YOU WANT ME TO DRIVE?

Something funny happened to me yesterday I have to tell you about. Every Friday my husband and I go shopping and then out to eat. It's been a thing in our family when the kids were little to either eat out on Fri. night or order out. Most of the time it was order out because of my disability.
The kids are now gone but  Frankie and I still keep up the tradition. In recent years I have added the shopping. There isn't a lot of grocery shopping but some. In fact when I or he needs to go somewhere we go together. I guess you could say this is not a good thing for a agoraphobic. It ends up being another dependent thing we do.
Now you all know by now I have had at least  a 90% success rate with my prism glasses so you would think I would be all over the place. Not so much. I have pretty much desentized my self to the grocery store. I am 98% sure I will not get dizzy and fall over there anymore. I can walk away from the cart and not suffer separation anxiety. Frankie can be at one end of the store and I can be at the other and this is no problem. The big problem comes in when I am in the store alone!
Monophobia any one? I realize I have this. I didn't even know the name of it until I was in a support group and a girl there had it. Isn't it great the way we have a name for everything? In my house I can stay alone all day but at night all bets are off. I have a really hard time being alone at night. This could be my next big challenge.
Back to the funny thing that happened yesterday. On the way home from shopping and eating Frankie says I'm getting tired of driving I think I will give my license up. I knew he wasn't serious I knew he was trying to get a rise out of me. Then he told me I should do the driving because I will be taking the driving test in a couple of years and I need practice. Immediately that old feeling of being totally useless came over me and now I am trying to explain why I can't drive. Then it hit me. WHAT! This is the reason I wrote the book. He's the one who cried when he read it and said he should have helped more. All of a sudden he forgot all that and reverted back to his old way of thinking. ( I should just do it.) I then reminded him that I loved to drive and in the first years of our married life I did all the driving. He said he remembered and was sorry he said that.

We are so sensitive as agoraphobics to any little thing we can't do things like this bother us for days. My problem with driving and my eyes are my depth perception. Try driving with a problem like that. I actually have to remind myself that I indeed have a physical problem that prohibits me from doing things. I do go short distances driving but long ones throw me.  But I think it is time to test the driving waters again and see if things have improved. Dr. Debbie put in a new horizontal prism the last time I was there maybe that made a difference. I will keep you informed.

Just one last thing. What I wanted to say to him was "I think it is time you cooked I have been cooking for years! Hey us agoraphobics can be well, cured no. With prism glasses we can almost do everything everyone else does and be comfortable but not all. The trick is being comfortable and with my prism glasses for the first time in 45 years I am comfortable. I have to work at feeling comfortable at driving and staying home alone at night and in the stores. A big order for my 75 years.

Talk to you later, Yolanda

TRUE SUCCESS STORIES OVERCOMING, AGORAPHOBIA, TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY, MIGRAINE HEADACHES.

This book will give you the hope you need to overcome Agoraphobia, to get rid of your migraine headaches, and backaches,  and neck aches. You will cry through most of it but you will have renewed hope that your life is not hopeless. Just when you thought all was lost you read this book and say "not so fast" I can get over this. Don't waste a minute get this today. Visit www.vsofm.com to order.

Hugs to you all, Yolanda

HEAD TILT

Do you have a head tilt? If you don't know look back on pictures of yourself and see if most of the time you have your head tilted in the picture. You might ask me doesn't everyone tilt their head somewhat when they take a picture? Well yes sometimes they do but not all the time. This could be a sign of Agoraphobia, panic attacks,  headaches, backaches, and neck pain.

Take the test on hyperphoria on the right and see.

Yolanda

DIZZINESS, VOMITING, FROM BIRTH.

