Did You Miss Me? Well, Here's an Update
I really can't believe that it's almost been four months since I last updated this journal. I don't even know who would still be interested in my goings-on, when there's facebook and my other blogs, but here are some highlights.
* I started writing a dating/relationship blog that became sort of popular rather quickly thanks to being taken under the wing of some of best dating bloggers out there. I also started a health blog that is meant to encompass stories on medicine with a mind-body perspective, whether I'm discussing rare disorders, nutrition, health and fitness, alternative medicine practices, the real scoop on food allergies and sensitivities, or the whole story on eating organically (working on the last two now). I love blogging, and it takes up too much of my time.
* The Korean woman I've worked with in the past to tutor her niece for SSATs, and to help edit (read: write) college essays for clients of hers, recently commissioned me to start writing fiction for illustrators she knows. I've written a modern fairy tale about a teenage girl with a medical condition similar to my own, and I am now working on a fantasy that sends a boy back in time to battle in Korea. Coming up is a series of picture books on musical instruments.
* After seven months of living with my seizure-like episodes, I finally got into see a specialist in Boston last week. She's amazing, very observant and focused on treating right away. Right now, the diagnosis seems to be a toss-up between paroxysmal dystonia and the more serious central nervous system vasculitis that accompanies lupus. We've treating the dystonia first, but will also begin the prednisone shortly. If I drastically improve after the prednisone, then we know it's the inflammation of the autoimmune disease. Then we start looking at chemo drugs, like my rheumatologist suggested a year and half ago, was it? Back when I was sort of miserable, I told him my symptoms weren't nearly bad enough to consider going that route. But now, here we are. Scary, but less scary than not knowing what the hell this was and not having any treatment options on the table at all. If it's not the CNS vasculitis, then we also have several different treatment options to pursue for the dystonia.
* My precious mother developed a cantaloupe-sized growth in her womanly parts and needed serious surgery that had her out of commission for two weeks. It was difficult seeing her in so much pain and so fragile, both before and after her surgery. She's always been so strong and tough, taking care of everyone else. This was our time to care for her. She's just about completely recovered now.
* At the middle of May, I started dating a 42-year-old divorced father of two, Mr. Etiquette. I fell hard, fast. Then after almost three weeks of bliss, I found out he also thought he was still in love with a woman who'd been stringing him along for a year and half after their six months of dating. Long story short, we broke things off so they could try again. Two weeks later, she ended it. Mr. Etiquette, concerned over her alleged general anxiety disorder called her father who basically said, "Who are you? Sorry, sir, I don't know what to say, but my daughter is getting married." Gulp. She got married this past Friday.
I was a friend to him, but during this roller-coaster period, I was dating other people, including trying to figure out of the V-Man and I should get back together. A lot of the reasons I used to end our relationship, I found out during a very honest conversation between us, weren't really true. But, in the end, he is still the V-Man, someone I will always love, but someone who probably still is not the one I'm meant to be with.
Also Motocross love who swings back and forth from Florida had a change of heart in life after his baby sister was killed in a car accident during the winter. I was there to comfort him, and we grew close. In the end, he went back to Florida. That's when I met Mr. Etiquette. Motocross love would text, asking what we had between us. Then a few weeks ago, he moved back up here, to a house three miles from mine. I've seen him once since then, and I still don't think he knows what he wants. I've realized we don't have enough in common to bind us together.
Mr. Etiquette and I tried to pick back up the pieces between us. He's convinced he loves me and wants to commit to me, but this terrifies me. Of course, I still have feelings, but he truly came undone after the three weeks of bliss, and he hurt me more than I ever wanted to endure at this point in my life. My heart is big enough to forgive. Yet I have concerns for his mental state. His children come to visit for 5 weeks from Germany on Saturday. Don't know what's best here.
*And that's a wrap. Before summer ended, I managed to teach two days of school. I fought through them, and it was wonderful to be back. It scares me that everything else is so up in the air with my health, but being paid for what I love to do, creative write, gives me purpose and pleasure.
