Okay, so I am the first to admit that I prefer the cooler weather over the heat....especially since MS. Having said that I am so ready for winter to be over and seeing how it is the first part of January, well, that is not likely to happen anytime soon. :( I think I need to seriously look into climate information and find a place that is much more moderate year round.

So, I am sure you have all heard about the strange weather we have been having here in Washington State. Most of December is was so cold you could barely stand to be outside for long (granted this also depends on just where in Washington you are). Then for Christmas we had record breaking amounts of snow....everywhere! It was great to have a white Christmas but in some parts of the state there was so much snow (Spokane got over 7 feet) that it caused some serious damage. Then the last week and a half it warmed up, and not a gradual warm but it went from an average of 20` a day to being in the 60's. There was one day last week it was 68`. Needless to say everything melted which caused serious flooding, avalanches in the mountains, and more. As if all that was not bad enough (or at least strange) we got 100 mph winds in some areas. Here in the Tri-Cities it was as much as 63 mph. Strange indeed.

Needless to say because of the weather I have not been able to make it over to Seattle for the last two weeks for my doctor appointments. I am really hoping Mother Nature will behave so that I can make it over this upcoming Wednesday. I am quite over do seeing how I was supposed to be there every week after my surgery and well, only made it once. Not much I can do about it though....when the roads are closed, the roads are closed. Anyway, the timing could not be worse as I ended up SO sick! I hate to think of what I would have been like had I not gotten a flu shot this year. All last week I was running a fever ranging from low 99 to 102, still have a bad cough, and as anyone with MS knows, it doesn't take much for the MS to act up. My breathing was bad but I was able to control it here at home with my breathing machines, so I was really happy about that. On the plus side, I am finally getting over all of it....finally healing from the surgery, finally feel like I can breathe better (especially for only having 36% lung function) and finally getting over this horrible cold/flu that I had. :)

So, I wonder.....I would really like to hear from all of you. Have you noticed since being diagnosed with MS that your immune system just can't seem to take much or are you the opposite? I have heard some people say they don't seem to get as sick since having MS.....after all supposedly our immune systems are supposed to be over active. For me however it seems that I get more sick and it does not take much either....the slightest little cold and my MS flares, I have the hardest time getting over it and well everything seems to just shut down for a bit. This past year alone I have been hospitalized like 8 times or something, on more than one occasion in the ICU. So, I wonder if this is typical with MS or if this is because I have other health problems which just exacerbate everything, including my MS. Maybe it is all the years of chemo....I'm not really sure, so please let me know how you respond. Do you get sick easy? When you do get sick does your MS flare? Inquiring minds want to know! ;) Take care!