From Birth until 7: Daily Dizziness, Vomiting, and Exhaustion – My Son’s Story

Posted

When I had my son I was a first-time mom and was surprised by how often my beautiful baby boy “spit up”. It seemed more like projectile vomiting to me, in the house, in the baby swing, in the car; before, during and after eating; in the middle of the day and the middle of the night. Everyone assured me it was just normal “spit up”— including the doctors.
My baby also had “torticollis” which caused him to lean his head one way and refuse to turn the other way. The doctors had us work with him and force him to turn his head in the other direction, and we also used blocks in his car seat to force his head to stay straight.
Later, we learned he was hearing impaired. But something just didn’t seem right to me concerning the vomiting. Even though I was a new mom, I knew something was terribly wrong with my child. When he was about one year old, when he started to walk, his eyes would roll back in his head, he would shriek and turn green and clammy. Then he would fall to the ground and start to vomit uncontrollably. Sometimes the vomiting would last 10-12 hours, with my son falling asleep in between periods. I had to hold him upright in bed because as soon as he would lie down he would vomit and scream.
This condition was almost daily. One month my son had these “attacks” for 21 days straight. I was sent to every kind of doctor and had hospital stays. I was sent to neurologists, ENT’s, University of Michigan’s Balance Center, Grand Rapids Center for Hearing and Balance, even spent an entire week at Mayo Clinic having doctors from all different specialties conferring and testing. He was diagnosed with Meniere’s, Inner Ear Disorder, Balance Disorder, Migraines …and on and on. But no one was “sure”, and no treatment helped.
During this time I had trouble keeping a job. I had to leave several jobs because I had to call in so much that I knew they were going to fire me. I was literally calling in several times a week. I tried to work at home and care for my child. It was exhausting. Many nights each week he was up all night vomiting and screaming and we didn’t get any sleep at all, and then I had to go to work.
The worst part was all the years of no hope. That, and people around me not understanding. “Just accept it. Stop trying to figure it out.” I couldn’t stop! This was my child and it tore my heart out daily to see him so sick and so miserable. I am not a quitter and I knew that I would turn over the Earth if I had to, in order to find him some help. Also, it wasn’t practical to try and live this way. He couldn’t ride a bike, go on a swing, go in a car, sled down a hill, attend school regularly, or enjoy just being a kid. He had also developed severe anxiety. He had gotten to the point over the years where he would tell me he was spinning inside and he was afraid to go places in case the spinning started. We were prisoners to this dizziness.
Some people treated me like I wanted my child to be sick, like I was exaggerating. (This included many doctors). Family blamed me for his illness: “You feed him too much salt! You shouldn’t let him swim!” Anytime he got sick, someone would have some comment on how I might have done “something” wrong.
Not only was this emotionally exhausting, physically exhausting, financially debilitating, it was also affecting my relationship with other people and put a huge toll on my marriage. My husband would say, “Other wives take care of sick kids and don’t complain,” but this wasn’t the occasional sickness – this was constant almost 24-7 sickness. I was overweight, I was unhappy and totally exhausted. I had caregiver burnout and didn’t even know it. I wasn’t able to take care of myself at all, and the worst part? I felt totally guilty for feeling bad. I mean, I wasn’t the one sick and throwing up and spinning every day of my life! Add a heaping pile of guilt onto me and I was one overwhelmed mom.
We all learned to cope, but it was never easy. A second child, and Z.S. was now seven. I never gave up searching. I went back to the Michigan Ear Institute and met with one of the founders even though I had been there years before with no luck. We gave him two thick files on my son. MRI’s, CAT scans, you name it, audiology tests, etc. He reviewed with a team and had me track some things for a few months. Finally, he gave me his verdict: he had no idea what it was, but maybe a doctor in Birmingham could help us. She worked with Vertical Heterophoria and maybe she would have an idea.
Honestly, I was so over it. I doubted that this would yield anything. It was a 2.5 hour drive, with a dizzy kid. I called Dr. Debby and said I wanted to ask questions before we came and wasted our time. She was so sweet and her concern was genuine. She said, “When you look in that beautiful boy’s face, do you ever notice his eyes are slightly not aligned? Or his photos show a head tilt?” No. I never notice that. I decided to give one more thing a try (I had also tried alternatives: diet, chiropractic, muscle testing, pulse reader from India…).
The day that we went to Dr. Debby was the day that changed our life. It was July 7, 2007, and he was fitted for prism glasses. I can say that from July until today (2.5 months later) my son has not gotten sick once!!!!!!! He is riding a bike, staying at school, has not gone to sleep and woken up dizzy. He was on Cloud Nine the first three days. He was hyper, ecstatic and full of energy. “My life is totally changed. She changed my life!” He would say about Dr. Debby. I think that finally for the first time in seven years my son was not sick / dizzy. He never knew anything other than being dizzy. This truly has been a miracle.
My son’s dizziness is gone, the vomiting and the sleepless nights are gone, he can go to school and stay, he rides his bike, he runs around and one night he wanted to go here and there and here and there and I said, “What is with you? You are so hyper lately?” He said, “Mom, I was always dizzy or afraid I was going to get dizzy – that’s why I laid on the couch all day…I was too scared to go anywhere. Now, I’m not afraid.”
VS of B and Dr. Debby have totally changed our lives. One thousand percent. They did what U of M could not do, what the Mayo Clinic could not do…I am soooooo grateful for the wonderful help and life changing glasses. I prayed every night for seven years that someone, somehow, would help us…this was a long, long wait but THANK YOU FOR BEING AN ANSWER TO A PRAYER…

- JC, 38 year old mother of
- ZC, 7 years old (and dizzy free!)

Go to www.vsofmcome for more information and take the hyperphoria test by clicking on the hyperphoria test.

Hugs, Yolanda

SPEGETTI SAUCE

How about some good old fashioned spaghetti sauce?


Essential Ingredients: Pasta your choice, 1 can tomato paste, Italian Seasonings, Hamburger, Italian Sausage, onion, green pepper, garlic, olive oil. Optional: Asiago cheese.


This is faster than the store bought jar and tastes much better.

Chop onion and green pepper and garlic. In a pot saute onion and green pepper in olive oil. Add garlic when that is somewhat done. Season with pepper and salt. Season as you add things. Then brown the ground beef and Italian Sausage. The Italian Sausage is optional. You can use any meat here you like, salt and pepper the beef. I like to use tomato paste because I can put in as much as I want. You could also add 1 can tomatoes instead of the tomato paste. Add water to cover everything. Then add the seasonings, like oregano, rosemary, you could also add garlic powder if you didn't put the garlic in. I buy the Italian seasonings at Sams. It has everything in it. Fresh herbs are good also. You could also add some asiago cheese to the sauce. Maybe about 1/4 cup. The secret to spaghetti sauce is simmering it. Simmer about 1 hour uncovered. Add water if it boils down to fast.

Oops forgot to tell you about the sugar. Add a couple teaspoons of sugar. Really it cuts some of the tomato acid taste.





Take the hyperphoria  test at the right and see what your score is.

Talk to you later, Yolanda