Scattered Thoughts . . .

I am still in significant pain but I'm now managing to accomplish a few small things for very short durations each day.  It hurts to do anything but I'm getting up off the couch a few times each day.  Although the pain is still rather brutal, I have started on some very light physical therapy which should help in my recovery. My spinal injuries are another one of those things where I get knocked down and sent back to square one far too often.  This is definitely one of those times.  Actually, this time around, the pain is so bad and so consistent that it is reminding me of my original line-of-duty injury.  Things were bad after both my first and second line-of-duty spinal injuries so it is a bit frustrating to be back at this point 25 years ago once again.   25 years ago, the physical therapy required to walk fairly normally again was intense...  eight hours a day, five days a week, for six weeks.  After the six weeks, the amount of time in physical therapy each day tapered of

I think I mentioned in a previous blog entry that Sheila will be starting physical therapy but I could be wrong. Neither one of us is thinking all that clearly because our heads are spinning again due to being immersed in hospital visits and thoughts of new problems with Sheila's health  (relatively small problems, however) . In case I haven't written about it before, I suppose I'll write about it now. When we saw Sheila's Oncology Radiologist in early January, the doctor noticed that Sheila still has some significant swelling in the area of her affected breast and her side where they removed the cancer. She then asked Sheila about any pain. Sheila sort of shrugged her shoulders and said something like, "well... nothing that is unexpected after surgery and radiation."  The doctor gave her a questioning look and asked, "what are you referring to as nothing that is unexpected?" She also added that the swelling she is seeing in Sheila is not norma

Heading back to Radiation Oncology... she looks as though she is walking with some purpose, doesn't she? I'm very far behind in blog entries as well as being very far behind in accomplishing things that need to be done around the house so it is time to try to put together a few blog entries in an attempt to doing some catching up.  My health over the past couple of months has been rather poor, generally speaking. As a result, I feel as though nothing has been accomplished since before Sheila's cancer diagnosis... so, nothing really has been accomplished since around the time of our time at the lake house last summer... and that's a loonnnngggg time! We had a short break in Sheila's treatment from Thanksgiving until the first week of January. This was a much needed break for both of us but not nearly long enough. Now we are back into hospital visits and medical appointments a couple of times each week. Unfortunately, I'm still exhausted! Sheila feels th

My spinal injuries have been screaming for the past month but that is nothing new. My breathing has been rather lousy for the past eight months so that isn't all that new either at this point. This morning, however, I am feeling both problems and both are rather significant. My lumbar spine is hurting all through my lower back to my hips and buttocks... with pain all through my groin and lower abdomen... and even up toward my kidneys. The pain is bad enough to keep me from sleeping. Needless to say, I'm exhausted even though it is still only mid-morning. I'm going to attempt to get back to some light physical therapy today. I attempted this a few days ago when my lingering cold was feeling like it was almost gone but that didn't go over too well... my cold got worse and that made all sorts of symptoms worsen. I'll attempt to get back into my daily physical therapy today if even a very light therapy involving only stretching. That should help my back at least a l