Made It to A New Year:)

Goodness gracious where does the time go? I have been sooooooo busy over the past few weeks. I have neglected my writing completely. There have been no blog entries and editing my book has been halted at chapter seven for 2 weeks, and more importantly I have not even  posted updates to my friends. Between surgeries (shoulder for myself and nasal for my husband), Holidays and welcomed holiday visitors, and physical therapy sessions there just has not been enough hours in the day lately. But, The New Year has begun, and this is the first official Monday of 2011 and I say lets start it off right. Here's to 2011 being the year that all of your hopes, dreams and wishes come true.

For me what really bites the most, and I hope is going to change soon are my sleep patterns. For the past 3-4 weeks now I have not been able to sleep at night. I cannot even remember my last good nights sleep. It doesn't matter if I try to lay down at 8 p.m. or 3 a.m. It is toss and turn all night long. Snatching bits and pieces of sleep here and there, waking up every time I do fall asleep at all. The clock ticks away in 1 1/2 to 2 hour increments, all night long. Every night. Quite frustrating, and it is really beginning to wear me down. Just ask Kevin, he'll tell you how crabby I have been:)

Hopefully it has just  been the excitement of the season, and this phase will pass now that all of the decorations are put away, the tree has been tossed out, and I can try to slide back in to my daily routine ( a routine I have been trying to establish), with less interruptions and distractions. I know I will still have the physical therapy and doctors appointments to work in, but I need some kind of routine, I need to find my normal.

The shoulder surgery really took a lot more out of me than I was expecting to be honest. At this point I am still thinking I wish I never did it, but we'll see if this opinion changes in the near future. I had no idea this was going to be so painful, and therapy is an absolutely excruciating, tear jerking misery for a few of the many exercises. For those who I have failed to fill in the doctor shaved down the bone for my shoulder socket where there were some large calcium deposit like bone spur things, and then he spent almost two hours cutting back a large segment of tendon. He said it took 4 attempts before he was satisfied it had the best chance to reattach. He also mentioned the tendon itself was oddly discolored. I am his first post radiation cancer patient, and the surgical area was part of the targetted region during treatment, because the radiation was also directed at certain lymph nodes, distant from my throat. It is possibly the radiation treatments  are what is slowing the shoulder surgery recovery. I also had quite a lot of trouble with my neck from the nerve block they used, and unfortunately will probably be returning to physical therapy for my neck, as it has gotten quite bad again. My one year anniversary for completing all chemo and radiation treatments will be January 21st, so I guess I would recommend to anyone considering surgery in a location that was within the field of radiation treatments to wait as long as possible, because it does seem to slow recovery time somewhat.

Other than that though, I am really doing quite good. As I have mentioned before I can taste a lot of different foods now, and being able to taste and smell works wonders for the appetite:) I am still not crazy about anything with a lot of sugar, but that's OK. And on a good note all of the preparation and cleaning for company during the holiday season has allowed me to begin the fresh new year with a nice clean house. Believe me, I had a lot of catching up to do after the past year and a half of cancer treatment and recovery. I am still not "caught up", but, I am satisfied with how far I got. We are also FINALLY in the process of putting down the new tile floor in what will be the old living room, which is going to become the new dining room, and the computer room is going to become the living room, and one of the empty bedrooms (Tennille's old room) will become my private computer room. With a door I can close. LOL. Gee I guess we are still pretty busy:)

I will try to respond promptly to any posts, lol, I do get on and check my email (Usually) at least once a day, and will of course as always happily reply to any newly diagnosed cancer patients with questions,  friends old and new, and family.
Again
HAPPY NEW YEAR