September 25

The lunch today was a success! I had 15 of my coworkers at Chez Quinny chowing down on jambalaya and cornbread. What fun! And it was so good to see everyone. Man, you work at a place for 15 years, and you kind of get attached to your coworkers over the years......

Everyone was telling me that if there's anything they can do, just let them know. But my buddy G specifically said "Quinny, you have a hell of a lot of muscle hanging out in your house right now, is there anything heavy you need lifted while we're here?". I love that guy. His specificity made me realize that I still hadn't uninstalled my air conditioners in the bedrooms. In a blink of an eye, he had them yanked and put on the shelves in the basement for winter storage. G rocks!

Brian brought me some more puzzles for my entertainment. There's a Star WARS puzzle (ha!) and there are two Simpsons puzzles. The Simpson puzzles are one big picture but if you look closely, the big picture is made up of hundreds of smaller pictures. OMG. I think baby doll and I might lose our minds trying to put one of these together. I'm both excited and scared to take one on.

Today was the first full day that I did not have to put a bandage on the 'road rash'. Baby doll noticed last night that I didn't have it bandaged and he said it's looking MUCH better than the last time he saw it. I was also talking to him about getting the low profile PEG put in. As I was talking I was looking down at my current feeding tube and he commented that I'm also bending my neck down a lot farther than I used to. And then, for the trifecta of improvements, last night for the first time since all this surgery nonsense, I laid on my side in bed, instead of on my back, so that I could snuggle with baby doll! Woo hoo! That's a huge milestone!

I forgot to mention that Stephanie from VNS was over to see me yesterday. The only complaint I had was that my ankles are still really swollen. They went down a little bit when they had loosened the road rash bandage in the hospital, but they haven't returned to normal. Stephanie said the only thing she could think of that might be causing it is that I'm not getting enough salt. She told me to add 1/4 teaspoon of salt to my power cocktail every morning to see if that helps. This morning was the first morning I did it. No clue how long it takes to kick in but no noticeable difference yet. Stephanie also said that she's going to come see me one last time next Friday after my check in with Dr. Miller and my PEG sizing appointment. Then she said she's probably going to close my case because I'm doing just fine. I was so relieved to hear that! Some VNS called on Saturday afternoon wanting to come over and I asked baby doll to let her know I didn't need a visit. I was kind of wondering how to nicely break up with these people. When Stephanie texted me yesterday saying she wanted to stop by, I couldn't say no to her because I simply like her so much! So I'm glad they're taking matters into their own hands. I suck at breakups.

I have a new gross out to share with you. For the first time (there've been a lot of those lately!) I wore my hair down yesterday instead of the usual top knot. I also put real clothes on yesterday; jeans and a pullover sweater. I was trying to act like a real human being for my grocery shopping trip with Kit. Anyway, a nap attack found me while I was laying on the chaise in the afternoon and then I suddenly woke up because my breathing felt weird. I went to the bathroom to see what the issue was and I somehow managed to suck a wad of my hair into my breathing tube at which point it got glued in there from the gunk that I constantly leak. Um...ewwwww! I had to yank it out, and then I had to cut off a hunk of my hair. It was like having a wad of bubble gum stuck in it, for crying out loud!! I'm one step closer to getting a buzz cut like my baby doll has.

One of the symptoms of an under-active thyroid that the doc had mentioned was dry skin. I've noticed over the past few days now that my fingertips keep cracking and bleeding. It effin' hurts! So I hopped on Amazon, yes, Amazon is the second greatest love of my life, and ordered a Burt's Bees hand repair kit. It will be here on Friday. We'll see if it helps.

My MediAlert bracelet arrived in the mail. I am now officially tagged much like a lot of the wildlife in protected areas. ;-P

I've been having a lot of meltdowns over the past week. Poor baby doll has been bearing the brunt of them. I finally figured out last night that I think it's my whole lack of a social life that's dragging me down. I've become way too dependent on my sweetie to provide me with attention and he has his own life to live so it's really not fair of me. Meanwhile, it's so damn intimidating just thinking about going out in public and not being able to talk. So, baby steps. My sweetie invited me to his coworker's house this Sunday to watch the finale of Breaking Bad. I've never seen the show so I politely declined. But then I started thinking that this might be a good stepping stone to get over being intimidated. His coworkers know about my health sitch but I don't know them well enough to be comfortable with them about it. So, it makes for a good test. If that goes well, then there's a Rochester Meetup that I joined way back in January that I was doing social things with for a number of months. I might try another outing with them to see how being speechless goes. I've also started researching both sewing classes and the ASL classes. And tomorrow I'm going to start a daily walking regime. It's time to take the bull by the horns and see what kind of life I have to lead over here!!

And with that, it's time for pain meds and bed. The only thing on my agenda tomorrow is baby doll coming over for dinner. I'm making him an aztec salsa appetizer and honey-lime enchiladas for his main course. Hopefully they come out okay!!