Finding a Balance

Ok so it has been about a month since I announced retirement from activism. And really "retirement" was an overstatement. It is more of a "cutting back."

Since saying I needed a break and some relaxation,  life decided to throw me some trauma and drama, I guess it was not ready to let me relax, between a break up, moving into a little one room apartment by myself, my dog getting sick, getting damage repaired from a hysterectomy, dental procedures gone wrong and a tornado hitting my town (with my son driving in the eye of the it) it has not been the easy going month I had hoped.

The pros of cutting back have been: a managable amount of emails and messages, being able to catch up with friends and family, taking time for myself to do relaxing things, like gardening, spending time with family, playing computer games, reading, being able to talk to  my "Lyme" friends, I don't mean working for anyone, I mean just chit chatting with them, seeing how they are really doing. Being able to be silly and just be myself.

The drawbacks have been: I miss posting questions for people. I made a group called Lyme Questions for people to post their own questions in, but I kind of miss watching all the interactions on my page. It's also very hard to not jump in when I see something that needs to be done or when I have an idea that I think will help the Lyme community.

Finding a Balance: I think I have found a balance by still helping behind the scenes, such as writing articles, keeping up my websites, and doing little random things like helping spread word of people's fundraisers or writing online articles, co hosting with Jenny Rush's teleconference calls, helping with Red Shoe Day, helping out in the Lyme groups when necessary but keeping my page balanced with posting a couple Lyme related posts here and there but also keeping some more motivational posts coming up everyday and adding in some humor.

Finding a Balance: For You

My point in writing this little blog post is not to just bore you to death with what is happening in my life but it is to encourage you, to try to find a peaceful balance in your life also.

I noticed that Lyme becomes us and we become Lyme. It is an overwhelming disease that no amount of research can help us understand the complexities of Lyme and co infections and how those infections create havoc in every area of our lives. It just takes over.

But after living through Lyme for a couple decades now, I realized, somehow it is necessary to fight for justice and change things, but also to keep on living. We have to find a way to cope, to adapt, to move forward despite Lyme disease.

I hope you can find your healthy balance by still trying to do some of the things you love in life. Take a couple minutes each day to devote time to something other then Lyme. Smell the fresh air, try to take a walk if possible, go to a park, walk your dog, read a book, non Lyme related, play a game, talk to your kids, watch a funny movie. Talk to a high school friend. Do whatever it takes, to get your mind off of it for awhile. Do that each day just for your own sanity.

Some Reminders....

Platteville, Wi Tornado 6/16/2014

One thing life has taught me lately is that the biggest thing that matters to me, is that my family is safe and sound.

On June 16, 2014 that safe and sound feeling was put to the test. I was laying in bed with my dog, just typing away on the computer, when all the power went off. It felt eerie. It was storming but the sky was doing something I had never seen before. It was almost like a strobe light, just flashing on and off really quickly. I just kept staring out my window thinking, is someone shining a light in the sky, is this real?

Then my dog got all weird and started trying to stand on me and roll on me. I got a weird head pressure and knew what this was. I have been in or on the outskirts of other tornados before. But why weren't any tornado warning sirens going off? I'm still not sure the answer to this.

At about 10:56 pm, my son called me on Monday night. He was freaking out saying, "Mom, I'm  can't see anything, what should I do?"  I asked where he was and he said he has just pulled out of McDonalds. I could hear loud bangs and the sky was flashing and it made me panic inside to know that he was driving in this! I told him to just pull the car over and go inside somewhere. He said, he couldn't because he couldn't see anything and everything looked closed because there were no lights on. Then he got back on the phone and said, "Mom, my car is at Dunkin Donuts and I don't even know how I got here! I had my foot on the brake. A stop light just went through my car window in the back."  After a minute of him yelling and loud noises and panicking wondering what was going on, I heard a police officer shouting at him to leave, to go home or go to the police station but he couldn't stay there.

So we stayed on the phone and he drove to my house. I can't imagine what he had been feeling. We had no idea that he had just been in the heart of a tornado. As a mom, I was panicking of course and feeling very helpless. He was saying what should I do?? And I couldn't do anything to help!

His car got moved about four blocks, from McDonalds to Dunkin Donuts and ended up facing in the opposite direction that he had been driving in.

He got here and his back window and driver's side back window were smashed out. His car was full of glass, leaves and debris. We found car parts from other cars and other people's garbage inside his car the next morning! The front seat he was sitting in had braches, leaves and glass. He was soo lucky to be ok. He was covered in glass and bleeding a bit, but just superficial cuts. We had no power so no lights, when I shown my phone on him to see if any glass cut him bad, it was like glitter. He was just covered in little shards of glass. He brought in his McDonald's drink and the top of it was covered in glass too.

In the meantime while this was going on, I was texting both of my daughter's frantically. My youngest daughter was home and safe but leaving to go to the Wisconsin Dells. I pleased with her to wait until the storm passed! Then my son reminded me that my oldest daughter was camping with her new baby and boyfriend, OMG. Seriously went into a panic attack at this point. Matthew and I both started trying to call Brittany and Marcus's phone. No answer. OMG. There was nothing we could do but sit and wait.

Matt and I walked to the police station and they were busy as hell so just took down our name and number. Now all there was to do was to sit and wait for Brittany to call.

The next morning Brittany finally called. She had been camping and said the winds just came and blew the tent stakes right out of the ground. The rain started pouring in on them. She hovered over my grandaughter to shelter her from the rain as her boyfriend frantically tried to get the stakes back in the ground. The tent was filling up with water so they just made a run for it back to the truck, where they spent the night. Noone's phones had any bars out where they were to call anyone. They spent the night cold and wet in the truck.

Here are the pictures of Matt's car, the downtown area and the cemetary. I will put links to other websites that have pictures to.

The Platteville Journal

University of Wisconsin-Platteville

2 Tornados Confirmed in Platteville