Keeping (In) Sane Caution: Icky Pictures!

I was supposed to keep track of my mouth lesions since I saw my rheumatologist two months ago. 
It was a real eye opener. Between March/April/May to date, I have had 42 mouth lesions. This is not counting the pustules that did not break open. When I saw her today, she counted 11 blisters on my tongue, under my tongue, on my gums, and on the roof of my mouth (ones that haven't broken open yet). Not every one will break open. Some become like blood blisters. Others will be underneath the skin, painful yes, but not as painful as those that open up. Those are really bad because food or drink brushes against them.

This is NOT my mouth. BUT, it looks like my mouth at times.

Yes, I get them on my lips, in my gums, on my tongue, under my tongue, on the roof (these are the WORST), in my throat, next to my teeth (try flossing with that!), after every dental procedure, after eating nuts, or accidentally using toothpaste with triclosan in it.
One of the ways they diagnose Behcet's is if you get mouth ulcers more than three times a year. hahahahahahahaha.
The joke's on me! But guess what?

I am alive and kicking. Today when I went to the clinic, I counted at least 25 people in some sort of agony: Wheelchairs, canes, walkers, or walking with help. Elderly, young people, children.
So many far, far worse off. And these were only the people with visible illness and disease. Imagine how many had "invisible illnesses"? 
I. Am. Alive. My husband is alive and doing well. How is YOUR life doing? I am jumping for joy. You should be too. Find something GREAT about today!

 

Walking/Running/Crawling

Saturday is a Big Day! Both DH and I are participating in a charity event for the American Heart/Stroke Association. We are so grateful to our friends and family for donating to the cause: Money for research and education to help someone else the way we were helped a year ago. 

This week I met a woman in the gym whose husband had a stroke two years ago. Her story was achingly familiar. Her husband had sudden vision loss. Went to the doctor. So far, so good...except...they were told they couldn't find anything...two weeks later, full blown stroke. He started talking gibberish. In the hospital he was asked how old was he? 27 was the answer...(not even close, since he knew his daughter was in her 40's!)  This man was a marathon racer, a fit and active man, but his stroke was caused by heart beat problems, and now he has a pacemaker. 

So once again, we feel blessed. It's a funny thing about human nature. You can always find someone that's richer than you, prettier/handsomer than you, nicer house than you, in better health than you. 

But we sometimes forget the other side of the coin...for someone, WE are the lucky ones, the richer ones, the better looking (duh! haha), having the nicer house, and yes, in better health than someone else that's looking at us thinking "why them and not me?". We really ought to look at just how blessed we are, not just us personally, but all of us. In our wonderful country, some of the poorest of the poor would be considered "well off" in a third world country. A small home would be a mansion to someone living in a dump site. 

In one estimation, America's bottom 5 % is still richer than 68% of the world's inhabitants!
I can't of course speak to the world's pulchritude chart, it is rather a subjective thing...

But back to being "lucky". I prefer to say "blessed". We are blessed that DH has recovered well from his stroke. We are blessed to have a strong support system of family and our extended family of close friends. We are blessed that we are able to walk together side by side. I think of many people who have lost a loved one to stroke, heart disease, and other illness and accidents. To say we are blessed is really an understatement. Humbled. In awe. Grateful. And I never, ever want to take one moment for granted.  

And this can't be emphasized enough! But add to this, vision changes!

Legions of Lesions

The weather in our part of the world has been absolutely stunning. So much so that people are walking around saying "What?" and "Huh? Is this California?" (It rains here a good share of the year)
 However, with it brings wildfires (months early), pollen counts off the charts, drownings because people forget it is not July and therefore the air might be 85 degrees, but the waterways are in the 60's if you are lucky, so dive in, and not come back up, as they are overcome with hypothermia.

It also brings health issues that are totally unexpected. For instance I have had a non-stop bloody nose today. Low humidity? Possibly. I do know that this has been a very bad day for energy levels. I am thoroughly exhausted and I can't quite figure out why. (Other than the fact that I hosted prom dinner for 11 last night) But still...then there are the lesions. My mouth is filled with them. So which came first, the lesions or the exhaustion? I am pretty sure there is a correlation.

The ones I hate the most are the roof of my mouth. It is hard to eat around the pain. They also seem to last the longest. Lidocaine helps, but only very temporarily.

My lips are also cracked and bleeding and feel very bruised. It has to be a lack of moisture in the air. I have to investigate this further so I can sue someone. Haha.

I would love to see one of those "If you or a loved one suffer from________________" lawyer commercials. If you have an auto-immune disorder, can you sue yourself?

"Hello, is this Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe? I think I have a case against me. Yes, that's right. I want to sue for damages. Especially the punitive kind. I think I owe it to myself to try and collect for mental stress. This body is making me NUTS. It is relentless! Also, can I get some sort of restraining order? This has GOT to stop I tell you! It is out of control! I am sick of being stalked by my immune system. Uh, would you take this on a contingency basis? Let's get the ball rolling!"

I have signed up to walk in our local Heart/Stroke Walk. I will walk alongside my dear hubby in the one mile survivor walk, then I will continue on the rest of the 5k walk/run to honor his survival. I am so excited for this. It's been a long time since I did a fundraiser walk for myself (fundraising for a cause). For the last few years, I have helped support and raise funds for close friends in their causes, partially because I didn't think I had the stamina to run very far, but I have been working for weeks to get better, and I think I am ready...I do walk 5 miles a day now, and will add some more running in the next couple of weeks before the walk.

I am closing in on 7000 hits on this blog. One thing that totally has me bummed is I am getting some really nice comments. Unfortunately they are advertising stupid spammy websites. I want to reiterate:I will not be a party to your golf site, your quilt site, your grocery store advert, or your chiropractor site. If you are trying to sell something, fugeddaboutit. If you have a worthy site that talks about something important (health, illness, etc) that is NOT trying to sell something, I will look at it. Otherwise, naaaahhhh. Anyway, have a great week stay healthy out there. Someone has to.