Today is Wednesday, August 19, 2009 and it has been quite some time since I've actually posted legitimately. Much has gone on in the last number of weeks, starting with our first attempt at a mini -- vacation down to Monterey for four days which went very well. This past Sunday night, marked the end of a seven day venture up into Oregon, where we stayed in a cabin, right on the Metolius River in Camp Sherman, just outside of Sisters, Oregon. The way that the trip worked out to be, was that Joshua went up with my sister and her family on Friday and met my parents, who also went up on Friday, at the cabin while CC, I and Missy stayed behind and left on Sunday morning because we were invited to a wonderful wedding on Saturday that we could not miss. Towards the end of the week, CC and Missy needed to head back down on Thursday so that they could be at Missy's high school orientation meeting on Friday morning but Joshi and I remained at the cabin with my parents and my sister's family until Sunday morning when we all left to come back down.
This Oregon trip was not without attacks but fortunately those attacks were easily managed and easily recovered from; in the big global picture of HK PP and it's harassing attacks, I'm a very blessed and fortunate man to be able to get up and walk a matter of hours after being struck down. There is a listserv of folks who are contending with one form or another of periodic paralysis and a number of those people fight every day for some element of normalcy, just as I and we did in the past 2 1/2 years, and I believe that I need to be mindful of the blessings that I have and the degree of normalcy that I do have now and read my own writing to accept that every day is a gift but the shape and the wrappings may be different.
I took a lot of pictures with my cell phone and I plan to post those pictures at one point or another, either here through the blog or on my Facebook page; the plan being that if it's on Facebook that everyone would still be able to see the pictures even if you're not a Facebook subscriber.
If I were to choose my most favorite activity of this Oregon trip it would be the few times that we were able to go up to a mountain quarry area and fire off several rounds from my Ithaca 16-gauge shotgun, my Marlin .22 lever-action saddle gun and a good friend's .22 caliber rifle with scope. I'm not exactly sure of how many rounds we actually shot off in terms of the .22 caliber guns, but we did shoot off somewhere in the ballpark of 75 shots with the 16-gauge. What was most enjoyable to me regarding the shooting, was that everyone had the opportunity an invitation to shoot any one of the guns (and most everyone did shoot the .22) and that even Joshy tried shooting the 16-gauge (as did my brother in law CP, my sister Mindy, my niece Kirsten and my nephew Erik). At the end of our last shooting excursion for this trip, I knew that I was coming home with a much more comfortable feeling of shooting my 16-gauge that I've had in probably over 30 years. It was a real confidence booster for me.
As far as the trip goes, I know there's much more that I could share but my mind is drawing blanks at the moment I'm getting kind of hazy on details so I will hold off until I have a clearer head to recount other days activities.
In terms of attacks, I did not have any attacks during our travels but I did have an attack manifest when we were returning from an excursion to one of the local lakes; I think that I got cold and that became the trigger. The other attack was after being at the cabin for some period of time and realizing that I was getting week very quickly and would have been in a very awkward position without getting assistance to the couch in the cabin.
After returning home, Monday was spent recalibrating and resting which past events free. Yesterday was my first physical therapy in over a week and things felt very good and I was encouraged; looking forward to Thursday's PT appointment in hopes of being able to do some exercises as well as the stretching.
Today, unfortunately, did include an attack which began right after finishing our lunch at Red Robin; we have come to recognize that when attacks happen while at or just after a restaurant, they are more than likely triggered by sodium or possible high carb intake and in this case I believe it was a sodium issue. After returning straight home, I was able to walk into the house on my own and get myself into my chair but shortly thereafter things kicked into gear and I was down for the next five or so hours and my son was very very disappointed that I was not able to play Xbox with him as he had been hoping during lunch; it's been nearly a solid three years of battling this disease on a daily basis and yet it still crushes me when I am not able to keep my intentions or commitments and I hear the disappointment in the voice of my wife, my daughter or my son, as our plans changed radically because of the attack. I'm willing to bet you that they don't write about these types of things in the medical journals when they talk about people who suffer from HKPP... Maybe they should. And then there are the doctors who suggest and scoff that we really aren't suffering anything in the physiological sense but that it's all in our heads. Shame on those who would think that I would choose to put my family through this, let alone myself
Well, before this gets too much darker... I think I will close out this post with a strong reminder that regardless of how I may feel and regardless of what triggers may come and regardless of the outcome of those attacks, my God still holds me in His hands and this disease cannot change that.
Please pray for a good nights sleep and also, please be praying for my dad who is recovering from knee surgery. My prayers are that he would recover fully and be rejuvenated by the results of the surgery and that there would be no complications no issues no problems whatsoever; those are my prayers.
Peace.
