Last four days of Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge!

Okay ... Four days in one, dead ahead. I need to close this month of health activist blogs, as I'll be off line for the next few days. So here we go:

Day 27 Five Challenges and Five Small Victories of dealing with an MS diagnosis and treatment:
Challenges:

1. Very difficult to diagnosis
2. Unknown individual prognosis
3. Unknown cause of disease
4. Painful, iffy treatment
5. No Cure

Small Victories:

1. Choosing healthier menu
2. Losing weight
3. Treating chronic depression
4. Meeting others who share
5. "But we look so good!"

Day 28  The First Time ... What was it like, and what did you learn?
The first time I had a mammogram redone and learned there was something that needed to be biopsied, and the biopsy had to be done two weeks later when the doctor returned, and first I'd have to meet with a surgeon to plan how to respond if the biopsy was positive ... and I told the surgeon I would not seek treatment of cancer, that I'd lost many friends despite horrendous treatments, and he asked me why I had had a mammogram if I didn't want to treat anything found? I thanked him for giving me permission to make my own decision rather than simply following everyone else's "recommendations."  The biopsy was negative.

Day 29  Tell a six sentence story:
Once upon a time there was a family doctor who treated her patients with common sense. Rather than prescribing medications for a stuffy nose, she would recommend spending time in a steamy shower. Instead of using cortisone creams that would have side effects of their own when a patient had shingles, she recommended sea water compresses. When she retired, choosing a new family doctor meant looking for one with a similar style. And when one was found nearby, the patient had to be very honest in expressing reluctance to go overboard with medications, preferring to treat things naturally, so that their relationship could be as mutually supportive as had the earlier one.

Day 30  Make a word cloud, with tree branches, using a thesaurus to extend it. (no, choosing to take this as my second 'cut.'  I'm left brained, not right, (which is why I skipped the Pinterest challenge on day 16.)

Ta Daa!   Finis!  Complete!  I will now adjourn, be away for a few days, and when I return, it will be with another book review!   Thank you for staying with me this month. I felt the Health Activist Writer's Month was a worthy challenge ... am not sure I've done it justice, but I gave it my best shot.

Now, off to NIH in Bethesda for a true Health Activist effort ... taking part in the patient study seeking biomarkers for earlier Parkinson's Disease diagnosis. It is, after all, what I expected as a diagnosis, and believe is still ahead. As Terry Garr wrote in her book, Speedbumps: MS is just a bump in the road of life. It surely slowed me down in my final years of teaching, and sped up my retirement. But I haven't let it stop me from donating blood to the Red Cross (I did finally reach the eight gallon, 64 pint mark), and I won't let it stop me from participating in the PD 7 year study. Those who are studying MS do not yet know what direction to look in, and while I wish them well with their studies, I feel more confident in participating in this one. I've jumped ship on the DMD belief, and joined the Metabolic disorder group ... treating with healthy food choices rather than with chemicals and injections that hurt.

Be well, everyone! Take good care of yourselves!

Today is my 100th day of blogging here at Terry's Thoughts and Threads ... and the health awareness prompt asks only for a simple Tag Line for my focus. It has to be: Walking to Beat the MonSter!

Rick and I walked at the end of March (MS Awareness Month) in Newburyport, Massachusetts. We had a team of fifteen, including three of my four sisters, five of my many colleagues, and some friends and in-laws as well. It was a very brisk early-Spring day, with temperatures starting in the high thirties but finishing in the low fifties. I did the full five miles, without shortcuts, and felt great afterward. Such a difference from last year, when I cut the distance  in half!  I'm feeling stronger every day, and more like me!

Back to Book Reviews!

It's been very risky for me to dedicate each day's post to the Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge, as my occasional blog readers, led here by the blog's masthead suggesting book discussions, may have wandered off. I know my regulars, like Faye and others, are here for the long run. So here's a review of another mystery involving health workers, police officers, and social workers. And as I've chosen to post it here, you know that it's a good read ... and another five star review!

 Code Triage

by Candace Calvert

This book has all the elements of good fiction: believable characters, realistic settings and powerful emotions. It begins with a married couple approaching the date their divorce will be final - a divorce process begun because the husband, a police officer, broke  his vows when his partner was killed and he went beyond consoling his partner's sister, a childhood friend.

