The frustrations of spending 8 hours alone with your 87 yr old Grandmother

I know its been a long time since I posted last but that's because not much has been happening and I felt I kept repeating myself and it was getting shorter and shorter, but I have something to write about tonight.
This weekend I went to stay with my aunt because my aide wanted to go away for the weekend and I rather not be alone for an entire weekend without help. My 87 yr old Grandmother lives with my Aunt and Saturday my Aunt had a funeral to go to so I was there alone with my Grandmother for 8 hours as the funeral was a good drive away!!
Those who really know me knows that without a computer and a TV I feel as though I'm back in the Little House on the Prairie days!! LOL
On Saturday my Aunt left about 1:00 for the funeral, right after she left thier Satilite Dish got screwed up and that was the longest 8 hours of my life!! Don't get me wrong I love my Grandma dearly but at times I think she's living in the past when I was 10!!
It's really challenging trying to reason with or talk to an older person, its as if they are going through the toddler stages all over again.
You know its really sad because I'm remembering my Grandma from 20 yrs ago when she was full of life and not so confused at times!!

This will be short and sweet tonight

Today I'm pretty tired and feeling a bit negative. So tonight I want to show you what my status on Facebook is. I guess I wrote this hoping peopIe understand that at times I go through phases where I just don't have the energy to deal with certain things and to know that I'm not always like this. I guess it also stems from the 2nd half of my day yesterday, so here it is "I might be in a wheelchair, but you shouldn't judge a person on their outside until you get to know them, for what they are on the inside. I just want to be accepted for who I am and for what I have accomplished so far in my life"!! :) I promise tomorrow's entry will be more possitive and happy!!! :)

I started my day out good and ended frustrated!!!

It was hard getting up with the time change this morning!! I felt as though I was getting up at 5:30 instead of 6:30!!! I know its not much difference but I appreciate that extra hour sleep!!! :) I have such awesome people in my life here in Virginia. For a couple of weeks now my tires on my power wheelchair have been getting low (they are filled with air). The bus company that transports me to ECHO and to doctor appointments told me to have ECHO bring me up to thier shop where they repair the vans and they would give me some air for them.So I went up there and they gave me some air!! The rest of the day was good until I got home. There was a call from my evening aide calling in!! This is becoming a pattern, every other Monday she calls in. When I interviewed her for the job she told me her kids wouldn't interfere with her work and everytime she calls in it has something to do with her kids!!! It's very hard to find good help!! From the words of a very dear from who says: "This to shall pass"!! I have to keep reminding myself of this!!

Have an awesome day my friends!!! :)

What a beautiful Saturday!!!!!!!

I think Spring is right around the corner. The sun is shining here in Floyd County today and I just love it!! I can't believe that we change the clocks ahead an hour tonight, it seems early this year!!

As I gear up for Spring I look forward to the increasingly longer days where it stays daylight longer each day, I look forward to our Spring Special Olympics Games at Radford University and ECHO (my Day program) I attend is heading to Washington, DC in May!!! We will be going to the White House, Capital Hill where they sign the different Bills, and some other sights around Washington!!

So as I sit here on this sunny Saturday it makes me think of whats to come!!

Have an awesome weekend my followers and don't forget to "Spring Ahead" tonight or you'll be late for church or any plans you may have tomorrow!! :)

Go sit at the doctors office for 2 or 3 hours, I think not!!!!

This morning I had a doctor appointment for a 6 month check up. When I went in a lady waiting for her appointment said that there was a 2 or 3 hour wait!!! She said there was an emergency and someone almost chopped thier fingers off!! Well gee if you almost chop your fingers off wouldn't you head for the ER?

My aide was with me and I told her to go ahead and reschedule me another appointment, I wasn't about ready to wait that long, besides the music in the waiting room was elevator music and I don't do elavator music!! :) So we made me another appointment for April 1st. Good thing I'm not supersticious it being April Fools Day or I'm in trouble!! So I get up this morning to take a 3 minute ride from my apartment to the doctors and for what, to come right back home again!!!

I haven't updated my Blog since Sunday, nothing much going on lately. I'm continuing to go to PT, OT and ECHO. Once again it's raining outside pretty hard yesterday and today but I guess we need the rain to see the Spring flowers bloom in another month or so!!!

Have a great day everyone!! :)

Lots and lots of rain outside but plenty of sunshine inside my apartment

This morning I heard the pouring rain as I layed in bed and I was thinking to myself, do I really want to get up? I decided no I think I'll stay in my warm bed and listen to the rain. When I did get up my phone rang, it was from a special dear friend who came over to visit me. As we sat there catching up I could feel the sunshine all around us and in our hearts!! It was a fantastic day even though it was pouring outside.

Now tonight I'm getting excited to see my Sunday evening shows "Army Wives" and a new show called "Coming Home" "Coming Home" is about men and women who are serving thier Country and they come home to surprise thier loved ones. It looks good but at the same time looks like a tear jerker!!

I hope everyone has a great coming week!! :)

March is Cerebral Palsy Awareness month

Today starts Cerebral Palsy Awareness month. Cerebral Palsy effects 1 in every 200-400 births. Currently there are approximately 800,000 children and adults living with this non progressive disability, with 10,000 babies being born/diagnosed every year.

Since getting a computer years ago I've joined some online support groups for parents with kids that have Cerebral Palsy and since joining Facebook I've met even more parents with kids that have Cerebral Palsy. All of my 50 years of having CP I thought I knew all there was about it but you know after talking to my new friends and after reading thier posts and Blogs I keep learning more and more. I always had the traditional physical therapy with the stretching and learning how to me more independent through getting therapy. Also when I was very young like 2 or 3 yrs old I got a type of therapy called Patterning. My mom and dad had volunteers come to our house to help with this type of therapy that they did twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Since they didn't have video cameras back then I did a search on Youtube and found a child being patterning and here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x15SyJda32Y&NR=1 The idea behind this is to get the child used to certain movements like crawling.

And what I'm learning today is about new methods of therapies, one is the Anat Baniel Method here is a video of a child doing this type of therapy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izCF1puNo24&NR=1 and another type is suit therapy which is pretty interesting is the suit therapy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i76Ytl6jOKU

So as you can see over the years therapies for CP are changing. Mine was the old time method with the heavy metal braces that made me feel like I was carrying around big heavy weights! My braces were like the kind Tom Hanks ran out of in "Forrest Gump".

I just Pray one day no babies will be born with CP, until then we just do everything we can to improve and maintain the quality of life for children and adults with CP. I know my life with CP isn't easy at times but for the most part I'm living a happy, successful life with my everyday challenges.

Have a great weekend everyone!! :)