Busy Busy August

I've been quiet here all month, but not because nothing's going on. In fact, a lot has been going on. And I hit the point of needing to recover and I have, mostly, and still have a bit more compensating to do.
So let's play catch-up!

As I may or may not have written, my summer schedule organization was complex enough for me to feel the need to open separate google calendars for myself and my son. I have been coordinating his life between 5 households, including mine. Yep. Fun stuff. Especially on the foggy days. But it has all been going very smoothly, thanks in great part to my sister and brother-in-law who drove downtown in rush hour to camp and back for three weeks straight with all four of our kids in the van - not sure how they stayed sane.

The first weekend in August, we had the immense pleasure of hosting my aunt Cuq (who is familiar to all regular readers) and Ish (yes, it's a nickname). They were here for a very brief but so very warm and lovely visit. The best part was that most of the visit was just hanging out. I did, however, make it out to two dinners - two dinner in proper restaurants, with lots of people in one wekeend! That is definitely a record for me. The best part of being with Cuq and Ish is that there are no expectations - they know me and accept me and love me and accomodate me and protect me. They are family after all, so I don't feel weird about dropping off in the middle of a sentence, or just putting my head down in the middle of a conversation. That's pretty awesome.

Following their visit, my son had the week off camp. We had great plans. I bought him a cell phone, so we could do stuff together, him at his speed, me at mine, without my freaking out that he is going too far out of sight. We had plans to go to the pool every day and all kinds of neat stuff to do that would not drain me. Of course, the last day of Cuq and Ish's visit, he goes and injures himself. The boy was jumping into the pool when he tripped, and scraped 3/4 of his toenail off. Without going into the gory details, let's just say it was bad enough for us to go see the doctor (not the ER or walk-in though), and we all know what doctor's visits do to me. Not to mention that because of infection risk and pain management we had to change all our plans and we all know how well I deal with that! But we did pretty well.

The thing about my son being home, is that I am now used to the routine of spending a good 8 hours on my own every day. And last week there was none of that. At all. I enjoyed it tremendously, and wish I could do it more often, but it does take a toll on me, no matter how independent he is.

Now add to all that the storms that have been gifting us with beautiful lightning shows and the air pressure changes that inevitably come with them, and you have one very heavily compensating Andy. But it does not end there. Oh no. What fun would that be? At this point, my dear friend Debby is probably shaking her head, saying: "Bad turtle. Bad, bad little turtle."

Thursday night I had a wonderful meeting with a great group of women who are starting a blog with me about what it's like to be a parent at our school. I am really excited about it, and I really enjoy these women, so the meeting was wonderful, and the work will be very good for me. You know how I love to write, and how I love the school - and being able to make a real contribution in a way that feeds me instead of draining me feels fantastic. Still, having already been headed towards a flare, and then having the meeting, and staying up late because my body would not wind down... well, you know how I spent my weekend, right? But hey - I managed to rest well enough that I was actually able to empty and load the dishwasher today (in three goes, but I did it)!

Oh - and update in medical terms - I am now taking the Valtrex as recommended by Dr. Nathan, and it is hard to tell whether it is having any effect, because of everything else that has been going on. Now, both Dr. N and my family doctor told me that there would not be any side-effects, but the ME/CFS community says otherwise - we know that we are more sensitive to drugs, and this seems to be no exception. So the sore throat I had right after I started, and the the malaise I felt - that could be from the Valtrex, but it could also be from the weather, activity or lessening of down-time. Or it could be a little bit of all of those. Yeah, I'll go with that.

'Til next time... I don't think it will be quite as long this time... I've got some stuff running through my head - words that most definitely need to fly!