His wife, an emergency room physician, felt betrayed and could not forgive her husband for this, and turned more toward her 'alone' time at the stables with her horse. Her husband has tried to apologize for his weakness following the loss of his partner and his empathy for his partner's sister, but the doctor is not willing to forgive and forget. She was raised in a home where "forever" didn't exist, with a mother who moved from marriage to marriage.

The sister, having known the police officer since childhood, believes she would be a better wife for him, and having a  young daughter she believes the three would be a wonderful family. She is a Child Crisis worker who monitors children living in jeopardy. When one of her clients, a single mother herself, leaves her children alone to go to her night job, and the babysitter doesn't show up as expected fifteen minutes after she leaves, and the children left alone suffer carbon monoxide damage due to a space heater operating because her furnace has been turned off for lack of payment, the mother finds her youngest non responsive, and the daughter, just a toddler herself, has just called 911 crying. 

This brings the three main characters together in a difficult collaboration. The situation escalates, the single mother's drug addicted partner and father of her children enters the scene, and shooting begins.

The author skillfully shares an introspective view of each character's emotional roller coaster, spanning from anger and resentment and love and fear and protectiveness and abandonment ... it is a murder mystery with a strong psychological focus, and well worth a reader's time and tissues.  Five Stars!

Day 25 of the Health Activist Writers' Month Challenge:  Write a memory, in third person, using all sensory references:

This is a memory of 22 years ago, when Rob was still a toddler, his mother yet undiagnosed.




The two were smiling as she drove along the highway, he in his car seat beside her, with the radio playing oldies. Dad was not with them, as he was caring for Gram in those days, and late afternoon was a time when he was needed to read her the mail, pay whichever bills had come in, and check to see that she had what was needed for supper.

As they took the ramp exiting the highway, her son began watching traffic with her. 
"There's a dump truck, Mum ... and that's a ... that's a brown truck."
"Can  you read the letters on that truck, Rob?" she asked him, downshifting as they came to the end of the ramp and the bright red stop sign, shining in the afternoon sun.
"It's U P S, Mum. I don't know what that says. But the red sign says stop!"

She did stop, and looked to the left, then pulled out carefully into the traffic. The ride from the highway to the shore was busy with commuters who lived year round at the beach and were anxious to get home before the sun set, as the reflective glow on the eastern shore was going to be spectacular.

 They were following the brown truck now, until it turned right into a busy shopping plaza. The traffic lights ahead were just turning yellow, and then red, and they stopped again. Rob had settled back in his car seat, and was watching the lights. As soon as the green light lit, he said "That means go, Mum. Why are we still stopped?"


Before she could answer, traffic began to move, and she eased into the left lane as they approached the turn toward the beach. Heading north, the scenery changed dramatically from the commercial area to a residential one, with large houses built to the left of the road, and a sea wall and dunes off to the right.  Rob watched out his window, and she slowed as she approached the spot where they would find a jetty and tide pools. The parking lot ahead was still fairly empty as the temperature was brisk; not many came out to enjoy the sea in late winter, but then was when she found it most beautiful.


They pulled in diagonally to a space near the opening in the sea wall, and took the kite out from behind the seat. Standing beside his door, she made sure his knitted hat was pulled down over his ears, his jacket was zipped up over his scarf, and his mittens were tucked into the cuffs of his sleeves. Then she lifted him down to the pavement, and let him climb up onto the wall. He began to walk carefully along the top, with his mother walking alongside him. She stepped through the opening and met him on the sandy side, and lifted him down onto the still-frozen sand.  

Rob held the kite and she unrolled the reel of string, walking away from him but still tethered by the kite. His eyes squinted in the wind, and he watched her for their signal. When he saw her lift the reel high over her head, he gave the open kite a push up over his, and she began to pump the string. Gradually the kite lifted, tilting crazily side to side until it had enough height to rise steadily upward on the south wind. Rob ran toward his mother, and together they held the reel, his mittened hands within her cold fingers, working together to guide the kite into the face of the wind. The seagulls began squawking and squealing as the multicolored diamond with the long flapping tale hovered over the tide pools, interrupting their foraging. They were backed up far enough now that Rob could climb over the rocks and look down into the tide pools, searching for urchins with their sturdy, bristly covering. Finding even the discarded shell of one would be a treasure, but none were to be found this time. Coming back to his mother, they both leaned against the seawall and watched the reflection over the water of the sun setting behind them. 

