This Month: April 2017, Part 1

Relapse Update
In case you missed this post last week, I'm having an MS relapse/exacerbation/flare-up. Yay. Since I wrote that, things got quite a bit worse. Namely, my right leg joined BFF left leg and became super weak. Also, the nerve pain I have all the time (to varying degrees of intensity) in my feet and below-the-knees legs became REALLY BAD and was now affecting ALL of my legs. Then, some good news. The spasticity and the spasticity-specific pain improved significantly, though not fully. And the weakness has been improving somewhat as well, though not fully. Walking is probably 90% better, though I'm still walking pretty slowly. The full-leg nerve pain is still extremely bad much of the time, making it very hard to concentrate. In sum, things got worse, then some things got much better, but some things are still quite bad. It's been just over a week now. MRIs are tomorrow.

The improvements (despite the continued issues) are a HUGE relief as I start symphony rehearsals this week. I'll have to carefully modulate my meds centered around rehearsals and performances for an optimal blend of pain relief and mental focus. Hopefully, that will get me through. Hopefully, things will also continue to improve so that my pain goes back to "normal" levels.

The view from here:

Facetiming with someone with even weirder sleep positions than me.

more springtime cheer courtesy of my friend Ramona's garden

Message from my niece that I DO NOT SUPPORT, having once gone
in the ditch from a last-week-of-April snowstorm 6ish years ago.

Anticipating April giving birth.

flowers brought by a sweet friend upon news of the relapse.
they brought much-needed cheer to the room during an awful week.

imposter spotted ;-)

Finally!