MRI Update

What do white spots on the brain mean?

Evidently they are signs of damage. I guess that accounts for the serous memory loss issues he's been having (above and beyond the normal Fibromyalgia ones). They can be from MS or ministrokes or something else altogether.

Time to see a neurologist.

MRI

Ed's been doing really poorly lately with terrible headaches and memory loss. He's also on a lot of medications, which can contribute to short-term memory loss (as his Fibromyalgia does as well). But it's been scaring us both (me especially since his father had Alzheimers).

I finally got Ed to go to the doctor about it. Fortunately the doctor doesn't think it's Alzheimers (thank you, Father!), but there's obviously something not good going on. Ed went for an MRI today.

And so the waiting begins...

Attacked by Monkeys

From David via Skype:

Anyway, we went on this boat tour to take us snorkeling and swimming around a bunch of small islands and the first stop was a play called Monkey beach. There are lots of monkeys that live there. There were tons of people there and people taking pictures and feeding them. Little savy was just sitting there on the beach and 4 or 5 monkeys just came up and attacked her. Bit her several times. Poor thing. I chased them off and snatched her up. Stupid monkeys were still hissing at us. So the tour group we were on came to a halt and sailed us to the hospital on Phi Phi. She's got two large bites on her, the others didn't break the skin. One on her arm and a really deep one on her leg. So we ended up doing Rabies shots and everything at the hospital here. She'll have to get a couple more shots it looks like. She got some Immuglobin shots to boost the anitobdies and make sure she doesn't get an infection, and will probably need a few more of those.There was an American doctor at the hospital that was there visiting and helping out and gave us a bunch of info on understanding what was going on. The Thai doctor spoke english, but we couldn't understand what she was saying. Kinda scary. But she is going to be just fine. Makes for a very intersting vacation story though. We will definitely be staying far away from the monkeys from now on.

Happy Valentines to My Sweetie

I love you.
I love you.
I love you, divine.
Please give me your bubblegum;
You're sitting on mine!

Love you, Ed!

My Story

The last month or so I've been doing something I've often thought of doing but could never follow through on. I'm writing a story. I used to write a bit when I was younger (before hubby and kids took all my time), but I was never able to write more than a few pages. Even though I've always got stories going through my mind, it's been years since I thought about putting any of them down on paper.

But then a friend signed up for NaNoWriMo--30 days and nights of literary abandon and mentioned it to me. Here's what they say about their program:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

I guess the idea is to just get the story down and out of you. It was an intriguing idea, and so (too late for nanowrimo) I actually disciplined myself to sit down and start writing this story I'd had going in my mind, triggered by a dream I had.

My son Paul persists in calling it a book, and I have to keep reminding him that a book implies intent to attempt publication--which I do not have.

But I have been having more fun! The telling of this story has required me to do research, and I've learned tons. I find myself looking at writing much more appreciatively than I have in the past. I'm a voracious reader, so it's fun to analyze not just plot but the writing styles and descriptive abilities. (I'm terrible at description, by the way.) Suddenly the detail that an author like Robert Jordan puts into describing his character's clothing takes on a completely new dimension. It's hard for me. I've always thought I had a pretty good vocabulary, but it's been showing serious holes.

So now I've purchased three books that talk about writing--characters, viewpoint, plot, and structure. And I'm even thinking about taking a creative writing class.

What really led to all this? Some years ago I started writing my personal history, as my church encourages us to do. I realized I could seriously bore my ancestors to death if I wasn't careful, so I decided I should try to become a better writer.

Hopefully it will pay off. Since I won't be around to worry that my great grandchildren use my personal history as a cure for insomnia, that aspect isn't keeping me up nights.

But right now I'm having more fun than I've had in a long time. And I'm learning something while I'm at it. Hey, I figure anything that helps to ward off dementia is a good thing.

Oh, and I've managed to write nearly 70,000 words in a month. Not too shabby for someone who has never been able to write more than a few pages before! Maybe I'll sign up for NaNoWriMo in November.

Wisdom from Grandpa ...

My dad sent this to me, and it made me smile.

Whether a man winds up with a nest egg, or a goose egg, depends a lot on the kind of chick he marries.

Trouble in marriage often starts when a man gets so busy earnin' his salt that he forgets his sugar.

Too many couples marry for better, or for worse, but not for good.

When a man marries a woman, they become one; but the trouble starts when they try to decide which one.

If a man has enough horse sense to treat his wife like a thoroughbred, she will never turn into an old nag.

Many girls like to marry a military man - he can cook, sew, and make beds and is in good health, and he's already used to taking orders.

Old age is when former classmates are so gray and wrinkled and bald, they don't recognize you.

Winter Trip to Gardner Village

Erin flew in from Hawaii this morning. Just before she moved there she took up knitting. Well, obviously the knitting supply options on Kaua'i are rather limited, so she's been dying to go to a knitting store she found at Gardner Village last October. We went this afternoon with Paul's wife Kelsey. Here are some pictures.


The three of us in the Knitting Shop.


Erin and Kelsey outside some of the shops. Brrrrr (Erin was dying! It was 80 degrees yesterday at her house).


Kelsey and Erin at the restaurant.