Waving hello to everyone, and a huge thank you all for your good wishes and support. I’m recovering well. It’s been about 2 1/2 weeks, and I’m off pain pills in the day, I just take Tylenol if, and when, needed. Nights are a little tougher, but I do pretty well. I saw my surgeon last week, we did some x-rays, and everything looks good so far. I have a plate and six screws in my cervical spine Once I saw the images, I had a little more patience with myself, and a better grasp of why it takes six weeks to three months at the very least to heal. I’m already having fewer headaches, which is great. I still have tinnitus and think I always will, and I’ll cope with that. Millions of people do. As for the nerve pain, it seems a little better, but I won’t really know about that for weeks yet since I’m not at my regulator activity level. And it can take a long time for nerves to improve.

Wizard has been a rock star through this. He’s doing everything, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, walking Maggie every day and all the usual work he does around the house like cutting yards, etc.  After the first week, I’ve been doing a little more each day, trying to make it a bit easier on him. This weekend I was even able to cook breakfast with just a little help. Wizard never complains though. He’s a little tired, but who can blame him!

We had a little scare this week with Maggie, but she’s fine now. Tuesday morning, she jumped off a side hill and went suddenly lame in her right rear leg. We thought she’d been stung by a bee, but I couldn’t find the stinger, and she couldn’t stand or walk on the leg. Luckily, Maggie has a great vet, Dr. Tran, whom Youngest Son’s fiance works with as a Vet Assistant. They got us in, and after examining Maggie, the vet was pretty sure it was a bite or sting of some kind too. But obviously Maggie was having a pretty dramatic reaction and swelling. She gave her a steroid injection, and because I wasn’t feeling well, they kept her for a few hours to watch her. After about an hour, Maggie was finally able to walk on her leg again. We were so fortunate! Finance then brought her home for us after work, along with a small amount of meds. She was such a huge help! I really don’t know what I would have done without our soon-to-be-daughter-in-law and Dr. Tran. We really appreciate them both so much. Maggie has been fine since then.

As for writing, I’m still officially off per my doctor, but I’ve printed out my book to read though as I feel up to it. No pressure, but it gives me something else to focus on and think about when I’m feeling restless.  I’ve been reading a little, but a lot of time I’m just watching TV and counting my brain cells as they die off, LOL!

In other news, two of my sons and their wives are going through a tough time with sick family members or animals. We love them all so much, and wish we could fix things, but sometimes, all we can do is support them. Life isn’t always easy or fair, is it? But as we go into a week where we celebrate being thankful here in the U.S., I am thankful for sons who are trying their best to help those they love.

And I am thankful for all of YOU who’ve been supportive of me as I’ve battled this physical problem with my neck.

Now that I’ve rambled on, tell me how things are going for you! How was your weekend? Anything new going on?

I still won’t be posting regularly for a couple more weeks, but I’ll keep checking in.

Hi, I’m checking in. I’m writing this five days after the surgery, and I’m doing pretty well.

The surgery took over four hours. It had been projected to take two-and-a-half to three hours, so it definitely went long. There were a LOT of bone spurs pressing into my nerves. I believe the doctor told me there was one or more near my spine too, but I’m not totally sure. I was in recovery and some of that is a little blurring in my memory.

I came through the surgery fine, woke up able to talk, proving there was no damage to my voice. In an aside, I was so hot in recovery, the nurse had ice packs all around me. I really do have some weird reactions! It wasn’t a fever, I was just so hot, anyone near me could feel the heat radiating off me. Anyway, I stayed one night in the hospital, and the next day got up and walked with my physical therapist. The therapist was surprised, but honestly, I just wanted to go home and was willing to do whatever it took to get me there. My doctor released me and Wizard got me home by late afternoon.

I battled several days of nausea, which is just how I react to anesthesia. Now I’m over it and my appetite is improving. I’m on the absolute lowest dose of pain meds as I’d rather have pain than nausea. Otherwise, my throat is very sore, but getting better each day. My incision is bigger than we thought it would be, and it looks like someone cut my throat.

I know—gross.

But the incision is healing, and the scar will be what it will be.

We won’t know how the surgery works as far as my existing pain for a while. But I’m very confident that we stopped the progression. With that many bone spurs, it was just a matter of time before something really bad happened.

Another side effect of the surgery is that I have bruises all over my arms, my shoulder and my scalp. That’s from the nerve specialist—he had probes in my nerves to make sure the doctor didn’t hit something he shouldn’t. Apparently, he sent currents of electricity through those to test the nerves, and that would cause me to jerk on the table. That caused the places where the needles were placed to bruise, and I bruise easily. All that will heal so no big deal. I remember nothing about any of the surgery. The last thing I recall is being wheeled into the O.R. room, and the next thing I remember is being woken up in recovery.

Otherwise, I’m up and around, though I tire easily. Wizard and the boys are taking great care of me. I’m listening to Wizard because I only want to do this once. I’m resting all the freaking time. Reading a lot or watching TV. Oh and the doctor gave me a soft collar I can sleep in, or eat in, then I wear the big hard collar the rest of the time. After a few days, I’m used to it, and I know it’s there to protect my neck so that helps too. But when I wear the hard collar, you can see the incision and I want to spare you that, so no pictures.

So that’s how I’m doing, now I’d love to hear how all of you are doing. I may not respond, but I will absolutely read each and every comment. I’m not going to be posting regularly for a while yet, but will check in once a week or so.