After 6 days in a row getting laser treatments for my stupid Trigeminal Neuralgia 💆🏼, I hurt my back getting out of the rental car 🚘 at the Toronto Airport ✈️‼️🙍🏼😰. Seriously, I wish I was kidding, but I’m not. Really…

This is about to be my shortest post ever. We board our flight in about 20 minutes. It leaves at about 10:00 (Toronto time) 🕙and we get home at midnight (Edmonton time) 🕛. However, it will feel like 2:00AM 🕑 to mom and I (👵🏼 & 👩🏼).  I can hardly move because of my current back pain and we’re about to sit on an airplane ✈️ for 4 hours. So, I’m pretty sure that I won’t be writing when we get home!! Night night 💤💤!!

Yep. Not adding much else…about to finally lie down, in my own bed – yay!! It’s now 2:30, Edmonton time, which is about 4:30, Toronto time, yikes! I’m too tired to think…

To help with research and treatment for Trigeminal Neuralgia please go to http://www.tnnme.com (Trigeminal Neuralgia and Me) to sign a petition to have the World Health Organization (WHO) add Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) to their “Health Topic List”!       

Hopefully one day I’ll get it right, or at least have fun, while about it I write!!

Today mom and I (👵🏼 &🙎🏼) finally did a bit of sight-seeing. [Okay, this has nothing to do with what I was about to say, but have you seen the newest IOS update? The emotions have been updated!! So, looks like there’s a new me 🙋🏼 complete with new expressions/poses – as you can see with the first emoticon I used to be me 🙎🏼!! Mom’s the same though👵🏼. Fun fun fun!!] Anyway, after my  appointment we drove to Port Credit (an odd name, right??).  We walked 👟by the  light house and by some neat shops and restaurants. It was a beautiful day ☀️and we went into a neat l👀king restaurant, with an upstairs patio, for lunch. There hasn’t been great weather since we’ve been here. Apparently we weren’t the only ones out taking advantage of the great weather. When we went inside they said that the patio was full and that there was a about a 40 minute ⏰wait (he was a bit rude about it – 👿). So, we sat inside instead. Well, we ordered a couple Strongbows 🍻 and put our food order in (nothing fancy, just a couple burgers 🍔) and our food took over an hour ⌛️to arrive!! Evidently we misunderstood Mr Rude-guy 👿. The 40 minute wait-time ⌚️was for the food, not to get a seat on the patio! Also, our waitress informed us that today was the first day of the year that their patio was open. It seemed that everyone who lived in the area had decided that they wanted to get outside and, from what we could see, this was not of the only patios opened! However, we were pleasantly surprised by how great the food was 🍴. Also, our waitress was quite sweet, just extremely busy and somewhat overwhelmed. The frustrating thing was that by the time we finished eating we weren’t left with much time to check out the neat shops 🌇. Not that I have much money 💵 to spend anyway. We were restrained by the time, because I had to get to a drug store before it closed. We ended up arriving too late to get my prescription 📝at Rexall, they had just closed the pharmacy as we arrived. Fortunately, we ended up finding a Shoppers that was open until 6:00, most had closed at 5:00. Since we decided to stay a couple extra nights, I didn’t have enough of my medications 💊 with me. To avoid having too many bottles, I only brought enough to last for the trip. Thankfully Dr Khan wrote me a prescription to cover what I needed.

Well, I know that wasn’t much of an exciting post, but I’m wiped and I’m going to get ready for bed now. 🌜😴💤 These laser treatments exhaust me. Last treatment’s tomorrow and then we fly ✈️home tomorrow night, assuming I can figure out where to go at the airport to drop our car 🚘 and get to the right gate…wish us luck!!

To help with research and treatment for Trigeminal Neuralgia please go to http://www.tnnme.com (Trigeminal Neuralgia and Me) to sign a petition to have the World Health Organization (WHO) add Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) to their “Health Topic List”!      

Hopefully one day I’ll get it right, or at least have fun, while about it I write!!

Today is our fifth day in Toronto. It’s starting to look like I’m going to need to create a non-profit business called something like ” The Help Heal Jenn Foundation”!! I can set up fundraisers and maybe a 5km run and other events to raise money to pay for my laser therapy – lol!!  I’m clearly joking. However, the costs do keep increasing. There are more and more costs going onto mom’s (👵) visa. I’m pretty sure that soon she and dad (👵 & 👴) will be able to travel around the world on the Aeroplan 💳 she’s collecting!!  It’s pretty crazy.

