Showing posts with label Utah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Utah. Show all posts
Sunday, July 12, 2009
To Utah and Back
My husband Kenny and I got back from Utah last night. It's good to be home.I am grateful to my parents for having invited us to travel with them to Utah. Without their generous financial support, we would not have been able to go. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
I slept through most of the day today and feel pretty good. I woke up for breakfast, watched a little TV, then went back to sleep until after 4pm. I've been watching TV since then.
My body is very tired and my muscles are a little sore, but my lymph nodes feel OK and I don't feel ill. I think this means I survived this trip without a major crash. Hooray! I think the only reason I'm not worse off is because we really did take it easy on this trip (for the most part).
It always takes me quite a bit of self restraint for me to "take it easy" whenever I travel. My nature is to be adventurous and physically active. The CFIDS forces me to go against my nature. When I overexert myself, I pay for it with days -- and sometimes a week or more -- of extreme exhaustion and malaise. When it's really bad, I can't get out of bed. I have learned the hard way to slow down my pace.
While on this trip, I wanted to ride a hot air balloon, go white water rafting, ride horseback, and go shopping at the outlet mall. Of course, I didn't do any of those things because they would have exhausted me beyond belief, but it was fun (and a little melancholy) thinking about them. (I can't wait until I'm healthy again.)
Instead, we chose activities that were a little less taxing: riding a ski lift round-trip (which involved sitting on a slowly moving bench up and back down a mountain) and riding a zip line (which involved being strapped to a cloth seat and flying down a ski hill). Those were my most exciting activities for the week.
I'm lucky that my parents and husband are so supportive. They allowed me to set the pace and choose the activities for the entire trip. We had late starts every morning and ended each day right after dinner. There were plenty of opportunities for daily naps, and the naps ranged from less than an hour to up to four hours.
When I didn't feel well enough to go out, we didn't go out. Whenever we drove anywhere, my dad would drop me off at the entrance before parking so that I wouldn't have to walk too much. When we visited Zion National Park, we were able to tour the park by shuttle bus (the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive shuttle, to be exact). The bus made my visiting a national park possible. (The photo at the top of this post is a picture my husband took at Zion.)
Overall, this trip was wonderful and frustrating all at the same time. I was able to do quite a lot, yet I was still so limited by my CFIDS.
I clearly remember what it was like to be completely incapacitated by this disease -- from ages 24-26, I was bedridden and slept 16 to 20 hours per day. A trip like this one would have been unimaginable. Yet compared to what life was like before I got sick, there is still so much I cannot and should not do...or else my body will rebel.
I'm ready for a cure.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Mini Energy Crash
I finally had a small energy crash yesterday.
Amazingly, it wasn't that bad... in fact, it was almost nothing...considering how much we've been doing in Utah.
Yesterday I slept in until 10am, ate breakfast, lounged around the hotel room (that's when I wrote yesterday's blog entry), ate lunch, rode a ski lift (my first time!), took a four-hour nap, ate dinner, watched a movie on the TV in our hotel room, then went to bed.
Today I slept in until 10:30am, ate breakfast, took a nap, ate lunch, went to visit the Utah Olympic Park in Park City and rode a 100+ meter-long zip line (it was crazy fun!), had a brief rest at the hotel, got an hour-long and very relaxing Swedish massage (my first!), then went to dinner. I'm about to pass out from exhaustion, but I felt the need to write.
I feel like a more severe crash may be coming (my lymph nodes have been feeling funny today...not bad, just a bit strange), but at least I still have the weekend to sleep before I have to go back to work. We're flying back home tomorrow, so I'll get to sleep in my own bed. I'm hoping that by doing absolutely nothing the rest of the weekend, I'll ward off any sort of major crash.
All in all, my first time in Utah has been worthwhile and meaningful. Our trip to Topaz was sobering, the time with my parents who live in another state was special, the vacation time with my husband was lovely, and all the fun activities I was able to do was precious (because my energy levels control my life, and I never know if I'll be able to participate or if I have to be left out of activities).
Thanks, Utah!
Amazingly, it wasn't that bad... in fact, it was almost nothing...considering how much we've been doing in Utah.
Yesterday I slept in until 10am, ate breakfast, lounged around the hotel room (that's when I wrote yesterday's blog entry), ate lunch, rode a ski lift (my first time!), took a four-hour nap, ate dinner, watched a movie on the TV in our hotel room, then went to bed.
Today I slept in until 10:30am, ate breakfast, took a nap, ate lunch, went to visit the Utah Olympic Park in Park City and rode a 100+ meter-long zip line (it was crazy fun!), had a brief rest at the hotel, got an hour-long and very relaxing Swedish massage (my first!), then went to dinner. I'm about to pass out from exhaustion, but I felt the need to write.
I feel like a more severe crash may be coming (my lymph nodes have been feeling funny today...not bad, just a bit strange), but at least I still have the weekend to sleep before I have to go back to work. We're flying back home tomorrow, so I'll get to sleep in my own bed. I'm hoping that by doing absolutely nothing the rest of the weekend, I'll ward off any sort of major crash.