NSRW Sea-Urchin

Pink turned to lilac, and then lavender, and then violet. "We better hurry - the bugs will be out soon," she said to him.  She began reeling in the kite slowly, careful not to pull so hard against the wind that the string would break. Rob watched as it jerked and bobbed over the water, and when it lowered enough and was back over wet sand he ran toward the sea to catch it's landing. 


They ran together back toward the truck, and she lifted him again onto the wall and passed through the opening. He hopped down to the pavement, and stood by the door as she wrapped the kite back into a narrow twist and tucked it behind the seat. Lifting him up and buckling him in, she saw the first of the small flies landing on the sun-warmed windshield. She hurried over to her door, got in, and looked across the seat at Rob, who was counting the flies as they arrived.


"Six, seven ... we beat them here, Mum." They continued to gather, seeking the warmth of the still warm engine. 


"Will dad be home when we get there?" She nodded, and reached over to pull his mittens off. He reached up to his head and pushed the hat off his forehead. Starting the engine, they waited a few more minutes, watching the violet sky turn to dark purple, navy blue, and then looked for stars ... but saw none.

Moon and Venus at sunset

"Where is Venus, Mum?" he asked, puzzled.


"We'll see her when we get back on the highway. She's in the south-west, waiting for us. There's no cloud cover tonight; it's going to be very cold when we get home."


"And the moon will be with Venus? And Dad will be at home, right? And he will make a fire in the wood stove, right?"


"Right," she said, driving carefully toward the highway, and home.

Last Day for the Discount! 

The online book discussion is tonight, at 7 pm! To be a part of this discussion, go to www.beyondoldwindows.com/aboutmultiplesclerosis.htm

for details, and a telephone number to join in!

 Multiple Sclerosis, an Enigma http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/152332Your coupon code for 50% off is TC78K

The print version remains discounted at Create Space: here is the information you'll need for that:

https://www.createspace.com/3711313 

and enter this discount code at the checkout: VXXURQMH

Day 24 Writing Prompt:  Choose a mascot: real, fictional, or mythical, for your condition.

If you read my blog yesterday, you read a book review of Birth of the Phoenix, by Harriett B. Varney Miller. And in reading and reviewing the book, I was reacquainted with the symbolism of the phoenix, the bird who weakens and dies in a smoldering heap of ash, and then rises, whole and new and better than before. What better 'mascot' to have, what better symbol, than this mythical bird? In the book, she represented the strength of battered women who have the opportunity to remake their lives.

With MS, it is easy to first be defeated by the prognosis that accompanies the diagnosis. Multiple Sclerosis is a progressive, degenerative disease that can attack any body function, as it rests within the central nervous system, potentially affecting any combination of nerves that conduct message from the brain through the spinal column to all body parts.  Not only can it affect mobility, sight, speech, touch, hearing, taste or smell; it can also affect memory, thought processes, the ability to logically organize thought, plan, strategize and other higher order thinking skills.  And so, it affects not only your life, but the lives of all who care for you, and are cared for by you. It affects your career, your co-workers, and those you may serve in a career: students, patients, clients, and customers who are depending on you for a service such as teaching, nursing, advocacy and other careers.

Initially, the doctor who has the answers is seen as delivering a definitive diagnosis and prescription. The prescription comes with a vague and limited suggestion of a slowing of the progression. You have a choice at this point to reject, accept, or postpone acceptance of this diagnosis. Yet, most people see doctors as infallible, and diagnoses as black and white. In time, you might realize that something doesn't fit, and you may rethink your agreement or rejection.

If you are like me, you may experience a complete deterioration of your life plans and goals, given the limitations that impose themselves on your functioning in the way you are used to functioning. If you are as lucky as I, you have friends and family who will support you through this dark period, and help you to remember that it is your life, and your choice as to whether to agree or disagree with the treatment.

