Spinal Cord injury, Lupus, Sjogren's, RA - ?? Happy 4th (Belated) Hope All is Safe - And What in the World is Happening to our World?

I started off with the title of this such as it is, because This post will be a conglomeration of ideas, of things going on... of how tough like can be... how things can change within the blink of an eye... and no matter where you turn er either have some "natural" disaster, man made disaster, or for the most part , if it is not one thing happening, it is another.
As far as Jim and how he is with the spinal cord injury... which I am just now honestly beginning to truly understand how long something like this can take to even show symptoms.... it can be months and months before the "cord" itself comes out of " spinal cord shock", plus healing all of the bruising, swelling and surgery.
Then I find out about this ( definition ) "Spasticity"(Spasticity is a feature of altered skeletal muscle performance in muscle tone involving hypertonia; it is also referred to as an unusual "tightness", stiffness, or "pull" of muscles. The word spasm comes from the Greek word σπασμός (spasmos), meaning "drawing, pulling." Clinically, spasticity is defined as velocity-dependent resistance to stretch, where a lack of inhibition results in excessive contraction of the muscles, ultimately leading to hyperflexia, an exaggerated deep tendon reflex on stimulation with a reflex hammer (or spontaneous firing of deep tendon reflexes as in clonus.) and how even though he was in the hospital 3 months, went through ICU, Acute Care, and to Rehab; then another Rehab... and out of the "hospitals" and into "outpatient therapy". Let me say that Baylor of Dallas is one "HUGE monstrosity" of a Hospital. And that is not including all of their other specialty's from the Cancer Hospital to the Dental College. We we blessed (if you want to call this horrid wreck blessed) that it happened so close to Baylor Hospital they immediately took him there. ALL of our hospitals have their own specialty's but Baylor is just a "golden" egg for Rehab and accidents with lots of brain injury, or spinal cord and nerves.. they have some of the best there.
I knew I would write about the entire happenings (since there were more than on thing that happened at the same time) that could have made the entire nightmare much worse than it is. Some people may look at Jim, on his cane, with his legs quite "wobbly" at time, his neck sometimes bent over, or his shoulders tend to want to roll forward, and they "wonder" if he had a stroke etc. I usually come right out and tell what (Tiffany) calls the "Elevator" story.. He was headed o I-45 to the DFW Airport. As he came upon the outskirts of Dallas and on I-45 where his has several 'In's and Out's... changing lanes and so forth... for NO APPARENT reason we have yet to see or know, he was HIT from BEHIND (now he was driving 60 MPR which is the speed limit through there) an 18 Wheel Tractor Trailer Rig , full speed rammed him from the back, enough we "think" that then it shoved our car under a "Tahoe" which was in the next lane to Jim's right. Then it seems our car slowed after all of that, but continued to "spin" over into another land and it appears he was slammed again by the tracker trailer --- he was "hit" at least Twice, and at a very fast speed to have done the absolutely horrible damage to what now does not even appear to be a car. Jim, does NOT REMEMBER ANY of this. All he remembers he was head North on "I-45 to go to DFW Airport for a plane to Washington DC, WHERE I WAS at the time this all took place. The ONLY thing he said was 2 "people" tried to get him out of the car & could not, so the firemen came to "cut him" out of the car. Well I think he of course already had "MASSIVE physical damage to his body" as well as a concussion, and the "men" were probably the firemen and the ambulance drivers there. From what I & he knows he was unconscious almost the entire time. I know he did "HEAR" something that terrified him though. We were in the Taco Bell parking lot a couple of weeks ago, and I accidentally cut the corner a little to quickly so it kind of made a scraping sound as a "wreck" might and he almost fainted it scared him so badly. So, I am GLAD honestly he does not "remember" the wreck. I think he would have many more issues mentally and emotionally had he been awake.
I was called from Baylor by a trauma unit doctor, while I was in Washington DC..and what made that so bad, is that his Mom had just walked up & thought I was crying "happy" tears that I was getting to meet her, see DC...and all of that. So, a gentleman who helped me through this entire ordeal took over the phone & got the injury reports, if Jim was able to talk, was he able to recognize, and his injuries were etc. I had to tell Jim's Mom whom I had NEVER met, but talked to over the phone for about 10 years that her son was in ICU due to a very bad auto accident. At that moment I just crumpled to the floor in the lobby the of Hilton DC. I could not think, talk, answer, I had just had news that was so totally unbelievable & that I had no clue how to get home (I was supposed to fly home with Jim on Sunday after we had visited The Capitol, DC, His Mom and had a mini vacation. There was a guy who was just monstrosity with everything that had to do with RA,Osteoarthritis, Juvenile Arthritis, and so forth. He spends ALL of his time when he is not working at Summits, meetings, and putting his efforts into helping especially the kids that like his daughter, was diagnosed with JRA at the age of 9 MONTHS OLD! His name is Chris, and was right there trying to do everything to help me that he could. He went to the head sponsor over the Summits, and Laura who is with the Arthritis Foundation and she had a ticket for me to fly out within an hour or two back to Dallas, so I could go be with Jim. At the time we did not know if he was even stable enough to make it. So, even though I was so about leaving his Mom there alone to deal with it all, I knew I had to get back home and to Baylor quickly. My son, Jason who at the time was in Houst working, got the word and he headed up I-45 to come to the airport and pick me up. He ran into some bad weather, yet he got there about 45 minutes after my plane landed. Chris stayed with me the entire time, checking on me, carried my luggage, getting me through check points with bothering me about my pain pump and so forth, thus we made it on just in time. He was a couple of rows behind me, and I was just blessed beyond words to have had him in our summit "group" and then to help with everything he could do in order that I got home. It was amazing.
As I have written to Laura on several occasions, I will never forget the kindness  the "Arthritis Foundation gave to me in my time of need, and I hope to be able to pay them back and even more in my own advocacy work, monetary when we ever get some of that, & to help in any way I can to make sure I spread the word about how important their foundation is. I have read that already on two occasions OUR SUMMIT in MARCH 26, 2014 already helped to PASS TWO of the three legislative issues that the Arthritis Foundation were there advocating for!!! That is just incredible!
So, here "WE" (I) am in the smack dab middle of my own nightmare with Sjögren's Syndrome and trying to figure out the "mini implants" (not sure why they call them "mini"..... this is certainly no "Mini experience". By the time I am through I MIGHT be able to eat Christmas Dinner 2014, if I am fortunate!

