Of Fibromyalgia Flares and Chores by Konnie Enos

Sunday evening at family dinner I turned to my daughter and asked her what her Monday looked like. My main concern was she’s currently experiencing a fibromyalgia flare, and I didn’t want her energy level completely zapped. Now I already knew she was planning to run to Costco because she had not been able to complete that chore on Friday and we still needed some things. I also knew she’d be doing a load of towels because she does a load of towels every Monday.

What I didn’t know was what other chores she was planning to do.

The first one she mentioned was sweeping the floors. About this time, I remembered that she emptied the clean dishes out of the dishwasher every morning. I immediately knew that what chores needed done were going to be too much for her. I said I could probably handle the towels mostly because it was the easiest one for me to do.

I glanced at the two men at the table with us. My husband who couldn’t be trusted to do a complete sweep and my son, who is fighting a cold. I therefore asked my son if he thought he could handle it.

He said he could probably manage it at 6:30 a.m. before he went to bed. (He is nocturnal.)  My daughter protested on two counts. One, it couldn’t be done until after we fed the fur family members at 7 because two, the floors also needed mopped and the mopping should be done immediately after the sweeping.

We then segued to other topics that seriously had my poor husband ping ponging between the three of us trying to grasp what we were discussing. The changing topics probably confused him the most.

As for the Monday chores?

That was seriously as far as the chore conversation went. I was assuming my son might sweep the floors, maybe mop, but more likely my daughter would have to do it.

Monday morning Royce is up and about after we feed the fur family members and he comes to ask me if his should shampoo his hair, which is my indication he’d decided that was a good time to take a shower.

Since I’m on my bed doing my own thing and actually have my headphones on listening to something, I did not hear anyone doing any chores, but my son comes back in and told me that I had to do the towels now.

“No. (daughter) wanted it done after the floors were mopped.”

“I already did it.”

“Both sweeping and mopping?”

“Yes, both.”

Well, this information gave me serious reason to pause and recalculate. While still processing it my daughter indicates that dirty towels have to be gathered from the bathrooms first. I finally say I’ll get to the towels in a few because I was in the middle of something else at the moment.

Eventually, both my son and daughter were in my room discussing getting the towels done and exactly what settings and what laundry supplies to use.

My dear daughter pointed out that someone would have to get the bleach down for me. (Yes, we all know I am short.)

I think that’s about the time my son decided to do it himself and promptly went and loaded the washer with the towels.

It was after that when my son also mentioned that he’d wiped off the counters and put away the clean dishes and started reloading it. Plus, yes he got a shower.

I am rather impressed with how much he got done in less than three hours, not to mention still up.

And through this whole morning he is insisting that I told him to do the floors.

No. I just asked him if he could.

Well then his sister told him to.

No. She just said when it couldn’t be done and that the mopping needed done too.

“You mean I volun-told myself to sweep and mop the floors?”

“Apparently.”

And it gets funnier.

After my daughter had done the grocery run her little guy was demanding her attention. (The poor guy is 16 years and 11 and half months old, not to mention not the best of health and he just wants to snuggle with his Mom.) I told her with most of her chores done she had some time to snuggle with him.

She pointed out not most, all. At that point in the whole episode, the only thing left to be done was fold and put away all the clean towels. My son had put them in the dryer before he finally went to bed.

My son had done literally all her chores except the shopping and folding the clean towels. Neither one of which he could do anyway.

Still smiling.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Being on the Spectrum by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

These last couple of weeks, I’ve discovered that a lot of my problems growing up, and that I’m still dealing with daily, are things that show up regularly in people on the spectrum.

The list is fairly long for just what I have seen in myself, so I’m not going to list all the ones that do not apply to me; that would take too long.

The first one is ADHD. Back when I was diagnosed, they had two kinds, ADD and ADHD; now they only have one, meaning I am ADHD, and I was diagnosed with that in the late ‘90s along with being mildly OCD, which is another condition associated with being on the spectrum. Making those two issues I do have.

Another diagnosis from that same period of time would be depression, which is also on the list, go figure.

Now let’s get into something more pervasive in my family. Insomnia. So many of us have issues with it, guess what? It can be associated with being on the spectrum.

Insomnia, along with sleep apnea, is no fun, but that is where I am.

The next two are a couple of disorders: Auditory Processing Disorder and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder.

Auditory Processing is most evident when someone asks you to repeat a question, but the next second answers before it can be repeated. This is because the person with the disorder takes extra time to process what has just been heard. And honestly, I sometimes wait for the repeat; it’s just easier, but that’s a habit I developed because of the reaction of people around me when I asked them to repeat themselves.

