Geez, it is a longgggg time since I've updated here on Annie's behalf. There hasn't been much need though as she's not really improved since the last posting. Annie asked me some time ago to make sure I got on here and posted her 'Merry Christmas' to you all so here I am, but first to how she's doing.

Most of you have been keeping in very regular contact so will know all this already but here's a little summary for the rest.

Let's see.

Her spine is now C4 to C7 affected. It's been discovered that her spinal column is (not so) slowly collapsing in on itself, with the lesion now taking up a significant amount of space. This affects her brain's ability to send signals down throughout the limbs.

Most days now she doesn't have enough function in her arms and hands to do the kind of daily things we take for granted like eating with a knife and fork, dressing ourselves, driving a car and of course, typing on our blogs! She often doesn't have enough function in her right leg to walk and on her best days, is forced to rely heavily on a cane just to stay upright.

There's been several hospital stays since the last posting and the prognosis is kinda disheartening. If she ends up in a chair, which looks highly likely sooner rather than later, she will be paralysed from the chin down. That means she won't be able to swallow or breathe on her own. A pretty heavy thing to think about while you're raising two kiddies on your own, but you wouldn't know it when you're around her.

I flew in to see her a couple of weeks back and luckily it was a better day for her. Although, she had only just gotten home from doing her groceries and was white and sweating from the pain when I arrived (unannounced), she joked that I should grab a chance at her making me a coffee while she had enough 'hand' to stir it in and then to carry the cup. And she was much more concerned with how I was doing than talking about herself.

Anyway, I won't say anymore. Annie really does prefer to keep the specifics to herself and it's Christmas after all. Not the time she'd want anyone worrying for her sake.

As for me, I can't help it. I hear her when I call every couple of days and see her when I can visit and personally, it's very worrying. She's had to frequently fight to keep her kids and fight to keep her job and she ended up having 2/3 of her work contract taken away from her in the end.

On the upside, her kids did brilliantly in their respective recitals and now her oldest is off to high school next year. Her brother and father have both been deathly ill but her father at least is now improving.

She also lost an extremely close friend to a sudden heart attack very recently. He was 41 so it was a complete shock and she's taken it very hard.

Oh and before I finish up, I have to give a shout out to Nat who's just returned from many months trekking through the US, the UK, France, Spain, Morrocco and even the Sahara! Welcome back and thanks for calling and emailing Annie and her girls while you were away. They loved it!!

Oh and thanks to Dr D. who did a little bit of txting and replying to the emails while I was away. You better have gotten that birthday txt off on time Doc. It was the most important one!!!

Now. Annie hopes you all have a marvellous Christmas and a simply spectacular New Year. And so do I... her pathetic excuse for a secretary.

Cheers,



H*M (Heat Miser)

P.S. Annie isn't coming online at all anymore so leaving her messages on Yahoo etc won't reach her. An email is best or a telephone call is better. And I must apologise, I am woefully behind in replying to those of you who've sent emails. There's just been so many. Well that's my excuse anyway!

I thought it was about time I put my secretary hat back on and post an update on how Annie is doing. Firstly though, I have to pass on Annie's thanks for all the emails, e-cards and snail mail cards she's received from you all since I posted her 'be back soon' note. There have quite literally been hundreds and, while we've fallen a little behind in replying to them all, you will have replies as soon as possible.

In particular, deep bows of appreciation must be made to those readers who have offered to start donation drives on their quite substantial blogs. Annie was brought to tears when she read your suggestions that several of you raise money to assist her in coping with her not inconsequential costs. I knew when I read them that she would probably decline with thanks and so she has, suggesting that a cheesecake drive would be better! It's been an amazing thing to see so much offered up by readers of the jammies. You're a great bunch to care so much for the well being of someone most of you have never met in person.

And to answer a couple of recurring questions...

1. The comments are closed on these posts because, as you know, Annie likes to reply to all comments she receives and didn't want to have commenters left without a reply while she's not able to come online.
2. She hasn't been reading blogs for some weeks... in fact there are over 400 posts in her bloglines alone, waiting for her to read. She'll get to them when she can or if not, I'll be printing them off for her to read at some point.
3. I don't have the passwords to her IM accounts so any 'offlines' left there may not get through... just so you know.

On to the update (finally).

