The weather today matches my mood.  It is cloudy with occasional rain showers; the perfect day to stay home and curl up with a good book.  I do plan on attending Street Havoc later this afternoon to watch my 10 year old grandson compete in the skateboard competition.  My husband just called to tell me that Grandson had just completed his first try at winning the grand prize for his age group and did very well.  In fact he did so well that he has been entered in the final competition later this afternoon.  According to my husband, the song “Heaven is a Half Pipe” certainly applies to our Grandson today.  Thanks to the bone pain, I missed his first performance shortly after 1:00 PM.  When I miss special events like this because of the bone pain and the inability to move properly it makes me very angry.  This should not be happening to a 57 year old woman.  I will however make it to the final competition later today even if it means struggling out of my car and crawling down the sidewalk.  The pain will not win. 
 
We had a long conversation yesterday with our son and daughter-in-law who live in Seattle. We have decided that I will fly to Seattle in the next few weeks to have some testing done.  Even though I will be flying the trip is a long one.  The next few weeks will be spent updating my passport and correlating all my lab results and doctor reports in my medical binders.  

Having finally made this decision has taken a big load off my shoulders.  It has become obvious that I will have to be an unresponsive corpse before any doctor in my province will take me seriously. Living with these infections; source unknown, the excruciating bone pain, the fevers and sweats, adrenaline rushes, low cortisol levels, blood pressure spikes, leg cramps and flank pain is no longer acceptable or doable. The cataracts in both eyes are now visible and apparently they are related to the high blood pressure spikes.  Reflecting on my symptoms the other day, I realized that my grandson is now 10 years old and he does not remember a time when his Nana was without problematic symptoms.  How sad.  It is becoming virtually impossible to pretend nothing is wrong and to put up a good front for this very special person in my life. 
 
We have approximately 5 weeks left for the potential of hot, summer temperatures.  As I have mentioned before this summer has gone by too quickly and has not been the kind of summer I had imagined it would be. On a positive note, I was able to purchase 6 pails of freshly picked strawberries and they are tucked away in my freezer waiting for the cold winter months.  I also purchased 10 containers of blueberries and they are keeping the strawberries company.  Next week I should be receiving my order of two large pails of Saskatoons and a crate of freshly picked raspberries.  My daughter is a genius at culinary pursuits and her strawberry, blueberry, Saskatoon and raspberry desserts are literally “to die for”.  We will be enjoying wonderful desserts at our Sunday evening dinners throughout the winter months.  My two crabapple trees which my husband planted about a month ago have new buds on them.  I can hardly wait until they produce fruit and we can add crabapple pies to the dessert menu. 
 

My daughter, son in law and grandson will be leaving on a week long vacation next Friday.  Grandson is very excited about spending two nights in a Theme room at the Fantasyland hotel in the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.  I am sure he will be impressed with the wave pool and amusement park located in the mall.  I remember how much my kids enjoyed the times we spent at the hotel while we lived in Alberta.  Since Grandson and his parents will be going to the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, I made reservations for Grandson to participate in a day long dinosaur dig.  He will be joining the paleontologists out in the field and of course he hopes to find “the bone”.   
 
Two friends who I have met through my chat room and message board will be meeting me in Brandon, Manitoba on the weekend of August 20 to August 22nd.  Angie, Jani and I are looking forward to seeing each other in person. 
 
Well I am off to make my way to the skateboard competition.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
 
August 7th 5:00 PM
 
Made it to Street Havoc and watched my grandson being awarded the prizes for winning second place in the 10-12 year old competition.  The competition was judged by age category and Grandson did really well considering he is only 10 years old.