Blah Week

Nothing super exciting to report over the last week, but a few good things did happen.  On Monday, we had our monthly RAA meeting.  Mike took a pic of me looking like a dork, chairing the meeting:

 

We had a pretty good turn out and listened to a great presentation on the Silver Dart replica, which some of the RAA folks built.  It’s now in the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, NS.

On Friday of last week, I had my joyous Tysabri infusion.  Went pretty well.  I usually have to get poked a couple of times because my veins don’t like to cooperate.  Mind you, we applied heat for the second needle stick and it went in great.  I was so thrilled after the hour long infusion that I tweaked this dummies nip on the way to the washroom:

Ok, so the nurses there think I’m a little whacked.  It’s all good though!  I kinda proved to Mike the other day how whacked I really am with the little pressie I made him.  I have no idea why I made this or what he’s supposed to do with it, but it’s a sheep on a stick:

I even took the time to reinforce the sheep with a cardboard backing.  Mike’s face was rather amusing when I gave it to him.

Jan had a similar look of shock when I sent her this picture:

She’s been looking everywhere for Cream of Wheat in the instant packages.  I finally found some and on sale, so I bought a couple boxes.

This weekend, the kitties got their dreaded baths.  Poor Pinky looked a little contorted while I was cleaning her neck:

As usual, Abby was pretty quiet.  I gave her a smooch when she let out a tiny mew though:

Mya didn’t need a bath so she stood in the bathroom sink, getting a drink:

Once bath time was over, Boo decided to create an igBoo and climbed inside to stay warm:

Something kinda creepy happened at my apartment the other day.  Actually, this is the second time.  The woman who moved in across the hall recently put up a scarecrow wreath that kinda looked like mine.  We put them up about a day apart too.  This past weekend, we both put up our Halloween decor.  Here’s mine:

And hers:

Crazy minds think alike?

On the theme of Halloween decorations, we had a pumpkin brought into our office, done by a co-worker’s husband.  It’s our director:

Pretty awesome – looks just like him!

And last but not least for today’s blog, here is one of Mike’s cats trying to figure out a Rubix Cube:

Opposable thumbs would probably help.

Today’s symptoms:  Not feeling well today and had to go home early.  Very fatigued plus my over month-long sinus infection is progressively getting worse.  I’m really looking forward to seeing my GP on Thursday to get some meds for it.  I would have gone in sooner but you can’t be on antibiotics while getting a Tysabri infusion.

Getting Chilly Out!

The weather has been rather poopy lately.  The cold has finally rolled in, as well as the stinky rain.  Supposed to be this way until into the weekend.  Kind of a bummer since it’s going on three weeks since I’ve flown.  I miss my plane!

Speaking of planes, I got to see one of my Christmas pressies from my mother.  I really wanted a framed posted of Dusty from the Disney movie Planes.  I downloaded the perfect pic of him, then sent it to Wal-Mart to get a large canvass  poster made.  Turned out perfectly:

Can’t wait to see it up on my wall.  Right now it’s in my closet, ready to be wrapped/bagged for Christmas.

I was in a training course at work last week.  It was only a day long.  I decided to give myself a ghetto name, which I wrote on my name plaque.  It was Le-a.  The instructor said “Ok Lea, or Leah, or….”  I said the dash isn’t silent so it’s pronounced Ledasha.  It was then requested by some other folks in the class that I give them ghetto names as well:

By the end of the day, everyone had a new name.  The last one was Latoya Margarita.

Continuing with work, I spoke with a co-worker today who gave me a good laugh.  She said that she went over the river to do some shopping and tried on some shoes.  She had a little incident in which she actually fell off the shoe.  One would think it would be a little stumble – perhaps a tad embarrassing.  That wasn’t enough for her – she wanted to go all out.  She actually broke her foot!  Being a true shopper, she didn’t want to stop and take time to go to the hospital.  Well, she did a WEEK later!  Ugh!  Of course, wandering around on it for a week kinda made it much worse.  Later in the conversation she said “I’m not the brightest bulb.”  My response was “Well, you did fall off a shoe and break your foot!”  Tee hee.  As bad as I felt that she had this experience, telling me about it and having a laugh really brightened my day.

