2 months post-surgery update

So Monday will be the two month anniversary of my surgery. How am I doing?

I went back to work on 2/27. The first week and a half I was doing half or 3/4 days, but by the end of that second week, I was doing full days with mentally taxing projects with no problem. Well, I was extra cranky, but I made it through.

Walking is no problem at all, even in heels. Stairs don't give me pause. My ankles seem quite secure. I had three physical therapy appointments and the third was just the therapist testing me to prove that I didn't need the scheduled fourth. Doing the exercises definitely helps, but I think my body is also just recharging on its own.

Because I don't have any of these big problems, I can now notice the small problems. The ones that don't matter to the big picture. Like I can't bounce my right leg as quickly as my left. Try it. I asked at mah jongg - everyone else could bounce their legs at the same speed. But I can only do it slowly with my right leg. It's a nice, steady pace so it's not like I can't bounce at all. And the other night I was able to get it going for a few seconds, but couldn't repeat it. So I've been bouncing my leg almost nonstop to get it to remember how to do it. And maybe when that gets back to normal I'll be able to easily skip again. Again - ha! Not like I was prone to skipping again. But a girl can change!

My legs also seem to be back to having similar sensations. Oh yeah - haven't really talked about that. It's not something I notice all the time, really just when I'm in the shower or getting a pedicure (I've had three in the past two months! Totally baller) so by the time I'm somewhere where I would tell someone, I've forgotten about it. In the hospital, they would poke at my legs and ask if it felt the same on both, and it did. This is more of a tingling sensation only in my right leg. And when getting my many, many pedis, my right foot was MUCH more ticklish. But last night I got a pedicure and my feet were equally ridiculously ticklish and no extra tingles going on. So that's good.

My hair is growing back and I'm taking extra vitamins to encourage hair growth. Not 100% sure that they're helping - I've always had long hair so don't really know how fast my hair grows when it's short anyway - but they are making my fingernails grow like crazy so I imagine they're doing the same thing on my head. The scabbing is 99% gone and the hair over where the majority of the scabs were is still pretty short (and of course that's the part that's the most visible to the casual observer). So I'm still wearing a scarf every day to cover it up. But I've bought a few more scarves and borrowed even more (thanks Carey and Alison!), which helps make it not such a drudge.

Mentally, I'm back to normal. Other than the whole hair issue, I can easily forget that I even had a tumor and subsequent surgery, which is why this blog has been so empty. My mom gets frustrated because I'm not giving regular updates, but there isn't a lot to update. Life is good and back to normal and Normal Debbie didn't give regular updates on her status, you know? It was this whole flurry of activity, but now I'm back to a normal pace of life. And that is such a good thing. I have been thinking about my ex-tumor more this week than before, but that's probably because of the upcoming anniversary. I do tend to forget that I'm remembering an anniversary of something unhappy until it's on top of me or even until it's past. And then I'm like ohhhhhhhhh, THAT's why I've been so weird!

And as I stated above, I'm back to playing mah jongg. And I'm back to kicking ass at it. The first few hands of the first game, the card was a bit blurry (it's a lot of tiny numbers in blur-inducing bright colors), but then everything cleared up and I was back to being able to think through my hand and to guess what hands everyone else is playing. Love this game, love that I can do it again.

I'm also able to tackle big, complicated budgets at work. I'm all about Excel and my budgets often include multiple projects on multiple tabs, linking cells, high and low ranges. Just a lot of details. And I very successfully did one of these monsters last week. Maybe it tired me out more than normal, but if so, not by much. They're energy-sucks anyway.

The next two weeks are big ones for me. My first real concert on Monday (I saw a local band at the cafe in town a few weeks ago, but that was more of a gathering than a full-on show) and then my follow-up MRI on the 28th. I'm super excited for the MRI because I KNOW it's going to be clear and I can't wait to have the confirmation. And I'm also interested to see how my body reacts when it's not being attacked by a tumor and vicious headaches. My sister is meeting up with me so she can drive home, just in case.

And I'm also planning several trips for this summer, one of which involves flying. That'll be fun - to see if these titanium pins really won't set off the airport scanner. Supposedly they're too small to do so, but, you know, it'll be good to test it out.