This past weekend, I went to visit my "Surrogate" daughter, Megan, and her family. They came and picked me up on Saturday and I spent part of the afternoon playing with my "Surrogate" grandson, who had to leave to attend a ballet, "The Nutcracker."

In his absence, Megan and I were able to catch up on each other while she worked on some crafts. She is really good, which I did not know about her. I was very proud of her talent and the gifts she was making. We had a great time.

When Chrisitan, my "Surrogate" grandson returned, we all went out to pick out the very best Christmas Tree we could find. It was really cold that night but they were very good at not taking too long to choose a tree. They found a lovely tree and the guys chopped off the requisite amount from the trunk and put it on the car.

It was lovely to watch Doug, Megan's husband, Megan and Christian put up the tree. As happens when one picks out a real Christmas tree, it grows taller on the way home. We had to chop some off the top to make it fit without making a hole in the ceiling. We watered the tree and waited for the branches to fall out so we could decorate it the next day. Christian, who is four-years-old, was so very excited about it.

The next morning, as promised, I awoke to a funny face quite near mine, saying, "Coock-coo, Coock-coo." This most endearing child woke me about 7:45am. We got up and I set up train and tracks per his instructions. I love this kid far more than my vocabulary will let me say. We had a great conversation.

Christian said, "Ms. Lucy, I love you."

With my heart melting, I said, "Oh, Christian, I love you, too."

He said, "Even when you have a boring conversation, I love you."

I said, "I love you all the time, too."

A little while later, I asked if my conversation with him was boring.

He said, "No, its when you talk to Mommy and Daddy." :chat:

I learned this weekend that True Love is loving someone even when they are having a boring conversation. :wub2:

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Sunday when I was awakened by Christian, I just didn't feel very well. AS the day wore on, it just seemed to get worse. I was very quiet and didn't have the energy to help decorate the tree. We were suppose to go to Megan's mom's house for a Christmas party, which I was looking so forward to. Cindy is my best friend and I have not seen her for awhile, far too long. But by 4:00pm or so, my body just "hit the wall" and I knew I couldn't go another step. We called my son to come pick me early. If you knew me, you would know, if I miss a party, I am really feeling poorly.

As the week drew on, everyday seemed to get worse. Its hard for me to describe the symptoms but some of them are (with the help of my son, I was able to come up w/ some descriptions).

I feel an electrical-type current running through my body, legs, arms, chest.

Sometimes I feel I am in a small picture frame looking out at my surroundings which are in a larger picture frame ... is this sort of an "out of body experience?"

My left arm and leg are numb. They function but I have no feeling in my arm, hand or leg.

My left shoulder feels tight.

I casn't stay in one position for very long or the "current" feeling gets worse and I feel like I am going to faint. I feel like everything is draining out of my head.

Under my skin, my face feels cold

When I get up, I get a weird feeling like maybe I will faint but it doesn't feel the same as when I used to feel this way when I was a child, its different.

My symptoms seem to be getting stronger and I feel weaker.

Monday through Thursday, I felt really badly. Friday, today, I started to feel a little better this afternoon and my son took me to the mall for shopping. Didn't happen. We went to his in-laws for dinner and we all went the mall after. I got really tired but pushed myself to finish what I started out to do. I wasn't very successful in finding the things I wanted but I did push through. I came home exhausted but have been on th computer.

My son went on the computer and it seems that I may be experiencing w/drawal effects from Effexor, which I was on but I started to feel so badly on the medicine if I took and if I didn't take it. I felt I didn't need it for depression anymore and decided I would rather be off it and feel badly than be on it.

Apparently, these symptoms can be felt for a year (possibly more) after being taken off the medicine. Boy, I sure hope this will stop, if indeed this is the cause of my discomfort.

Next time, when I am feeling really bad, I will try to push through it and see if it goes away. I am not a happy camper.[/font]

PS: Sorry for the mixture of color but I've been working on this too long and I'm tuckered. I'm going to bed. Enjoy your family and friends. Thanks for listening.