Very Thankful

The outpouring of love and kindness is overwhelming. Thank you all for helping my family and me get through this crazy event. As I’ve been saying, “We are so blessed in every way!”

Yesterday, I went in for my annual ob-gyn exam. Of course was scheduled about 6 months before my surgeries were scheduled. David dropped me off, took Grace to school, and came back to the doctor’s office to get me. The nurse brought Dave back to the exam room and Dr. Cousins and I were talking. She loves to give David a hard time but this time she looked at him and said in her Caribbean accent, ”Man, I was gonna tease you but I don’t have the heart to with Leigh lookin like dis.” Then she got very serious and explained to us how truly blessed we are that we were able to have Grace and that she is very appropriately named Grace. Then she laughed and said something like, “guess that answers the question of whether or not your gonna try for more babies!”  She knew we were not but it would be a medical nightmare for us to try after the Chiari, Tethered Cord, and EDS not to mention that I’m 43. The crazy thing was that Dr. Cousins was the one who kept telling me there was something going on with my having a low thyroid and low body temperature, and folic acid deficiency. She said, “ I never would have put this together – but now it all makes sense.”

I had a check up with another family doctor this past week and I told him about my reaction to the antibiotic vancomycin and my having “Red man Syndrome” (a reaction to the vanco) after it was injected. He thought that was really interesting because he’s never actually seen it happen. Of course, if a medical professional doesn’t know you have a form of EDS you may very well become an enigma. Very luckily, Dr. H my neurosurgeon is not caught off guard with these weird reactions as he has lots of patients with different types of EDS.

David and I left the office again feeling very very blessed. Although this has been a difficult time for us we have tried to keep a positive attitude about all my “new” medical issues. We just push through it. But each time I see a doctor whether it is my family doctor, gynecologist, or friend in the medical profession they all remind me of how serious these conditions are and how lucky I am. Maybe it’s just easier to keep my head in the sand and go with the fact that I’ll never be a down hill skier.

I’ve decided today is the day. No more pain meds for me unless it’s Tylenol or Advil. (I will keep the muscle relaxer as needed for unexpected muscle spasms.) Over the past week I’ve been cutting back on them each day so I think I can do this.

Have a great day everybody and enjoy this beautiful day anyway you can!