Back to normal?

Today I tried some new things, and some old things.

Trying to figure out a feeding schedule and soothe the savage beast in my stomach, I've been playing around with foods, timing, pumping rates, etc.  I've thrown in probiotics, liquid Vitamin D, kefir, pomegranate juice, Orgain, and fiber in an attempt to appease my stomach.  The nice thing about the stinky formula is it packs a lot of calories in little volume.  To get the same amount of calories in blended foods, the volume has to increase quite a bit.  Also, most won't work with the pump, so I'll have to syringe them in rather than pumping, which means more volume over less time.  Little steps I think are the key here.

My neck is healing pretty well, considering the fact that it was previously radiated.  Actually in many ways it looks much better than it did after the original surgery five years ago.  There hasn't been the bruising and the incision line already looks much better.  It remains to be seen how the scar tissue sets up underneath.  A lot of PT/MT in my future.

I drove for the first time today.  I do not have a wide range of motion in my neck yet, but I can turn my head. One of the benefits of driving the same car for 14 years is you get very comfortable with it, including the blind spots.  An uneventful trip to ballet and back.  The girls got to try on their costumes today and they were over the moon.  If anyone is interested, the show is November 23 at 7 pm and tickets are online at balletfantastique.org.

Tomorrow is yet another sojourn to Portland.  The speech part is only 15 minutes and I don't imagine the doctor is going to spend much more than that with me.  It is hard for me to reconcile four hours round trip in the car to spend minutes at the doctor's office.  Sigh.

Anji's greeting cards from her scarcasim line are cracking me up!  She is such and amazingly talented artist and brainiac.  I love her even if she doesn't cut me any slack in Scrabble even when I'm in the hospital.  Hag.
A sweet note from Kelly's Aunt Sylvia today, too.  It has been hard for her and me as we usually spent Yenta time on the phone at least once a week.  I'm going to have to figure out how to make text to talk work with the phone.

Sleep continues to be a struggle.  I swear I am like a newborn, with my high maintenance eating schedule and sleeping in little fits and spurts. Two days in a row of getting up and dressed and leaving the house seem almost decadent, though.  Babies don't get to drive.

Lots of news today about other people-- their exciting news, their challenges, their griefs, their successes. Life just keeps on going no matter what is happening in our own little world.

Send a good thought (or better yet, a donation if you can) to the people of the Philippines.  I can't even begin to imagine.