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Thread: Sorry I am so quiet lately. Promise... I have a good reason. Well.. ok. Not "good" but valid.
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 11
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DesignBySLS
Advanced Member Joined: Jan 18, 2007 Post Count: 541 Status: Offline |
Ok... So a couple people are aware I have been going through some complex issues, but most are not. To the new members this will mean little but I know some whom I regularly talked to might wonder where the heck I have been. To start with it has already taken me 4 attempts to remember what I was doing and come back to this post which I have already started. Needless to say I use the concentration I have in a very focused manner to make the most of it. Consider me the newest member of those needing Accessible Sites. That isn't to say I didn't need them previously due to Learning Disabilities but I need them more so now. I have Lyme Disease. I tested positive twice with Canadian testing (which is rare), and I am waiting on co-infection results. Some will know what this means... Some will not. Those who know about it might or might not know what it means when I say I am in Stage 3 and I likely have Neuroborreliosis which is when the disease passes the blood brain barrier. There are a number of things that indicate this including memory issues, cognitive issues, central nervous system issues, mobility issues, motor skill problems and the one I am loving the most this week (a newer development) Bell's Palsy (minor but I'm admittedly a bit vain so I am praying this one fixes up more and I am thanking the stars I am only around a II on the HB scale). I'm not going to go into the nitty gritty details on the open forum but if anyone wants to know more they can just send me an email (fastest way to reach me) or send me a PM but be warned I sometimes forget why I am walking from one room to another so remembering to check PM's is a bit hard some days. Even a year ago I could still partake in my love of website design, and coding for hours on end but even that became too much. This isn't to say I can not work on sites, and maintain sites. I just can no longer put a site out in 24 hours (as someone here once joked with me - ok... yes... I know it was true). Now I am like most and take at least a week, more complicated sites obviously take longer... Some will get this, and what this means about me and some won't. Basically it takes me 1-8 times as long to do something which is hard to accept. I will still be maintaining the clients I have to the best of my ability and I have specifically asked one person to help me if I go through a period where I need help... But I will not be taking on new clients come January 1st outside of the rare exception. I have current projects which I will be finishing off, and following through with anyone I have consulted with prior to my cut off date or whom I had been referred to prior to that date. This means I will potentially (not promising anything) have clients to pass along for both my .com and .biz sides to my company. I could likely work WITH someone re: tweaking the CSS layout (which I seem to do so well), or graphics, or even the photo editing but I do not think I am able to do this all by myself all the time at this point.  First things first (this isn't really a job ad but a request for willing parties so I am putting it all here): First dibs will go to the person who has already said they have my back in this. They obviously have the right of refusal depending on the workload they wish to take... But my own workload has often times been more than one person should take on (I have in the past put out over 20 sites a year if not closer to 30, as well as designing ad graphics, print and online graphics, SEO, marketing specific to their respective industry, minor to major photo editing (which must be at a certain level in a certain style - I could teach someone who is adept at photoshop or fireworks how to do this in an afternoon or so, and if they are in North America I can foot the phone calls as I do not pay long distance). - Something tells me it is possibly now easier to understand why the extended time lines causes issues for me.  So if anyone is interested on being on the short list of people I refer others to, and they know who I am and what BOTH sides of my company entails... Please send me an email with your name, site, contact information, etc. I will be honest and say I have about 5-10 people in mind for my short list but I don't want to unintentionally miss anyone and that is why I am putting it out here. I know that the SEO people are not always the graphics people... And the graphics people are not always the coding people. I cannot reasonably dump my entire business on one person, but I would like to be able to offer my clients alternatives that are going to provide a safe, functional and happy working relationship. If you are only willing to deal with the .com then please tell me so upfront. I do have set rules on the .biz side so the portfolio is self explanatory of my own boundaries and I would never, ever ask anyone to cross their own professional boundaries. I'm just not willing to toss those looking to me for help with their business to the wolves. For more information on Lyme Disease a good starting point would be the following sites: The Canadian Lyme Foundation - www.canlyme.com Dr. Ernie Murakami's website - www.drerniemurakami.com And if you really want to know what the cause of my issues looks like take a look at the pictures here: http://www.jneuroinflammation.com/content/5/1/40 ETA: guess this explains why I wasn't feeling good when I posted THAT Aug. 17th, 2007! ---------------------------------------- Why is it that our own site overhauls take so darn long? Both complete. Mmmmmm love my .com. Now I love my other one too. But Joe's logo design made it! What are YOUR favorite veggies? ---------------------------------------- [Edit 1 times, last edit by DesignBySLS at Dec 18, 2008 2:31:50 AM] |
