take her for walks around our little neighborhood with her wearing a chest harness and leash with me in my motorized chair; we have a great time together and she has become quite strong now, being able to actually pull my chair and me together; over 400 lbs combined weight! She’s tipped me over a couple of time due to her strength as well as my not being prepared, but I am far wiser for it now. She’s a loyal and best friend and our family’s defender (besides my shotgun and rifle, but that’s for another time… )


Well, that’s the best I can do to bring y’all up to date on us here Odums. We miss and love you all and hope to be able to see or hear from each of you this coming year, 2009!

May God’s peace and His blessings be manifested within you and about you and may His face shine upon you and bring you His peace.

Merry Christmas!!

With love-

Wade, CC, Missy, Joshua, Shadow and Annie

We are in attendance of the final Nutcracker Ballet of Sacramento's 2008 season!
Our hope was to see the Nutcracker this winter but not the version being done in San Francisco; it was too different from the original.
Peace.

Sunday night = pain

Yesterday included 3 smaller hhits wich knocked me down each time and prevented anything good.
Today we were at a party for my little brother Kevin Kern's son Austin. I made it a coulpe hours but had a medium to hard hit and had to be wheeled out and put in the van. to go home.
every muscle hurts.typing hurts, seeing hurts, blinking hurts and breathing hurts.
This sucks. I wonder if I'll walk tomorrow.

Joshy playing with Big Uncle Kevin!

Grrr....Time to get caught up

Monday, December 15, 2008

I feel like a schmo for not having gotten back to this before now. And, even now, I am writing from the downstairs computer due to convenience of access and emergence of thought, instead of collecting and organizing my thoughts and then heading upstairs to sit in the office and write from there.

Before getting to more home-oriented and personal life focused sharing, I must comment on a couple things that were "news-worthy" as of this morning's Associated Press and New York Times. Don't ask me why I was reading the New York Times...I have no good reason other than simply following page links which caught my eye. Anyway...
...in an article by Peter Baker of the New York Times called "Acid Test: The Lasting Effects of Political Poison", Published: December 13, 2008, wrote a nearly 1,300 word perspective of comparisons between Clinton's 1998 impeachment proceedings and Obama's intentional, immediate distancing of himself and his cabinet from the governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich scandal.

How are these two comparable? Because Obama has hired on 3 of Clinton's former team from that time period, each of whom went through the fire with Clinton and "learned", as a result, how to initiate damage control at the first outbreak of insinuated impropriety, whether legitimate (as in Clinton's case, though Bake downplays the severity of Clinton's betrayal of Office and moral confidence) or speculated (as in Obama's situation with Blagojevich). In the latter situation, Baker makes sure to note that "Even though Mr. Obama had no known personal involvement, the Clinton veterans understood that was only part of the issue. They had Mr. Obama publicly declare he had never spoken with Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich about the Senate appointment. They imposed a cone of silence on colleagues so they would not make a remark that could come back to haunt them. And they ordered an internal inquiry to document any contacts with the governor’s advisers." The dust hasn't nearly settled and the American public does not have many of the facts regarding the Blagojevich situation, but even the press has begun its campaign to make sure that all readers understand that Obama is completely innocent of any wrongdoing, well before there is any conclusion. Do I think Obama has any responsibility in the whole deal or is involved in any way? I have no clue and would not begin to say one way or another, but apparently Mr. Baker of the NYT knows better and wants his readers to understand from the outset that Obama is clean regarding this mess. Damage control before admission of knowledge of possible improprieties, as instructed by former Clinton advisers who are considered battle-ready political warriors, due to their "service" with a president who I consider to be shameful and boastfully dishonest. Baker notes in the beginning of his article that Clinton was acquitted by the senate, which I read as saying he was found not guilty of wrong-doing, but then later he states “the Senate fell short of the two-thirds needed for conviction. Mr. Clinton was later found in contempt of court by a federal judge and, in his last hours in office, cut a deal with federal prosecutors admitting he did not tell the truth under oath and accepting disbarment.” He wasn’t found innocent; he was not convicted because not enough politicians voted to have him impeached. Not only did he break the law and then get away with it because he was the president, he now gets paid millions of millions of dollars on the lecture circuit, partly due to his notoriety as a blemished public figure of interest…not that I have an opinion or anything like that…I wouldn’t want you to think I have strong feelings about a topic like this, you know… Bleh.
I guess where I am going with this tirade is that I’m greatly bothered that the writer intentionally drew comparisons of Clinton’s actual and in my opinion, appropriate impeachment to theoretical impeachment “rumors” of Bush, due to his foreign policies and to Republicans wanting revenge for Clinton’s acquittal so they are aiming at Obama over the Blagojevich situation. According to Baker, it seems likely that Obama is being held to account for Clinton’s acquitted sins by the Republicans, not because he might actually be connected to Blagojevich, indirectly or directly.
I’m not sure if I made my point or not…

