The Weekend

I had a fantastic weekend, and my ataxia didn't affect me all that much.  I didn't fall, not once!  My weekend was pretty busy and my body didn't really get all that tired.  Of course, I took it easy this time as often as I could.  And drank lots of fluids.  I usually take a cat nap during the day, and this past weekend I didn't take even one.  I'm not gonna lie, my body still got tired, but I felt better than previous weekends of being super busy.


My friend came over Friday after I got home from work and we went to Subway for lunch.  Yum!  Then we hungout poolside until dinnertime.  I made sure to take a drink and a snack so the heat wouldn't get the best of me.  We went to the supermarket to buy something to eat for dinner and also rented a movie.  Waiting for Forever.  It was kinda a depressing movie.  Not any action and the storyline just moved really slow, and the ending sucked.  I was like, 'really?  This is it?'


After lunch on Saturday, we got ready and drove to my other friend's house.  I curled my hair, which took about 45 minutes!  All three of us just hungout at her house till dinner.  Then we met another girl for dinner at Cracker Barrel.  It's a southern cooking restaurant.  Like chicken fried steak and meatloaf and stuff.  So for all you northerners, you're missing out on excellent food...lol.  We all went to the discount movies after that to see Something Borrowed.  It was ok, but the storyline could've been better.  Grahams was our last stop for the night.  It's a dance club with 5 rooms: country, hip hop, karaoke, coyote ugly (girls dancing on bar), 80's music.  My friends and I did karaoke to some Spice Girls song.  A song that I really don't know.  The one that goes, 'if you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends....'  It was fun but also embarrassing having all those strangers look at you.  I'd do it again, but definitely not by myself...lol.  Since Grahams serves alcohol, I got the "are you alright?" question pretty often.  I'm used to it so it's all good.  I just smile and say yes.  We danced on stage in the hip/hop room.  It was so much fun but my legs got sooooo tired.  Luckily all that dancing was not long before we left. 


Sunday was 'Sunday Funday"!  Two of my friends and their 5 kids and I went to the swimming pool all day long.  There are grills out by the pool so my friend bbq-ed us up some fajitas and hotdogs.  I had a blast, but can you imagine having ataxia and dealing with 5 crazy kids?  Talk about insane.  Chasing after them and whatnot.  Carrying them bc they can't really swim.  I do it all bc I want to, but it gets tiring, and I get tired a lot faster than most people bc of my ataxia I think.  The tiredness starts in my legs and works its way up.  Sometimes it's like my legs have a mind of their own...lmao

Warning!

Read this blog with caution!  I do not sugar-coat my ataxia stories.  You will hear the good, the bad, and the ugly....literally.  If you are not strong enough to hear about the hardships of living with ataxia, then DO NOT CONTINUE.

Say What?

Falling is a part of life for ataxians, including myself.  We can minimize how often we fall by slowing down and such, but it is bound to happen once in a while.  So the point is, there's no need to get mad or upset when it does happen.

I do know how hard it is to take this advice because I can obviously relate to it and how difficult it is to just 'move on'.  The other day when I was putting together my internet, I fell and busted my lip on the edge of my desk.  It hurt so much, that I just sat there whimpering and feeling sorry for myself.  I kept saying "why did this have to happen to me?"  First of all, there's no one to blame.  It was just a natural reaction.  I was mad and upset; all kinds of cuss words flew out of my mouth.  The crying was ok because my lip really did hurt, but everything else was inappropriate because occasionally falling is just what I do best.  Anyway, I got over it about 20 minutes later and continued on with my life.  My lip is fine by the way =)

Revelation?

I keep trying to act like I'm the average person and I can do normal stuff, and it really takes a toll on my body.  For example, I do activities at speeds the average person would do, when in reality I need to SLOW DOWN and take my time.  My symptoms didn't start until I was 17 so I know what it was like to live symptom-free.  In my day-to-day life, I act like ataxia doesn't affect me that much, when it does affect me more than I want to allow myself to think.  I am not denying anything about my condition, I just need to take things more easy.  I have a specific example to share.  When I was getting out of the pool last weekend, I kept telling myself I can get out without holding onto the rail (there were 2 steps).  I told myself 'I can do this.'  Yeah, I ended up falling, luckily back into the pool....lol.  So not a good idea to pretend I can do the "normal" things all the time.  Don't know why I think this way, but hopefully writing this blog will be a wake-up call to me that I need to do things that I know are safe for me (and not just telling myself I can do it) and at a different pace than most persons.  Because of thinking and acting this way, I really tire-out my body.  This makes me sick and drained of energy frequently.  I think it's time for a change.

Workout!

I got a huge workout yesterday, handling 5 kids jumping to me in the pool.  They kept wanting to do it over and over and over and over.  They jumped to me one at a time (well sometimes 2 at a time), and I would catch em.  All the kids are five and under in age by the way.  The youngest is two.  He was the crazy one that would jump when it wasn't his turn.  Cuz I told em to form a line, but he was so excited, he just didn't care....lol!  But I feel like I got a good workout in my arms; they are sore today.  By the way, I got a bunch of little bruises all over my arms too...lol.  I bruise too easily.  Just by poking my arm or leg, I'll have a bruise there the next day...haha.  My legs are sore today too.  I did alot of walking at the pool yesterday, plus the weight of the kids = tired legs.  I actually lost my balance and fell on my knee at the end of the day.  I'm ok and everything is just peachy :)