It’s Been Awhile…..

 

Merry Christmas! It’s been awhile since I blogged anything.  Here is a summary of the last month.

I wrote an article for Kamloops Coffee Talk which was very well received. It is a great local blog that talks mostly about local issues, so I hope you guys follow along, it has some great contributors.  In a nutshell it was about getting around Kamloops with mobility challenges.  You can check it out here.  Then I was asked to do another article for the street paper The Big Edition which is set to hit the streets in January. I think it's a pretty good one and I really want to thank Shannon for pushing me for this one. I try and think of myself as an open book, but I do hold back on certain matters. 'Darrin, The Reluctant.' are the words she uses! This is challenging to write these articles they drum up a lot of emotion and remind me a lot of the ‘Good ole’ days!’ as well as just thinking about certain aspects of my life, good and bad. One thing I try and do is be as honest as I can, some might say I am a little to in your face with my style others say it's not enough   I start to realize that some things I hold back on, some things are none of your business I suppose. But Dude, it's My Blog!  Having said that I gave you guys the floor to ask me anything in one of my earlier blogs, just sayin’. So know that I thrive on comments and always welcome them!

In early November I made the journey down to The Coast to the UBC Neurology Clinic.  Not a ton really came out of the appointment, but things are definitely moving in the right direction.  The goal was to get a better diagnosis of my SCA which means Gene testing. They send my blood off to a BC Clinic and test it with other gene’s so that they can nail down a sub-type of SCA that I have. One month later.... the BC Medical apparently doesn’t have enough samples to test against which means I had to give more blood that has been sent off to Finland! Yes, you read that correctly.  But here is the kicker, the results take six-nine months! No big deal, right? It just annoys me a little bit; why the hell they couldn’t have done this all when I was originally diagnosed? Breathe Darrin!   Having said that I wish I knew a year ago what I know now and had the resources that I have now back in the beginning.

What’s going on with the peepers?  Well if it wasn’t for a little pushing from my Ophthalmologist, I would still be waiting for the above appointment. Things are sort of maintaining though. What dat mean?! Truthfully I don’t really know.  Things don’t seem to be getting any better with the new prism, but they are not getting any worse.   Friday, I make the truck back to Kelowna and I am guessing we will talk about my options and see if surgery is possible for me, having said that though they really wanted that sub type prior to recommending that, so who really knows.  I will also be getting part of another exam done to see if I can qualify for a Sit Ski. I will remain cautiously optimistic about that as there is still more to that than I can't get into yet.

It is December, Merry Christmas everyone!  I will take the opportunity to thank everyone, who has helped me this past year.  The support that I get, is always so amazing and it really offsets the one or two A – Holes I seem to run into every year. I have been invited to more Christmas Party’s this year than ever before. I was actually invited to one where they wanted me to do a speech. Unfortunately, I declined that offer for the plain reason that I am very self-conscious about my voice. Talking to an audience of people is a little outside my comfort zone at this stage. I will still be attending the luncheon and will gladly talk to anyone one to one. I hope you all get a little down time to enjoy this holiday season and I hope to see you out and about.

Peace!

Darrin