The other “bone of contention” is a bit briefer. On Sunday, while in Iraq, President Bush had to duck after an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at the President, one at a time. The President was rather quick in dodging the shoes and the Secret Service pounced on the reporter within seconds of the attack. As I read the article, it seemed to be written with an air towards being understanding of the reporter who threw his shoes instead of condemning anyone who would throw anything at a president. The reporter’s employer has demanded the release of the reporter stating that he was utilizing his “freedom of expression” and that he should be allowed to do so. The writer could have shaded the article towards condemning attacking someone by throwing his shoes (which in fact, is one of the most severe Arabic expressions of hatred and loathing, to throw one’s shoe at another or something) or what damage was done to now trusting Arabic reporters in news conferences or anything of the sort, but instead, it read to me as if it was some how understandable and even culturally appropriate, considering the current state of Iraqi politics with the US. The first quote noted to be from an Iraqi citizen is “‘He [George Bush] deserves to be hit with 100, not just one or two shoes. Who wants him to come here?’ said a man in Baghdad. “At least the writer did include the following quote from another Iraqi citizen; "I think this incident is unnecessary, to be honest. That was a press conference, not a war. If someone wants to express his opinion he should do so in the proper manner, not this way."
In no way could this behavior be considered “appropriate” or “acceptable” or excusable. Apparently Human Rights organizations are trying to monitor this result very closely to make sure the reporter’s rights are not violated while in custody. In and of itself, that is not a bad thing, but to note it and highlight it in this article, alludes to the suggestion that it is probable that his rights will/are being violated and that the responsibility for those rights infringements will also be laid at the current President’s feet, as if it is his fault.
Okay, I think I’m done with my current frustrations on those two topics.

Now, as to life here and medical realities and such…It seems that I have been able to go for longer stretches of time without suffering attacks, during the winter months than during the summer months. I think I went nearly 17 days without an attack over the past few weeks, which is a true blessing, yet weird to write at the same time. Life should not be filled with muscular attacks of any kind, but if I’m going to have to contend with them, then I’d like them to be few and far between.
The last two attacks were opposites of each other; the first was a result of “running” down the stairs of my home and running outside through the garage to defend a neighbor from two pit/boxer dogs who were attacking her. The dogs had fled by the time I could get outside with my club so I followed down the street in the direction they fled, but to no avail. It was then, as I was walking back up towards the small group of neighbors who had gathered due to hearing the screaming of the woman being attacked, that I realized how cold it was out there and also how angry I was in the moment. I was furious that these two dogs were out of their yard, free to “pack up” against anyone they choose and that the apparently got away with it without receiving any discipline for their viciousness…it makes me angry just thinking about it. ANYWAY, after joining up with the collection of neighbors and beginning to talk amongst ourselves, I began to feel my lower back tighten up and begin to spasm. As I focused on what exactly was beginning to happen, my legs began to lock, which is the sign that I will soon lose my ability to remain upright. It was then that CC asked me if I was alright. I was able to shake my head “no” and she called to Missy (the kids had come outside, following CC who had chased after me, apparently) to help get me back inside before another issue was begun in the street. CC got me upstairs and into bed just as the attack hit fully and the rest of that story is more or less, just pain and not unusual. I couldn’t walk much the following day and remained in bed until the day after that when I began to be able to walk again.

