Today is my 39th birthday. I am glad I am 39.
Out to dinner with a friend (also named Diana)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
![Wow-- May is almost over. I realize that I did an email video on my birthday, but never wrote about it. I’m a bit pressed for time, as I traveled this month, going down to Los Angeles for the California Distinguished Schools Awards. Now, I’m working on another movie for the school, this one will be shown at the end-of-the-year assembly where the Mayor will be speaking. The Distinguished Schools ceremony was cool. The State Superintendent of Education was there. Very personable. Good at giving speeches, smiling, shaking hands. Some said he may run for governor next year. But, hey, rumors are rumors. I sat next to our town’s District Superintendent of Education at the Awards Dinner. Very personable lady. I enjoyed talking with her, and have great confidence in her ability to guide our town’s school system.
So, well, since I’m totally backlogged with projects to do at the school, I’m going to do a quickie blog update here by posting an email exchange my husband and I did on my bday. My husband travels for his job, and we keep in touch several times a day by email and phone. We’ve always been very close as a couple, so ten years later, I’m happy to say, the closeness is still there. OK, granted, my husband can’t type as much, because he is usually typing his emails using his thumbs, on his Blackberry while waiting to board an airplane someplace. My emails tend to be a bit, er, prolific, but, hey, I am a writer. It’s what I do.
Here’s a link to my birthday video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBiNPxPMExE
Here’s the written details. Note-- I tend to keep my YouTube videos very light and upbeat, but go into more detail on what is “really” going on in my written blog. Why? Good question. I’m not sure. But, I think it is because at a young age we’re taught to “be polite in public,” which, in some ways, also teaches us to “hide our true emotions while presenting our face in the public.” Writing is so much more deeply personable, and I know a lot less people read my blog, as watch my videos, (the numbers are about 1/4 of what the videos get,) I feel more comfortable sharing the details of what is “really” going on. So, you “readers” get the inside scoop...
[Excerpt from an email exchange between my husband and I.]
Hi Wifie- How was your birthday? - Husband.
Dear Husband-
Well, it didn’t quite work out as planned. But, I can’t complain. I’m still happy to be 39. I feel so much better at 39 than I did at 29, so 39 is a very happy age for me. I tell everyone my age, whether they ask or not. I’m truly happy to be 39.
Now, ironically enough, I did not feel at all well today. I woke up with a bad headache, which hasn’t been the norm lately at all. My headaches really have been so much better.
Today, I had a bit of a migraine today, so it was hard to focus. I took the migraine med that I picked up from Target, and it helped a lot. It works surprisingly well, and its not a painkiller, which is nice. I’m so glad not to be on opiates anymore. I know you used to get scared when I was on those stronger meds and would be driving the car with Alex in back. On some level, I was scared, too, but I guess I thought it would be even worse to be driving in so much pain that I couldn’t focus on the road. So, the Vicodin and Ultram became the lesser of two evils. But, they were still evil, so I am glad they are out of my life now.
The new stuff I take now for migraines doesn’t do anything more than dilate the blood vessels. No opiates. No “synthetic” opiate like Ultram, (which, in my opinion, was worse because it was less effective and me feel worse. Depressed and out of it.)
The theory behind this stuff is that migraines constrict blood vessels in the brain, (“vasoconstriction,” I think, its called. This med forces the blood vessels to dilate again. Seems simple enough.It’s ghastly expensive, like all the others. Without our insurance, it would cost almost $500 for one little box of the stuff! (The pills are in individually sealed packets. I think there are like 24 of them.)
I was glad to have it, otherwise I would have had to cancel on the birthday dinner I had planned tonight with the “other Diana” from school. I was that miserable.
Everyone in my family remembered my birthday, which was nice, (well, either Mom or Dad always sends out a reminder email to the rest of the family to make sure we never forget each other’s birthdays.) So, of course, I got a phone call from everyone in the family.
But, it was kind of hard taking all the phone calls all day, and acting all chipper and happy because my head hurt so much. It hurts to cradle the phone to my ear. It hurts to speak. Everyone’s voices seemed very loud. But, it would have been very rude to say: “Let’s not talk. But, thanks for calling.” So, I was polite and all, as they all sang for me, (very loudly, and enthusiastically, or at least it seemed loud. I am just so sound sensitive when I have a migraine. Even the sound of the phone ringing was painful.) Truth be told, I just wanted to be very quiet, lie very still, and have a heat pack on the back of my neck and not move and not talk to anyone for a very long time..
I still rode bikes to pick Alex up from school. Well, I had to. I had taken both Alex [and his friend] Flavio to school by bikes, so, of course, we had to take bikes back home again.
So, while I really didn’t want to pedal up that very long hill, I made it. But, when I arrived at school, Alex was being very difficult. He kept whining and whining. He said he twisted his foot, and insisted I carry him everywhere, (yet, he still wanted to play on the playground, and go on the swings. He just wanted to be CARRIED to the swings.) I put up with this only until Flavio got out of class, and then we left for home. Well, I couldn’t both carry Alex and push the tandem bike, so Alex insisted on sitting on the seat of the tandem bike while I pushed it, (since you are not allowed to ride the bikes through the campus.) It was super tough on my back to balance his 40 pounds on the tandem bike when I was not on the bike myself. So, I leaned my body into the seat sideways to balance it, and pushed the handlebars, until we were clear of the “no riding” zone.
I gave Alex some Tylenol when we got home, made him do his homework. I asked him if his foot still hurt.
