megawitcha's Journals on Buzznet http://megawitcha.buzznet.com/user/journal/ en-us <![CDATA[RE: Potohole's All about me]]> http://megawitcha.buzznet.com/user/journal/2071801/re-potoholes-all-about/ All about me from Laranatali

All about me - that's right, ME! Questionnaire

I'm actually throwing this out there cause I'm keen to get to know some more about my buzznet buddies! So please, if you get the chance copy and paste this questionnaire, oh and change my answers to your own :)

Eye colour: Hazel

Hair colour: reddish brown naturally, red when I have time to maintain it. It should have been red to begin with--I have the freckles and fair skin, and my dad's hair is red. It's just so unfair! lol

Height: 5 foot 8 3/4  inches (Last time I got measured...I was always convinced I was 5'9"

Right or left handed: Right

Nicknames: Meglet,  Margameg (thank you, Steena), Witchypoo

Favourite food: Pacific salmon

Number or piercings:  10, but not all in use. I had to take the belly-button one out when I was preggers and just haven't put it back yet, (Hey! It's only been 5 years!) And I rarely these days keep all my earrings in.

Any tattoos: lizard on left ankle, waiting for money for a sun/moon something.

Favourite clothing brand: I don't do brands, I do sales. If it fits and I like it, I wear it!

Favourite scent: fresh baked bread   (it's all I can think of at the moment)

Favourite book: That is an impossible question to answer. At the moment I'm re-reading Asimov’s Foundation series. I just love to read, favorite genre is Sci-Fi/Fantasy. Pothole--I loved the Harry Potter series! You're never too old to enjoy a good book!

The best film of all time is: This, too, is an impossible question, since the only films I see are ones that my husband decides are worth buying. I haven't been to a theater in 5 years! Gawd, I need a life! If I have to pick, The Fifth Element is the one that's coming to mind.

Favourite music genre: Music is in my blood. I like almost all of it! (The only exception being most rap.)

My choice band/musician in the world is: Like pothole, I like everything. If I had to pick just one I think it would be Tori Amos. (I did, after all, name my daughter after her.)

Do you sing: Whether you like it or not! (My daughter is always telling me to "stop singing!!!") I can't help it. I have been told that I do okay. I have suffered a tragedy here, though; when I got pregnant, my voice kind of disappeared, and it hasn't come back to the degree of quality it use to be at. (My crowning achievement in college was being in the chamber choir.)

Favourite drink: Water, surprisingly enough. If we're talking alcoholic, I love merlot, and anything sweet enough to hide the taste of liquor.

Favourite season: They all suck these days. Winter is too cold, spring and fall are too sneezy, summer it too hot. Ah, the glories of having MS.

Tea or coffee: Good Coffee Living in Seattle and working at Starbucks will do that to you. :)

Silver or gold: Gold is worth more

 Weaknesses: Not Buzz-ing enough :) not getting things done, and SUGAR

Strengths: Kindness, humor

Fears: losing my ability to be myself, losing my family

Pet peeves: Use of bad grammar and spelling

When I'm sad or down, I: Sleep a lot, isolate myself and generally wallow in my misery

If you could have your dream career, what would it be: Anything, as long as I could actually GO to work and DO it. My preference would be to use my degree in audio production and work on live sound, or studio recording.

What makes you happy: Playing with my daughter, seeing friends (it doesn't happen anywhere often enough), making things (I crosstitch, quilt, craft, sew, and a few other miscellaneous things that I'm no good at, but have fun doing.)

First thought when you wake up: I need to pee!

Do you get motion sickness: Yes, esp. since pregnancy

Do you like thunderstorms:  I love them. Not Seattle thunderstorms (they never really thunder there), but real, live, noisy, can-feel-it-in-your-gut thunder and flashy lighting. Especially if it's warm and I can go outside and play in it.

Dream vacation: Anywhere I don't have to do anything I don't want to! I think a cruise would be awesome.

Do you have a crush on anyone: Not like I want to do anything about it

I'm addicted to...: Sugar, sex & coffee (yes, sugar first. Sex just isn’t as available.)

What's your phones ringtone: Nothing special, just one from my phone

What can't you live without: Family, friends, and sugar

 

]]> Buzznet megawitcha 2008-03-27T09:13:00Z <![CDATA[Here we are again...]]> http://megawitcha.buzznet.com/user/journal/53083/here-again/
Anyway, that's not why I'm writing.  I wanted to talk about my MRI first.  I've decided to go back to my old doctor in Layton because Mr. MS Doctor in Salt Lake is never available.  Next time I get sick, I want to be able to SEE my doctor.  So  took my newest MRI in to my doc.  His first comment was, "You have a lot of MS."  His second comment, after looking over the MRI report, was, "You have a 7mm lesion in the left frontal lobe of your brain."  That's pretty damn big. He also said that it was completely new since last year, and it's still active. Meaning that my axons (nerve conductors) are still being de-myelinated. (Myelin is the sheath that covers the axons, which allows them to send the electrical signals through my brain, and when it's gone, they don't work so good, if at all.)  If you want to know, 'scleros' means hard spot, so Multiple Sclerosis means lots of hard spots. In my brain. That's what I mean when I say lesions.  On an MRI, they show up as white spots where there shouldn't be any.

