First off My friend Karen has entered a blogging contest to be a blogger in a Canadian Running Magazine called iRun. She will blog for a couple of months as will 10 other people. He who has the most Unique IP's accessing their blog will win a spot in the magazine...Please read her blog and pass the link to her blog on to as many friends as you can! We need lots of clicks. And please if you like her blog? Keep reading it :) It would mean a lot to me. Thanks! here it is

Second - There is a man named Erik Kondo who is trying to make the world a safer place for people by teaching FREE ( I know shocking isn't it! ) self defense classes. What impresses me even MORE is that he has amazing videos teaching people in wheelchairs how to defend themslves too! Erik is not Canadian unfortunately but that does not stop him from sharing his knowledge with those of us across the border! Erik has sent me these 3 booklets which I am sharing with you (with his permission ) you can see them here! He also has a website which you can see here. Please give them a quick download and peruse them, better to know the moves than not know them and need them! Erik also has a bunch of videos all over Youtube for those of you who are in a wheelchair and needing sitting down specific moves, give him a search! He teaches many things to those of us in chairs. Erik also has told me he is putting a book together, I wish him all the best! He is looking for chair people to contribute to his book, stories of when they felt they were in danger and could have used some self defense. If you have a story such as this perhaps drop him an email. Erik is a very friendly and caring guy.

March was a bit of a rough month for me. My INR's were all over the map. Dangerously thin to insanely low :( I am fighting to get it back into a therapeutic range. I also had a lot of issues getting my new wheelchair. The vendor ( Jeff ) that was supposed to be bringing my trial chair to me kept putting me off and such. I have asked home health care to find me a different vendor, her take on it was to see who could get me the chair first. I worry that if Jeff somehow does finally get a chair to me before another vendor that if I don't like the trial chair and need to swap it out it will take another 3 months of him shoving me off and making me wait. Very frustrating to say the least. I am not too pleased with his service.

On the UPSIDE of March, I did lose 13 pounds which is fantastic! Finally all the weight I put on being immobile is starting to come off, great! I am tired of being a fattie! It is frustrating having lost all the weight and kept it off for so many years. Becoming a runner. Being in great shape! to going back to being this way. I hope to have it all off by fall :) I am slowly becoming more mobile ( with my chair ) and hope to regain some independence as my upper body gets stronger. I have accepted that this is for life and am learning to work with what I have! I am even thinking of going to the Canada Day celebrations this year! I was going to skip it but the thought made me sad as it has become kind of an annual thing for me and mom ever since I ran my Canada day race years ago. So - I am going to try my damndest to go to it this year, chair or not! It just might be hard dealing with all the hills and shit down there but with mom's help I am sure we can figure it out :D

I have been reading a forum in lurk mode ( I did not sign up because it meant for those with spinal cord injuries - which I do not have. Even though I am in a chair for life I feel as though I would be invading their sanctuary ) ... I have learned so many great things from their site that I have been struggling with for 8 months. Plus being able to read posts from people going through similar struggles as I am was really comforting. I am thankful to them for not having their forums locked down to members only because there sure are not many places out there to learn these things or to feel like I am not alone in this! In fact I could find only 1 or 2 other forums ( both for spinal cord injuries) and they were not nearly as good. Though it is frustrating to not fit in and yet have most of the same issues that they are going through. I wish I had a place like that to talk about all that I am going through for now however I will be content being able to READ if not post.

This spring / summer JustJayde.com will be getting a face lift! Some of the old content will be removed and some new content will be added. I am currently taking suggestions on what you love and hate and what you WOULD love to see or not see on my website. Please shoot me an email if you have some feed back, would love to hear it! Keep an eye out for the facelift this summer! :D

Sorry this update is a tiny one, I have been pretty busy!

Don't forget , please give blood you can save so many lives and it doesn't hurt or take much time. You can find a blood bank near you through the links below.

Canada

America

Sweden

UK

Australia

xoxoxooxxoxox
Jayde