May 14 - Okay, so is it normal, after having a major health scare, to be suspicious of every little thing that goes on with your body? I'm starting to feel like a hypochondriac! This week my right ear has been aching pretty continuously. It's been bothering me enough that I've been taking Advil for it every day for the past four days. And one of the questions that Dr. C (or one of his PA's depending on who I see) specifically asks me at every appointment is, do your ears hurt? Meanwhile, denial girl over here is thinking that maybe it's just allergies. Not that I've ever had my ear ache due to allergies before but it sounds plausible so that's the story I'm sticking to.

I also have a bump inside my left ear that really hurts. I was freaking out the other night thinking that it was the shingles coming back again. Like that didn't suck enough the first time. But it's been a few days and the bump hasn't spread so I think it's just a zit. <sigh> Just start calling me Chicken Little.

I would like to preface this next bit of diatribe by stating that I have come a long way since last summer, that things are continuing to improve every day, and that it's still a good day to be alive, each and every day. With that said, I'm going to grump a bit just to get it off my chest......

So many things have changed. I'm cold. Constantly. Every day at work I have a space heater set to 80 degrees blasting at me from two feet away. Even when it's sunny and mid-70's outside. Sometimes it's still not enough. I travel everywhere with extra coats/sweaters, just in case. I often have thermals or turtlenecks on under my clothes, and heavy wool socks on my feet, even if the temps are in the 50's and 60's. And for anyone reading this who does not live in upstate NY, 50's and 60's is pretty warm. ;-P

Eating is work, not a pleasure. Poor Scott often has to sit for another 10-15 minutes in restaurants, after he's done eating, because I haven't finished yet. And I often simply stop eating, not because I'm full but because I'm tired. I still can't taste a lot of foods, so there's not a lot of pleasure in consumption. Plus I usually need at least 2, sometimes 3, very large glasses of either milk or water just to get food down which means I'm then visiting the little girl's room every hour for the next 6 hours. And I never realized how much you use your tongue to push food around in your mouth until my tongue stopped being at its optimum flexibility. I told Scott that it's kind of a relief to eat at home and alone sometimes because then I can simply stick my finger in my mouth and push my food over to whatever side I need it to be on to chew it. When I'm in polite company, it takes forever for me to work the food to the side of my mouth with my tongue.

Okay, enough grumping.

My 5k this past Saturday was fine. I ran it without a problem. I was also up and out the door this morning to run 3 miles just for the hell of it. I still need to add some kind of weight training into my routine to prep for the Dirty Girl Obstacle Course in September. I don't want to let down JBB when she expects me to haul her ass up walls and over nets and stuff!!

Improvements:
- Thrush is at bay for the time being.
- Spit production probably around 50% at this point.
- Bullfrog effect still happening.
- Garbled talking.
- Partial taste buds - Sweet is around 15% right now.


Fun stuff!

Dolling up this past Saturday night for dinner and a show was the best! We ate at an Italian restaurant that neither of us had ever been to. Afterwards, Scott took me shopping because I didn't have a dressy coat to wear over my dress and as stated above, I was freezing as usual. He bought me a sexy, little black, spring jacket, that I love! Then we went and saw A Midsummer Night's Dream at GEVA. It turns out my friend Karen's sister is the Operations Director there so Karen put in a good work for us (she so rocks!) and her sister checked the tickets that I had bought and decided my seats weren't all that great so she upgraded us to the middle balcony section. Our seats were fabulous! (She so rocks too!) It was a good, good night. :-)


Scott's sauce on Mother's Day was most excellent! I was a bit bummed though that he didn't wear an apron for all of that cooking. Definitely would have enhanced the whole experience for me. ;-) Meanwhile his mother in law was very cute. A funny lady! 100% Polish and proud of it. His son Jack, and Jack's girlfriend Ali joined us as well but they were really quiet, ate quickly, and disappeared again. It's kind of like living in a haunted house with a couple of ghosts hanging out upstairs. Just don't say Beetlejuice 3 times.

That night when Scott went to take me back home, one of his dogs was at the end of the driveway, on the wrong side of the invisible fence! A chase ensued but Peanut was eventually captured and brought back home. Turns out the battery in her collar had died. Then Scott took me home and we pulled into my driveway and my dog, Jack, was sitting on the front step, and Freedom was over near the garbage can eating the bowl of cat food. What the hell?? I had left them in the garage/backyard for the day because I knew I was going to be gone for 12+ hours. So, I bolted from the car, opened the front door and shooed them inside. I then went to see if one of the gates had blown open or something. Nope, turns out one of them (Jack!) had chewed his way through the wooden gate so that they could come looking for me and demand to be let back inside. Wussy dogs. They hate being outside. I would explain to them how dangerous that stunt was seeing as how the the neighbor's dog was shot by the Rochester police just a month or so ago but I'm afraid they just wouldn't listen. <sigh>

This Friday Scott and I are doing a couple's dinner with the Kunkel's. I'm way excited! I never get to do stuff with her outside of work. We're going to have a blast! We're headed to the Melting Pot because Kunkel has never been there and it's a really interesting eating experience.

Sunday, Sam and the kids are making their annual pilgrimage to attend the Lilac Festival with me. I'm thinking about heading there for a few hours by myself on Saturday to do my browsing sans kids. That way on Sunday, Sammy can peruse all she wants and I can focus on keeping the crazy, little, injuns rounded up and somewhat under control! Can't wait to see them. :-)

Then on Monday, Scott and I are off to Baltimore for 3 days to catch a Yankee's game! How fun is that?! The Ohio trip was one night, this trip is two nights. We're slowly building things up because this week we're going to book an 8 day cruise together for my birthday in October. The one I've picked is out of San Juan, cruising to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Curacao, and Aruba. No Carnival for this one though. We're going to try Royal Caribbean which neither of us has ever been on, AND we're going to spring for a balcony room. I can't wait to start the countdown for this trip!!!!!!!!