“Yes! Yes!” he said.
“OK,” I said, “then, I’ll take you to the doctor.”
“But,” he said, looking up at me with concern, “can’t I play with my friends first?”
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and sure enough, it was one of his buddies, showing up to ask if he could play.
“OK, Alex, decision-time, do you need to see a doctor for your foot, or do you want to play with your friends?” I asked.
“I guess it’s feeling a LITTLE better,” he said.
He put his shoe and sock back on, shouted: “Bye, Mom!” and ran off down the street after his friends.
I have no doubt he did twist his foot at school, however, I could tell he was totally over-reacting to the situation. I could tell by the way he was
selectively limping, and then not limping, that this “injury” was more of a “I’m tired and cranky” thing, than an “I’m actually injured” thing.
And, knowing I’d had a migraine all day, I figured the weather patterns might be changing. When my fibromyalgia acts up, Alex’s always does do. i.e. On the days that I am cranky, Alex is, too. So, twenty minutes after taking the Tylenol, Alex was running around the neighborhood with his friends again, laughing and smiling. He was just whiney and cranky because his fibro was acting up.
I could have done without him killing my back like that, carrying him around, and pushing him on the bike, but, it’s always that way. On the days when I feel my worst, he does, too. I guess it’s the curse of having a genetic disease. I’m thinking Dr. St. Amand was very optimistic when he said Alex would cycle out in a “few months.” If we calculate his age times two months, it really should take 12 months for him to fully clear, now that we’ve found his full cycling dose of 600 mg x 2, rather than the 300 mg. x 2, that he was on the year before. So, we’re in for six more months of this, but it should get better month by month, (I hope.)
Anyway...
I did finally get to go out to dinner with the other Diana. I dropped Alex off at the KidsPark, and got over to her house by 7:30. But, her husband was late coming home from work, (he works at Yahoo), so we didn’t leave for dinner until 8:30. Dinner was rushed and I picked Alex up from KidsPark right when they closed at 10 PM. Poor kid! Even then, we had to take our complementary dessert to go, and they sang us “happy birthday” at 9:55 PM, as we were hurridely paying the bill and preparing to run out the door so we could get to KidsPark before they closed. (They called me on the cell phone with a “courtesy call” reminding me they were about to close and my kid was still there. I told them I was 5 minutes away and I was coming.) Of course, I felt like a crummy parent for keeping him out until 10 PM on a school night! I let Alex eat my birthday dessert in the car on the way home. So, not exactly a birthday cake with candles, but, well, we did the best we could under the circumstances.
Alex has a dentist appt in the morning tomorrow to get that filling done, (no breakfast for him), so he gets to sleep a little later. So, I don’t feel quite so horrid about keeping him out so late. But, still, timing-wise, we were supposed to be home by 9 PM, not 10 PM. Well, anyway, what can you do? Husbands have to work, so it was the best we “Dianas” could manage to celebrate our joint birthdays. It’s kind of cool that both of us have the same birthday. The other Diana is turning 43. We had fun anyway, even though it was really rushed.
On May 22nd, we want to go to the Indiana Jones premiere together. Hopefully, her husband won’t have to work late again so we won’t miss the movie, and I think you said you would be in town and not traveling. So, hopefully we’ll get another chance at our “girls’ night.”
It’s nice to be making a lot of new friends. There are some terrific Moms at the school. Along with the Moms at the church, I’ve really meant some wonderful people here in town. I feel very blessed.
I’ll leave you a voicemail tomorrow morning and let you know how Alex’s dental appointment goes. If he is feeling crummy afterwards, I’ll let him come home, but he is such a trooper about these things, I’ll bet he’ll choose to go to school. So, I’ll dress him for the appointment in his school uniform and bring his school bag.
Good luck with your meetings tomorrow. We love you. Come home safe.
. - Wifie
Hi Wifie,
Sorry to hear that you had a migraine on your birthday. I hope that you're feeling better today.
- Husband.
Dear Husband- Yes. I still have some residual “after-effects,” like I always do. Kind of like a migraine “hang-over,” I guess. But, it is much, much better. This should clear soon. Alex is much better, too. His dental appointment went great. Ever since his fibro started improving, so did his dental appointments. He has no fear of the dentist anymore. He came out calm and smiling, even though he’d just had a filling done. They’d let him pick out a foam model airplane from the “prize box” and he was really excited about assembling it, (it was like a complex puzzle.) He was in such a good mood, you wouldn’t have known he’d just had dental work, or been up late the night before. The dentist recommended we wait until all the numbness wore off before taking him to school. So, we did our grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s and I let him pick out all his lunch foods himself-- at least that way, we know he’ll eat what we pack in his lunch. Don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of him always sending his lunch back home uneaten. What does he eat anyway? He must be sharing food with someone at school, (which they prohibit due to nut allergies, but I’m sure the kids do it anyway.) He already ate some of the stuff in the car on the way to school, and when we arrived at school it was already lunchtime. Since he’d already eaten, he went straight to the playground. I ran into his teacher, who said the kids had been asking about him all morning. “Where’s Alex? Where’s Alex?” Popular kid. They were all very glad to see them. He filled them in on the excitement of his dental appointment and new assemble-it-yourself airplane. As I was leaving the cafeteria, the kids were all trading “going to the dentist” stories.:Wifie](4735DDE1-FD5A-4913-92A5-4F87FD9DB04A_files/shapeimage_1.png)
