Category: Me

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Birthday Tripping, Pt. 1

I did mention my birthday road trip right before I went last year. Then I was delinquent and never came back with any pictures or talked about it in any way. Smh. Well I went to the doctor the other day, the phlebotomist who had suggested a location to visit, jogged my memory about the trip. We discussed the place and how it touched both of us. She shared an amazing story about what happened to her and it inspired me to share details about my trip.

So my birthday trip was October 29, 2018 to November 4, 2018. My first stops were in the upper peninsula of Michigan. I actually had never went up that way before. The main goal of my trip was to see autumn colors. I am a fall baby and it is my favorite season. The first thing I noticed was the speed limit became 75 mph. I was excited about that at first because less chance of me getting a ticket since I was already going 75+ mph anyway. But the thrill started to go away because it was legal. Lol. Rebel at heart here. Well I discovered that Michigan trees shed their leaves more in the middle of October. Not a lot of colors to see, but I did get some good pics.

Somewhere in Michigan

My first stop was Mackinac Island. Now I don’t really know what I was expecting but it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. It was a lot of hotels, I mean a lot. And what was weird is it look like they didn’t set them up to have good views of the water. What is the point of being surrounded by water and not taking advantage of that🤷🏾? I seen the lighthouse and had to make my way there.

Mind you this was in late October and people were still going out on the water in that cold weather. The water was so clear and beautiful.

They waved at me.

The reason I went up north was to see the Cross in the Woods Shrine, so I didn’t linger on Mackinac Island for long. The Cross in the Woods had me speechless. It was such a beautiful and serene atmosphere. It felt as if it was separated from everything. There wasn’t any noise from the street. I happened to be the only person there at that time as well.

Indian River, Michigan
The cross stands at 55 ft. and weighs 14 tons. The Corpus weighs 7 tons and is 31 ft. long from head to toe.

The cross is located behind a church. There is mass outside a few times a day. The church building also has a gift shop/store. I made it to the cross too late to be able to go inside the gift shop. I was in my anti-social mode so I did not venture into the building at all. Next time I will go in and see what it is like. Sorry I am not able to share insight on the inside.

There was fake candles that you could light in observance of someone. It was required to give a donation to light a candle. It would stay lit for the day. Or you could go inside the gift shop and pay for a longer time period.

Front of the building. This is where you  can light a candle.

Now to the story from the phlebotomist. Her name is Becky. She said that as a child she had cancer and her treatments were not going well. It was hard to find a vein to give her the treatments she needed and it cause her to miss treatments. Her father decided to take her to The Cross in the Woods. After visiting the cross, Becky came home and was one of the first people to get a port. A port is installed in the chest for people with bad veins. It allows the doctors/nurses to draw blood and also administer medication. She said after the port was installed she never missed another treatment and was able to beat cancer’s ass. She truly believed that the visit to The Cross in the Woods is what helped her. I believe it as well. That was an awesome testimony.

I love to explore and learn new things and visit new places, but I will definitely return to The Cross in the Woods again. If you like to travel, I recommend for you to visit the cross at least once. It is an experience like none other. Once I stopped back home, I headed south. I made stops in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. I will discuss the rest of my birthday road trip over the next couple of posts.  I will also share some amazing pics that I took with my Galaxy Note 8. It has a great camera. Until we meet again, be well and whole.

