Hey fellow spoonies and other peeps! It’s been a hot minute, but do I have some things to talk about.

Well this past month has had its ups and downs. I’ve had to undergo some interesting neurological tests. One of these tests was an EMG, where they strap little electrode things to your body and then shock you to test the speed of your nerves response. It is a test that can look for CMT (the Muscular Dystrophy that my mother has). The second part of the EMG they take an acupuncture needle and stick it in your muscle to listen to the nerves response…it was a strange test. The second neurological exam I had was an MRI of my brain and cervical spine. So now ya girl has some pictures of her brain;) Before we get into the results of these tests, I want to talk about some other things that have happened this month.

February 10th would have been my grandfathers 85th birthday and that was a hard day, not just for that reason alone. My aunt Carmen had been fighting cancer at the same time and just one day later on February 11, 2019 she passed away at home surrounded by her family. It has been an emotional month to say the least but I am handling it.

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Last week we got some snow here in typically sunny Las Vegas! Of course me and my roommates had to go outside and experience the cold flurries. While the snow was pretty and fun to play in it really did a number on my body. The weather that week made my body feel like it had been thrown through a washing machine with a load of rocks. Everything that could hurt did hurt. When flares hit there is not much I can do. I will typically try to treat them with rest and pain medications. Unfortunately, I am a full time student with a part time job so it can be hard to give my body time to heal. Making sure that I take time to regroup my “spoons” is very important, but somedays I just feel like it is impossible.

I have no intentions of quitting school, but there are days that make me wish I did. When you have a chronic illness and are a student it can feel like there is just not enough time in a day to get everything done. I know that by continuing to fight this battle I will become stronger, but there are days when I am just so tired and I do not want to fight anymore. This past weekend has been like that.

On Friday me and my mother headed over to the Neurology Department for my check-up to see the results of my EMG and MRI. I just want to say that Dr. Pan at Southwest Medical is one of the greatest and sweetest doctors I have ever had. She is amazing! According to the EMG it appears that I DO NOT have CMT at this point! There are no indications of the disease that would normally present themselves in this test!! Yay! On the brain scan side of things there was an abnormality. I have a pineal cyst inside of my brain. The pineal gland is right “smack-dab” in the center of the brain so it is way down in there. Fortunately for my it is not showing any symptoms that would cause my doctors to worry! There is also a slight protrusion on my C5 vertebrae, so thats cool. Overall everything looks okay on the neurological side.

After my doctors appointment this past weekend I had a horrible flare. When I got home I laid down in my bed and cried for a minute from the pain. I am not writing this for you to feel sad or pity. I just want to explain what is happening to me, in my body, so that I can find a way to cope with it. The medications that I am on have helped to keep my flares down so they are not as often as they were before, but when they hit, they hit hard.

I want to thank all who read this far! Go you! And to all of the other Chronic Illness Warriors and Spoonies out there, I am so proud of you! Y’all are doing great!