Prompt for the Day: “Contrast”

The people who want us to notice the contrast between others at the Daily Post division of Word Press chose to us the word “Contrast” to inflame our creations for today.

I prefer to Point out Our Similarities!

Doesn’t everyone require oxygen to breath?  Do not know of too many people who can literally breathe under water!  If you find an example of this anomaly, please share this discovery with the greater world population.  Maybe the feat is one that we all could learn to replicate.

Shouldn’t all kids learn to play with others of different races?  While they are still young they might be able to overcome the discriminations that plague their adult counter parts by setting new examples for them to replicate.  I grew up in a small rural area that had absolutely no people from different races in it other than the mean white descendants of mostly German people.  Had to be exposed to others for the first time at scholarly competitions.  Got along just fine with all the young people from other races.  My father was not too happy that I had made friends who were raised by parents from other countries who had immigrated to the US.  Went ahead and kept in contact with my new friends, anyway!

Please Help Fight Malicious Disease

The medicine my neurologist prescribed for me to treat my multiple sclerosis is called Tysabri. Trying to find the actual cost on the internet is basically nearly impossible. I remember when I first started on the drug the amount the facility tried charging me was well over $2500. There was no way my husband and I could afford that then or every 28 days! Biogen (the company that manufactures the drug) has been helping us with some of the cost of the drug, but will not continue helping indefinitely. So I have started a Go Fund Me campaign. To contribute to the fund, click on the following link: https://www.gofundme.com/zfabhdes

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Prompt for the Day “Because the Night”

The wide awake people of the Daily Press group of Word Press came up with the following prompt of “Because the Night” for our writing inspiration for today. They also asked us the following three questions: “Are you a night owl or are you the early bird? What’s your most productive time of day? When do you do your best work?”

Was a morning person growing up by force. Had to be wide awake to travel to the main farm to help with the daily milking of our family’s dairy herd. Once I left for college, became a night owl. Had never been allowed to stay up late, due to work.

While in college starting my sophomore year I worked while attending school full time. Sleep became whenever I got time for it. Managed to short myself on sleep so bad, I came down with the kissing disease (more commonly known as mono or Mononucleosis). Lasted forever it seemed, but I still had to attend all my classes and work. Was a walking zombie for months!

Got an internship with the headquarters of a country wide dairy company. Cut my work schedule down to two jobs while still attending school full time. The internship took me on many trips throughout the Midwest. Made wonderful contacts in my field of choice, network engineering. The field does not encourage getting too much sleep. Tend to be on call twenty four hours a day. Upon starting my senior year, they offered me a full time position with the company, if I agreed to cut my other jobs from my daily schedule. So all I had was work and finishing my college classes on my schedule.

Upon graduating, I married my husband the next day. Was given an entire week off to get our honeymoon in and get the legal paper work taken care of.

After living together as a married couple for a year, woke my husband up because was suffering from a feeling of the room moving constantly. Any movement mad me vomit several times. After several hours of being sick had lost everything I had eaten in my entire life by puking it up in the toilet. He had me get dressed, because he made a flying trip to the hospital. They gave me an injection of what basically was Dramamine and sent me home with a prescription for it if I continued to have problems.

Started to loose my ability to walk, because my legs would give out. Not being coordinated, kept tripping over a cane when I gave that option a try. Went to see a doctor and he wrote me a prescription for a wheelchair, because I had already tried using a cane. Went to a store that sold wheelchairs and they had one from last year’s inventory in my size on sale. We purchased it and took it home. My boss told me to take the day off to learn how to use it. (They were getting my workstation altered so I would still be able to preform my work!) My husband and I went to a mall that was not normally crowded to learn the in’s and out’s of being wheelchair bound. My hands were getting sore from wheeling myself around. Met a handicapped gentleman there that told me how he dealt with the problem. I needed to get gloves, he uses weight lifting gloves. So we went in search of the gloves he had described to me. The gloves were very bulky and not very professional looking. There was a leather store in the mall. There we found a couple of pairs in my size. Black finger-less leather gloves I could wear anywhere I needed to go. We were both pretty tired after a long day of learning the ropes.

Had been seeing a chiropractor since college due to my neck and back getting out of alignment. He began to notice that I was not responding as well to his adjustments anymore. He thought I might have a slipped disk or something, so he sent me to have an MRI preformed. Lets just say, I do not like being closed up in a noisy tube to be pulled out of the tube t have a nurse approach me with a weird shaped needle. With my head strapped down to the table I tried jumping off the table sideways to try to escape! That move made them have to consider starting the whole process over, I just wanted out NOW!

A few days later, went to my scheduled chiropractor’s appointment to find an empty waiting room. Was normally full of people, so I checked in and paid for my appointment like normal. Was immediately called into one of the exam rooms. The nurse told me I didn’t need to take my shoes and stuff off like normal. The chiropractor would be in to speak with me shortly. When he came in, he told me I needed to have another MRI. Because I did not allow them to inject me with the medicine that would allow them to see the contrast in my spine area. Without the contrast information all he knew for sure was he was no longer able to help, because I had either spinal cancer or Multiple Sclerosis. So he got me another MRI scheduled and a prescription of Valium to take so I would sleep through it. One problem, the medicine had absolutely no effect on me. Was not a good experience, but they put the IV in before I went into the tube. So other than screaming the entire time I was closed up in the tube, was able to get the MRI with contrast completed. My husband took me home, was not talking because I had lost my voice from screaming.

Went back to the neurologist to be told that I did not have the death sentence of spinal cancer, but simply relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. He didn’t understand why I started crying. Had been told all my life I was nuts, because my body would experience strange symptoms like numbness or a sunburn like feeling when I had no sun burn. He gave me information on two different treatment options I needed to read and consider before my next appointment. First option was a drug called Betaseron, the second option was a once a week injection of a medicine named Avonex. Considering my fear of needles, once a week was the best option to me!

Now, my sleep started being sporadic due to worry. Was lucky to get any sleep at all. The dairy company I was working for started to experience problems due to lack of money to support it’s customers. People were getting laid off. My appointment with my neurologist set up my first injection of Avonex to be done at the neurologist’s office. Made me sicker than a dog. The nurse trained both me ans Jason on how to administer the shots. We were never successful at getting the shots done.

Got a job offer in a different state. Took the job since it was a better paid network engineering job than the one I had. Sleep became more erratic due to strange noises from the nearby airport. At least my work schedule became more stable. Started reverting back to waking up early in the morning each morning!

Am at my best first thing in the morning each day. So am a morning person after all!