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Me Pt. 3, the MS story

This is the last day of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Awareness month. I realized that I have not talked about how I knew that I had MS. So here is my story from before I was officially diagnosed to present day.
Driving home from Columbus on a Sunday, I had just taken my manicure licensing exam(I passed). All of a sudden, there was a blur in the center of my right eye. It was so weird. I rubbed my eye, still there. I pulled my glasses off and cleaned them, still there. I ran the wipers across my windshield. Still there. I went to the eye doctor. “There is something wrong with my eye!” His response, “I don’t see anything. It may just be a change in vision due to your age“, (I was 32). That was some bullshit. So that blur right in the center of my eye was still there and it stayed that way for about a month and a half. Until one day it was gone. Ok I don’t know what the hell that was but thank God it’s gone. Fast forward to about 2 months later, my left eye is doing the same exact thing. I went from “I don’t know what the hell it is” to “oh something is really wrong, this is not normal“.
With easy access to the majority of information at your fingertips, I went online searching. My search words were simply “blurred vision”. This yielded the usual conditions, cataracts and glaucoma. I knew I didn’t have either of those conditions. Also, diabetes (nope), stroke (no), migraines (don’t get those) and a brain tumor (GOD I hope not). I was reading about one of these conditions on Wikipedia and I scrolled down to the bottom. At the bottom it had links to other conditions that may cause blurred vision. At the bottom of this particular page I seen multiple sclerosis. Ok, what the hell is that? With that one click onto those two words, my life changed. Words that I had heard before due to Richard Pryor and Montel Williams, but still was not truly aware of what it was.
At the top of the Wikipedia page was a list of symptoms associated with multiple sclerosis. Out of the 10 or so symptoms listed, I had a good 7 of them. Things that I had brushed off as not important, as symptoms related to my other health condition (I have hypothyroidism) and other things that I thought may have just been due to stress, listed here at the top of the page. This weird tremor in my leg is unusual, but it is not bothering me so whatever. I am so fricking tired I keep falling asleep at my desk. Fatigue is one of the top symptoms of hypothyroidism so maybe my levels are really off and I just need to start some medication. Lhermitte’s sign, an electrical sensation that runs down my back when I bend my neck. Ok, I work an office job and my neck and shoulders are tight. This feeling is just from relieving some of that tension from stretching. I had an answer or an excuse to write off all the symptoms I was experiencing. Multiple Sclerosis did not and would not have ever crossed my mind.
I had zero intentions of telling anyone what I had discovered. One, I just read a bunch of information on Wikipedia, I think I should talk to a doctor first. At this point, it would be my own self-diagnosis. Two, why make people worry? If the end result was not MS, but maybe Lyme Disease (has similar symptoms but is curable), I got everybody worked up for no reason. Well, God had different plans. It was the very next day after my discovery. Before I even had the time to process the information and come to terms with the possibility of MS, I received a phone call. It was my mother. She had a dream that I fell down and could not walk. My stepfather and her had to carry me. Then they put me in a wheelchair. Creepy as hell right!?!? Yep. Ok, one other health condition, hypertension. She believed that I could have had a stroke in the dream and that is why I was unable to walk. She goes on to lecture me about the how-to’s of handling a stroke. I allowed her to finish and then I shared my information with her. When I say this was the last person I had intentions of telling. We know how our parents are and she is the straight up typical parent when it comes to me. Worry, pray, worry and pray some more.
So from this point on, I involved the doctors. MRI, lots of blood labs to rule out other possibilities (that’s how I knew Lyme Disease had similar symptoms) and the spinal tap. To the Cleveland Clinic with 2 of my best supporters, Selena and Monica, and I am diagnosed with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. The crazy thing is I have never had a relapse that involved blurred vision in either of my eyes again. Now I do get the floating spots but that’s it. My life with an MS diagnosis is definitely different. But I am thankful because I know that it could be worse. I believe in the power of prayer and I believe because of prayers that I am doing so well. I am grateful for everyone’s prayers, my mom’s, my friends, strangers from the soup kitchen, strangers in general, coworkers and other people who I know.
Even though Multiple Sclerosis Awareness is observed in the month of March, the National MS Society will be holding the walk in Toledo on Sunday, May 19th at the Huntington Center (new location). I am sure they keep pushing it back due to bad weather. I don’t think I have attended a walk where the weather was decent yet. The walk starts at 8 am which I know is pretty early. If you would like to participate, you can sign up at walkms.org/signup. You would look for the Toledo, OH walk and my team name is Ebony’s Avengers. I welcome anyone who would like to join my team. If you have any questions, please email at elsims27@yahoo.com. Until the next post, be well and whole.
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My Hair Journey

