Ups and Downs

Great news - Buddy came through his surgery well. They removed his thyroid and the surrounding tissue. 90% sure all is well, but won't know for sure until final biopsy results are back. Previous biopsy was "inconclusive." He will spend tonight in the hospital and go home tomorrow.

I have been IN bed more than out the past few weeks. Last new wrinkle in my health adventures was pinching a nerve in my neck and learning I have three bulging discs in my cervical spine. The doctor recommended staying on ice packs 15 minutes every hour, so I didn't get a lot of rest, what with getting up to get the ice pack, getting up to put up the ice pack, then getting up to get the ice pack, etc. etc. The days before seeing the doctor I spent in bed trying to find a comfortable position and medicine that would ease the pain, to no avail. The best the doctor could give me was oral cortisone, which did eventually help. Meanwhile, my shoulder had a nerve that was really burning, my arm had a nerve that was really burning, and the rest of the arm was numb. Not much fun. Next step will be to find some therapy to see if that will help. The job doesn't help much, as I sit at a desk working in front of a computer a lot. Well, nobody said life would be easy. And there are a lot of folks out there a whole lot worse off than I am.

We have a house guest. One of our daughter's friends just back from deployment to Diego Garcia (it's in the Indian Ocean) needed a place to stay for a few days. Took him about 47 hours to get home and he had to come from Dallas on a bus. I salute our military for taking such good care of our troops. 47 hours traveling home and he gets to report for briefing in the morning about 8:30 a.m. Well, at least come this week-end he gets a few days to rest.

It seems a bit strange - for the first time in 17 years, we are not planning our schedule around when school starts, breaks, etc. No student living in this household. However, we will continue to follow college sports, so we'll keep up with football and basketball schedules.

Wonder what's waiting out there next?