Saundra Blankenship

Momma's Day Out!

   My Momma       Yes today was our day out and we sure had a great day. It is a beautiful warm day  today with lots of good ole sun shine and mom sure does not like the cold and I was praying for a pretty day and it was. After I arrived she got ready in her pretty new blue outfit  and she was ready to go out. I told her she was exceptionally beautiful today and got to take a picture of her before we left. I even noticed that she was wearing her wedding rings that she had not worn for a long time since the death of my father at age 55 in 1993 many years has come and passed in her life- time some harder and more difficult than others not only did she bury her husband but a son at age 42 also in 2000 from a boating accident. She has fought to stay strong and independent and I am proud of her for that strength, she has done a great job of taking care of herself through it all.

We have come to notice her good days verses the more difficult ones so much easier now that we understand what is happening. Today was a more difficult day of walking and balance, even though we did not do lots of it today.

Our first stop was for some petrol and off to the city we went she has never seen Beth's house so off we went to go and take a look. She was happy to see the kids in a nice home with a nice neighbor hood, a mother is always a mother the surroundings are important for her to know her grandchild is in a safe place and doing well. Then we went to Jackson to see Ricky and say hi to him. We went to see if one of our family members new car lot was getting built. Then we drove to my home that she has seen from the outside but had never been inside and she was giddy to see such a nice big house and just happy about it. I was taken in by her looking through the house with me and she even had to go up stairs and her balance was not good and this was the first time we have experienced stairs together so I told her that her son in-law would put in an electric chair for the stairs, she laughed said yea that would be good.

Awe I am having such a wonderful time with my mom that I feel like I should pinch myself to see if I'm still alive. Wow this is awesome and my dad and Rick must be dancing in the heaven-lies about this wonderful place of being more at peace right now, she deserves to have this time. Sure she gets kicked up but now we can help her come down with love and understanding and patience. It is so good to finally know how to help her it is great for us we have talked about the change and how we are working so well with her we are just elated and excited we are getting to share and build new memories with our momma. I know she had a great day we stayed here at the house and waited to take Ricky out to eat with us and she had been gone a good six hours from her home but she had a wonderful day. We have recognized that we all can't go at the same time with her but we can each take a day and spend time and she enjoys it even more because the less stressful it is, makes such a remarkable difference for her and us. I feel that now that we know what we are dealing with, we can now help her through and us too. It just feels like a new beginning for us all.

I showed momma the blog today and some of the postings and ask her if she would mind if I posted her picture and she was so taken with the Internet today and what all someone could do and the fact we could make a site about our family and talk and share and she said it was ok to let me share her with you.   

Momma, We Love You

Momma Loves Pizza

It is so wonderful to be able to send flowers and pizza to mom for Valentine's Day and her to enjoy them.

We have been talking how much her mood has changed and she has gained some weight now and we are so thrilled and feel so blessed that she is doing so well. It is remarkable the change it is like a new person, for years she has suffered for so long with great emotional ups and downs and Jesus is on the thrown looking down and blessing her with peace and love. We have prayed our hearts out for this and have received a miracle. Thank you to all who have prayed for our family. Words can not describe how deeply this moves us. We have not had our mom like this for many many years and now she is coming around to us in the time we thought she could have gone farther away but joy cometh in the morning that's what leaps in my heart joy has come and we will enjoy every moment we can.

Our mom has suffered from HD for years and has had horrible emotional and physical affects. We were trying to remember how many times we have been able to take her out to a restaurant and in 20 years plus we can only remember 1 time she would go out to eat. We can't remember a time that she enjoyed a family gathering with out any drama happening. Lately we have been able to enjoy dinner out and helping out around the house and just allowing her children to step up and help take care of her this is so different we are astounded. We send the best "Pizza" several times a week she lovesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss pizza she will sit right at the window just to catch a glimpse of the delivery guy and with great excitement she opens the door and for a split moment she feels like she is in 7th heaven it is so cool that now when we are going and coming we have noticed that she is waiting for us to come and we have not ever seen her do that and it is just exciting to know she is waiting, yes we feel her love we know she loved us even in the roughest times but it has been very difficult to understand. What she must think of all this stuff and the changes and all the things that she's went through with out help and understanding and support because we did not know what truly had a hold of our momma. We do now and HD all I can say we are stronger and going to fight this disease with every ounce of strength we have as a FAMILY.

HD is not us it has it's own character and we do not accept it and will not let it have it's way against us we are stronger everyday is a new day and we are going to love and encourage and stand beside our family and see them through with great dignity and love.

I am so honored to be her daughter the courage she has shown against this disease and not even know what she was fighting just that she was fighting for her life. We think we know things and see things we don't and what we think is not close to how she must truly feel. I wonder how she has gotten this far almost all alone and to come and find out that it is HD. Thank you momma for giving me the courage to recognize HD in me and for your courages spirit that is alive inside of me to help me fight the good fight against this disease. What we do know is that this disease alters who our loved ones where and little by little steals them away and now that we know how it affects us we are not going to allow this disease to take one more moment from our family. We are forging forward with daily visits to care for her and say we love you mom. Wow we shall never miss another precious moment with our momma.

The Bible says that where to or three gather together and believe it shall be so and I believe what my Father God says. "There'll be no more peas taken from our pea patch, no more."

