where's my tauntaun?

It's a bit of a strange time. Our wedding is months away, but people want to talk about it a lot. I'm a little averse to that since it's generally meant to be one big party and I'd rather not put too much pressure on the day to be ideal. It's a semi-fancy party in the woods and I'm trying to keep framing it that way. No wonder people get so stressed out about wedding planning.

It has also been a time of remembrance for me. A childhood friend of mine passed away far too young and I've been thinking of her a lot. Remembering youthful shenanigans. I'm not one to share this sort of thing but it feels wrong to do an update without acknowledging her passing. xo

On to more mundane news…

It has been a long, cold winter. While the rest of the province is hiding somewhere beneath mounds of snow, we're able to see over the banks in all directions, but are freezing our rumps off. December was the coldest winter on record here in decades. We're at the point where an unexpected 0 degree day felt glorious. I didn't even wear a coat. 

Sadly, the extreme cold means there's little opportunity for socializing. Yes, I said sadly. And yes, I am still very introverted. I love my partner with all of my heart and can't imagine living here without her, but boy, we need outlets. f'realz. We're great together, but we're just not people who can have supper and then watch TV until bedtime every evening. We've dusted off the crib board, started a ginormous puzzle, I've even taken up crocheting. We're just…bored. When it's reasonably warm (read: not -30s) we can snowshoe, thankfully. Going to the gym work days at lunch is also helping burn off some energy, but I find myself searching for signs of Spring at every turn. Oh, to be able to comfortably walk the dog! Listen to me - I'm hoping for the days of muddy dog belly!

Abbey seems content with the cold and snow.

That cold is particularly uncomfortable, as is any extreme heat, because I have A) Raynaud's and B) dysautonomia - an MS accompaniment that is behind my inability to thermoregulate. There's pretty interesting research coming out about treating dysautonomia - a condition that is also seen in Parkinsonian disorders. It's basically an electrical stimulation of nerve fibres administered to potentially regain balance in the hypothalamus, the portion of the brain responsible for thermoregulation.

In other research news, dextromethorphan, a drug found in cough medicines is showing to protect loss of myelin in animal models. I'm not one for animal model reports as they rarely make it to phase I human trials, but this one is pretty intriguing as it could means a low cost drug alternative for those without the means to purchase other, exorbitantly-priced MS medications.

And one more from the research mines - also animal model stage - cinnamon is showing to suppress clinical symptoms of what is the mouse equivalent of MS. Kinda neat - bring on the spice!

That's all for now. I'm off to shovel, check the fire, and crochet yet another something.