violachic

Okay, so I know its been ages and ages and ages since I made any kind of real update. So here ya go. Not really sure what order to go in, except the way it comes out of my head. You've been warned.

The thing at the top of my head is that starting Monday (a week from yesterday), I will be going full time with Habibi. I think this officially promotes me from Nanny to Au Pair, but I'm not sure- I do speak my limited Arabic vocabulary with him, if that counts. Habibi's mother got a promotion/raise that requires her to be in the office full-time, so we're going to give it a shot. I'm a little nervous that I won't have enough spoons, or that it will make my pain level shoot back up, but I think it will work just fine; it will just take a little adjustment. In the words of Seven of Nine, I am sure I will "adapt". This "promotion" is significant for two reasons: 1) I will be working full time for the first time since I got sick, a little more than two years ago, which is a huge part of trying to have a life, and 2) I can breathe more easily about money than I have in a long time. I will actually be making more than I did at CPT, although I think my total monthly bills- including food- are slightly higher, but I think I'll still have more "personal" money at my disposal than I have had since starting at CPT- almost four years. I'm not sure what will happen with that yet, though, as I need to somehow figure out a budget, and try to actually do a little saving.

The double-plus benefit of all this is that 1) I generally have many more spoons these days (obviously, or I would not be attempting to go full time), so perhaps I will have some left over to be social, and 2) I will finally start having "fun" money again, to be social. I mean, don't look for me to all of a sudden pop out of the woodwork and be all partypartyparty, but it is a step in the right direction. Luckily, I have big plans for the summer, including a weeek-long trip to Quebec with

divalibby76 and

transl8 (see more later in post), the Grant Park Outdoor Film Festival, and seeing

divalibby76 perform with the CSO/CSC at Ravinia (ooh, Mahler, yay!!!). I'm hoping that all these improvements mean I'll also finally be able to take the train- el and Metra- places, which would then completely restore my independence and mobility. And those of you who know me well know how much I cherish my independence.

Oh yeah- so I'm going to Quebec for a week with my as-good-as-sisters

divalibby and

transl8. I'm SO very excited! I have wanted to visit Quebec for years, plus it will be the first airplane travel I'll have done in- wait for it- two years. I did fly to Seattle for

ironheadjane and

disappearinjon's wedding in April of 2006, but I was on so many drugs that I don't actually remember a whole lot of the trip, including how awful the flight probably was. I'm going to get a small prescription from my doctor for some hydrocodone to take with me, just in case. But I don't think a flight from Chicago to Montreal (please excuse my lack of accents, I don't know how to make my computer speak French) is so very long- maybe a couple hours, and certainly much easier to do than 15-20 hours in a car.

sleepykins has already requested I bring back a bottle of whiskey with maple syrup in it for them, which sounds so good I think I'll bring back a bottle for the house, too.

Hm, what else should I tell you?

So I have been making regular appointments with my new doctors at St. Joseph's. I got spoiled at the Rehab Institute, being at a well-funded, state-of-the-art place that caters to people with money, and now I have to remember what free health care is like. But that's okay, I just have to be prepared to wait, and to know exactly what I need, and to not be afraid to ask for it. I suppose of the many things I did gain from being a patient at RIC was the independence and the confidence to listen to my body, and to boldly ask (AHA, SPLIT INFINITIVE! SO THERE!) the doctor anything that was on my mind. I actually feel far more in control of what is happening now, though, because at RIC I kind of always felt shepherded around, like "just take your pills like a good girl, do your PT excercises, and leave the rest to us", but now I have to be in control of what is going on, because I'm with a doctor who 1) isn't familiar with my whole backstory yet, and 2) is, frankly, working in free health care, where there isn't always the time and resources to go into a lot of detail with each and every patient. Soon, I'm hoping she'll approve me to start titrating down off of the Lyrica, which would be very nice, since it is not only extremely expensive, but really fucking up my cognitive skills. She does want me to eventually have an MRI, since one was never done (although there were CT scans and X-rays), which is good, but seems to be mostly convinced that all my ailments will be solved if I just lose a whole bunch of weight, which is annoying. I did finally, in the last appointment, give her the Reader's Digest Condensed Version of what has gone down in my life over the last 2 1/2 years, and she seemed a little shocked (which was weird, because although I keep telling the story of the hostage crisis to people, it has settled into everyday life for me, and I've started getting surprise when the story shocks people), so maybe she is starting to understand that I'm not just a Sad Fat Chick With Aches, but in fact, have had very real things happen that have caused very real problems.

Eh, that ended on kind of a bummer, sorry.

I suppose the In A Nutshell Version of this post would be: things getting better, gaining back a life, still have a ways to go, but optimistic.

And how do you like them apples?