Well Damn

Monday I had my yearly MRI and yesterday I saw the neurologist. Today I started I.V. steroid treatments, my first in four years. This is what is known as "the suck."

I have new lesions. These are the first new lesions I've had since I was diagnosed. Two of them are pretty big, 12 mm, and active, so steroids are being used to try and cut off any progression.

Guess I got too used to the status quo. Weirdly enough though it was kind of a relief to be told that yes, something is new and yes, they're active. This explains all the weird physical things I've had going on. Still THIS SUCKS. I forgot how much the steroids wreck my system. I am not looking forward to the not sleeping, the blurry vision, dizziness, and how everything tastes like crap. Of course the steroid diet has always done wonders for me.

David flies home tomorrow, THANK GOD. I am so happy and relieved. Today was the first time I've done a steroid treatment alone. Guess what? Crappy. Also crappy was taking a one handed bath. Four more days to go. Ick.

Where'd Everybody Go?

With Facebook and Twitter and every other way to keep up with friends, my blog has pretty much fell to the wayside. Plus I've been in a funk. Still am. But I have been knitting, and I'm really bad at keeping track of what I'm working on. So anyway.This is a baby cardigan I knit for a friend who's wife is expecting their first baby. A girl, about which I am ECSTATIC because it seems like everyone I know who's had a baby for the past year has had a boy.

And this is yarn I dyed yesterday. I bought Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn and realized I didn't have much handpainted sock yarn. A lot is self patterning or striping, so I decided to make some myself. The two skeins on the left are 100% merino I bought at a yarn store here in BFE...I mean western Kansas. The store is awesome and a real surprise in a town of only 300 people. The next two skeins are KnitPicks dye your own. One is superwash and the other is 100% merino. I love this color. It's chartreuse acid dye that I bought from (you guessed it) KnitPicks.

Finally:










This is my new yarn storage system. I was using crates and they really weren't cutting it aesthetically. I really like having everything in one place: books, yarn, magazines, etc.

That's it. I'll see you on Facebook.

Just put me in the room with the six and seven year olds

For Christmas, I got a present I've wanted for a really, really long time.


This is my new cello. I played violin for 14+ years but always, always loved the way the cello sounded and wanted to learn. This cello was a Christmas gift from David and it is beautiful.

One of the advantages of working for an institution with a music program is affordable lessons. So this week I contacted the orchestra director to get information on cello lessons. She was very enthusiastic and sent me the form to fill out to register for lessons. So I printed off the form and ran out to a meeting. When I got back, I actually took a look at it and the required information:
Student's Name:
Student's Age:
Grade:
Parent's Name:

I was a bit perplexed until I took the time to actually READ the form and noticed all the clip art of kids playing instruments. I take it I'm not the usual target audience, but I guarantee I will KICK ASS at the recital in May. I think I'm less likely to pee my pants on stage.

On Top of It

I am extremely proud of myself.

Normally around the holidays we end up waiting until a few days before Christmas to buy gifts. I know, not very smart but whatever. This year though we aren't going to be in Pennsylvania for the holiday. It's a Kansas Christmas y'all! That means that gifts must be purchased and shipped way ahead of our usual schedule.

Last night I finished up the shopping and today I was at the post office bright and early to send everything out. This is probably not something impressive but I'm definitely proud that I got everything out with time to spare. This is especially monumental because I've done all the Christmas shopping myself. David's been working 80 hour weeks which doesn't give him a lot of time for shopping.

And now for some randomness. In the midst of the shopping (which took place in Lincoln, NE, Grand Island, NE, here and also the interwebs) I've bought a number of CD's. I have an ipod and David has a Zune, so it isn't compatible to buy albums online to share. We like a lot of the same music so it has just been smarter to buy the CD. In the last month, I've bought:
Alkaline Trio
Ben Folds
Innerpartysystem
Interpol
Keane
Regina Spektor
Say Anything
Tokyo Police Club

Last year my big Christmas gift was a Bose SoundDock and it is freaking awesome. Mostly though I've been rocking the Christmas music. Cause blasting Anne Murray is the way to go.

To all you east coasters

I am officially jealous of your flurries, and flakes, and inches of snow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that it'll get old in about, oh, two months, but I would really love to see some snow. If you are jonesing for some wind, come to Kansas where the weather forecast is always 100% chance of freaky.

Keeping My Fingers Crossed

Hrm...

Oh yeah. Check out my mad pumpkin carving skills. That ate up about two hours of my evening.

News:
Met with the new neurologist who isn't bad. We went through the usual battery of tests (touch your nose, touch my finger, walk, how many fingers am I holding up?) and then we got to the "strength" portion. This is where the neuro asks you to squeeze his hands. So I did, and he said, "Owie! Not so hard!" That was actually funny. He took a look at my 2007 and 2008 MRIs and showed me where some improvement has occurred. Wewt.

The babies are here! In the past week I have become an aunt and a great aunt. I am a great aunt at 31. Weird.

I am anticipating trick or treaters tomorrow. I mean that's why I carved the damn pumpkin, to ENTICE them. I should have carved on that said stop here for candy.

Work is crazy busy.

I'm so glad that daylight savings is this weekend.