Good News!

Hi Joey!
Just checking in to see how you're doing. I hope you are feeling better and able to do some writing, and maybe a little practicing! We all miss you and hope to see you soon.
 
Hi everyone :D

Well, it's been a rough few weeks. I've been up and down with good bits and bad bits...though they have seemed to weigh up and balance out nicely. The past couple of days have been bad, but that just means there are some good ones round the corner.

I am finally coming out of the M.E relapse that hit me at the beginning of the year. I have been managing to play my Ukulele at least once a week, which is a big improvement. I'm nowhere near ready to do any videos, but I was gifted a new camera to do them with so that should be interesting and hopefully involve less editing.

My brain issues are still apparent and I am still getting treatment to retrain the part of my brain that got damaged somehow. I was able to do some balancing exercises and I haven't fallen in over two months! I've come close, but I haven't actually gotten onto the floor which is a HUGE improvement for me.

I am still working hard on my uni work, half way through my fourth year class and doing okay - not as well as I'd like, but my tutor says that it's obvious from my work that I know what I'm talking about, I just need to get the phrasing and backing up with evidence bit down and I'll pass with the grade I want. I am still on track to graduate December 2014 which is just awesome!

I am also now working on my next two books - 11 & 12 - and they are keeping me busy. I'm actually taking a break from writing more of chapter seven right now to write this post. Overall, I'm doing good.

I just want to thank all of you for your cards (I still get the odd one or two and it's nice to know I am being thought of despite my absence) and your prayers, good thoughts and well wishes. I didn't know that I would still be struggling so much after five or so months, I had hoped that I would be back to doing DU2 videos by now, but life seems to have it's own plans for me.

I do intend to return, and I do have more good news. One of those is that I saw the specialist on the 22nd and he has allowed me to drive again :D

The other is that, I'm getting married :D My Fiancé lives in Florida and has asked me to be his wife (we've been dating over three years and met in 2002 when I was in the US visiting friends) he is planning to move here ad we'll be married once the visa is approved. It will be a small ceremony, but we're hoping to broadcast it via webcam for his family in the US (and friends too) who will have been unable to make the trip. His father is very frail and disabled and his mom is his full time carer. He can't fly and she won't leave him, even if she would, it would leave him without adequate care. The hope is that once we are married we'll both make the trip to the US...so be warned I may come visit some of you ;) This does mean that if you were so inclined, you could all watch as I marry the man I love.

So, I'm glad I could share this good and happy news with you. I do think of UU often and hope to return with videos for you soon. Despite a few trolls on my YT channel who seem to want me to stop playing...it's not going to happen!

Love, thanks and happiness to you all!

Joey
 
Great to hear about the upbeat side of your news! Enhorabona (congratulations) on the wedding! Per molts anys (may it last for many years)!
 
Great to hear from you and thanks for all the great news. Congratulations on the engagement. It is a wonderful thing when best friends become husband and wife (I was fortunate that way). Also, congrats on feeling better and getting back to the uke!

Thanks for the update and keep up the good work!

Jim
 
Last edited:
joeybug said:
Hi everyone :D

Well, it's been a rough few weeks. I've been up and down with good bits and bad bits...though they have seemed to weigh up and balance out nicely. The past couple of days have been bad, but that just means there are some good ones round the corner.

I am finally coming out of the M.E relapse that hit me at the beginning of the year. I have been managing to play my Ukulele at least once a week, which is a big improvement. I'm nowhere near ready to do any videos, but I was gifted a new camera to do them with so that should be interesting and hopefully involve less editing.

My brain issues are still apparent and I am still getting treatment to retrain the part of my brain that got damaged somehow. I was able to do some balancing exercises and I haven't fallen in over two months! I've come close, but I haven't actually gotten onto the floor which is a HUGE improvement for me.

I am still working hard on my uni work, half way through my fourth year class and doing okay - not as well as I'd like, but my tutor says that it's obvious from my work that I know what I'm talking about, I just need to get the phrasing and backing up with evidence bit down and I'll pass with the grade I want. I am still on track to graduate December 2014 which is just awesome!

I am also now working on my next two books - 11 & 12 - and they are keeping me busy. I'm actually taking a break from writing more of chapter seven right now to write this post. Overall, I'm doing good.

