Hi, sorry people I'm just learning how to make a blog and I'm not that technologically savy. That being said let me try to continue where I left off.

In University my main mode of transportation was riding my bike, living in Lethbridge where the chinook blows in and its not unusual for the wind to be around 50 km/h gusting even higher. I biked pretty much all year round, even in the winter if the snow wasn't too deap. I worked part time (almost full time) and went to school full time, I would joke that what I was doing was the equivalent of two full time jobs pluss what social life I could have. My first two years of university I was a double major Biology (premed) and Art. So 2-3 classes with a lab on top and atleast one art studio class. I was a busy girl and my mind was constantly on many things at once, I'm sure this contributed to the insomnia or was atleast part of the reason. I'm sure I'm forgetting alot of details but I will get to those on a later date as I get into my 7 stages of grief at the loss of my old life, she's gone.

Then spring of my second year of university I kept getting a really sore throat on and off for months. I finally went to the doctor and she said I had mono. I disagreed at first I wasn't anymore tired than normal but sure enough the tests said thats what I had. It took a couple months but I got back to feeling normal. Half way through third year I switched my major to Neuroscience, I found the combination of psychology, biology and chemistry fascinating, didn't really want to be a doctor anymore, I didn't like the classes enough to work my ass off to get the grades I needed. A year later loving the classes I decided to go for a CO-OP position to gain real work experience in my field. For those of you who don't know a CO-OP is a partnership where the government pays half your wage and the employer pays half, it counts toward your degree. I didn't like working pretty much minimum wage jobs anymore. Oddly enough I got hired in a Molecular genetics lab working on winter wheat, not exactly brains and behaviour.

The lab I worked in was in a federal research station and they were still going through the process of cleaning the building and making it healthy (this included removing asbestos, fun hey). Right before I started I came down with a virus that messed with the connection between my eyes and my equilibrium, I constantly had the spins but I finished my finals and tried to heal before starting my new job. Also right before this I began getting numness in my left thumb tip, curious but docor couldn't really say what it was. I recovered but shortly after starting I came down with Mono for the second time, this time it nearly knocked me on my ass. I had a hard time performing my job duties and they offered to put me at part time but I couldn't afford to live off the wage decrease so I slugged through and had pretty much recovered by the end of my 8 month term with them. Then I moved to another lab that was located in the basement of the same building. The air circulation was horrible and it was regularly 30+ degrees C, not to mention the lack of removal of the chemicals in the air we regularly used. October of that year I experienced the most excrusiating headache, I couldn't move my neck. The headache was a week and a half strait while I was packing to move into a new place on Halloween. Crappy, yes people health wise I'm a lemon.

My first MRI happened a couple months before this, results had been inconclusive. That annoying numb thumb had been concerning enough to warrent this now I needed to see a Neurologist. Several months go by before I can see and expert, besides the excrutiating pain in my head, sometimes I would see a rainbow around lights. Well the neurologist diagnoses me with Atypical migraines, and orders another MRI just to make sure, came back the same as before: non-localized foci in the right hemispere, for those who don't speak Doctor I had tiny dead spots all over the right side of my brain. The nurse assured me that this wasn't abnormal in Migraine cases, OK then.

I worked in that basement lab for almost a year and a half and then my term was up. I moved on and decided to work more in the field that I was interested in, I started working with brain injured adults. I moved up relatively quickly in the agency. Shortly after starting my new position I came down with mono, again. Thats 3 times in something like four and a half years, mono likes me ALOT. This time I take two weeks off work to try to help me recover however when I returned to work I became jaundiced and required another 2 weeks off from work, upon return to work this time I returned at only part time and gradually tried to increase my hours but I was very fatigued this time and found it very difficult especially with all the gossip and back stabbing going on in the workplace. I decided to leave and become a Behaviour Therapist/interventionist. I began working with children on the Spectrum of Austism. I worked part time but was easily talked into taking on more than was wise for me. I was slowly recoving and was getting close but in the Spring of 2008 I crashed and crashed hard. I thought that it was mono again but the tests showed that it wasn't and I was far to tired to work, so tired that it was hard for me to think and my short term memory was not good. It took a couple months and batteries of tests, finally in October of 08 I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndome. Whoopie I had a name to call it now, where was I to go from there?