Wednesday through Saturday

What a day this has been! Poor Mary, our wonderful new care giver, was greeted today not with anticipation but with constipation. I'm pretty embarrassed to even mention the P__P word but in the world of ALS constipation is real. This was my first episode of constipation...... and it was painful. We did everything to remedy the situation until finally the storm was calmed and I found relief. WHEW! When I was healthy running, biking, swimming and surfing was an every day occurrence that constipation was not in the vocabulary. Now, foods that I eat will have to be high in fiber and soft enough to swallow. Not to mention drinking a lot of liquids. Thank you Mary, Daniel, Malia and Spike for being there and helping me today. Thank you also to Tina who, with great compassion, brought me some yogurt and a movie. Enough about that, now on to other things.

Last week my family from Hilo and Maui visited and stayed with me while Jan went to Bali. I had such a wonderful time with them all. My brother Al and sister in law Nancy from Maui arrived last Thursday evening and left on Sunday evening. We did a lot during the weekend including the tour of Shangrilla. The home of Doris Duke who created her home on the shores of Diamond Head around the Moslem culture. Her home was amazingly beautiful and she was not Moslem. If you get a chance, it's worth the visit. Jan returned from Bali on Monday and was back to work the next day. Everything is almost back to normal.

Okay it is now Saturday already and I did not get to complete my blog. Good thing Natalie and Daniel are here visiting me today and Natalie is taking over to help me complete this blog to get it out. Let's go back a couple of days.....

Thursday was the most beautiful swim day. The air was crystal clear after the down pour and the blue sky was bluer than ever. Heidi, Sandra, Rene, Karen and I stayed in the ocean for the longest time. Aunt Karen dared to put on her bathing suit and join us in the beautiful ocean. This was her first time ever to enjoy the ocean with us as she is usually sitting on the beach watching us. Good going Aunt Karen! Congratulations to Heidi for running a great race for Council Woman for her district. There were fourteen competitors and Heidi came out a whopping fourth place finisher which is great for an unknown. We are all proud of you Heidi. And, by the way, Heidi is our swim day photographer.





On Friday afternoon, I went to see my pulmonologist for my monthly visit and the results for my vital capacity were the same or better than the last one. See, I am hanging in there. I am also trying to use my AVAP as much as I can. Daniel is making sure that I follow through.

Today, Saturday, is a beautiful day. Lorie and Allen came up ad spent a couple of hours with me. Both Lorie and Allen are apart of our Run to the Sun relay team. Lorie is fast!

There is probably a lot more that I have forgotten to write about, however, I will try to write more next week. Here is an update on our run. As of last week, we have 270 runners and we are still open for more. So if you haven't sent in your application, there is still time. We would love to have you! Don't forget the costume!

On September 7th, Natalie will be answering the phone for the MDA Jerry Lewis Telethon from 3:00pm to 5:00pm. Be sure to call her and donate! Natalie will have a picture of me in the front of her phone. Call Natalie!

Hope you all are having a great weekend. Be sure to get out and enjoy our beautiful Hawaiian sunshine.

Goodnight Bella! Goodnight Spike! Goodnight Ruby Rose! Nana loves you!

Aloha, Vi