Time flies! Summer was always my favourite time, as I wrapped up my school, ensured that timetables, programs and facilities were ready for the fall, and said good-bye to my staff as they left in stages through early-mid July. Then came the barbeques, golf, the family camping trips, visits to family cottages, and the inevitable return to school mid-August to oversee final preparations to greet students sporting a new polish and shine.

Certainly many things have changed over the past five years! Kristine has been a Mental Health Nursing Practice Leader for over four years, and has been very successful in her role. Catherine is turning 17 this winter and is really enjoying her time at the arts-focussed school. Erin is a proud senior in grade 8 at middle school. As a newly minted teenager, her opinions are seldom unheard and more vibrant than ever 🙂

This summer has seen a lot of activity come and go, in spite of my daily needs for attention and care. Erin and Catherine spent about a week or so with each set of grandparents, and even got to see their cousins (Craig’s girls) for almost a week. Devil Lake was never so frenetic! Kristine even got to spend a few days there with her parents and our girls. Catherine spent a month at Ontario Pioneer Camp as part of the Leadership Training program. Erin was at Pioneer Girls’ Camp for two weeks. Both girls had a wonderful time!

Although it pains me at times to talk about it too much, lyme disease has been difficult – any which way you look at it. Being bedbound confines me to a virtual prison. I get to hear about the world and even see it through my window, and that has to be enough for the foreseeable future. Being this way also makes a lot of friends and family feel physically and emotionally awkward. What does one say? Reminders of healthier and more active times aren’t easy for others (nor for me), and often constitute unwelcome intrusions into a life that doesn’t handle the mortal limitations and “surprises” that are part of the human condition. And a bit of a downer to see me like this.

For me, the good news is that I have found ways to be useful, especially given the wireless connection over my laptop mac. This blog is one of them – I even dabble a bit with twitter and facebook. Other computer “projects” include keeping the family organized (iCal, OmniFocus, EagleFiler, Circus Ponies NoteBook, Punakea), keeping up with extended family and world news (Mail, Safari, NetNewsWire), converting analog audio/video family archives to digital, organizing digital photos (iPhoto), working on family history/genealogy (need family input!), etc… The limiting factor each day is the profound cellular fatigue which constrains my every movement and portions out only very limited energy at a time. Managing this extremely low energy ceiling is part of every day life. Embracing the challenges seems a lot more useful than moping about it all. I would like to write a blog series on my experience with lyme disease, although I am not sure that many readers would welcome such a personal story and frank assessment of one of the most serious and exploding health issues that we face today. It is quite likely that about 200,000 Americans and 10,000 Canadians are infected each year by the bacteria causing lyme disease (see the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation ), but this remains largely hidden due to the insurance and medical lobbies and control over the flow of information, a political policy vacuum, inadequate and very misleading official Canadian testing, and a general reticence to tackle such a silent and complex debilitator. It has been quite a journey, from the initial medical confusion, to the inability to lead a school any more, to the long-term treatment failures, to the condition I face now, to the ongoing struggle as we have sought out alternatives that are credible and have helped others.

I look forward to progress along the health front, and memorable times for our family this fall. Maybe I can even find it within me to laugh for no reason at all.

As Norm Papernick said,

Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad.