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Bug Stomping; the Journies of Two

Be watching on Amazon this summer. There will be a new book in the Kindle section and it will be free. We ask that if you like it, you don't just share it with another. Ask them to download it, too. We have had some offers from doctors to fund printing paperbacks if we get enough interest. The title of the book will be Bug Stomping: The Journals of Two. I am the first voice. I have MS, Epilepsy, Osteoporosis, Gastric emptying at an 8 minute half life, and a bevy of other diagnoses. When my neurologist told me I had epilepsy I nodded and we went on. He said, did you hear me? I just said now you have epilepsy. I said yeah, but that's not how I internalized it. I internalized it as oh, another bug to stomp. He said bug? I said yeah. They skitter across your kitchen floor and you stomp on them. You miss some, but you know they'll be back and you'll stomp more of them. That's all MS is. That's all epilepsy is. That's all any of it is. So he said, "i have not mentioned this nor have your other doctors because we didn't feel it was our place, but we have to say this. Write a book! Tell people how you stay so upbeat with all these health problems." I said it would be a pamphlet or a business card. It's simple. Celebrate and savor what you have, and let go of what you've lost. He said, "That was a journey. Write a book." So I started writing it and immediately realized that we aren't the only people fighting for self respect and respect. There's another whole group out there who picked themselves up and slapped themselves silly and fixed it. The one I chose, his daughter said to him when she was 14, I can't love you anymore, Daddy. You're never here for me, even when you're home." That was on Friday. On Monday, he was in a facility in Arizona drying out, giving up drugs, and finding out who he was so he would never slide again. He and I have something in common. We both called up the warriors in ourselves and we both decided where we would stand and how we would fight back. I am not an MS person. I am a woman who laughs and loves and thinks and learns and grows. I have a bevy of diagnoses. None of them are me. Leo is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict who is a man who laughs and loves and thinks and learns and grows. He happens to have left behind what was destroying him. He called upon his warrior to get himself the help he needed. I called upon my warrior to take myself home after the diagnosis and tell my son our rock climbing days were over. The book will be out this summer. It will be called Bug Stomping. It will be free. There are a variety of ways to read Kindle books. But like I said, please don't just send it to friends. Download it and ask them to. That way we can keep track of how many we share. If we share enough, doctors will pay to print them and provide them free in their offices.

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