All in all, my first time in Utah has been worthwhile and meaningful. Our trip to Topaz was sobering, the time with my parents who live in another state was special, the vacation time with my husband was lovely, and all the fun activities I was able to do was precious (because my energy levels control my life, and I never know if I'll be able to participate or if I have to be left out of activities).
Thanks, Utah!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
An Ugly Lesson in US History
My mother, a Japanese-American, was born in the Topaz Internment Camp (located near Delta, Utah) where her parents (also born in the United States) and extended family were incarcerated during World War II...simply because they were of Japanese descent.
To be clear, the term "internment camp" may be used interchangeably with "concentration camp." However, because of the negative connotation of "concentration camp," the more innocuous sounding term "internment camp" is used as a euphemism to make this egregious violation of American civil rights sound less offensive.
We made a family pilgrimage to the internment camp this week. This is why we came to Utah.
There is nothing much left of the interment camp. All the buildings were dismantled and sold by the US government not long after Topaz was closed in 1945. Afterward, any remaining items of value were stolen and sold for profit.
Once the size of a small city spanning over 18,000 acres, all you can see now when you visit the site is a desolate, dusty, and dry desert plain with scattered and rotting wood planks, a few cement foundations, and lots of rusty nails everywhere.
We were able to find the site of the Topaz hospital where my mother was born.
Most US history books gloss over the American concentration camps because they are such an embarrassment to our government. Many Americans still don't know anything about what happened to our own people. The only reason I learned about them was because my mother told me when I was a child about what happened. My husband Kenny doesn't remember learning anything about the internment until he was in college.
People were given only a brief warning before they were forced out of their homes, allowed to bring only what they could carry.
It's really pretty shocking.
To learn more about the Topaz Internment Camp and the Japanese American internment in general, check out the following links:
To be clear, the term "internment camp" may be used interchangeably with "concentration camp." However, because of the negative connotation of "concentration camp," the more innocuous sounding term "internment camp" is used as a euphemism to make this egregious violation of American civil rights sound less offensive.
We made a family pilgrimage to the internment camp this week. This is why we came to Utah.
There is nothing much left of the interment camp. All the buildings were dismantled and sold by the US government not long after Topaz was closed in 1945. Afterward, any remaining items of value were stolen and sold for profit.
Once the size of a small city spanning over 18,000 acres, all you can see now when you visit the site is a desolate, dusty, and dry desert plain with scattered and rotting wood planks, a few cement foundations, and lots of rusty nails everywhere.
We were able to find the site of the Topaz hospital where my mother was born.
Most US history books gloss over the American concentration camps because they are such an embarrassment to our government. Many Americans still don't know anything about what happened to our own people. The only reason I learned about them was because my mother told me when I was a child about what happened. My husband Kenny doesn't remember learning anything about the internment until he was in college.
People were given only a brief warning before they were forced out of their homes, allowed to bring only what they could carry.
It's really pretty shocking.
To learn more about the Topaz Internment Camp and the Japanese American internment in general, check out the following links:
Wikipedia
The painting at the top of this post was created by my great-grandmother who was interned at Topaz. It depicts the desert conditions of the camp.
Update on July 12, 2009: I added a photo slideshow from our trip to Utah. It's under the post Utah Photos by Alyson and Kenny. Many of the photos are from the Topaz site.
The painting at the top of this post was created by my great-grandmother who was interned at Topaz. It depicts the desert conditions of the camp.
Update on July 12, 2009: I added a photo slideshow from our trip to Utah. It's under the post Utah Photos by Alyson and Kenny. Many of the photos are from the Topaz site.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Greetings from Utah!
I'm back online!I'm in Utah this week on a trip with my husband and parents, and today is the first time I've had the chance to get online (I'm borrowing someone else's computer). The trip has been grueling because we've been all over the state, including Salt Lake City, Park City, Delta, Topaz, and Zion National Park. Fortunately, I haven't had to drive and have been able to sleep a lot between cities. I'll talk about why I'm in Utah in another post.
I'm still tired all the time, but I haven't had any sort of crash...yet. My energy seems to be holding up, but I'm being cautiously optimistic. I'm taking lots of naps, and I'm not walking around and exploring nearly as much as my husband and dad are doing. My mom's been great keeping me company when hubby and dad wander off.
I'm glad that I was able to get a glutathione IV (for my CFIDS) and a Glyceron Plus shot (also for CFIDS) right before we left for this trip. I think they helped bolster my energy levels a bit.
And now a random story from my trip:
A funny thing happened at a McDonald's in Delta, Utah (population: 3,209). We met THE Ronald McDonald clown -- the actual one who is in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade every year (or so he says). Apparently, this guy travels the country making special appearances at schools and other educational venues throughout the country...and, of course, he also visits local McDonald's.
You can see Mr. McDonald himself in the photo above with my husband, Kenny.
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