Dear friends, tell me what I've missed in YOUR lives!
* I started writing a dating/relationship blog that became sort of popular rather quickly thanks to being taken under the wing of some of best dating bloggers out there. I also started a health blog that is meant to encompass stories on medicine with a mind-body perspective, whether I'm discussing rare disorders, nutrition, health and fitness, alternative medicine practices, the real scoop on food allergies and sensitivities, or the whole story on eating organically (working on the last two now). I love blogging, and it takes up too much of my time.
* The Korean woman I've worked with in the past to tutor her niece for SSATs, and to help edit (read: write) college essays for clients of hers, recently commissioned me to start writing fiction for illustrators she knows. I've written a modern fairy tale about a teenage girl with a medical condition similar to my own, and I am now working on a fantasy that sends a boy back in time to battle in Korea. Coming up is a series of picture books on musical instruments.
* After seven months of living with my seizure-like episodes, I finally got into see a specialist in Boston last week. She's amazing, very observant and focused on treating right away. Right now, the diagnosis seems to be a toss-up between paroxysmal dystonia and the more serious central nervous system vasculitis that accompanies lupus. We've treating the dystonia first, but will also begin the prednisone shortly. If I drastically improve after the prednisone, then we know it's the inflammation of the autoimmune disease. Then we start looking at chemo drugs, like my rheumatologist suggested a year and half ago, was it? Back when I was sort of miserable, I told him my symptoms weren't nearly bad enough to consider going that route. But now, here we are. Scary, but less scary than not knowing what the hell this was and not having any treatment options on the table at all. If it's not the CNS vasculitis, then we also have several different treatment options to pursue for the dystonia.
* My precious mother developed a cantaloupe-sized growth in her womanly parts and needed serious surgery that had her out of commission for two weeks. It was difficult seeing her in so much pain and so fragile, both before and after her surgery. She's always been so strong and tough, taking care of everyone else. This was our time to care for her. She's just about completely recovered now.
* At the middle of May, I started dating a 42-year-old divorced father of two, Mr. Etiquette. I fell hard, fast. Then after almost three weeks of bliss, I found out he also thought he was still in love with a woman who'd been stringing him along for a year and half after their six months of dating. Long story short, we broke things off so they could try again. Two weeks later, she ended it. Mr. Etiquette, concerned over her alleged general anxiety disorder called her father who basically said, "Who are you? Sorry, sir, I don't know what to say, but my daughter is getting married." Gulp. She got married this past Friday.
I was a friend to him, but during this roller-coaster period, I was dating other people, including trying to figure out of the V-Man and I should get back together. A lot of the reasons I used to end our relationship, I found out during a very honest conversation between us, weren't really true. But, in the end, he is still the V-Man, someone I will always love, but someone who probably still is not the one I'm meant to be with.
Also Motocross love who swings back and forth from Florida had a change of heart in life after his baby sister was killed in a car accident during the winter. I was there to comfort him, and we grew close. In the end, he went back to Florida. That's when I met Mr. Etiquette. Motocross love would text, asking what we had between us. Then a few weeks ago, he moved back up here, to a house three miles from mine. I've seen him once since then, and I still don't think he knows what he wants. I've realized we don't have enough in common to bind us together.
Mr. Etiquette and I tried to pick back up the pieces between us. He's convinced he loves me and wants to commit to me, but this terrifies me. Of course, I still have feelings, but he truly came undone after the three weeks of bliss, and he hurt me more than I ever wanted to endure at this point in my life. My heart is big enough to forgive. Yet I have concerns for his mental state. His children come to visit for 5 weeks from Germany on Saturday. Don't know what's best here.
*And that's a wrap. Before summer ended, I managed to teach two days of school. I fought through them, and it was wonderful to be back. It scares me that everything else is so up in the air with my health, but being paid for what I love to do, creative write, gives me purpose and pleasure.
Dear friends, tell me what I've missed in YOUR lives!