Time to play catch up on my blog...

Lots has been going on lately. Due to the wonderful weather, I have been working on the new garden, working with all of the houseplants we bought recently, keeping things watered and green, and enjoying being outside before the heat here gets too bad to enjoy it. We have already had some "code orange" days due to the pollution, the humidity, heat and no breeze.
We have bought the outside paint to begin painting the house also. There is still much to do on the house inside and out, but little by little it is coming together.
Of course lots in the news, from more murder-suicides, to more suicide bombers overseas reeking havoc on innocent lives, to the murder of Dr. Tiller, which to me was a senseless, stupid act. I am not saying I agreed with his practices but killing him in his place or worship, or anywhere for that matter was certainly not the answer. I have not caught up on who this guy was that did the ridiculous deed, but I feel certain he is probably a nut case. Of course, now we run a huge possibility of more just like him doing useless harm to others. We all are allowed and are even encouraged to have our own opinions. But, no where does it say that we are allowed to take lives just because we do not agree with someone. Violence is NEVER the way to settle anything.
I just read a really great article on the Care2 site, about the way to handle conflict without violence, or even raising your voice. Effective communication is the main key, along with truly not just hearing someone, but truly listening to their side and trying to see why they believe as they do. As humans we all want acknowledgment that we are worthy, our opinions count for something, and we have our basic right to our decisions and opinions.