The next attack was a paralytic attack last Friday evening. I was on the couch watching “Horton Hears a Who” with Missy and became aware at the end of the movie that I could not move from the position I had been laying in. When I tried to speak, my mouth seemed to move, I think, but my vocal chords didn’t. I was somewhat able to move my head in answers to CC’s questions but by far, the paralysis attacks come with more fear simply because I am completely conscious but unable to control my body. Both types of attacks bring resulting pain with them but the pains are of differing intensities, for the most part. I think the paralysis attacks result in more severe pain because they are purely being affected by the rapid, unexpected exchange of potassium in the muscles instead of the muscle workouts they get from the spasms themselves.

During the recovery process from an attack, people who know that I am recovering from them often ask how I’m feeling or how I’m doing, and the temptation is for me to be brutally honest and answer their questions directly, but I know that the majority of folks are primarily wanting to convey their awareness to my plight and that they care how I’m doing, rather than wanting to actually know how I am feeling in that moment and in general at the time of the question. I don’t see this as a negative in any way; I see this as my responsibility to correctly judge the nature of the question by the person and answer accordingly, so as to not find myself sharing more than expected or necessary, so to speak. I think, in general, that most folks wish to simply greet one another not engaging in conversation, but instead find themselves asking someone “How are you?” or “How are you doing?” or “Hey, you doin’ okay?” which invite the recipient to greet and express their current *condition* with the greeter, which may not have been what the greeter really wanted to know. I went through this a lot back when I was recovering from my back surgeries and while I was recovering from taking myself of prescribed pain meds. I was a very angry man during those years and I was pretty medicated in that time too, which had masked the physical and emotional pain of that time until I took myself off the meds which meant, not only was I now feeling the real physical pain from the back surgery (I had broken my back) but I was also unable to escape the emotional and cerebral pain anymore and I had to come to grips with both simultaneously. Not some of my better years of life, I must confess. I digressed into this because it was during that time that I would hold people responsible for the questions they would ask, advertently or inadvertently, so that when they asked how I was, I would ask them if they really wanted to know that or did they just want to be polite and say “Hi” and get on with their life. Now, I’m no where near that mindset (I do thank God for deliverance from that mindset), but I do find it necessary to internally determine, as best I can, the motives of the person asking so I don’t end up sharing more than they probably or actually want to know. That can be difficult at times and it is honest to say that it certainly was easier when I was angry with everyone, to simply call everyone on the carpet for the intent of their greetings rather than being responsible for my own perceptions. If I was to have an extending thought regarding this, I guess it would be to maybe keep that in mind when you greet someone and they don’t respond in the manner you might be expecting; perhaps there’s more going on inside them and the social discerning filter within their brain or heart may be clogged with pain and suffering or even just broken from one kind of abuse or another. Who knows? With all that being said, PLEASE know that I am not being critical of ANYONE asking how I am doing and I GREATLY appreciate everyone's concern. This was just a tangent thought that I felt like including and is in no way me trying to convey anything other than that thought.

So, “How are you, Wade?” I am doing alright and able to walk alright today. That’s the best qualification I can give at this point. I’m not stuck in bed nor am I needing someone to watch over me 24x7 right now, so I must be doing pretty well considering what all could be happening.

