One Year Today!! I made it! :-)

Zoe the wheelchair today, with new tires, rims, and wheels. Much better looking, and much easier to use!! :-)

Zoe last year, when new, with grey tires, spokes, and handrims.

I wanted to tell everyone that I'm celebrating my 1st anniversary as a wheelchair user today! I know celebrating might seem a funny way to look at it. I'm not celebrating that I have to use it, rather I'm celebrating how much I've been through this past year, and that I made it a whole year! I'm quite proud of myself! Yay!


At the grocery store today, as I was thinking about the "whole year", I realized that I'm no longer uncomfortable in the chair. I don't feel odd or unusual around standing people when I'm sitting. That's so wonderful to me. At first, I didn't even care what other people thought, because I was too busy feeling really uncomfortable myself, knowing it was so unusual, and such a big change. Now, it feels completely normal to me to be at this height, and to move around as I do, and I am very happy about being me again! So, it's been a good day!

Also, yesterday I got new wheels, which I've wanted for the whole year. It was finally time, financially, to get them. They are very lightweight, all black, black spokes -- only 12 spokes per wheel instead of 36 on my old wheels --, they roll a lot easier, easier to push, I have anti-marking black tires which I've also always wanted, and vinyl coated handrims, which are actually a medical necessity for me. My hands don't work well enough for me to grip the slippery aluminum handrims that I used to have. I got the aluminum last time because it was cheaper, so I hoped it would work, I've learned my lesson. I had to use gloves and wrap the rim in tape half the time, and all of the time I had to push while grabbing the rough, dirty tires. Yesterday is the first time ever I actually crossed a room without touching a tire! I'm so happy, my hands are finally being taken care of. It's so much better on my arms and my hands with these new wheels, tires, and rims.

Plus, look how pretty Zoe is now!! I've always wanted her to be all black with the purple accent. Now, she's all black, sleek, and looks great. Before, those wheels, tires, and handrims were all different shades of gray, how boring! I didn't like it.

Life is very good.

For the last 4-6 months (we've lost track) Sam has had night coughs. Evening, while sleeping, and morning. Strange, huh? Not productive, no congestion in chest or nose. They are dry coughs, and they are causing everyone in our house except Alexander (who can sleep through anything) to lose lots of sleep. No signs of illness or allergies. We tried cough medicine, cough drops, allergy medicines, and humidifiers. Nothing helped. Sometimes he coughed so much it led to vomiting.

Anyway... Brian did some online research on it last week and found out that one thing that can cause night coughs is a mild form of asthma, especially if it's in the family! I was excited. We tried my inhaler on him that night, and it worked! But, it made his chest hurt, it was too much medicine for a kid. So, I knew right then he needed to go to the doctor. Of course, we ended up taking Alexander to the doctor last week instead, so Sam had to wait till this week. We went in today, explained what he's been going through, and that I had asthma as a child, and that the inhaler worked.

She checked him out, and says he has what's called cough-variant asthma. It means it's a mild version, where the only symptom is dry coughing. Yep, that's him! So, we got prescriptions for Singulair, which should work long term, and an inhaler for acute situations. Our whole family is really happy that this will be getting better in the next week. We're tired! Especially Sam, who has been lethargic half of every day for the past few months. We're hoping to get our energetic, happy Sam back! :-)