I was able to rise from the ash pile of my former self and create a new me, and begin in a new direction. No longer could I remember one hundred students names at a time. No longer could I organize their individual styles, strengths, weaknesses and needs in my mind, and meet each one where they needed to be met. No longer could I sit at a meeting table with anxious parents seeking advice based on careful observation. No longer could I be a public school teacher.

I rationalized that prior to the official stamp of diagnosis, I was functioning, despite the odd symptoms that come with multiple sclerosis.  I realized that having agreed to the daily injections, I had agreed with the diagnosis despite my consistent and strong belief that this was not MS but something else, something more familiar. I understood then that continuing for four and a half years with injections that troubled me physically, emotionally and economically had brought me down into a depression that deepened by the day, week and month. And when I could see that clearly, and make my decision to stop pretending to agree, stop trying to look like I did have MS and stop injecting something that could affect every nerve in my body, I stopped.

And then I became: I became who I am today, with the strength and confidence of my old self restored, and I arose from the ashes of my aberrant, temporary, indelibly-labeled-with-MS-self. The cessation of injections restored my daily independence. The release from the nightly pain following each injection allowed me to fall asleep at peace with myself, having escaped the unrelenting reminder of this diagnosis. With the help of an antidepressant medication, I began living again, not just existing, and more than just surviving.

Who I am today is a writer, an author, a thinker, an observer, a recorder, and a self-marketer. I am happy with what I have become, and I accept what I've had to leave behind. Phoenix is better with each new rebirth. I have that to look forward to, whenever it may occur yet again.

 And a Reminder: Today and Tomorrow:
I'm offering a coupon for a Discounted Download  (April 19 through 25th) Here's the information you'll need:

 Multiple Sclerosis, an Enigma http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/152332

Your coupon code for 50% off is TC78K

The print version remains discounted at Create Space: here is the information you'll need for that:

https://www.createspace.com/3711313 

and enter this discount code at the checkout: VXXURQMH

Day 23: Write whatever you want to write today.

Today, I will reclaim this blog for its original intent: reviewing books and encouraging book discussions among others. I've succeeded often at the first, but have proven woefully ineffective with the second.  But I'll never give up!

Today's book is one written by an author who is local - and a member of our newly formed Essex County North Authors and Artists Group. Her name is Sue, but she uses a family member's name as a pen name. Birth of the Phoenix, by Harriet B. Varney Miller, has a stunning young woman elegantly dressed and posed in front of a rising phoenix. It is a treasure that ought to be on the front page of local papers and in the windows of remaining book stores. I picked it up because it was written by a local. I am so glad that I did.

It is a multilayered, many faceted story of growth, and it begins with a young woman living with an abusive husband and a very young son. The character's (not the author's)perspective of marriage is based on her own experience, and on her parents. Her parents were loving and nurturing, and so she wishes to be the same. But her situation is dangerous; she married young, right out of high school and just after her loving parents were killed in a car accident. She believes that her husband would love and care for her. Instead, she lives in a repressive home, with a man who limits her contact with others who might have allowed her to see a different style of family love. She feels worthless, and ill-equipped to leave for her own and her son's safety. But eventually she finds the strength and means to do so, and begins a journey along a new and different path.

The author had spent time helping victims of Hurricane Katrina, and so a bit of that story comes into this one. She uses her characters effectively to point out social inequities and discriminatory practices. She also has characters who embody the goodness that we all believe still exists in our society ... social workers, child care workers, neighbors and new friends who have shared similar heartache and know how to listen to each other, and how to support goals and respond to defeatism.

This book would be a great gift for anyone just emerging from high school, someone looking around at the world beyond school, and preparing to make choices that have immediate ramifications. It is a book that will encourage young people to be aware that choices can be changed, and that negative feedback can be wrong.

This is a book that celebrates the strength of women. It is a book that opens eyes to possibilities. It is a story that will make a reader stop and think back on younger years, or pause and look carefully before taking the next step forward. I am so glad that this author's proximity caused me to find and read this book, and to share it here with you.

Remember: only three more days!

I'm offering a coupon for a Discounted Download  (April 19 through 25th) Here's the information you'll need:

 Multiple Sclerosis, an Enigma http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/152332

Your coupon code for 50% off is TC78K

The print version remains discounted at Create Space: here is the information you'll need for that:

https://www.createspace.com/3711313 

and enter this discount code at the checkout: VXXURQMH