I'm about ready for this year to be over, my uncle passed away from complications of an infection to the lining of his lungs in May, my SD was evicted from her apartment in June and hasn't let her father or I see the GB since as if it's somehow our fault that she never once paid her rent. And my dad just found out he has throat cancer.

His prognosis is good, and the tumor isn't large so they're hoping they can just go in and cut the whole thing out on Tuesday, he'll still need a bit of chemo afterwards but not nearly the extent if they can't get it out Tuesday. I'm just soooo ready for this year to be over, long and short of it... well once I get my own surgery done, but only because I'm at my max OOP for this year If not for that, I'd be ready to crawl into bed with a note over me saying "Wake me in 2018."

And yet another reason this year needs to end, through all my issues I've had one good arm... my non-dominant arm, but one goodish one all the same, until yesterday. Went to the movies and got to enjoy muscles spasms in both hands that were so bad I was tossing around popcorn and rasianettes like a heckler rather than them actually making it to the mouth, but okay I could live with that, then on the way home went to reach forward in the car when "shuck crack!" my right shoulder right along the collar bone exploded with pain. Thankfully as I found out from 3 hours up at the ER it did not break my collarbone as quickly became the fear afterwards. It did most likely tear a few ligaments however, so I've a sling to wear now and a follow-up with my primary to get some MRI's done of my neck and shoulder.

Fun fun fun. Right along with the doctor giving me a small valium to try and relax the muscles and then calling the nurse to see if they gave it to me since it did nothing at all to calm anything at all down even an hour after taking it, so that had me telling the doctor to look at my records again... Uncontrollable muscle spasms and look at the crap I already take and I'm getting ready for a surgical implant to assist with that, but 5mg of valium is pretty much a skittle to my rebellious body.

I mean it was loud enough of a crack that my DH heard it in the car with the a/c on full blast and the windows down. He actually jumped and then turned to me asking me "Okay... what body part was that?" once he realized it wasn't something on the car. Ow!

Surgery or not I'm ready to crawl into hibernation, wake me up when it's 2018 and we'll try again for another year.

So still trying to get over a bit of shell-shock I suppose it could be called... that popping sound... turns out it was more than a minor little tear of a ligament, but the sound of a major tear to the rotator cuff in my shoulder which requires surgery or I could end up with further damage to the joint as well as nerve damage throughout the arm. And of course while waiting for the surgery date, no taking my arm out of a sling, refrain from bending, no lifting, move it as little as possible yada yada... and right after getting that news we had to rush my dad up to the ER since he was exhibiting signs of a massive stroke...

Turned out not to be a stroke, but a mature cataract that was leaking protein into his blind eye (he had cataract surgery on his good eye years ago) and raised the pressure of the eye so much so that the ER doctor thought the little pressure checker was miscalibrated, after spending that long trying to even figure out what was going on since all signs pointed to stroke except the labs and scans. He ended up quite lucky he didn't lose his eye in the end and is slowly recovering from it but now with the cancer treatments potentially starting soon, his doctors will need to decide which comes first, cataract surgery on a blind eye to prevent it from happening again as it will without the surgery or cancer treatment first and hope they can put off the eye surgery with medications until he's recovered enough.

And all the while my poor mom is bouncing between the two of us trying to take care of us. Oh and my DH also decided to join the party by getting himself zapped by 440 volts and has had chest pains since so he needs to see a cardiologist sometime next week... bad year

And last night we found out my father-in-law has cancer in one of his kidneys and they're removing it next Tuesday. he has copd and the surgery to do the biopsy almost took him out, what should have been an outpatient procedure turned into 3 days in the hospital and he still hasn't really recovered from it.

This has been a horrible year. Wake me up in 2018... just give a few weeks after the new year to see if it's shaping up to be a better year if not just walk away that's it, I really can't handle anymore bad news... like learning today that my aunt's broken arm hasn't healed right either so she might also need surgery...just can't handle anymore bad news, I'm DONE

And now snakes!!! Ya know what just leave me to hibernate through 2018 as well... I'm just ... just no, man just no...

Starz.... I'm sure you are anxiously looking forward to more positive things in 2018. Unfortunately for you, 2018 is 4 months away.

Hope and pray all goes well with your surgery.

Gerry

I do appreciate your prayers may god hear one of us because the DH just got off the phone with his sister and his dad has a nodule on his lung that may also be anything from more cancer to an infection of some sort, but they've no choice but to take his kidney now, so morbid though it sounds, if he survives that then they'll deal with the lung afterwards even though the mass could contribute to him not surviving his surgery. Maybe I should crawl into an icebox and get thawed out in 2020 but my mother at least is saving her own self some craziness by simply taking a leave of absence from work once she finishes up this week.

I'm super shocked that I haven't had another relapse with all of this going on not even a pseudo relapse but then I don't think my brain has had time to catch up with it all the worst of things has only been going on for a couple of weeks just daily dreading answering the phone or even crawling out of bed wondering what's going to happen today and how many of those "other" shoes can positively drop in a single day. Oh and my brother's getting divorced barely a week after he was under the impression things were going great in his relationship and they had gotten back on track.... 2020 might be too optimistic lol

Maybe with all that's going on your thoughts have been elsewhere and are too busy for a relapse....thank God for that......


Gerry

Omgoodness, Starz!!! You certainly have a lot going on right now. I said some prayers for you and your family. You have gotten hit by so much this year. I too hope that 2018 is a much better year.

Please remember to take some time for some self care. It really helps to when we take a little bit of time for ourselves, even if it's only 10 minutes.

Woohoo... looks like Irma at least won't be yet another smack in the face to us... fingers crossed that Jose as well will avoid coming this way. Sending out prayers to all in their paths,though I feel a little bad keeping a few to myself... MRI gave decided confirmation on what the doctor already knew, the rotator cuff is torn and quite the tear(s) and its causing inflammation to the muscle fibers as well (no wonder why my right arm has been hurting non-stop) so surgery will need to be done, regardless of the spasms, not doing so will only lead to continued pain and further inability to use the arm. And since it's also leading to pinching of several nerves and decreased blood flow.. it's one of of those pain aside, needs corrective surgery or I could lose my arm.

But with 2 hurricanes coming in from the Atlantic who knows when such a surgery will take place... so... fun right ....

And just another small update, my father in law made it through his surgery and is doing better than the doctors had expected though far less well than those without COPD and diabetes. So he's still in ICU, but the doctors are highly optimistic that he shoupdated be well enough soon for them to biopsy his lung next to see what's going on with the lesion they found there. My father also made it through his cataract surgery well, and next week we'll be down in Gainesville overnight (barring Jose messing things up) for another scan of his throat, determination of radiation, chemo, or both, and follow-up on his eye. Then the following week I get to go see the neuro-surgeon who will be putting in my baclofen pump, and as I said Irma has kind of messed up any surgical follow-up for my shoulder so dunno on that one.

But hey I got to see my GB for 3 whole days, and spoiled her rotten the whole time lol. She's with her daddy a lot more and while I don't personally care for him, he does right by my GB so all personal feelings get left at the side of the road when it comes to her and he has about the same feelings about dealing with me as well so we can get along perfectly when it comes to the GB, anything else and all bets are off lol.