I haven't updated you guys in a long time!
In February I had my spine surgery. I'm very glad that they had an anesthetist in the theatre as they don't normally. But I'm not a normal patient of theirs. The anesthesiologist gave me what I needed - I remembered nothing, had no issues with sickness, and didn't have a full general either. I *know* it helped that one of my closest friends in an anesthesiologist at the main hospital in the area, as she told her colleagues to be on the lookout for me. Also helped that they were brought into the theatre just for dealing with me and me only.
Back has been improved but I DO still suffer from quite a bit of pain. Pain management is big in my life right now. Actually had a big long talk with my GP today about adjusting dosage and he wants me to be sure to have medication every 12 hours and to set an alarm. He believes some vertigo issues I've been having is due to me NOT taking pain medication in the morning. Fingers crossed! I really do like my GP. I genuinely can tell that he wants the best for me. I told him I'd do as he asks and when I return from holiday, we can taper me off. He said, "We don't need to, you are on a safe dose and it's fine if you are on this dose for years and years." At the same time, if I don't want to be on it, we can taper me off.
Things change all the time. I returned to work half days in April and still doing half days. Not sure when (if ever), I'll return to full days. My work has been outstanding. While big corporate gets a bad name - it's times like this when they show WHY they are awesome to work for.
My parents land tomorrow morning and are here for 3 weeks. My husband and I are sneaking off next week for a sailing yacht cruise. I'm excited and nervous all at the same time!
On the cancer front, my first set of scans since moving to maintenance injections only was very good. The main tumor in the breast is down to 7mm x 3mm, the tumor in the auxilary tail is gone, and my lymph nodes look completely normal. I'm told the rest of the body is "the same or better" than previous scans. I'm happy things are still moving in the correct direction. I do still struggle from time to time with the enormity of it all. BUT I'm able to push a lot of negative thoughts to the back of my mind and have finally been able to "enjoy each day and the little things". Genuinely it's really only when I pretend that I'll live to be 80 that I can truly function okay. I know the reality is that I probably have a handful of years left, but as long as I pretend that's not true, life is more enjoyable.
My work is happy for me to work from the USA this summer, so we are headed there for the holidays.