I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes

Happy 2018!

... See, this is why I never post, because all I wanted to do was make some quick notes about the fun things from the past month-plus. And by the time I get it all out, it's taken like 3 hours (cobbled together in 10-minute chunks).

Nevertheless... ( December 2017 highlights )

I've managed to incur several minor injuries lately. Nothing really gory in the details, but I'm putting them behind a cut (SO TO SPEAK) anyway, ( to spare the squeamish )

On the one hand (SO TO SPEAK), enough already. On the other hand, I have to feel like maybe this sequence is serving as some kind of proxy, drawing off the evil eye in tiny doses to forestall some far worse calamity that might have come down in an alternate timeline. Which makes me able to almost feel grateful about it. No permanent damage done, and so far everyone else is safe.

Ironically, Aria is in the stage of being super interested in boo-boos and Band-Aids (the ultimate toddler delight, being the intersection of boo-boos and stickers), to the extent of producing different phantom boo-boos every day. ("I got a boooooo-boo on my kneeeee! I need a Baaaand-Aid! A circle Band-Aid! No, a rectangle Band-Aid, Mama!"... even though when she gets real scrapes or bruises, she barely seems to register them.) So she's kind of fascinated when she sees one of us sustain an actual minor injury. But let me tell you, there is nothing sweeter than when your 2-year-old sees your Band-Aid and immediately insists on kissing it to make your boo-boo better. It almost helps.

My mom had back surgery on Wednesday for spondylolisthesis (basically, a slipped lumbar vertebra). When I heard from my stepfather Wednesday night, she was just out of surgery, recovering well, and due to be discharged (hopefully to the local rehab center) today or tomorrow. So that's all good so far. They think she might be off work for 6 weeks or so.

Also, since the 17th, my uncle Jim (my mother's brother-in-law) has been in Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto -- I am hazy on the initial progression of symptoms (but he's been dealing for over a year with low hemoglobin and significant fluid retention). My aunt has been sending regular updates by group email and on Facebook. He had an endoscopy trying to find and fix some hypothesized GI bleed; they were supposed to do a capsule endoscopy, but then they postponed that because his stomach had "a lot of blood oozing from under the skin". They can't figure out where it's coming from. He's supposed to be discharged today but go back "in a week or two" for another outpatient procedure to "measure pressure in the liver" (not sure if this means they suspect cirrhosis or what). One good thing is that my brother (who lives in Sunnyvale) has been able to come by and visit almost every day while they were going through all this.

Rough week for the California branch of the family!

So I had what is generically called a gingival graft, where they remove tissue from the roof of your mouth to graft it onto a receding gumline.

( Nothing terribly squicky behind the cut, but you never know, so feel free to skip )

Most annoying side effect: Somewhere in the last quarter or so of the process, my nose started to tingle like I was going to have to sneeze, and though I didn't, my nose has now been draining continuously since the minute I got up from the chair (and it's now been 12 hours and counting). I can only assume this is due to inflammation from the palate somehow impinging on my (often temperamental) sinuses, because I swear I didn't have any hint of rhinitis symptoms when I walked in there, and it's only on the left side (like both the surgical sites). Bleah. I really hope that clears up with the swelling in a day or two.

10 goals from 2012 ( cf. original list: LJ | DW )
( A mixed bag, but overall, progress was made. )

10+ additional achievements of 2012:
( It was actually a good and stabilizing year for me, despite the ongoing crises in the world at large. )

11. ... And, oh yeah, turned 40 and had an awesome celebration to mark it.

10 goals for 2013:
( Some that build on last year's, and some new ones. )

Wishing all of us a year of physical health, emotional growth, and spiritual abundance.