First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for your comments, concerns, positive energy, and all the warm fuzzy stuff you have sent. I appreciate it. It's also good to know that many people enjoy the content I put out, specifically the contents of this blog. I'm happy to announce that I'll be pumping out content again starting this Fall. My other half gets the summers off from work, so it only makes sense that I spend what little energy I have with her during that time.
As for news on the health front, not a lot has changed. However, I'm going to come right out and tell you that I'm 90% sure I have an autoimmune disease called Polymyositis. My bloodwork tells me my CK levels are high, my symptoms are identical to others who have been diagnosed, and I was able to discover that the drug initially used to treat this disease (Prednisone) got me up and back on my feet for a total of 10 days over the summer. It was a joy being back to my old pain-free self (with weakness being the exception, but I expected that). Unfortunately, Prednisone has nasty side-effects if used for extended periods of time, so I'm unable to stay on it. Going back to my achy-breaky self sucked after briefly having my life back, but knowing that treatment exists has had a positive effect on my mental health.
Another thing I'm going to come right out and say is that I highly suspect the COVID vaccine to be responsible for me having this disease. I was one of the first to receive the vaccine due to my (then) job in the health care industry. My symptoms came on quite slowly, initially being difficulty when getting up from a seated position. I just figured I was getting a bit older and it was perfectly normal. Over the course of about a year, it progressively got worse until my body was in full blown burning pain. The proof for me was when someone in the Facebook Myositis support group asked if anyone had developed the disease after receiving the vaccine. The amount of "yes" responses was staggering. I also recently realized that there were two other people from my workplace who suffered from new ailments after receiving the vaccine. Sadly, nobody seems to be allowed to talk about the horrible consequences that are affecting lots of people. Everyone's afraid of a lawsuit.
These days, my body still throbs and is over-exhausted from the minute I wake up. I usually nap at least twice per day. I've also gained a lot of weight due to my lack of movement which concerns me. I'd hop on the bike to lose it, but any sort of extreme exercise actually causes more problems. I don't like getting stuck on the toilet, nor being stuck on the couch when I have to go to the toilet.
As some of you may know, I opened my own thrift store in 2022. I enjoyed running it while I was physically able to. Sadly, I had to close it earlier this year due to my inability to haul around inventory and clean the place. As of this writing, I have no income. I applied for Disability in April 2023 and got rejected once. I have since appealed with letters from doctors and am waiting for a response.
Manitoba's health care system is incredibly fucking slow. Tests, Doctors appointments and specialist appointments are all spaced about 6 months apart. I'm absolutely tired of waiting to get SOMETHING solved. A friend of mine suggested that I should quit looking for an official diagnosis and attend a pain clinic which I'm highly considering.
So there you go. You're all up to date now. After shutting down my shop, my body has been easier to manage mainly due to a lack of strenuous exercise. I feel I can get back to putting out content, at least on here. Unfortunately, I'll be excluding Junq Tours until I get some sort of treatment. One trip to the grocery store leaves me wrecked. Two days of thrifting would sadly be torture at this point. However, I still pop into the occasional thrift store and I have an enormous queue of horrible shit just waiting to be posted on this blog. There is absolutely no shortage of material.
We shall see you soon! I want to get a regular entry up, just to help me get back into the groove of things. Then we have an unfinished Junq Tour to tackle. Two years late is better than never!