I just want to thank all of you for your cards (I still get the odd one or two and it's nice to know I am being thought of despite my absence) and your prayers, good thoughts and well wishes. I didn't know that I would still be struggling so much after five or so months, I had hoped that I would be back to doing DU2 videos by now, but life seems to have it's own plans for me.

I do intend to return, and I do have more good news. One of those is that I saw the specialist on the 22nd and he has allowed me to drive again :D

The other is that, I'm getting married :D My Fiancé lives in Florida and has asked me to be his wife (we've been dating over three years and met in 2002 when I was in the US visiting friends) he is planning to move here ad we'll be married once the visa is approved. It will be a small ceremony, but we're hoping to broadcast it via webcam for his family in the US (and friends too) who will have been unable to make the trip. His father is very frail and disabled and his mom is his full time carer. He can't fly and she won't leave him, even if she would, it would leave him without adequate care. The hope is that once we are married we'll both make the trip to the US...so be warned I may come visit some of you ;) This does mean that if you were so inclined, you could all watch as I marry the man I love.

So, I'm glad I could share this good and happy news with you. I do think of UU often and hope to return with videos for you soon. Despite a few trolls on my YT channel who seem to want me to stop playing...it's not going to happen!

Love, thanks and happiness to you all!

Joey
Click to expand...

CONGRATULATIONS JOEY!!

Very happy for you and wish you the best in all that you are doing!! You've just brightened my day. Thank you.

-Gary
 
joeybug said:
Hi everyone :D

... I'm getting married :D My Fiancé lives in Florida and has asked me to be his wife (we've been dating over three years and met in 2002 when I was in the US visiting friends) he is planning to move here ad we'll be married once the visa is approved. It will be a small ceremony, but we're hoping to broadcast it via webcam for his family in the US (and friends too) who will have been unable to make the trip. His father is very frail and disabled and his mom is his full time carer. He can't fly and she won't leave him, even if she would, it would leave him without adequate care. The hope is that once we are married we'll both make the trip to the US...so be warned I may come visit some of you ;) This does mean that if you were so inclined, you could all watch as I marry the man I love.

So, I'm glad I could share this good and happy news with you. I do think of UU often and hope to return with videos for you soon. Despite a few trolls on my YT channel who seem to want me to stop playing...it's not going to happen!

Love, thanks and happiness to you all!

Joey
Click to expand...

Congratulations, and many, many hugs, Joey!


-Kurt​
 
great to know you are still fighting Joey, been kinda quiet around here without you're vids, keep on fighting girl
 
Yay! You're accomplishing a tremendous amount with all your health troubles. Thanks for checking in and sharing your news!

As for your upcoming marriage, best wishes to you, and congratulations to the very lucky guy who gets to marry you!
 
Barbablanca said:
Great to hear about the upbeat side of your news! Enhorabona (congratulations) on the wedding! Per molts anys (may it last for many years)!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the well wishes!

vanflynn said:
Great to hear from you and thanks for all the great news. Congratulations on the engagement. It is a wonderful thing when best friends become husband and wife (I was fortunate that way). Also, congrats on feeling better and getting back to the uke!

Thanks for the update and keep up the good work!

Jim
Click to expand...

Thanks for the continued cards, Jim, it's nice to receive them and it's true that marrying your best friend is awesome. We're still gathering data (and raising money) for the Visa, but we hope he'll be here by the end of the year and we'll be married early in 2014!

gyosh said:
CONGRATULATIONS JOEY!!

Very happy for you and wish you the best in all that you are doing!! You've just brightened my day. Thank you.

-Gary
Click to expand...

Thanks Gary, glad I was able to put a smile on your face :D

ksiegel said:
Congratulations, and many, many hugs, Joey!


-Kurt​
Click to expand...

Thanks Kurt!

kaizersoza said:
great to know you are still fighting Joey, been kinda quiet around here without you're vids, keep on fighting girl
Click to expand...

I'm always fighting. I've recently made all my Ukulele videos unlisted because of the hate I was getting from seemingly random people. I'll post them on my blog and here, where relevant, but for the time being I'm not putting myself out in public anymore. You keep up the good fight too!

ukuLily Mars said:
Yay! You're accomplishing a tremendous amount with all your health troubles. Thanks for checking in and sharing your news!

