its been a minute again... in Everyday Things

I hope everyone here in pb-land has been having a great holiday season! I personally cannot wait for 2021 to be fucking done, and in the bin. I am also not trying to jinx 2022 in anyways.. but I do ask the gods that its better than this past year and year before has been.

ummm I cannot remember what I last wrote here.. lemme pause while I check this so I can fill in the missed time....

ok wow… its been a wild ride since my last entry. sooooooo: I turned 40 at the end of October… I had been dreading it quite a bit, and due to covid I did not really end up going all out on a big bash- my family did, however, take the time to decorate the house and have a mini 4 day celebration with me which was adorable and greatly appreciated. an old friend from high school dropped by also, which was nice as I hadn’t seen her in ages, and brought me a birthday crown because as she said I’m a bit of a princess haha. I also got to spend time with my best friend from grade/highschool and just be a normal human being for an evening which was fantastic.

all through that though, my mom had been slowly losing the feeling in her body/appendages… she had even gotten to the point that she could barely walk just a few days after my birthday- it was wild. nothing showed on the ct scan or in the X-rays… and the family doctor had put in a referral for her to see a neurologist and get an MRI- the issue with this was it was a 2+ year wait to get in to see the guy. covid really got all the things backed up I tells ya..anyways… fam doc suggested mom hit up the ER to see if she may be able to get an MRI sooner also because he had exhausted everything he could do and her mobility and quality of life was really taking a nose dive. the Sunday after my birthday, down she went to the ER and sat there for 8+ hours (not complaining tbh… the ER is wild and a little over 8 hours isn’t bad for the dgh) and she lucked out because the doctor on duty that day that saw her was immediately full stop like: this situation is not something that I can just throw pills at and send her home.. this is very alarming. He ended up calling the on call neurologist and explaining the situation and what was happening and the neurologist was like: she does not leave, throw a tag on her and admit her. The funny part about it was, the on call neurologist was the exact guy that she had a 2 year wait to see- the luck was on her side that day. to make the long story short… she was in for about 3 weeks before the neurologist could get the MRI completed- turns out the whole time that she had a broken neck and the c2 disc had slipped off of c3 and was strangling her nervous system from her brain stem down. needless to say she was quickly scheduled for surgery with one of the best neurosurgeons here in the city to get some big repairs done to improve her quality of life moving forward. it was for sure the longest month and a half- running double time back and forth between work and the two different hospitals, and she came thru the surgery well; but she has a very long road of recovery. the rods they put in to stabilize her neck and stuff after the repairs they did to disc c2 thru c7 and then in her upper back as well are quite an adjustment- and she has some small improvements since the surgery and coming home which is good. the rest is just a wait and see with time, and physiotherapy etc… could be 10 months to a year or more to get the full scale results. she was home though, as she wanted, before Christmas- which we all have managed to survive lol… so far..

I’ve been off work since 5pm Christmas Eve… I am back to work tomorrow for two days and then off the weekend as our team is closed. I do wish I had been able to save more vacation time though so that I would’ve been able to take the whole week off, but I will be satisfied with what I had.. I am thankful (even if work has me beyond stressed and extra depressed) that I still have employment in the times we are living in, and that my employer offers benefits and paid vacation etc- it is not lost on me that there are folks who do not have these things and that I am lucky.

a couple song suggestions before I go- they’re by the same artist… her voice is phenomenal:

Faouzia: Tears of Gold, Bad Dreams, & Minefields.

I am off to get mom settled for the night to help dad out.

xo
kitten