We brought the rental unit home, well not ‘home’ really, we brought it to our hotel. (Did I say this yesterday??) I’ve been asked for information and updates on the laser therapy treatments I’ve been receiving. They are really hard to explain! So, I’m going to give you a simple explanation…if I can!

There are four steps (kinds of lights) to the treatment:  The first is red light generated by 180 LEDs. The second step is an infrared band of LED’s, which penetrates deeper into the body.  (These first two steps, which are delivered by an array of 180 LED’s, are not actual lasers and can be used by the patient themselves. This is what we have rented.)The third step is the use of a red laser probe. Followed by the final step, a much more focused infrared probe, which can deliver more power and can go as deep as 22cm into the body.  These last two steps can only be performed by a trained technician in a controlled, clinical environment. Everyone in the room must wear dark, protective glasses (my mom 👵 has worn these dark glasses a lot this week!)  When they use the laser probe on my face, I have protective goggle-type things on. Similar to the ones that people wear for fake-and-baking (for those who choose to pay for cancer!)

The reason that all of this works is: “Light is absorbed by a variety of cellular components in the tissue being irradiated. In essence, light energy is transformed into biochemical energy resulting in the restoration of normal cellular function and morphology.” (Quoted from Meditech’s pamphlet about Low Intensity Laser Therapy.) Obviously this is a direct quote and doesn’t sound like a simple explanation at all!! For even more detailed information, go to http://www.bioflexlaser.com and/or see Dr Doidge’s book “The Brains Way Of Healing.” In the fourth chapter of his book he writes about Dr Khan and the laser therapy he utilizes. Actually, this is an amazing book (not just chapter 4) that I have only just began reading. This is where my mom (👵) found out about Low Intensity Intensity Laser Therapy.

Dr Doidge talks about how the brain can heal – duh!!! I just said the title of his book – lol!! And the word I’m about to write will change my life. Maybe not overnight, maybe not in a week or a month, but it will happen. It likely will not cure my Trigeminal Neuralgia, but with persistence, practice, exploration and the strong strong desire to take charge of my body and my pain, it will help. It will!

Neuroplasticity 

“Neuroplasticity is the property of the brain that enables it to change its own structure and functioning in response to activity and mental experience.” (From “The Brain’s Way of Healing”, by Norman Doidge, M.D.) The laser therapy is changing and healing my brain with light energy!!

To help with research and treatment for Trigeminal Neuralgia please go to http://www.tnnme.com (Trigeminal Neuralgia and Me) to sign a petition to have the World Health Organization (WHO) add Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) to their “Health Topic List”!     

Hopefully one day I’ll get it right, or at least have fun, while about it I write!!

I’m back 👩 and it’s even before 9:00PM!! That’s two nights in a row that I’m writing at a normal time. Yay me🎉!  We changed our flight ✈️ to Monday night. So we will be able to go to the clinic 🏥 for three extra sessions. Thankfully they are open both Saturday and Sunday.  Changing the flight was a bit of a pain…

Around 11:00 my mom 👵 called 📞 WestJet

The guy 👴 said, you booked through Airmiles 💳, or did you forget?

So she 👵 thanked him and then she called ☎️ Airmiles 💳

The automated system 💻 thanked her for her patience and her smiles 😃.

The system 💻 directed her call from line to line.

Finally asking if calling back 📞 within the hour ⌚️ would be fine.

Mom 👵 decided to wait until after to have her shower 🚿

But we waited and waited ⌛️, ever growing more dour 😠!

So she decided to have her shower 🚿 and no longer wait.

Of course that’s when her phone rang 📞, just like fate.

A little bit wet 💦,Mom 👵 then got on the phone,

To ask about changing the day we come home 🏠.

He put her on hold ☎️ and said he’d get things on track,

Then we waited and waited ⏳and he never came back!

So once again we made the same phone call 📱

Back 🔙 to the automated system 💻, we had to restart it all!!

Finally we got to the place where it says they’ll call 📞 you

And again we waited, there was nothing else we could do!

My appointment was lurking and we couldn’t be late ⏰

So mom 👵 got into the shower 🚿, we didn’t have time to wait!

And I bet you can guess 😏 what happened then…

Once she stepped into the shower 🚿they called ☎️back again‼️‼️

LOL!!

JKC

To help with research and treatment for Trigeminal Neuralgia please go to http://www.tnnme.com (Trigeminal Neuralgia and Me) to sign a petition to have the World Health Organization (WHO) add Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) to their “Health Topic List”!     

Hopefully one day I’ll get it right, or at least have fun, while about it I write!!