My Everest…

After a crazy busy weekend and on my rest day mama N (mother nature) decided to send us a wicked rain storm.   Clearly she really needed to vent and let it out on us poor souls living in the north end of town.   It was reported that we got 80mm of rain during the storm and now that she’s gone she has left in her

wake a building full of stranded people with no elevator service.   One whole parking level of cars in water up to their bumpers, and lots of flooded storage units. Leaks into the actual units.   According to one of the letters sent out to us they called it an uncontrollable Natural disaster!   Well shit!! A major pipe burst in our underground parking and flooded a lot of stuff more rain came the next day and didn’t help the situation and now we are in major clean up mode.   Living on the ground floor is great but they need to deal with heavy rain falling and watching as it creeps up their balconies.   I on the other hand need to deal with being stranded on one of the higher floors with no elevator service at all due to water seeping into the elevator shafts.  They recommend us to limit the stair walking and to stay in our units as much as possible.   The first day I went down as I had a physio appointment and I needed to go.  But they were still running 1 elevator on emergency service.  So i’m thinking ok this isn’t that bad as when I

return I will catch a ride up to my unit and I am golden.   During physio the concern was that if it wasn’t working I would need to walk up 11 flights of stairs and as I was already semi in the flare bear’s crosshairs that an elevator ride up would be best. What do you think happened ???   Well the elevator guy came and shut all the elevator’s down due to water being in the shaft and electrical components still running they didn’t want us to become crispy critters and risk the possibility of electrocution.  Alrighty then, stairs it is.  As it’s the only way to get up to our unit.  I texted my friend in the building that I was about to go up….just in case something happened she would know if I didn’t text her when I got up here. I managed the climb fine with a few rests along the way and with my water bottle I got up to my floor in about 10 minutes, but I was taking it easy trying to be mindful of my body and the flare bear.  Miraculously i was fine how i still don’t know but I was like woo hoo I made it and tomorrow they will have the elevators working and it will be no problem! Next day we were notified that they were still down and to stay in our units.  I was like ok I can do this right????  I did this for one day before I got stir crazy.   So day 3 still no elevator (possibly one will be working today) the question is do you venture out or not.   You have appointments…..and you have the possibility that you will need to haul ass up the stairs. What to do is the dilemma?   As I was stir crazy the other day I decided to venture out, took my water bottle for the potential return trip and off I went.  I spent most of the afternoon just wandering in the mall thinking that the longer I’m out the greater the chances of the elevators working.   When I arrived they were still out of service.   So I procrastinated in the lobby for a bit in preparation for the climb.    The second I hit the 11th floor landing I got a text from a friend in the building …”one elevator is working!”   Just FML seriously I have never had lady luck follow me and today wasn’t either.   Later on that day I could feel flare bear start to sing his song and dance and just like that, my physio’s prediction came true.  

When I woke in the morning i could mostly feel flare in  the shoulders going 1/2 way down between the shoulders and the elbow. Lots of pressure on both sides as well I can feel it flare bear playing in the top of the forearms radiating out to the hands and fingers. Lots of pressure everywhere but it’s like it’s power source is in the elbows. When I flex it’s almost like a burning sensation.    My mind is like great what to do now??  I have another full day and this is an appointment I already changed once because of the flood.   So off I go, pasting a smiling face in place of the mask of pain I was still wearing.  Afterwards I got home and just wanted to die on the couch but there was still dinner prep to do,  hubby decided to put up lamps and was asking for help and I am dying he’s like why are you breathing so hard ??   I know I told you earlier that I’m flared up but I am not getting into that now as you rarely ask for help.  I am trying to help you,  but it isn’t working out so I just sat down on the couch and let you think that watching TV is more important than helping you.   Just taking deep breaths and trying to distract myself from the flare bear.  Next day I was still flared up and as I literally slog through the day with other stuff I need to do because I don’t want to feel guilty for not doing anything all day even if my body is telling me not to.