Okay, so let’s see…I’ve shared that we’ve learned HKPP and me seem to do better in the winter months than during the summer months. I’ve learned that if I am furious and I run down the stairs and it is cold/brisk outside, that I have triggered my own attack by combining stress, physical exertion and cold air with me. We are pretty certain that the deli sandwich I had while watching the movie with Missy was likely too high in sodium and thus triggered the paralysis attack, so, I have to be more diligent on my food choices. I’ve learned that lack of bodily rest and sleep creates a potentially volatile platform for HKPP attacks; in that something that would not ordinarily trigger an attack, might just be the key stimulating factor to kick in an attack if I am low on rest and/or sleep. I’ve learned that I can have a surgical procedure without it triggering an attack; something that we expected to be the opposite. CC said that the South Sac Kaiser OR team was excellent in the pre and care of me before, during and after the oral surgery on my teeth. Why not just go to the dentist’s office? Why choose to be “put under” to take care of fillings and crowns? In short, HKPP. The disease prevents my body from responding to the majority of dental anesthetics and throughout my life, from childhood through my 30’s, dentists simply believed that I was being over-reactive and dramatic to their dental work, unaware and unaccepting that the numbing medicines they were giving me, were not taking affect and thus the dental work they did, for the most part, I was able to feel, hear, smell and taste but was unable to escape. This created a loathing within me for dental work and made it very hard for me to follow up on, for obvious reasons. The use of nitrous oxide in combination with some of the numbing meds would temporarily work but would almost always have other side effects and typically trigger attacks after I got home (only we didn’t know I had HKPP back then, so the attacks were not affiliated with the dental visit, though the resulting extreme pain and exhaustion was). Once we learned that I am dealing with HKPP, most ALL dental factors and concerns were realized and questions answered. We learned that I need a certain kind of numbing med without epinephrine as well as another additive agent, but we also learned that I have gotten to the point that my stress level jumps when I enter a dental office and that the two previous dental visits to my previous dentist resulted in attacks in the dental chair, something that completely freaked out the dental staff and has resulted in their not wanting to…um…have me come back…? I’m not very welcome there anymore, which is fine, all things considered. We did connect with a dentist who has Kaiser OR privileges so that in one “visit” with him in the operating room, several fillings and several crowns can be addressed…and, yes, I had several fillings and several crown that needed addressing. A normal dental visit is between 45 minutes and 90 minutes, typically. My dentist spent nearly 6 hours with me while I was completely out and got a ton of stuff accomplished that would have taken several visits and likely resulted in several attacks and possibly even some ambulance rides and hospital stays, so, though stupid expensive, it was the only way we could do it. I’m likely to have to have a couple of root canals due to a couple of teeth being continually sensitive now, and that is not something I’m looking forward to, but we’ll see what our options are for that and see about getting it done soon; I hate only being able to chew in one small part of my mouth! Grrrr….

Let’s see…oh yeah, my laptop hard drive died without giving notice and took 70% of it’s belongings with it. That was infuriating to say the least. My cuz was able to retrieve about 30% of the drive, including most of My Documents and about 50% of My Pictures. Fortunately, I had all of my MP3s and Mpegs on my external drive so they were not at risk, but for reasons I cannot understand, I did not set up the scheduler for the back up drive, so I did not have a current back up to work from. Losing use of the computer for two weeks took me out of the loop technologically and resulted in further getting behind on here and not keeping very up to date on Facebook too. I’m doing well enough today to type (which is what I’ve been doing now downstairs for the past 3 hours…) but for the most part, I would use my dictation software to post my blog and such and I lost that installation with the crash as well as the verb usage parameters and custom dictionary and voice recognition settings that had been created and tweaked over the past several months making it easier and easier to use the software; now I get to begin again from the start, my own fault for not having set up the back up scheduler.
Yet another Grrrrrr.

Last night we went to FOPC’s Christmas program which included a really beautiful selection of musical works and arrangements, full choir with a few soloists as well as an orchestra under Dr. Chris Alford’s direction. Chris did a great job and the final product was worth waiting for. Naturally, Chris had Rob in the booth along with Greg, Robert, Scott and Leslie and maybe Chris Patterson too, though I don’t know for sure, though I did get to see her while. I cannot begin to express how blessed i was to, once again, be able to see my friends in the booth and my friends from the platform, especially. I miss each of them greatly and appreciate them all the more. Sara and Chris did incredible works last night and it will not be something I will forget, simply due to the blessing of the efforts involved, the circumstance and conditions as well.

Well, this brings us up to speed for the most part. I hope not to become so behind again.

Peace-

Paralisys attack a couple hours

Paralisys attack a couple hours ago. Hard muscle pain currently and issues walking.
Making it an early night now.
Grrrrrr

Sorry...

It's now Sunday morning early and I am only writing a brief apology for having not posted in almost a week. The convenience of my laptop made it very doable to post easily, however with it currently disabled, I am struggling staying on line for the time.
The good news is I have been attack-free for over two weeks which is great and unusual, at the same time. Notable progress in PT as well, thanks solely to Mark and his care of and for me.

I'll do my best to write a legit post tomorrow or Monday, but that is the positive side of the past couple weeks, anyway. More to come...

Peace-

I had surgery last Tuesday

I had surgery last Tuesday and then came down with a virus which I'm still fighting. Laptop crashed this AM.
Frustrations