As for your upcoming marriage, best wishes to you, and congratulations to the very lucky guy who gets to marry you!
Click to expand...

Thanks Lilly, I think I'm the lucky one who gets to marry Scott :D
 
Hi Joey, great to hear about your impending nuptials!
Best wishes from your fellow purple fiend!
 
Aloha Joey,
This is Great news that you can drive and you are getting better....most of all you are now engaged...woo hoo girl way to go
by the way did I tell you...


CONGRATULATIONS......YIPPEE WOOOO HOOOO YEEEEE HAH :)
 
Great news & congrats Joey! Take a deep breath and keep your head up (and keep playing that uke!)
 
Thanks everyone for all the lovely words. I really do appreciate them. I have a week full of hospital and doctor appointments and am hoping to get good news to share with you all. I am up for review on my benefits and need good prayers and thoughts and juju that I am able to be granted the help that I need to continue recovery. I am nowhere near well enough to work full time in a conventional job. I have my books, but they are far from a "proper" job as it were.

I am also hoping to get some new medication sorted. On the good side, my pain has been better controlled and manageable, but the side effects were causing me to spend a lot of the time unable to function either asleep or just not able to keep up with uni work and anything else. So, we have lowered the dose and are hoping that this will enable me to live in more pain, but at least able to actually get things done. I also have been having random out of the blue serious asthma attacks that have needed a lot of medication to get them under control. It seems that there is not discernible trigger and I am just stuck with them happening when they decide to strike.

The good and bad news continues. The hope was for my fiancé Scott to be able to put in the visa application by August and then he would hopefully be here before the end of the year. However, he lost his job and his savings were not enough to live off and pay for both visas. (He needs one to come marry and stay and another once we're married) The good news is that he has now found a new job! YAY! But it's back in Kansas, (he moved from there to Florida to be near his parents) so he'll need to move again and it's going to take some time before he has enough money to apply. So, it's looking like it will be 2014 before he even gets here. Still, we know it will happen when it happens and it does give us both more time to save up money for the wedding and expenses.

More good and bad news. I have been only able to play my Uke for about ten minutes every few days. The problem was that because of the side effects of my pain meds, I wasn't able to hold the Uke for longer than that, and with the extra pain now the dose is lower means I still struggle. However, I am determined to get back to playing. I have officially put my blog on "Hiatus" and will not be making videos for the foreseeable future. I need to concentrate on my uni work, my books and my upcoming wedding. This saddens me, but I am just not able to manage all of that with Uke playing and videos. I WILL keep playing, but the videos will not be happening for a long while.

I have to dash off now, but thank you all for your kindness and love and aloha spirit. I will be back again soon with another update

Love, Hugs and Ukuleles

Joey
 
Glad to hear the good news; sorry about the not-so-good news! We're always thinking of you, Joey!
 
Hi Joey,

Thanks so much for taking the time to provide an update. I can speak only for myself, but I think this thread demonstrates that we all think about you a lot and we're all pulling for things to work out well for you. Your good news is great to hear, your bad news leaves me thankful that at least that news isn't worse. I've been through the asthma wars (controlled for now -- knock on wood -- but it's left me with about 60 percent lung function) so I fully appreciate how difficult it is to have an asthma attack just show up when it does, especially when you can't determine the trigger. I'm glad to hear your fiance is bouncing back from his job loss; as you said, things that are meant to be will happen when they happen, and in spite of the delay, your plans to marry seem to be back on track. You have been a great inspiration to this community with your ukulele playing and, more generally, with your approach to the challenges you've had to face. I hope we can even partially return the favor by inspiring you as you face challenges new and old and as you work your way back to the ukulele. My thoughts are with you.
 
Joey, honey, I wish I could give you a hug. I'm glad to hear you are doing better, even though it's slow. And congratulations on your engagement--that's great! I hope things ease up a bit very, very soon.

You're an inspiration to all of us. Hang in there.... :D
 
Great hearing from you JB. Congrats on you new book!

Keep fighting the good fight. It may seem to be moving slow but it's at least moving forward.

Good uke vibes being sent your way :)
 
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