Only one more week until surgery…I am ready. Ready because even after the surgery is completed we still have to wait for results. Ready because not being able to swallow or breathe right has been emotionally and physically draining. Ready because I am tired of seeing the effects of this thing taking over my body. And ready because I am annoyed at being ever aware of my neck whether it is aching, or sore, or in my way when I try to turn my head, or it feels like it is cutting off circulation…there is always something going on that never lets me forget it is RIGHT HERE!

Above is a picture of me around December of last year and one I took last night. All that, what looks like swelling, is masses inside my neck. The front (neck area) is growth from just last week.

For the most part I’m o.k. other than being really tired (which has become the norm) and the above mentioned difficulty swallowing. I spent most of Easter dinner in the bathroom because I just couldn’t eat. I have found myself hungry more often than I ever have been before. Last Wednesday I walked to church, it was a beautiful day…and it seemed like a good idea…while at church I found myself unable to catch my breath and had to go outside to cough like I’ve never coughed before (and I had bronchitis a lot as a child). I had this cough for several days but nothing this bad, I think being outside didn’t help. This continued thru through the night so first thing in the morning I called the doctor and he gave me another prescription for prednisone. This medicine has helped a lot but I will only have it until Thursday…then I’m not sure what is going to happen. The last time I ran out of the steroids the bad symptoms came back in a day or so and my surgery isn’t until Tuesday.

This morning I go to the hospital to apply for their aid program. My hours at work were cut this week and the loss in pay I will be getting should definitely qualify me for their program according to the standards they had shown me. I will not know right away whether or not I am accepted but at least I have finally turned in the paperwork. I guess I was supposed to wait because had I done it before my income would have been completely different.

In lieu of my new income, I have made a list of ways I plan on not spending…also mom and I went to our first yard sales of the season last Friday and I have some pictures to show (we got a couple of great deals!)…I get a magazine called Town and Country (it was a free subscription from somewhere) and inside last months issue was this really cool thing I’ve been wanting to share. Mind you this is a sheeshee froufrou magazine with things regularly costing between five and fifty thousand dollars. However no matter how much this thing cost, I can admire it for cool it is :) so…Those are a few of the blog posts to come…stay tuned! I KNOW you don’t want to miss them…They will be much more fun than this post, that is FOR SHORE!