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falkencreative
Advanced Member USA Joined: Aug 14, 2007 Post Count: 1129 Status: Offline |
I'm really sorry to hear about your health issues... I realize you probably don't know me all that well -- I've done most of my posting in the last six months or so, and I haven't seen you on that often -- but let me know if there is anything I can do to help.---------------------------------------- Benjamin Falk | student : designer : developer Twitter: falkencreative |
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DesignBySLS
Advanced Member Joined: Jan 18, 2007 Post Count: 541 Status: Offline |
Thank you Ben. In the last 6 months my posting has been sparse but when I need a relaxing time I have sat and read to catch up on things.  Made me feel like I was still part of the board.---------------------------------------- Why is it that our own site overhauls take so darn long? Both complete. Mmmmmm love my .com. Now I love my other one too. But Joe's logo design made it! What are YOUR favorite veggies? |
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Susie
Advanced Member Ohio, USA Joined: May 30, 2004 Post Count: 2677 Status: Offline |
Wow, Shelley. I had no idea. I'm so sorry to hear about what you've been going through. I can't imagine. (((Hugs))) |
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Wickham
Advanced Member UK Joined: Sep 17, 2007 Post Count: 590 Status: Offline |
Very sad; you have my best wishes. I hope that it doesn't affect other aspects of your life too much and that you can get out and about, drive, enjoy food and drink and socialise. ---------------------------------------- Code downloaded to my PC will be deleted in due course. WIN XP SP3; IE7, Firefox 3.0, Opera and Safari for Windows; screen resolution usually 1024x768. IE6 on W98 with 800*600. |
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LSW
Advanced Member USA Joined: Nov 27, 2003 Post Count: 6285 Status: Offline |
Well considering our PMs, I can't say I am surprised, but the extent of the damage is more than I would have expected. When you find time, jot down what sort of problems you are having. Aside from my depression diagnosis in July I was told it seems I have Aspergers Syndrome which is a High Functioning form of Autism, which is to say it more a minor form of autism. So I have been thinking in terms of posts describing how these things affect my work on and use of the web. Of course in my case I have likely always had Asperger, just as a kid it was not diagnosed as it did not exist as a named ailment. As an adult I had found ways to deal with it without knowing what IT was. In your case it can be a prime example of how ailments requiring accessibility in web sites can hit out of the blue. Just because "you" do not consider "your" target group as needing an accessible web site... people get diseases at all ages, people have accidents at all ages, people break bones at all ages... So anything you can add to my growing list of points to make on cognitive disorders would be helpful. I will be doing an extra training block on cognitive disorders in future training classes for the state. Sorry to hear about it Luv, you know where to find me if you want to talk. |
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DesignBySLS
Advanced Member Joined: Jan 18, 2007 Post Count: 541 Status: Offline |
Hi Susie! Big hugs back to you! Thank you Wickham. Some days are better than others. On a pain level 5 I will still drive but I try to avoid it. Anything 6 or more and and I am all too aware that I am a danger to myself an others so I try to keep taxi money on hand, and friends numbers in speed dial on my cell. It's a learning curve as much as anything... I've had to learn to choose what I am doing carefully, and choose the way to do it with the least impact. Hey LSW... Yeah... It went from not so good to very, very bad pretty quickly. I'm going to try to give you the information you need but it might be a good read to put here so I am going to put it here if you don't mind, and if it is too much then grab the info and edit this ok. Consider this a mini-hijack to my own thread.  