The Rope Bridge Event DONE and Koko the gorilla gets a second Birthday!

Hello everyone! It has been a crazy and wonderful couple days! My best friend/sister got here Friday and I haven’t seen her since 2012 when she came to help me for three weeks while my husband was gone because I was in the wheelchair. It has been amazing and we are all so happy because the kids LOVE their Aunty Jen too. It has been a blast since she got off the plane.

Saturday was a BIG day. It was my youngest son’s birthday and my Raider’s day to put up and run the rope bridge and the JROTC repelling event. They both went great and I’m exhausted. I am still exhausted but it was totally worth it! My kids did a GREAT job running the rope bridge and at the end of taking all the JROTC kids through it, they got to repel down the short and tall towers. Afterward, my youngest had his 8th birthday party and since we had to give the entire class invitations, we decided to have the party at my gym instead of at home. It was unorthodox but fun and all of the children left tired. 

Let me tell you, yesterday was definitely interesting. I was the only adult supervising 10 teenagers who were "supervising" the rope bridge section of the JROTC repelling event. There were over 100 kids who went across that rope bridge and we had them come in three or four large groups. Only one person could go on the rope bridge at a time and some kids couldn't get across by themselves. Guess what? There was water at the bottom of the ravine the kids were going across. It was cold and in order to help the kids who were struggling, I had to run through the water, a lot.





There were also a lot of super fun blackberry bushes attacking me whilst I was trying to help kids across so one of my sweet, sweet kiddos used the gloves to clear the bushes and make me a bridge across the water. If you look closely, you can see my pants are a bit darker just under the knee. It stayed that away until I got home and changed. We were there from 8 am until 2pm. I was definitely cold but I didn't have time to really feel it because there was a constant flow of kids on the rope. 

Given that it was A LOT on me and I cannot always eat much, there was a point where I needed to get to my purse and suck up a little bit of applesauce to get some sugar in. Bad move because the second I turned my head, one of my boys decided it would be a good idea to try to go across the rope without hooking up his carabineer and he ended up dangling half way across needing help to get down so he didn't end up in the water. Of course, as that happened one of the group of students walked up to see it all unravel. One of my other Raiders ran over to grab his legs and get him down and that's what I saw as I turned around to see what all the commotion was.

I call that kid "Hashtag Independent" because when he first tried the rope bridge he thought he'd be able to clip himself on the rope without assistance claiming he was "independent". We ended up helping him get connected and half way across he stopped, dangled from his seat and I had to get underneath him so he could sit on my shoulders as another kid unhooked him. He can get across extremely well now, as long as he's hooked up. 

When he and my other student got back to me, I had my mommy finger out and I told him that we don't do that and he needs to be a good example because the other kids will follow the way he behaves. I had a big ass grin on my face because of course it was him and I smile and laugh at the worst possible times. He looked at me and said, "Ok Mom. I'm sorry". It wasn't a smart ass mom. It was a genuine mom. These kids call me mom, Raider Mom, and Miss Michelle. I love them, they love me and it is spectacular. 

My husband managed to get a video of me going across the rope bridge. The next thing we're doing is learning in Raiders is Land Navigation. I'm in BIG trouble. I have to learn how to read a compass, get back into legit map reading, and work on orienteering. YAY! I have no clue how it will get done but it shall get done. 

During the party, we did obstacle courses, played games that involved lots of running and the kids all left tired. The birthday boy passed out in the car on the way home. The last thing we need to do for my son's birthday is send gifts to Koko the gorilla. My son wanted to send her a gift for his 8th birthday so we got ahold of them to see if it was ok and if so, what she would like. Koko likes Water Babies and needs blankets. Her favorite color is red. So, that's what she's getting. :)

Today I do see my doctor, again, about getting into ENT (ear, nose and throat) about these vestibular migraines. I can't keep doing this and getting help has been impossible so far. I'm still waiting for my authorization for Neurology to go through and as it is I won't be able to be seen for a couple months and it's been months that I've been dealing with this so something has to happen. The ear pain and migraines are causing muscular pain in my jaw and down the right side of my neck now. 

We'll see how that goes. My medical care has been breaking down this year and I have no idea what to do. This is not uncommon with people with chronic diseases. I've had two doctors leave their practices and I'm stuck going to military doctors and following these protocols and waiting to get help or going to the E.R. Then I have to wait and wait for specialists who may not even understand autoimmune disorders enough to even help me. See, a digestive specialist knows digestive issues but not always how an autoimmune disease can affect the digestive system. There tend to be gaps between rheumatology and other specialists. This often leaves Lupus patients with gaping holes in care and can cause problems from misdiagnoses to getting sicker from a lack of treatment.

Well, I have to get going. There's an 8-year-old who needs to get to school. I hope everyone has a great day. I promise I'll write sooner.