Every morning while on the way to drop off my youngest to childcare, I see this tree. To me it looks like a sunset, maybe a sunset in reverse.

Click the image for a larger photo

A treat every day. Before daylight savings time, I could also see it on the way home, coming down the hill, but now it’s REALLY dark at that time.

• One big sock pile
• photos
• seattle & puget sound

Some of you who enter my site find me through my postings on the community board at The Myositis Association community board. If you came here that way, and especially if you came here searching for information on polymyositis or another form of myositis - take heart!

Last year I was diagnosed with polymyositis, and for many months at the worst I really thought I would end up in a wheelchair. My doctor said to me “You’ll get 80% of your muscle strength back” but I could not conceive of what that meant. And I didn’t believe him because the drugs weren’t working. And reading on the myositis board, very few of those folks are having a good time of it. Where are the healed myositis patients? Where is any good news?

Well, a long slow process it was, and will be forever. Right now I am on the edge of remission, where I’ve been for months. Have hope. Believe that you will be well. Giving up and atrophying in your bed will not make you well. Anyone having myositis who comes here, please write to me at aimless9 at aimlessforest dot net and I will be glad to correspond with you. This illness is insidious - you look all right but you can’t function. People can’t see it and so think you are faking it somewhat. And the usual folks who get it are driving Type A personality types who don’t admit to weakness and resent the lack of control that myositis represents.

Dwell on the good things. How has having a chronic disease changed your perspective? Were you being really sucked in by the world, but now have a different set of priorities? Be thankful. I work on trying to retain my thankfulness every day. It’s hard. Once you start to feel better, it’s easy to slip into the patterns that got you sick in the first place.

• polymyositis

Ok I know I’m late with this one but I used the information found here and it all worked very well, down to the part about adding it to your menu. It ran so fast that I thought it didn’t work, but it worked perfectly.

Thanks to Kevin Schumacher.

• One big sock pile
• blogging

Well I haven’t been posting for a while, distracted by other elements of life. One interesting thing to note is that it is darn close to the anniversary of my medical leave last year. At that time, I really thought that I was wheelchair bound. Now, instead, I can do jumping jacks and take care of all the necessary business of my life. A miracle, at least to me.

I had a bit of a time, having falling for a fellow who I later found was feeding me lies from every direction. I have to say though that now I think I am actually better than before I started all that. I’ll be writing about that, just to solidify it for myself.

Have to note also that the election stuff really daunts me and I have an ostrich like approach. I did get out and vote though, but have to say that even when I did that, I wasn’t satisfied with my choices. Enough about that, let’s get on with it.

• One big sock pile
• polymyositis