Annie doesn't want me to go into alot of detail here, since most of you have been checking in on her several times a week so already know where she's at with all of this. I'm sure you'd agree how disheartening it is that the bad days well and truly outnumber the good ones now.

The main piece of news is, since the last posting, we almost lost Annie for the second time this year due to a blood pressure emergency that brought about internal bleeding whilst she was under general anesthetic for an MRI. She makes it sound like a small thing, however I have it on very good authority that it was really serious and could quite literally have gone either way. The threat of a stroke is now almost as constant as full paralysis. They knock her out for every MRI so as to keep the pain inflicted on her during the procedure to a minimum and so that they can position her as needed. It's risky but necessary.

Also, she was recently pushed down the last couple of steps of an escalator by two young dickheads who, after kicking her walking stick away from her, called her a 'crippled spastic' before running off. Unfortunately she was alone when this happened but several passers-by saw and heard the incident and came to her aid and one called a friend for her and explained what happened so she could be collected rather than having to drive herself home.

At the time of posting, she has 5 out of 7 days per week taken up with various specialist appointments now, as well as the extra-curricular activities of her kiddies and helping some of her friends cope with dreadful experiences they're currently having. One was assaulted at work one night, another lost his 4 year old son to a drowning accident, and still another couple were in a car accident. And all since the last posting. Personally, it worries me that she continually drops everything to help others rather than concentrating on herself. Especially since I've noticed that it's not always reciprocated. But it's her choice and not something I'd change about her.

Anyhoo, that's more than enough from me so I'll wrap it up here.

Annie misses reading your blogs a great deal and asks that you please all take excellent care of each other.

She sends her love.

Cheers,



H*M (Heat Miser - STILL the Worst Secretary On The Planet)

Real life and her unfortunately worsening condition (blogged about previously), have conspired to make regular posting an impossibility for now. (Not that she was all that reliable in the posting department in the first place, as she'll be the first to tell you!)

There's really no way to imagine how difficult it must be for someone with her particular case to be coping with it all and caring for her two kiddies on her own. As her doctors describe progressively bleaker scenarios, she's always ready with a quip or two in her own brand of self-deprecating, dark humour.

Her situation quite often means she's bed-ridden for several days in a row. Or 'floor-ridden' as she joked to me once, referring to one of many weekends when she went down in the kitchen, paralysed, but out of reach of a phone and as she says, had to camp out with the cat on the kitchen floor for nearly 37 hours without help until she was discovered.

To go through this alone? I don't know how she does it. It certainly makes me appreciate how fortunate I am not being unwell and alone. She's constantly saying that there are people/friends of hers much worse off than she though and tries to maintain a sense of humour about it all.

She asks me to thank everyone for their emails of concern and support. Even though the jammies here only gets roughly 300 unique hits a day, it's the 2 dozen or so emails she receives each week from readers and friends of her blog that really make her day.

There's also a couple of blogs to thank, bloggers who listed the jammies on their 'Best Thursday 13's Ever' List a couple of weeks ago, however I've lost the links she gave me to list here. (Some pathetic secretary I am eh?). I know there were four... one of them was called Full Plate, but that's about it.

Annie reads every one of your emails and replies when she can type, or I type them for her, so if you want to write, she will definately see it.

She sends warm, squishy hugs to all.

Cheers,
H*M (Heat Miser - Worst Secretary On The Planet)

Yes.I.Have.Succumbed.

Now don't get all snoopy dance excited on me. Given my exemplary erratic posting timetable here at the jammies, it may well turn into a 'Every Thursday That I Remember Thirteen' or a 'It's the 17th Thursday of the Year Thirteen'.

So, you know, don't get your hopes up.

Here goes....



Thirteen Really Dangerous Things

1. Running with scissors.



2. Running while eating.



3. Running while eating a pair of scissors.



4. Asking somebody on the other side of the room to throw you a pair of scissors.



5. Running out of the room screaming and across a busy road without looking because you've got a pair of scissors in your eye.



6. Picking your nose with a pencil.



7. Picking your nose with a pencil while running across a slippery floor.



8. Picking your nose with a pencil while riding in a car travelling down a really bumpy road.



9. Baked beans.



10. Playing with matches.



11. Playing with matches after eating a whole can of baked beans.



12. Trampolines.



13. Jumping on a trampoline after eating a whole can of baked beans while picking your nose with a pencil and scratching your ear with scissors.

The purpose of this meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!


thursday thirteen