So I figure that keeping my blog updated regularly isn't going to happen as there isn't a lot that changes for me week to week or even month to month. My healing continues on slowly. I still do experience dizziness, although it does get better as time goes on. To help the process, I started swimming again a few months ago. This was a pretty interesting undertaking the 1st time I went. While I was swimming there were times when I couldn't tell which was up and which was down. Anyone watching me would have thought "wow that girl's out of shape" as I needed to stop after each lap until the world stopped spinning on me (for almost as long as it took for me do do the lap). Strangely the back-crawl was/is harder to do then the front-crawl, which isn't at all what I expected. I think it has to do with looking up at the striped ceiling of the pool as I'm swimming. I find that patterns are the things that make me totally dizzy. It was interesting though how after the 2nd time, swimming did start to get easier. It's also interesting how I have more energy to swim now then I did in literally years. That pretty much goes for every part of my life. I can truly say that I haven't felt as good as I do now (minus the dizziness) for years, easily from before Jeff & I were married (6 1/2 years ago). Headaches are almost non-existent and my energy is back big time. The only thing that is still hard is getting used to being deaf in 1 ear (much harder then I expected).
I did have an MRI at the end of the year as well as a Doctor's appointment with Dr. Chen. It was really weird looking at my MRI before Dr. Chen looked at it. There really is a big white mass in my head. At first I was kind of freaked out by it, but Jeff figured it had to be the fat they put there during the surgery. I had thought that my body would absorb it, but then thought maybe it hadn't done that yet. Turns out that Dr. Chen was thrilled to see it all there in my head still. I have to say it was definitely a first to hear a doctor say "oh great, the fat is still all there". He said that their hope is that the fat will always stay there and the fact it's all still there was great news. The other great news is that there is no sign of any tumour activity. It was a bit of a shock to find out that I actually won't be considered cured until 10 years after my surgery. I will need to go for another MRI next fall again and if that 1 is clear then I'll have to go in 3 years and then 5 years. If after that I still show no signs of tumour, then I'll be considered cured.
When I look back on how I felt before and after my surgery I really am amazed by how great I feel now (I almost didn't remember it was possible to feel so good), but also by how truly awful I felt before my surgery. It's one of those things that the symptoms come on so slowly that you really do adjust and soon it kind of becomes normal. I had a migraine a few weeks ago on Sunday and Jeff had suggested I should stay home. I figured that I had functioned before with 2-3 migraines in a day so I'd be fine. As the migraine progressed, I couldn't believe how awful I felt and wished with every ounce of my being that I was home in my bed. I just couldn't believe that I had gotten so used to them before and how not used to them I was now. I really see that the biggest blessing in all of this is that until you know what it's like to loose your health and ability to do things, you really can't truly appreciate how great it is to be healthy. I know with time the memory of being ill will fad, but I still hope that I can remember how being healthy is such an enormous blessing and that I never take it for granted.
