Posted by Todd Owen (24.4.254.97) on March 12, 2000 at 22:57:42:
Been kind of a bittersweet weekend for me, but did want to let you all know I sent a pic of me (doing something where I actually feel alive) to Bob P. which he put up on his web page. Finally got to see a pic of you all as well--have a face to put with the e-mails now.
Saturday was an absolute blast--didn't sleep well the night before but woke up and went to go skydiving for the day being nothing more than slightly light-headed. Stopped taking anything more than Depakote for now. Seems like every time I take any of the other meds beyond that I start having nightmares and get zero sleep instead of just a few hours. Get out to the drop zone, and it's cloudy. Dang! Waited a little while and the clouds started breaking, so I finally got to start jumping. The second jump, the clouds had dropped quite a bit and closed up by the time we got to altitude, so I ended up opening my parachute a bit lower than I normally like to do and decided to sit out for a hour or so. Next thing I knew, clouds are going away fast, so we start going again. Got a total of five jumps in, and then headed out to dinner with friends. Towards the end of dinner I got hit with an attack. I was sohappy--a day where I had only had one attack! Though it was a bad one, I made it home and got to sleep.
This morning, however, came the bitter part of the weekend. I was awoke by the phone ringing. My mother is on the line, telling me her mother passed away the night before. My grandmother was a lady I knew well and loved dearly. Though the last couple of years she had been in declining health and increasing pain and I am happy to know that she has finally gone to rest, I echo her husband's sentiments--I'd give a year off my life just to have one more day to spend with her. I am slowly coping with it--today has been a day of tears from a combination of cluster attacks and grieving.
Todd Owen