I was a little shocked when my friend texted me after work tonight and asked if I noticed the building across the street from our office.  I went out the back door today so didn’t see anything out front.  Wow:

Not much to it anymore.  Used to be a rather nice, two storey large house with different offices in it.  I’m interested in hearing why they tore it down.

Had this interesting little scene the other day…..Abby (far left) and Pinky are kinda enemies.  Weird to see both of them sitting so close together, with little innocent Mya between them:

Pinky is starting to grow a little tired of her hospital hat.  Mya tried it on but wasn’t too enthused:

Also not enthused was Boo when I pulled the covers off her noggin to take her pic:

Today’s symptoms: Feeling ok fatigue-wise today.  A little better than average, which was quite nice.  Since yesterday though I’ve been having pretty severe sensitivity of three of my fingers on my left hand.  This is usually an issue I have on the tops of my thighs, where just my pants against the skin feels like acid.  Never had it on my fingers before.  Had a little pep-talk with them and told them to quit their sensitivity silliness by the time I wake up tomorrow.

Gobble, Gobble

This past weekend was Thanksgiving.  As I recall, I was quite ill over Thanksgiving last year and kinda missed it.  This year I was recovering from surgery so missed it again!  Oh well!  I got to smell all of the turkey dinners being cooked throughout my apartment building all weekend – drool!  It was torture but not the end of the world.  I got to spend lots of time with my little kitties, which I was quite thankful for.  Little Abby and Mya:

 

Pinky was busy tasting the rainbow:

That’s her favourite toy which I replace each Christmas.

And Boo in a self-made cave:

Peek-A-Boo!

Needless to say, it was a very quiet and relaxing weekend.  Mike was kind enough to stop by on Sunday and brought me some delicious turkey noms.  We also walked down to Tim Hortons – it was the first time I left the apartment since coming back from the hospital.  I was seriously starting to go stir crazy!

I’m feeling quite a bit better this week and was already back to work on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, Mike and I went to see Captain Philips with Tom Hanks.  It was awesome!  We then went over to Kelsey’s for dinner.  Slurp:

Came back to my place and Pinky was looking a little out of sorts.  What’s wrong, Pinky?  Missing something?

Ah, of course – I forgot about your NEW favourite toy:

Much better!  I’m going to have to go back to the hospital sometime and get some more hats for her!

Meanwhile, Boo did this:

Yes, my cats are weird.  At least little Abby was looking somewhat normal:

While at a pet store yesterday, I saw this oddity.  It’s a cat WITH fur:

Cute and felt so fluffy.  Speaking of which, Mike just sent me this adorable pic of one of his “weird, furred” kitties, sleeping with his friend:

While recovering, I was able to get through most of the book I was reading, which I mentioned in a previous blog:

I totally recommend reading this amazing book.  It was 973 pages of awesomeness.  I never wanted to put it down.  Can’t wait to read the next book, World Without End.

Today’s symptoms:  Kinda had quite a few yucky MS symptoms.  My fatigue level was average but I had a bad headache and some pretty severe crushing pains in three of my fingers and my left thigh.  Still dealing with a sinus infection, so that doesn’t help.

Surgery

Well I survived my surgery yesterday.  I had pre-op on Tuesday at the amazing new St. Catharines General Hospital.  Wow, is it ever nice!  Huge difference from the antiquated old hospital.