I will warn anyone going further that this is a rough read. Period. I have quoted some making it smaller and easily skimmed over for those not interested and pulled highlights of info to leave large size. Anything directly relating to me and not based on clinical studies and straight information is in blue. Before I deal with myself I will give you the overall information: http://library.lymenet.org/domino/file.nsf/bb...67c70012001f?OpenDocument - This is a good starting place. It defines a lot of information. It is not 100% accurate because it doesn't take 12-24 hours for transmission (this is a common misconception), but again... a good starting place. Here are some pieces of info: Because Lyme borreliosis is multisystemic, the differential diagnosis has to be broad, including viral infections, aseptic meningitis, disseminated gonococcal infection, rheumatoid arthritis, late stage syphilis, multiple sclerosis, Guillian-Barre, AIDS, systemic lupus, subacute bacterial endocarditis, thyroiditis, Reiter's syndrome, fibromyaligia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and psychiatric disorders. If treated early, the disease may be limited to an asymptomatic rash or only a few days to a week of flu-like symptoms. In its later stages, patients may have multisystemic disease, leading to an inability to work for months to years. The simplest tasks may become insurmountable. Starting with this I am sure a lot of the challenges faced by people with the issues it resembles are documented. Symptoms some people have and which are included in the Lyme symptoms: headaches, photophobia, Bell's palsy, may be unilateral or bilateral, radiculopathic syndromes may also be unilateral or bilateral, with a predominance of motor over sensory symptoms, encephalopathy - subtle disturbances in mood, memory, and sleep (night insomnia or excessive daytime sleepiness), profound fatigue, depression, irritability, concomitant memory loss, word finding problems, blindness , progressive demyelinating-like syndromes (mimicking Multiple sclerosis or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ), extreme irritability, Guillian-Barre, progressive dementias seizure disorders , strokes, and extrapyramidal disorders - spastic paraparesis, ataxia, cognitive impairment, and cranial neuropathy. Psychiatric Manifestations: Case studies have come back with cases that were indistinguishable from an endogenous schizophrenia - paranoia and hallucinations -remitted after antibiotic treatment, agitated depression and psychosis, mild depression, an organic psychiatric disorder - such as an organic affective syndrome or an organic personality syndrome, organic psychoses, dementia, Patients may have chronic neurologic symptoms for more than one year, with some patients suffering for 10 years or more despite having received antibiotic therapy. Cognitive impairments among patients with late Lyme disease may be subtle. Some patients may demonstrate initial abnormalities on neuropsychological testing, while others may not. Serial neuropsychological testing before and after antibiotic treatment may reveal significant improvement after treatment. *insert bad joke about being (&^#(^ in the head here... bad of me but hey... humour keeps me going* My symptoms include (but are not limited to): � fatigue - Sometimes the fatigue is relatively mild, allowing me to continue working, perhaps in a diminished capacity. Sometimes, however, the symptoms may be quite severe, such that I have been bedridden due to intractable fatigue for 1-4 days at a time. � memory problems - Memory problems, too, can be mild or quite severe. I have days where I am "ON" and days where I have a serious case of CRS (Can't Remember S***!). � photophobia - idiosyncratic responses to particular kinds of light and often am in a very dark home as I pull all the shades. Which of course has my hubby wondering if I am part vampire. � panic-attacks that seemed to be triggered by sound or light stimulation-especially bright lights that flicker, such as fluorescent lights, headlights of cars moving in the opposite line of traffic - I am ok overall but I must take my glasses off at night when I am driving (which is fine because I see exponentially better at night but I can't see anything at twilight so I wait that one out). � sound sensitivity - hypersensitivity to and/or idiosyncratic responses to sound stimulation - ordinary conversation can be deafening, any sudden sound, like the phone ringing, and certain household sounds, like the running of tap water makes me shake, get flustered and lose all thought lines. � sensory sensitivity to touch - I can not explain to you what it is like to want to be touched but to find the touch you once loved abhorrent... and when touching a texture makes you freak out for NO reason. � sensory sensitivity to taste - Foods may taste abnormally sour or bitter, or exceptionally strong. I can no eat certain peoples cooking as they put too much emphasis on strong flavours. Heck even mild ones get to me at times. � sensory sensitivity to smell - Smells may seem overly intense and noxious. Good or bad scents are extreme. Goodness forbid I am within a hundred feet with someone who skipped Deodorant... And I can smell corn/popcorn from over 1 km away at times now which is good and bad for my allergy. � sensory sensitivity to movement/vibration - suddenly and unwittingly developed a heightened sensitivity to vibrations - music, movement of my car, sometimes just the darn world in general. My poor husband and child have had their heads bitten off for brushing against the covers on the bed as they walked by. I felt like they had rammed into the bed, and that my whole body was shaken to the core. � increased irritability (extreme) - Sudden, intense irritability is most often triggered by sensory stimulation brought on by my sensitivities to sound, touch or light but may also occur unprovoked and seemingly inexplicably. � emotional lability - unprovoked