Of course there is just so much controversy surrounding so many issues at this time, from personal to political, it is difficult to keep up with each of them.

Issues from the bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler, to all of the instability of North Korea, and their nuclear testing of bombs, to our continuing down turn of the economy, to greed and corruption, to our much needed dramatic change in our health care system, to the ongoing brawl between the Senate and the House... moreover between the Republicans and the Democrats, our news seems to be filled with issues, rather than hope and peace. We have to make sure our eyes are wide open, and we are alert and cautious everywhere we go. No one wants to walk around in a state of being frightened, but the way things are, it is almost a given, from church, to your own home, the issues surrounding us are making way to the gruesome violence of many.

The plane that went down is a sad situation for those loved ones left behind. We may never know what went on those final moments, before the plane hit the Atlantic. I would hope those people went quickly and without suffering, but that is something as I said we can only have faith about, for finding any part of the plane is probably like looking for a needle in a hay stack so to speak.

I continue to recover from the shoulder surgery, and still have other issues, like the severe bruising and petechia on my arms especially that we do not have an answer to why it is happening yet. We are not very happy with our doctor at this time. He is either overwhelmed with too many patients or his staff is just plain stupid and not capable of doing their jobs correctly. I went there a week ago today in fact to drop off some blood work that my rheumatologist took about 4 weeks ago. There are several things that are abnormal, either too high or too low, that I feel really need to be addressed. Yet, still not a call back or anything. I even called on Friday, and the girl that answered the phone basically told me he had not even seen what I left. Which is frustrating and infuriating. So, I don't know if he just has not bothered, or if possibly he has not been given it to look at. Either way, it is just plain wrong.

I do have a new grandson as of yesterday at 7:59 am. He and my daughter are doing okay. He weighed 7 pounds nine ounces and is 19 1/4 inches long. Kind of light brown hair and so far blue eyes. He is a real cutie. My son in law emailed pics to me yesterday evening. His picture is at the top of this. Honestly, my daughter had already named him several months ago, but right now I cannot remember what she said. LOL, my mind is getting ancient.

Take care and best to each of you.... Rhia

Joining the Race to Stop Domestic Violence

Now, more than ever, we need so many more ways to fight the epidemic of Domestic Violence, Violence Against Children and Humans. With our economic downfall, job loss, the loss of people's home, and all they worked for their lives going away in the blink of an eye, has already caused our news to be filled with grim scenes of what stress can cause. The number of murder-suicide rates in our nation alone has been staggering just over the past 10 days. We have had such situations across the nation in California, Illinois, New York, Alabama, just to name a few over the last couple of days in the news. I fear this will get much worse for many reasons. Now people are unable to get their medications that may effect their mental stability due to loss of insurance or not able to afford to pay for it or their medications. The undue stress to Father's and Mom's is sending some to the breaking point, after losing a job they worked at for many years, then at once finding themselves jobless, headed for homeless, and despair sets in. We need so much more education for law officials handling Domestic Violence issues. We also need help for those who are suffering from thoughts of ending their lives, and the lives of their families due to the despair they are in. Please join me in the fight against Domestic and Human Violence with a daily free click at the link below. You can also do so much more at the Amnesty website ( http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/action/page.do?id=YIA0039035000E)


Join Care2.com's Race to Stop Violence Against Women!


I urge you to take a moment and add your daily free clicks that help to serve many awesome causes. The Main free-click daily link for Care2 is (http://www.care2.com/click2donate/).

You taking a moment each morning to add your free click will help immensely with things such as Domestic Violence, Animal Cruelty, Saving our Oceans, Helping to save Seals, Helping to sponsor children, helping the fight against Breast Cancer, feeding Primates, and much more.

It is time for each of us to take responsibility, step up to the plate and do something positive for our nation, our world and humanity. It costs you nothing to do these free daily clicks, but it certainly is a positive step towards so many wonderful and much needed causes.

Rhia