Let Me Bring You Up to Date...

It's been six months since my last post, so there's probably no one checking anymore, but this is also a record for me so I'll post for myself, if no one else.

I took a trip with my family in August, taking the grandkids to Duluth and then on up the North Shore of Lake Superior. The kids had never been up there, so it was fun seeing it through their eyes. I've been there many times, but it made it all new again, watching them enjoy it. Reminded me of when I saw it for the first time at about ten years old, with my mother, brother, and his wife.

After returning home for one night, we headed down to Iowa to check out a litter of puppies. (No,not for me!) We started back the next day with a VERY cute addition to the family...a 7-week old Havanese. She did very well on the drive home, losing her lunch only once, and not whining at all. Of course, it helped that she spent the entire trip in the arms of the one kid or another.

The next time the MUTT hit the road was to head to Canada for the annual LTV Rally. The last time I went for the rally, in 2005, I was sick the entire time, spending most of my time in bed. After I got home I was diagnosed with a severe case of bronchitis, bordering on pneumonia. I was very happy to be heading up there healthy this year, determined to make up for lost time. It wasn't to be.

I woke up Saturday morning in terrific pain. My neck hurt and my right arm was almost useless and hurt so bad I was in tears. Thanks to a lot of pain medications, I made it through the day, but for the second time, I missed the Saturday evening program and talent show. (Some people said they thought that was the silver lining in my dark cloud!) The pain got steadily worse and I found the only way to relieve it at all was to keep my right arm curled over my head, with the hand over my left ear. I drove the entire 470 miles home in that position. It was definitely the trip from Hell...or to Hell...or in Hell. Whatever.

After I got home, things moved very fast. I called the doctor Monday morning and she got me in right away. She ordered an MRI for the next day, got the results back on Wednesday, and sent them to a neurosurgeon on Friday. He looked at the films and told his nurse to get me in on Monday. After seeing me, he told me to make arrangements for surgery as soon as possible. I had a pinched nerve caused by bone spurs on the vertebrae that were also causing herniation of the disk. He said in ranking of the severity of that particular injury, I was in the top two percentile. I had my pre-op physical the next day and entered the hospital on Thursday morning. I have always dreaded surgery and all that goes with it, but the pain was so bad, I actually looked forward to it.

The surgery was September 20, and I'm still recovering. The surgeon said recovery could take as long as a year; nerves heal very slowly. I'm in physical therapy now and hope I'll be able to leave for my trip south in January.