laughter, crying, smiling... and not always situationally appropriate. � Word Reversals When Speaking and/or Letter Reversals When Writing - I have a history of dyscalculia and dyslexic complications - but I should note that these did not really crop up until I was 9-10-ish and I remember clearly not having problems reading and writing certain simple things as a child. I remember practicing handwriting my name at one house and I haven't lived there since I was 5-6 years old but by the time I was 11 my printing was atrocious, and I was having a lot of issues. - Patients with no prior history of dyslexia have found themselves writing letters backwards, reversing numbers or routinely reversing the first and second letters of a word. � Spatial Disorientation - lost in ones own neighborhood, on the way to someplace you know? Or... someone repeatedly bumping into things on the left side of their body, dropping things from their left hand despite having no weakness in that hand and occasionally placing objects, such as a milk carton, several inches short of a table edge with the result that they would fall to the floor. - This happens to me all the time! � One I have not pegged but is partly a number of these things - I get "lost" part way through a page. I have to read, re-read, and go back to a previous page/post to figure out what I was reading if anyone goes on a tangent or even if they don't. Fluctuations in Symptoms This can be one of the most frustrating and perplexing aspects of the illness. A patient with late-stage Lyme disease might feel totally drained one day, the next day be able to function almost normally and the day after experience such mental confusion as to be unable to focus on even the simplest of tasks. --------------------- Now on top of this mess comes the pain that goes with many chronic illnesses. A good chart is: http://www.tipna.org/info/documents/ComparativePainScale.htm Once a person reaches a certain level of pain they start to have impaired judgement, thinking, reasoning, and potential minor personality changes. According to that my good days are a 4-5 (usually more likely a 5), my great days are a 3 (I can rule the world on those days!), and bad says are a 7... and last Friday night was a solid 9 (though I wonder that it wasn't closer to a 10 because I was out cold at a couple points and couldn't sleep when it got back to a 7). I don't drive when I am at a 6-7 or higher, and I try avoid it at a 5 or higher... The sad part is I only started to drive because I was having an average day that was a 3-4. I miss those ones. I refuse to take a lot of medications related to pain alone because I have a little one and that is not good for her to see... Nor can I drive/function when I take them. So basically if you put it all together it all makes computer usage more frustrating. God forbid someplace have a flashing animation that moves quickly or is too bright. Outside of the taste and smell sensitivities I get lambasted by the world around me and being on the Internet is no different. Even the forums can be daunting because I have to re-read something over and over and over. ---------------------------------------- Why is it that our own site overhauls take so darn long? Both complete. Mmmmmm love my .com. Now I love my other one too. But Joe's logo design made it! What are YOUR favorite veggies? |
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LSW
Advanced Member USA Joined: Nov 27, 2003 Post Count: 6285 Status: Offline |
Great, I am more interested in you than doctors anyways. Quoting the different possibilities is fine... but it is real people with real problems that really impact readers. It takes it from the realm of "What if..." to the realm of real people. |
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DesignBySLS
Advanced Member Joined: Jan 18, 2007 Post Count: 541 Status: Offline |
Very true indeed. You can add that facial lines changing (my eyebrow droop) has affected the area I can see so now I find myself instinctively turning to try to view things a slightly different way. What this means is very small font sizes are very hard to see. ---------------------------------------- Why is it that our own site overhauls take so darn long? Both complete. Mmmmmm love my .com. Now I love my other one too. But Joe's logo design made it! What are YOUR favorite veggies? |
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admin
Advanced Member Joined: Jun 14, 2003 Post Count: 2940 Status: Offline |
I just caught this thread now - sorry I was late in responding. My best wishes to you and my understanding. I too was once hit with an illness - a blood disease that nearly killed me at 19. After the near death and as a bonus, the disease promised to be a permanent ... shall I say, nuisance to my day to day living. ... You know, major surgery, heavy-duty drugs (and side affects) and all that fun stuff. It forced me to stop school and my intended career as a professional athlete. But with time and effort, I was able to beat the odds and move on. - So, don't let it get you down! Consider this a challenge to you, a challenge to develop new skills (business?) and partners. Who knows ... this may lead to a few unexpected positive things. Once again, my best wishes. Stefan ---------------------------------------- Stefan Mischook Video Tutorial Store | Web Templates |
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