Huntington's Dance Project

I encourage all to visit the Huntington's Dance Project under My Links or click the link below. My mom has suffered from HD for years and she has the dance but not like what I saw in the reel. It took my breath away so be prepared to see the real life experience of one family's fight against HD.Being able to visualize the affects has opened up a new meaning of HD for me.I have never witnessed someone in full progression of HD and I do realize each person is different. I truly had no idea of what could come in the future for my family. Wow, Chris Furbee when I think of the courage it took for you to want to make this documentary of your mother and your family with HD. I'm in awe, the documentary is so needed and so real it has given me a new insight to my own family's fight and it has empowered me to search out and find all the information and knowledge to know what my family is facing. When I think of my momma having the dance I never knew what could lie ahead for her or any of us with HD.

I say Thank You, Please follow the link and donate to help complete the Huntington's Dance Project for the world to see and bring greater understanding to all.

Just knowing what could lie ahead and being better prepared is better for me because knowledge is empowering and I want to be empowered against this disease called Huntington's.

http://www.huntingtonsdance.org/projects.html

Flowers For ME?

Valentines Day has just begun, as the delivery man started his retreat to the door all I could see was that beautiful arrangement and my heart leaps with excitement has I get to the door to open a beautiful feeling of being loved came over me and a peace that he really does love me. And to top it off he even ordered from the link on my own blog and helped the HD foundation in the fight to find a cure for all of us with HD. Oh my God he didn't yessssssss, he did and that man is mine. I must say that all memories and special moments from this time on are even more special than words can describe for me and my family. I hope and pray that each of you and your family have a blessed Valentines Day.

And my Momma's got a surprise coming also on Mondayyyyyy. I wonder what it could be?

The Awesome Power of Prayer

From the moment this began and I received the positive result of HD. I've struggled to keep my faith up and to see the awesome hand of God upon me. After-wards I tried to stay up, but my human nature is real and being scared and not knowing what lies ahead or in this case what does lie ahead that is the huge difference here the experience I have gone through with my own momma. I feel so sad for the end result that I am trying to face or conclude it now. I can tell you that I cannot begin to understand all the sickness and disease only our father in heaven knows those things. I tried to go to church and continue on like everything was great but the reality check came in and I've struggled for months with this and stayed away from church because I was feeling that why would God want someone with HD teaching his children and being full of uncertainty of my future. God I prayed for him to clear the path of all these things causing me to feel this way and to not let me hurt anyone like I have experienced in the battle with HD. I don't want to be false or weak or misunderstood about this horrific disease the Bible says our ignorance is not a valid excuse to our heavenly father, we are to arm ourselves with wisdom and to seek out knowledge to overcome and conquer just has David did with Goliath he had to go to the river bed and chose those stones and place them in his bag and bless them with prayer and down came Goliath because he let God ordain his life, and David fell many times, but he would always come back through the power of prayer. There has been many saints praying for me and I can tell that the storm clouds or fading and my faith is rising. Tonight I am turning back to the house of the Lord with hope and faith that no matter what lies ahead, Jesus has already been through for me and you. Be encouraged and build your faith with me through our fight against HD.

Thank you Christian Mission the ordained place Jesus has placed me to be, I've felt your prayers and many others. I stand in awe of how God never for sakes you and me in our time of need.

Hallelujah, MY GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD.

Tribute to Jennifer Ireland

It was Jen's Blog that so inspired me to create a place for me to launch my own battle against Huntington's Disease.

From the moment I started reading the first excerpt it was so expressive and filled with love that it moved me deeply and I couldn't think of a greater way for a husband to share his most intimate and difficult time with us. The words literally are so expressive of his Love for his Jen, that you feel as if you have known them personally just as a friend would feel reading the celebrated live and death of Jen and her courageous battle against cancer.

To all your family Jen we say celebrate with your Jesus now and we will dance with you in heaven someday.

Thank you for touching all our lives through the blog.

http://jenniferireland.blogs.com/weblog/

Is It Me or HD?

Recently, I have had to ask myself that question, so much of me is changing and I can't stop it nor can  I grasp hold and hang on and things will get better, no not this time, things will only get worse. Oh my head hurts, legs jerk, drop things all the time, fall for no reason, have bruises and don't know why. I can no longer keep check book, do chores, cook very little, can't finish reading a book and to top it all off I am so confused about all this and what to do. But people don't understand this HD stuff we look normal on the outside but if only they could be on the inside they would see a disease slowly damaging our brain in such a way it's like a thief that comes to kill, steal and destroy us. It does not care who we are and it destroys the person we thought we were to an emotionless shell of a being. I have never experienced so many relationship problems has I have in the past few years and all the time I thought it was them and not me, how wrong I've been and it is still happening it's like HD as no love it's cold and deliberate and it's raging a war against the people who love and care for us. This is not me, :( I don't want to say things to hurt you or make you feel that I don't love you or care for you or to run away from you because I can't reason things out like you. Can't you please understand that HD took over me some time ago and it's not Saundra the one you remember, she is being altered every moment, every breath I breath is taken away slowly by this horrific disease called HD. When I look at my momma I see me and this disease eating away at her and now me. I can't think of anything nice I can say about HD. I am so sad right now and it is testing my faith to the core. I want to overcome I want to win this battle, but the facts are in and it's HD it's genetic and my whole family is at risk. Did you get that a whole family, my family. It just doesn't stop with one it wants us all and it goes on and on until there's no one left. I remember Me, I know deep down who I truly was. Now who am I? This is scary for me, almost like a night mare full of terror. How hard to deal with mom and I and now my child you say at risk, NOOOOOOOOOOO I just can't accept this and my future grand children. Somebody please hit rewind and take me back to the good ole day where I was happy and carefree the place that the memories are made from the real ME. When I was diagnosed with cancer I thought that was the ultimate battle but I was wrong again it's HD the one that wants to kill me in the end. I know this sounds so raw and it is but it is what's churning inside of me. So please bare with me through this horrible disease.

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