Squashed tomatoes + sugar =

Ketchup (or Catsup if yer traditional).

Oh I know, it's been a long time since my last post and I'll make no excuses... well maybe just a few. I've been a very busy (and completely functional!) lass lately so there's been little time for blogging though I have logged in to read others folks' news.

First and foremost, I've been feeling really good! I've been in the Fingolimod study since March and aside from the relapse I had when I first started on THE DRUG, I have felt better than I had in a long ass time. Even my perpetual symptoms (muscle spasms, creepy-crawlies) have been nearly non-existent! The first few months of the study I had to drive an hour away for lots of tests and check-ups, but now I've only got to go every 3 months or so. Doing the same tests over and over has gotten a tad irksome, but it's worth it since I feel so good. I look good too. My most recent MRI shows lots of plaqued up OLD lesions, but nothing new or active. I went through the films with one of the radiologists I work with and he says things look good, and was genuinely pleased (and maybe a little surprised?) by how well I've been doing. I still have problems (like numbness and loss of function in my legs) when I get too hot, and my balance is still for shit but I can live with those things. More on my aptness to fall down later...

Excuse #2: I got a promotion! I got A LOT more responsibility at work, a WAY better schedule (finally!), a tiny bit more money, and an ass-load of work stress. I applied for the position mostly for the bankers' hours, and had some pretty stiff competition, but they picked me. I'm out of the MS closet at work and they still picked me! Ha! So far the job's been going pretty well even though I think it's steadily raising my blood pressure. I have also discovered that working normal Monday - Friday-9-5 type hours means that it's impossible to go to the bank or the doctor without missing work. It's pretty rad to see my family regularly, and to be able to sleep at night though. Fair enough trade-off, I guess. And it was a little rough at first because some of my coworkers were pissed that I got the job and decided to make a big stink about it. Honestly, that's just inspired me to kick more ass at work and made it more meaningful that the people who supported me (including the docs, who totally backed me up) had faith in my abilities.

Summer vacation with my husband in New Orleans was completely awesome. We had a blast in the French Quarter and happened to be there for the coolest week N.O. had this summer. We walked EVERYWHERE and I only ate shit once. It was really funny actually: The first few days we were truckin' around and Shiva kept a close eye on me. He was super-attentive to stuff like pipes sticking up out the sidewalk, slippery spots, and the jacked up streets of N.O. as potential hazards to my verticality. On day 3 or 4 he let his guard down, and I went down. We're strolling down Rue Burgundy across from Louis Armstrong Park and he points up at something on one of the balconies hanging overhead saying, "Look at that!" And I look up, just as I step into a hole I could neither see nor feel, and the next thing I know the street and I are dancing cheek-to-cheek. Totally twisted my ankle into a gnarly knot and scraped most of the skin off my other knee. It was a truly epic wipe-out and I unintentionally blamed it on Shiva. "I can't believe you didn't CATCH ME!", is what I said. Not only did he dupe me into looking up while walking, something we both are aware I'm incapable of on my best day, but he also got a few paces ahead of me. I'm accustomed to him walking a half step behind me on my right (my weaker side usually) even though I'm not sure he does this consciously. He's usually hypersensitive to my potentially falling over and I guess he just thought I was "okay." Well, he's cured of that delusion. He's gone back to being en guarde 24-7. We did have a good time coming up with crazy stories to tell people who would inevitably ask, "What happened?" He suggested one about my chasing down a homeless guy in a wheelchair that had stolen his camera. And another about a heated disagreement between me and the owner of a Korean grocery. I'm not that creative so I just stuck with the embarrassing truth. I was able to walk the rest of the trip and have yet another "vacation scar" to add to my collection.