Saturday, July 30, 2011

30 July 2011

Hello one and all...
Just a quick update today...
I've been working at creating some more TM Awareness...
I have that petition that it started back on July 11th...as of right now, there are 970 names...
I am shooting for 1,000 by tomorrow night because that's when I'm closing the petition..
I'm closing it because I want to get this sent to the Senators...
I have a list of about a dozen people in various states that are also going to submit this petition to their Senators too....
All it's going to take is for one Senator to take notice on this....just one.
It would thrill me to no end if we can get a National Transverse Myelitis Awareness Day passed...
That way, instead of trying to go state by state as we have been....a National Day would give everyone in every state, a day in which we can use to promote our cause...
Not saying that we can't promote it every day...this would just be a formal day recognized by the gov't.

I'm also in the process of getting some things finished off to have a book published...
I am waiting for a couple more permission forms from people that had their stories included in the book...I made the book a culmination of stories from 20 different people around the world...
There have been the "I have Transverse Myelitis" books done already....4 or 5 of them that I know of....and I didn't want this book to be about "me"...so we decided to make a compilation of stories...
I was also fortunate enough to have a story from a retired NFL football player...He used to play on the Dallas Cowboys and was on the team when the Cowboys won Superbowl XII...so he has a Superbowl ring...
I felt that, that might help the book and bring more attention to it...with someone fairly noteworthy in the book...
I have a real good feeling about this...it may not hit the best seller list, but I think it will get a good response..

Otherwise....I've been doing okay...basically status quo..
I had my pain meds changed from MS Contin to Oxycontin....My body was so used to the MS Contin that it really wasn't doing much anymore...
Now...I have a very high threshold for pain, but there were days that were not fun at all...
So...I got the meds changed...and now this stuff is helping some....but not too the point I thought it should...but I'll stick it out...and keep on smiling.. :-)
I really don't like to have to switch meds again and I don't want to go to anything any stronger....
All I can say...is that fortunately the warmer weather has been a bit of a help with the pain....but who knows what winter will bring again...

For my music post.....I'm going to post some Joe Vitale Jr.
My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting him and his rock star dad a few weeks back...
Joe Vitale Sr. has been the drummer for such notable bands like Joe Walsh, The Eagles, Crosby, Stills and Nash and now for the reformed Buffalo Springfield...
Joe lives right here in Canton....and Joe Jr. is a good musician in his own right....
I sent him a note awhile back after seeing one of his videos in which he used a walking stick....and I thought to myself...The walking sticks that I make would have really fit the theme of the video...so, I sent him a note and offered to give him one of my walking sticks...
So, he and I arranged a time and a place to meet for me to give him the walking stick...
Well, my wife and I were sitting at an outside table and here comes Joe Jr. with his dad, Joe Sr. with him...
Needless to say...Liz and I were thrilled...I have been a fan of Joe Sr. for years...
We sat and chatted for about an hour and those guys were two of the most humble, down to earth guys I've ever met....
He loved my walking stick and to show his appreciation, he sent me a signed copy of his latest CD....
What great people they are...!!!
Anyway....that's my story....
Here's Joe Jr's video...


Till Next Time......

Monday, July 11, 2011

Sign Petition for a National Transverse Myelitis Awareness Day