So, I asked what that part of my brain controls.  He said, "Things like reasoning, memory, stuff like that. It's where your personality is, basically."

Hooray.  The good news is that the lesions in my c-spine (neck) have not grown or changed at all.  So I'll be walking for a good while more. And, again, I have to be grateful that with as much MS as there is on my MRI, I'm in pretty damn good shape.  Still able to walk, see, drive (most days), and reason (to some extent).  I am alive, and that's definitely better than the alternative.

Now, on the the second part of the reason I'm writing. Remember my last entry?  Well, It's done. He's unemployed, even after deciding that he really shouln't have done it and going back and doing everything he could to make up with his boss, it just wasn't happening.  On the bright side, he's re-applying at Microsoft, which would mean moving back to Seattle, which would be great. I miss the water SO much.  And I told him the only way I'd be able to do it is if we hired a nanny or maid for 2 or 3 days a week to help me take care of Tori and the house, since working there is almost as bad as what he was doing in his last job--10 to 20 hours a day.  At least for the first year. And the whole reason we came back to Utah was to be close to my dad's side of the family for Tori's sake, and to get the help I need when I get sick.  So far, three years later, I'm lucky if I get help cleaning the house once in three months, or babysitting for more than 2 or 3 hours when I'm sick.  It's been really frustrating; Dad and Karen (step-mom) practically begged us to move back, so they "could help more." I thought I'd get more help from one of my sisters, but she's ended up working too much, nannying for our brother.  Argh.

Hubby's also been talking to a friend back there that he has done some work for, and the project never really got finished. He says if Dave (the guy in WA) will pay us weekly, he can do the work. Last time, it was payment for completion. It's kinda hard to eat and pay the mortgage that way. And Control4 (his previous job) gave him 4 weeks severence, all his paid time off, and returned all the money that was put into our medical savings account. So we'll be fine for at least 6 weeks.  That's definitely more than we've had from any other company he's finished with.

Oh! how could I forget! Tori started shcool yesterday.  Pre-school, that is.  She was so excited, that she wouldn't stop dancing around while we were getting ready, even though we were running late.  And then, of course, I forgot her immunization records, and had to drive back home to get them. But by the time I got back, she was lost in whatever it was they were doing.  She didn't even notice I'd left.  That's good. And sad. :( my baby's growing up!  She's awfully cute, though, and it's good for her to play with other kids, and it's nice for me to have some time without her at home.  I've decided that I'm going to use the time only for myself--no house cleaning or chores.  Just for whatever I want to do for myself.  It kind of sucks that hubby is home, so  I don't really get any alone time, but I can always go to my sewing room, or basically just avoid the office, and he may as well be at work.  He still pretty much spends all of his time in there.  I think it's his cave.

This seems to be getting longer and longer, so I better stop before you're all bored to tears and can't stand it any more.  Loves and squishies,

Witchypoo


]]> Buzznet megawitcha 2006-09-12T11:06:00Z <![CDATA[Today is my birthday]]> http://megawitcha.buzznet.com/user/journal/41244/today-birthday/ losing my hair. I had noticed a while ago that I was losing more than usual, but that seems to happen to me occasionally, like when I was pregnant.  But this is more than that.

But hey, I'm not vain, and I can handle it as long as I don't lose too much. 

The reason I'm feeling so much better is that my pseudo-neurologist's (I've seen him once and talked to him on the phone once) physician's assistant said I should do a round of IV steroids. So I did, and for the first time in my life, I actually felt it, and it helped a lot.  So I did that for three days, and finished on Thursday, a week ago.  I'm still bouncing off the walls, but at least I'm not so bitchy anymore.

And I'm so lucky. I get to have a two hour MRI on Monday.  I just love that.  I get to lay on a very hard, very narrow piece of metal with my head in a sort of brace and try not to move at all for the entire time.  For some odd reason, when it's over, I feel like I've been in a horizontal vice and everything hurts.  Strange, huh?

But other than that, I'm doing pretty damn good.  I can still see, and walk, and for the most part, think.  As long as my MS doesn't take any of those away, I can handle daily injections and the number of months a year I feel like hammered shit.

My nuerologist thinks I should try this new MS drug called Tysabri.  It prevents the immune system parts that eat away the myelin sheaths of the axons in the brain from crossing the blood-brain barrier.  Problem is, it was taken of the market for a couple of years, after being out for only a couple of years, because 3 people got this brain virus that the immune system couldn't fight because of the drug, and 2 of them died.  I don't know how many people were on the drug at the time, but  the FDA has re-approved it, with very strong warnings about this possibility.  I don't want to die. All I want is to be functional, like so many people with MS are. I've tried the other 'golden' drug, Avonex, once a week injection, but the day aftter, I was totally out of action, sometimes two days after.  That doesn't work when you have a 3-year-old and a workaholic husband. So it was back to Copaxone, daily injections, that's never made a difference that I can actually notice. My previous nero said it was supposed to make a difference in how I feel, not just aid the brain that I can't see or feel. That's what I had thought before, because my neuro in Seattle had told me not to expect anything. And that's what I get, Progressive MS.  

So I'm weighing the risks of losing my life or having a life.  Any suggestions?
]]> hair loss mri ms solumedrol steroids Buzznet megawitcha 2006-08-04T18:05:00Z