I have always had hair and a lot of it. I ask my mom how did she do all this hair. She explained that it was not unruly like it is now. When I went from junior high to high school, I transitioned from a jheri curl to a press and curl, then to a relaxer. I will say that I had a pretty long jheri curl so my straight hair was a nice length. I got bored with that and decided to cut it off. I had what I called dog ears. The hairstyle that T-boz from TLC wore. Oddly enough, I did that style before she made it famous. I eventually cut the dog ears off and just had my hair short all around. It grew back out after that to its normal long length. My hair grows pretty fast which I am thankful for.

There have been times that my hair was not long and it was not by choice. I went through a period when I was first diagnosed with a thyroid condition where my hair got so thin. I made a decision to cut it in a short style right above my ears because it looked so bad. I kept it that length until it regained its normal thickness. I started to let it grow back. I also began to relax it myself due to my schedule and my beautician’s schedule not matching up. I liked taking care of my hair.

Now my natural hair journey is one that I wanted, but was too scared to embrace on my own. I was bored with my hair, as usual, and decided to add some color. As recommended I waited two weeks after the color application to relax my hair. As I stood over the sink washing out the relaxer, I also washed out gobs of my hair. It was like something in a movie. Yea…I felt my heart drop down into my basement. Screamed, cried a little. Had a small freak out session. What most woman would go through I’m sure. Thank God for thick hair. It was noticeable but I didn’t exactly have any bald spots. This prompted me to cut off one side. The thinner side. I loved that hairstyle 😍!

My hair was still falling out. I did not relax my hair anymore and allowed my natural hair to grow. I kept the shaved side low and maintained the other side as best as I could. One day I said enough. Went into Steve’s Sport-n-Cuts and relieved myself of all my relaxed hair.

Talk about freedom. It was really a change for me. My hair was the shortest it had ever been and I was finally natural. This could be a lesson. If you are not specific about what you ask for, you may get it, but not how you want it. Lol. I wanted to go natural, but this was never the way I wanted to get there.

This natural hair journey has been…a learning experience, adventurous, annoying and necessary.

2010 – 2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

I know that I will not relax my hair ever again, but I do like to occasionally have straight hair. That is when I would stop by Steve’s Sport-n-Cuts and have Sydona flat iron these curly strands into submission. This allowed me to check my length and gave me a break from my time consuming wash, condition and style sessions.

Then there are of course the times when I have gotten bored. Added a little color.

Bored again, 💇🏾‍♀️

Shaved my one side again. Still love this hair style, but I think this will be my last time doing it.

And then there is the time when I am just plain tired. Tired of the long wash, condition and style sessions. Tired of my arms and back hurting as I stand for hours taming my rebellious hair. Knowing that my hair would be so much healthier and longer if I gave a shit about taking care of it. Knowing that I don’t care or want to take care of it any longer. Despite all of the naysayers and protest, I did this…

I can’t explain how free I felt when I got up from Sydona’s chair. I looked in the mirror and it was everything I wanted. She is a rock star when it comes to hair and she met and exceeded my expectations. She gave me a look that was feminine and perfect for my face and head shape. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I made the right decision.

Here I am a week later without a regret and still in love with this cut. I have received looks of disbelief, anguish and even anger. But like India.Arie said, “I am not my hair”. I have mostly received compliments and statements to my bravery. I appreciate every compliment that I have received. But the real response I value is the one within myself. I am loving every minute of it. To the point that I may wait a little while before I allow it to grow back. This style is a true wash and go. Something that became an impossibility once I got a little length on my hair after the first big chop. I will enjoy and embrace the next phase of my natural hair journey. It will continue to be a journey for me because as boredom sets in, there is no telling what I will do next. As always, be well and whole.

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