No News is Good News

I haven't been posting here because I've been doing pretty well. The summer flew right by. My mother and I drove out to Iowa where I visited the graves of my Gammon ancestors. My only real problem that whole time was that by the time we got home I was having muscle spasm in my back, probably from a combination of being in the car almost all the time and sleeping on cheap hotel mattresses.

The gravestone of my great-great-great-
grandfather James Wilkenson Gammon.

After I got back from Iowa I made a costume and went to Otakon in Baltimore. My feet did some weird things that weekend but otherwise I was fine.

My costume as Schia Donnerstag from the
game Atelier Marie. With our dog, Cookie.

I've been off all of my medications since May. I have had bad days but no fibromyalgia flares. My doctor wasn't pleased that I went off my meds but she is glad I'm feeling better. I'll see her again after Thanksgiving to talk about going back on Savella - usually I feel worse as the weather gets colder. My cognitive problems have let up too, though, so I wonder if maybe the fibromyalgia is going away as I recover from that concussion.

As it turns out, I did apply for graduate school at Monmouth University and was accepted. On the way to Iowa, mom and I stopped at IUP. It's so far and it's not a place I could see myself going to school. Now I am living at home with my parents and going to school only a half-hour away. I got mono and missed a bunch of class, so now I am only in one class. I really thought mono would be the thing to bring the fibro back, but it didn't. My classmates are great, I try not to talk to them too much about my challenges while still being honest. So, with any luck, I will have a master's degree in anthropology in a couple of years!

I am just taking it one day at a time for now. I still believe that there is a day coming that will bring fibromyalgia back into my life full-force but I am happy it hasn't come yet. I'm holding onto my painkillers because I need them when we travel. I will probably start taking the vitamin D again but I really want to avoid medications as much as possible. I am not exercising but I am taking the stairs more often than the elevator on my way to class. I am pushing myself informally, at events with friends and the like. It thrills me to make it through things without pain or fatigue, but I am still scared of pushing too hard.

My greatest victory is this: I do not feel like a sick person. I still think of myself as a sick person, but I don't feel like one!