Moving my Blog!

Hi everyone! My blog has moved...I will now only blog at my website:
www.michellemccrary.com
You can click on the link to my blog from there.

Hope you will still read up on it, and don't forget to visit sammyisawesome.wordpress.com!

Michelle

How am I even typing this, you may wonder?

I finally had the inclination to sit down and blog about the past few weeks. Let's just say THANK YOU to all the high school keyboarding/typing teachers out there who BEAT those home keys into us....if it wasn't for all of you, I wouldn't be able to do this right now.

Last Monday, well, the one before the last, anyways, I woke up with funky vision. I thought to myself, "Great, here comes a migraine." I went ahead and took Sammy to day camp, went to Starbucks and worked on a website, and now know I should NOT have been driving. It was hard enough sitting at Starbucks with my face in my Mac, fearing that any second, the pain would hit me, but I had to get this design finished for my client, like I promised.

The day went on, no migraine. My vision never cleared up. Let me try to describe it to you. Better yet, since I am a Photoshopper, let me show you a picture of what I can best filter-up for you.




















I added a "frosted glass" filter and a few gray blind spots, to best show the little "spots" that block my vision, although they are everywhere, and the worst one is there on the top left, on Sammy's head in the picture. So I am not BLIND, but imagine trying to live your life with this. It is difficult, especially making you feel REALLY disoriented! I can't focus on any ONE thing, or may things, which is why driving is a no-no. I drove a day or two at first, then realized that I almost blew through a red light that I didn't even see, so that kind of woke me up.

Anyhow, I was "diagnosed" by lots of well-meaning friends and family, of having an "occular migraine" which just means you have the vision problems but no pain. I knew that wasn't it - and having Multiple Sclerosis makes you a bit more cognizant of your health and not so easy to just let vision problems go. So I ended up at the ophthalmologist, only to have them tell me there was nothing wrong with my EYES, thank God, but they didn't know what was wrong with me. I have this wonderful best friend, actually, per my neuro doc Kundo's notes, "THE best friend" who forced me to go see my neuro doc immediately after we left the ophthalmologist, even when I didn't have an appointment and was more worried about pissing off the receptionist. Luckily, it all worked out and they had a cancellation and got me in for an appointment. Didn't realize when I left the house that day I would be admitted to the hospital or I would have washed my hair.

Yep, Doc Kundo was worried I had "optic neuropothy" which basically means a new MS lesion on my optic nerves, and it can cause permanent damage, even blindness. He sent me to the hospital right away to get me started on IV steroids, the only real treatment for MS attacks. Sometimes they help, and the sooner, the better. I spent 6 days, 5 glorious night in the hospital, with several times being promised I would get to go home to next day to get that taken away when MRI results came back not good. I have exactly what Kundo was afraid of - a new lesion (pretty good size one, according to the Dr who told me the results) on my optic nerve, right where they both cross in my brain which is why it is affecting both of my eyes. BUT, Dr V, my optic neuro guy says that according to all the test he ran, it's probably not in the optic chaism, which would be bad if it was. So, what do I do now? I sit at home, not driving, trying to adjust to my vision being JANK.

I can't drive, so I rely on friends and family. I have so many wonderful ones, too. They all stepped up in ways I couldn't have imagined, from cleaning my house, bringing us food, constantly checking on me, prayers, etc...I am so lucky for everyone and I don't deserve it all one bit.

Anyhow, I might blog more later about it, but just wanted to update everyone. In the meantime, I am planning the Shreveport Zombie Walk 2011, which is gonna be kinda a big deal. hee hee hee

www.shreveportzombiewalk.com

Love yall!!!