Yesterday, Mike took me over to the hospital for 12:45.  My surgery was scheduled for 2:45.  I was brought into the pre-op area within about 10 minutes.  The nurses were so nice – I’m sure working in the updated hospital is a bit of a morale booster too.  Mike was brought over to my bed once I got changed into a sexy gown and answered some questions from the nurses.  I was a little nervous about getting the IV in my hand, since it usually doesn’t go too well there.  It’s weird – I get at least one IV a month (probably had over 50 in my life) and yet I still get a little nervous about them.  No need to be nervous this time because the nurse did it perfectly.  What a relief!  After I was hooked up, she took this lovely picture of Mike and I in our sexy hats:

photo 1

Mike sat with me for over an hour until I was whisked off to the operating room.  Needless to say, we acted like goofs the entire time.  Since I wasn’t wearing any makeup, I thought it would be beneficial for everyone around me to don my hat in a different way:

I noticed there was a little pocket on my gown.  I was hoping the nurse put a little treat in there for me, since I hadn’t eaten since 9:00 the previous night.  I was shocked (and a little disturbed) when I looked into the pocket which wasn’t really a pocket.  Let’s just say I made eye contact with a usually covered part of my anatomy.  I was so distraught at the disturbing scene, I asked the nurse for some tape to close the pocket:

photo 2

Ok, so I’m a tad weird.

The surgery went well as did waking up in recovery.  Mike was brought over when I was brought to the second recovery room.   The nurses were great – very caring and accommodating.  Regardless, I was pretty happy to be heading back home.

Today I’m just dealing with a fair amount of pain and discomfort.  It’ll be worth it though.

I brought Mike’s hat home.  Pinky has a new favourite toy:

She’s so weird.

All of the goobers except for Mya enjoyed sunning out on the balcony.  Better enjoy it before the cold weather hits us:

Today’s symptoms:  Not too sure how much of today’s fatigue is from the surgery or the MS.  Just achy and feeling blah, but I’m sure I’ll be much better after resting this weekend. 

 

Artwork

A couple days ago, we had a meeting at work.  It was actually very interesting, as it was about a new project which I am a part of.  Despite it being a good meeting, at the one hour and fifteen minute mark, I was starting to crave a coffee.  I nudged the girl next to me, pouted and whispered “coffeeeeeee” in her ear.  Her response – this amazing, life-like drawing of a dancing Tim Hortons coffee:

 

I know, you’re thinking the same thing I did when I first saw it: “There’s no way that isn’t a photograph!”  Well, it’s not!  It’s actually a pen drawing. 

The same day at work, I finished a book by one of my favourite authors, Anita Shreve.  My friend suggested I read this book:

It’s 973 pages and weighs about 27 pounds, so it’s quite a work out to lug it back and forth to work.  I’m only on page 129 but am quite enjoying it thus far.

It was my day off today and I took up someone I had recently taken up for an aerobatic flight.  He often rides his motorcycle to Port Dover during the Friday 13th motorcycle extravaganzas.  He thought it would be neat to see it from a new perspective.  Mike and I just drove through the town when we went to Long Point for camping a couple weeks ago.  I couldn’t believe how many more wind turbines there were compared to just a year ago:

Quite a few were under construction:

We flew over the Tim Hortons that Mike and I stopped in on the way to Long Point:

A shot of the town:

You can see some of the trees have already changed colour.

Flying back, we passed this Pepto Bismol looking body of water:

Back in St. Catharines:

It was a great flight.  Looks like this weekend isn’t going to be too accommodating for any other flights.  Bummer.

Had a doctor appointment on Wednesday and found out there was a surgical cancellation right when I walked in the door, so they were able to book my surgery.  Going to the nice, new St. Catharines hospital a week today.  At least I’ll have the long Thanksgiving weekend to recover!

Speaking of recovering, Boo is a monkey and was frantically running around the apartment for over an hour.  Looks like she wore herself out:

Pinky, on the other paw, seems ready to rock:

Not too sure where the other two goobers are at the moment.

Today’s symptoms: Felt quite good all day.  Been having crushing pains worse than normal in my forearms and hands for the last few days.  It’s not to the point where it prevents me from doing anything.  They hurt just as bad when I’m not doing anything to when I’m typing or driving.  Just gotz to deal with the pain – suck it up and carry on!