Fourteen Year Anniversary

Tuesday was our 14th anniversary.  Wow, fourteen years!  I find it hard to believe; hard to believe that it's been fourteen years and hard to believe that it's only been fourteen years.  How does this tie in to my surgery blog, you ask?  Because we had a really great day and I think that is thanks to the surgery.

We started the day with breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts (mmm donuts) which I wouldn't have been able to do before the surgery.  Then we went on an hour long bike ride on the Katy Trail which I would have been in too much pain to do before the surgery.  (On a side note, the bathroom at the Bike Stop Cafe has this in it:

I love any place that knows what the secondary use for a bathroom is and accommodates it!)

Then we went to the Diner @ Mid Rivers Mall for lunch.  I had a delicious three cheese grilled cheese sandwich (did you know cream cheese goes really well on a grilled cheese?) with pickles, tomatoes and mustard and cheese fries (not on the sandwich but it's an idea).  Again, wouldn't have been able to do that this time last year.

Then we went to Menard's to price and buy some things for some projects we've been wanting to do around the house.  If you've never been to a Menard's and you need that kind of thing, I'll suggest you go check them out. The store is huge so the selection is amazing and we've rarely run into an associate not willing to walk you through both the store and your project.  And prices are at least comparable if not better than other big box places.  And we finally got to truly utilize Spyder's carrying capacity as we came home with there bags of river rock, a coil of edging stuff, a roll of landscape cloth, a cylinder for Jamie's grill, and some other small stuff.  He was a trooper.  (Spyder, not Jamie.  He was a kid in a candy store.)  Before surgery, I wouldn't have given a crap what the house looked like; now I'm outside myself enough to see the potential in things around me.

We dropped that stuff off at the house and then headed to Matador (our new favorite Mexican place) where I had veggie fajitas.  Yes, fajitas!  Like wrapped in a tortilla and with stuff on it and I didn't use a fork and knife to eat it!  And a margarita!  At one point I looked over at James and he was looking all dorky-smiley at me: "What?"  "It's so good to see you really eating."  "Thank you!  It's good to be able to really eat!"  And when that was all done (and I ate almost all of it, except the icky peppers) I still had enough jaw power left to eat cake!

So the point of this long ramble is this:  I was able to enjoy the anniversary of my wedding with the man I love because of my care team and my family and my friends.  Thank you all for giving me back to me!

Five Month Anniversary

AKA: Better Late Than Never?

Two days ago was the five month anniversary of my surgery.  I can now say that I'm happy that I had it done.  I've been eating more and more over the last month, been out socializing and going out with James, and all around been leading a much more normal life.  My overall pain is greatly diminished and there are even times when either I don't hurt at all or it's so little I don't notice.  I never understood the impact of chronic pain but now I understand just how much it was affecting (effecting? Why can't I get that straight?!)  my life.  In the past month I have been out for a five mile hike, a picnic, and another 3 mile hike.  We're thinking about going bicycling for our anniversary next week and I've purchased a six-week belly dance lesson package.  All around, I'm feeling alive again.  (Though the arrival of Spring probably has helped that.)  And James says that I'm a much nicer person to be around (at least after my first meal, kinda iffy before then).

On the doctors front, everybody seems very happy with my progress.  Dr Movahed (surgeon) was pleased enough that he told me not to come back for three months.  (On an interesting note, I asked him why the right side of my head , like my neck scar, my ear, my upper jaw on that side, etc., was not healing as well as my left.  He said that is very common but he'd have to make up a reason because nobody knows for sure why.  He'll never fake knowledge if it's not there.  I love my surgeon!).  Shawn (PT) says that there's been a a lot of progress recently and is happy that I'm maintaining that progress so well.  We have moved back to two sessions a week from three.  Dr Keller (jaw doctor) said that he will start moving my teeth next month and they took impressions for an appliance that will allow for that movement.  Once my teeth are settled then we can start talking about the braces coming off.  Yay!

I started working with Elizabeth McChesney (a nutritionist) in early March because I had dropped in weight to 109lbs.  I got lucky and she told me: Eat all the (healthy) fat and sugar you want and don't move around too much.  Oh darn!  I was stuck at about 110lbs for several weeks and then *boom* I put on six pounds in two weeks!  Elizabeth warned me that I would do that and she was right.  While I'm happy to be putting on some weight, I know it means the end of the "eat anything you want" diet.  I'd gotten to quite liking Donettes with breakfast and desserts at both lunch and dinner.  *sigh*  All good things must come to an end.  I only weigh-in once a week, so we'll see what I'm at on Tuesday.

Overall, I'd say life is pretty good.  I hope all y'all can say the same!