The Ankle Bone is connected to the Collar Bone

Do you remember the first time you heard the song that sings about bones and their connection to one another?  I confess that the first time I heard that particular song, it was being sung by sock puppets.  It had been created with children in mind in an effort to teach about how the human body is linked together by our skeletal system I am surmising.  It was a cute idea.  As a kid watching the sketch with the sock puppets performing the song, I just thought it was pretty funny.  Most of the lyrics did not stick with me at that time & my talents have never resided in the sciences field (other than the social sciences) throughout life.  I do remember myself as a little girl having a tendency towards humour.  When I would repeat that song I would go out of my way to sing it as absurdly as possible with the head basically in the song being connected to the big toe & things like that.  It was a laugh for my friends & I at the time.

While it is likely that this sharing will be posted in a couple of weeks, it is April 15^th today.  I love to write & when ideas come into my mind I try to write about them right away & then save the stories for a Monday in the future to share.  Ideas come from so many sources but almost always through social interactions with others or things I notice in the world sometimes for the first time or often with “fresh eyes.”  It is a little like if we are parents & we experience all of our children’s firsts even though we have had these similar experiences as children too.  I find it even more exciting to watch our sons experience all of life’s firsts than I did my own since I appreciate everything so much more as an adult & definitely due in large part to the diagnosis of the beast of type 1.  It sure would appear that April Fool’s Day has visited us in Southern Ontario 15 days late this year!  Across most of the province, we have woken up to snow this morning.  It is especially bizarre after being out in our t-shirts yesterday with a temperature of 21 degrees C.  Like most Canadians, in the last few days I finally blissfully packed away our family’s winter outerwear.  And like most Ontarians this morning, I was routing hurriedly through the neatly packed away winter outerwear to get it all back out for today.  Surprisingly though I did not feel agitated about this surprise snow day or the hassle of getting our sons & I back into all the heavy clothes in what is supposed to be Spring.  Instead, I found myself gazing outside the window with a natural smile.  The snow looks like it has been placed on the trees & it looks enchanting. 

As I drove our boys to school this morning, our son Brian spoke up from the back seat.  He said, “You know Mom, these snowy trees look like a picture I remember seeing in one of the Thomas Kinkade books you have.”  He went on to say that it looks really pretty out today.  Before I knew it, I replied, “you are right Bri & we can pretend that we are in that picture today!”  Our youngest son, Alex exclaimed that this is definitely packing snow & that he was excited about recess time with his friends since they were sure to build a fort together today.  Since our family does not come near to approximating the family portrayed on “Leave it to Beaver” I will add that our oldest son was complaining greatly about the day out.  Matt has been a gem all winter helping shovel our driveway & he does not want to imagine it needing to be done again.  It would have been worth it to him had it been a storm day from school but there is not nearly enough snow for that today so he is not amused this morning.  On the way into the school I noticed that Brian did not have his mittens on…the same mittens that we had hunted down & had ready on the dining room table.  Apparently that was where they had been accidentally left behind.  A reprieve I thought as I noticed out of my peripheral vision that a pair of gloves were still in our car from sometime this past winter.  I caught up with Brian & gave them to him.  It must have looked like a game of hot potato to anyone looking on in the distance.  Brian told me that he cannot stand those gloves & therefore would not wear them & I kept insisting that they were better than nothing.  The “hot potato” finally went in with Brian begrudgingly to the school.  As I was about to get back into the car to leave a mom in the car next to me that I have never met before commented about what a day out it is.  I found myself naturally laughing in commodore & saying that it is kind of a late April Fool’s Day joke & that it is just kind of funny.  I added as well that it looks spectacular out with the snow on the limbs of the trees.  She looked at me & said “you sure are a glass half full kind of gal!”   That hit me as a neat thing today.  The reason I say this is that I had not been feeling like I had been as optimistic over the winter while I experienced the barrage of illnesses all in a row & some concurrently.  Through it all though it hit me this morning  that my optimism has remained unscathed & waiting in the wings top pop out as naturally as the first sign of Spring.  Just like as I look outside today into our backyard & see the tops of the first Spring flowers covered in snow, the flowers are still there & my optimism has always been there too.  That is a cool feeling to realize on this surprise snow day in the Spring.

Okay, back to the ankle bone being connected to the collar bone.  In the last couple of weeks, I have shared with you that at the end of March, I broke out in what appeared to be hives.  Although I had not been feeling stressed I concluded that my body must have been stressing & the hives I thought were evidence of this.  Sometimes the ankle bone though is connected to the collar bone instead.  Yesterday I returned to my doctor’s office for a follow-up visit since the hives were not going away.  My family doctor has been away on vacation for a couple of weeks so the diagnosis that I had previously received was by another very nice doctor.  Yesterday my family doctor returned & he saw these dots on me for the first time.  Immediately he said to me that he would consult with a dermatologist & that we would find out exactly what is going on with the dots that had been thought to perhaps be hives.  Within a few hours we had a diagnosis to my relief.  One of the things that I shared during my appointment yesterday with my family doctor was that prior to getting what looked like hives, I had a really severe case of strep throat.  As I told my doctor this, I did say that I felt almost silly for adding that detail in as what in the world would strep throat have to do with hives or skin rashes & dots.  As it turns out though, I was super glad that I included that information in speaking with my doctor.  The ankle bone is connected to the collar bone sometimes & this was one of those times.  It turns out that I do not have hives after all.  Instead, I have gutate psoriasis.  The humour was not lost on me when I found out that this is usually something that happens in childhood.  Where have I heard that before?  That was something that I heard of course when I was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as an adult.  Again, I must just plain be a kid at heart.  As an aside, the doctor at the walk in clinic also said to me that strep throat is more usual in children as well.  Again, I say , ankle bones are connected to collar bones in my life experience over & over again. 

Here’s the thing though & that is that it is amazing that when we listen to our gut just how often the results are better.  My gut told me that even though I felt silly for mentioning the strep throat when I was there about dots that I should.  We never know what information will lead to the answer that we need when it comes to illnesses…especially mysterious ones.

The part that I will need patience for is that I will likely be stuck with these dots for another 3 weeks.  The great news though is that I now know what is going on & it makes sense.  The other great news is that the dots at least are not on my face & since we have to bundle up the dots all over my arms & legs do not need to needlessly grab anyone’s attention while I am out & about. 

My heart’s hope for you is that whether your hope sometimes feels buried under the snow or boldly present, that you always know hope.  On the days where hope feels like it is under a surface of snow, may those be the days that battle buddies near & far share their hope with you.

Smiles,

Saundie :)

Have a fun-filled week & next week's sharing is "Pirates on Surfboards" which is about how although sun or rain may not affect our moods...something else does :D