aspir(al)ing

The Enbrel Vlog.

Posted by terri | Filed under health, vlog, watashi

I made a video of one of my Enbrel injections. If you are squeamish about needles and stuff like that, this video may not be for you. Granted, you don’t actually see the needle, but the pain on my face is enough to make you cringe!

I normally take my Enbrel injections on Thursdays and I just on a whim decided to make a video with it with my iMac and my point and shoot camera. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have used Photo Booth to take the footage because everything appears flipped, but I’m pretty pleased with it, considering how fast I was able to put it together. Yay iMovie ‘09!

So you may be thinking, why would I put something like this out there? Well, I just wanted to be a face for psoriatic arthritis and for its available treatments. When I was first suffering from the symptoms, I never would have imagined that it would be arthritis. Apparently my primary care doctor couldn’t think of it either as she referred me to a sports medicine doctor for my swollen fingers, thinking that they were just sprained. It finally took seeing four different doctors over the course of three months for me to finally get my diagnosis for my hand pain. And when I was given my diagnosis, I didn’t even know what it actually meant. I thought only older people got arthritis, but it turns out that there are many young adults, even children, are afflicted with some form of arthritis. I came to the understanding there is no cure for this, only treatments. And if they never find a cure, it’s something I have to learn to treat for the rest of my life.

The idea of having to take an injection every week scared me. I first looked to the Internet to see what others going through the same thing were thinking. It gave me a sense of therapy to see other people share their experiences. Sure there was anxiety seen in their faces, heard in their voices, and expressed in their written narratives, but that just told me it’s normal and that in the end, I’ll be okay.

Making the video turned out to be rather therapeutic for me as well. Not sure if I’ll ever make another one, but I’m glad that I made this one. I definitely welcome your thoughts and reactions.

Vlog 01: Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted by terri | Filed under family, monku, vlog

When I saw this comic months ago, I immediately thought of my mom:

With a mom like that, it’s not easy to shop for Mother’s Day, let alone do something for her. My first attempt at a vlog features my frustrations with my “Asian mom.”

Read the rest of this entry…

Tags: mother's day, vlog

Aloha!

Hello from the island of O'ahu in the beautiful state of Hawaii. I am terri, a local girl who at 30 is trying to make sure that life doesn't entirely pass her by. I've recently become engaged and am enjoying living a great life in paradise.