Heinz said: "... It was a glorious run while we had it, and we should not diminish our memories by burying them in regret. Time is what it is, and we are simply flotsam in its immense flow. I am ever thankful for those moments when the bits of us happen to bump together and share, for one moment, something that cannot be described in its beauty...."
^^Beautiful Heinz.
I have written a few poemishes the past 5+ years. Maybe I'll post one or two of those on the Pages. I've written many blog posts on my little corner-of-cyberspace blog.
I seldom have energy to socialize anymore...online or in 3D. Other than my blog, I've slowly given up online life. I deactivated my FB account in May, 2016. Even though I wasn't real active, just looking at my FB newsfeed would zap my energy.
Right now I'm recuperating from another hip replacement surgery. This summer we discovered my hip replacement joint from 2008 was leeching cobalt and chromium into my body. That hip from 2008 was recalled in 2010. We kept an eye on it through 2012 and I thought I was in the clear. But, I wasn't. This summer we found that cobalt levels had gone up over 90% and chromium over 65% since 2012.
Even though the cobalt and chromium levels have gone up, Dr. Surgeon says that typically, for my kind of widespread nerve damage, levels are 5 to 10 x higher. I'm seldom "typical," so I'm still holding out hope that as the metal levels come down, I'll get some improvement with the nerve damage. It takes one to two years for the metal levels to come down.
There is a lawsuit involved. The surgeon sent my defective hip and tissue and fluid samples to a lab for evidence. It will probably be 1 to 3 years for a settlement, if any. Both the lawyers and surgeon think I will get some sort of settlement. We'll see.
Hopefully getting the faulty hip out and a new-one-of-a-different-kind in will help the widespread nerve damage that started in 2011 but went misdiagnosed for 2 years. In 2013, the eighth doctor I saw finally had a (what appears) proper diagnosis which is cervical and lumbar radiculopathy and probable autoimuune connective tissue disorder, though he didn't know what the connective tissue disorder is because my blood tests were always good...until we found the elevated metal levels this past summer.
The nerve damage has spread to all my limbs and extremities and my back and neck and jaws. It's been beyond tough, and often, a living nightmare. My symptoms have mimicked ALS.
My arms have been the worst. I now receive lumbar epidurals every 12 weeks and cervical neck shots every 6 weeks, to keep me functioning. I received my 14th epidural (since January, 2014) on August 8, 2016. Good news is, I began seeing improvement in symptoms beginning in July, 2015, after I added Charlotte's Web hemp extract to my regimen. But, the nerve damage still continued to spread. The last time it spread was January, 2016, to my jaws. Hopefully it won't spread anymore.
Recovery from the surgery is much more complicated due to the nerve damage. My arms are having to bear my body weight until I can put weight on my surgery leg. I won't get clearance to start to doing that until 9/28. Surgery was on 8/30.
So...that's the short story and at least part of the reason I'm not around as much...anywhere.
The Pages will always have a special place in my heart.
I should figure out how to do that first, I guess.