The hypermobility spectrum is basically a scaled-down version of EDS. EDS is hereditary and in the family, but my mobility isn’t that extreme, though it is documented.

This next one is one I had no idea until these last couple of days could be related to being on the spectrum (though not always), and that is migraines. Go figure. But I do suffer from the occasional migraine, not as major as some members of my family, but I do get them.

I might add I have the great fortune of being sensitive to pain meds and anesthesia, which is something people on the spectrum also often have. And anyone who knows me well knows this about me.

Just ask Konnie. The last time she called me right after I had taken a couple of extra-strength Tylenol, I told her right off I just took some. Her response was, “Okay, I’ll call you back in a couple of hours.”

Konnie has lived with this not just because I am her twin, but because she has a son with the same issue.

The next one I learned about, I’ve known I’ve had issues with for some years. My doctor noted some time ago that I have a susceptibility to Vertigo. Personally, I hate Vertigo. I hate it when the room starts spinning, and I’m not moving. It’s particularly disconcerting when it happens when my eyes are closed.

And when a virus goes around with symptoms including vertigo, I always seem to get it. On Monday, my doctor reiterated my susceptibility, and the virus is making its rounds around town again. Which tells you what most of my last couple of weeks have been like on that front. It also explains why the subject came up at my annual wellness exam.

But did my susceptibility have to be connected to being on the spectrum?

The next three on the list are: Dyspraxia (stumbling and bumping into objects, uncoordinated), Dyscalculia (trouble with math, counting on fingers, and trouble reading an analog clock), and Dysgraphia (frequent spelling errors, missing words, and difficulty organizing thoughts onto paper).

All three of these have longer definitions; I just wrote down the parts that mainly applied to me but not all.

People with Dyspraxia often bump into walls, door frames, and other people because they are so busy processing the rest of what is going on around them and in their active mind that they’ve lost track of the space around them. Ergo, I often put my hand on the wall while I’m walking down a hall. My hand can tell me where things are.

This can also include learning fine motor skills more slowly than normal; yeah, that’s me.

Dyscalculia is most evident in me by my inability to read an analog clock, but I still tend to count on my fingers too. And Konnie complains about my Dysgraphia frequently.

And that’s been the last couple of weeks. Learning how many of the issues I grew up having to deal with are part of me being on the spectrum.

Anyway, happy writing, everyone.

Of Star Trek and Christmas by Konnie Enos

I woke up yesterday (Tuesday, October 27) and picked up my phone, mostly to check the time. For some reason it opened on a news screen but that was quickly covered by something trying to sell me a subscription to a newspaper.

I do not remember which one it was, because I quickly closed the screen. What I do remember was the picture and name on that article I barely saw.

It was a picture of Walter Koenig, and his name was in the headline.

Well, having not read that article, and the subject being a star from the original Star Trek, I went searching for anything mentioning him.

It did not take long to find out that he had passed.

Of the cast of the original show only George Takei was the only one younger than Walter (by about 8 months). With his passing George Takei and William Shatner are the only original cast members still alive. Also, Shatner isn’t the oldest of that original cast, but he is the oldest one still alive. (Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, and Grace Lee Whitney, who played Janice Rand, were all older than Shatner.)

I could go on and on about the cast of the original Star Trek. Obviously, I’m a fan and have been since I was a young girl. I have a vague recollection of watching in prime time. But I have a clear memory of watching it after school everyday starting at the age of about 8.

Anyway, I was still absorbing the fact that Koenig had passed so recently (Sunday) when my daughter brought her little guy to me so he could sleep curled up to a warm body and she could do her regular morning tasks.

Upon being presented with another human being to share this news with I, of course, said, “Walter Koenig passed away.”

Folks, do you know what my daughter responded?

“I have no idea who that is.”

My own child had no clue who I was talking about. Though to her credit she did now who Chekov was. (Yes, I did explain that Walter Koenig played Chekov in the original show.)

Though it got me to thinking.

My husband barely remembers that the show existed and only because I am such a fan. My youngest is a Star Trek fan and is familiar with the later shows but he doesn’t have much knowledge of the actors, just the roles.

I know my youngest daughter isn’t a Star Trek fan even is she is familiar with the entire series. I also know my oldest son isn’t a Trek fan, he much prefers Star Wars.

Don’t worry dear Star Wars fans. I’ve been a fan of that series since I watched the very first released movie (part 4, I believe) in the theaters as a teenager back in 1977. So not nearly as long as I’ve been a Star Trek fan, but close enough.

I will not comment on the sci-fi show/movie preferences of my oldest two mostly because I’ve never known them to watch/read sci-fi.

So, there I was, wanting to share the information about Koenig passing and unable to commiserate with my spouse or children.

Of course, I called Bonnie, and of course, she heard the news before I even did.

On the plus side, she agreed my two oldest are not into sci-fi at all.

And we did get to talk for a few minutes but not very long. Apparently, I choose to call her at almost the same time her alarm went off letting her know she needed to get ready to go to her doctor’s appointment.

Which of course brought me to another issue.

None of these conversations lasted long enough, nor were interesting enough, to generate more details for my little story. I also did not meet our agreed upon word count for our posts. (Which is to say more than 2 double spaced pages.)

Which left me pondering what else I might be able to do a full post on instead of the events of yesterday morning.

The only other thing on my mind is the fact this is the very last week of October and believe it or not, I have not shopped for a single Christmas present for anybody yet. That’s right folks, I have not done my Christmas shopping for the year yet. In fact, I haven’t gotten birthday presents for my son-in-law or husband yet either. (Their birthdays are within the first 2 weeks after Christmas.)

Since my goal for finishing shopping by Thanksgiving, I’m way behind. And what reminded me of the fact that I’m late is my son and daughter were already discussing what needed to be done to put up our decorations.

Yes, I’m not ready for that either.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

 

Apologizes

 

Apparently Bonnie is not feeling well enough to type and I and barely waking up, so not enough time to figure out a post and write it up. Sorry.

Of Relative Experiences and Old Movies by Konnie Enos

Yesterday I was talking to my son about some movies. He has been finding and downloading movies so that we could watch them at home, and he asked me to suggest some of them. I was obviously suggesting movies I’m familiar with and wouldn’t mind seeing again.

He has a problem with the quality of those movies. One, for all of these older movies he mentioned that they did not have captioning capabilities. The other had something to do with the picture quality. I believe pixels were mentioned and the older films have fewer pixels than the newer ones he is more familiar with.

Anyway, while we were discussing these movies, he said that the year 2000 was twenty years ago.

I told him he was born after that year, and he is over 20 years old. Obviously. I didn’t understand his point.

He pointed out that all the movies I’d recommended were, well, ancient, and apparently that means the quality was lower. He went on to comment that one of those movies was so old that he really had to search for a digital copy and it wasn’t for sale anywhere on the internet.

In fact, most of the movies I suggested required quite an internet search simply because they are old. Folks, get this, most of the movies he was complaining about came out in the 1980s. The 80s! I was an adult when they came out.

Though I have to admit, one of them was even older than that.

In our discussion about movies that I’d like to watch again, I mentioned one that I know has a much more recent remake. One that came out in the late 90s. One I don’t happen to like. One of the things I don’t like about remakes, is they change some of the details, which the remake clearly did.

(This is also why I won’t watch Steve Martin’s versions of Cheaper by the Dozen or Father of the Bride. Particularly Cheaper by the Dozen. For that one he changed the entire story, including the number and gender of the kids. Making what was a true story, very fictional, which I really do not like.)

Anyway, I told my son I wasn’t going to watch the remake of The Parent Trap, so he had to really search for a digital version of it.

Now this is a movie I’ve known since I was a kid. I honestly don’t know the first time I watched it, but I was clearly in school, somewhere between 3^rd and 7^th grade. I’m choosing those years simply because of where I was living and the fact youth of that era had a great deal of freedom. That and I’m pretty sure the first time I saw it was in a theater.

Back then a local theater would offer a series of child friendly movies over the summer as matinees for an extremely reduced price. Some years you could get tickets for the entire season through your school, sometimes for free.

Our mother always took advantage of programs that would entertain us over the summer months that were either free, or very inexpensive. Like buying a family pass to the local swimming pool every single summer. She rarely went, but we would be at the pool most days.

So anyway, thanks to these free/reduced priced tickets, we were able to see a lot of movies in the theater growing up. And the kid friendly movies they were showing weren’t brand new. I’d say they were all around 10 to 20 years old.

So yeah, in the early 70s, The Parent Trap was around 10 years old. It is actually older than we are, well except our older sister affectionally known as Dictionary. She was several months old when it came out.

So, this whole discussion about the 2000 being over 20 years ago, was about these movies being made before the technology to put in captioning or use more pixel quality was available. And apparently anything, especially technology, over 20 years old is ancient.

I’d hate to point it out to my son again, but he’s over 20 years old and still born in this century.

I even watched Battle Beyond the Stars last night instead of working on this post. My son came in while I was watching it and asked me about the video quality.

Yes, it’s just as good as it ever was. His expectations are based on his experiences from this century. My expectations are based on my experiences from the 70s, roughly 30 years before he was born.

Anyway, I might watch The Parent Trap today, simply because I can.

Also, happy birthday to my youngest grandchild and her mother, my oldest child.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.