Real life rears it's ugly head, but...

Sep 17, 2013

So, where to start... I'm about 7 weeks out from my double lumbar fusion. No doubt it's been a tough recovery. I actually walked 15 minutes each way to my son's school yesterday for back to school night with my husband. I was pretty sore an hour after we got home, but I did it. That felt good. I'm aiming to do a fun 5k next year when I build back up. We need to make sure my fusion is fully healed before I start really looking at that stuff. Reality is that I'll likely never run, much less do a half marathon like I once thought of doing, but that's okay. But I'm feeling better. Still on meds, but no longer Percoset, we're down to Norco now. I try to go 5.5 hours between doses. My sister leaves in a week so I need to be able to go without anything until Noon by then. I have to make a trip to the post office every day at 11. I'm thinking I might set an alarm at 3am or something so I can take a middle of the night dose to get me through until I don't need it anymore.

We withdrew my 5th grade girl from her school on Wedneday. That was really hard for me. I loved that school, but there's been a lot of changes within the administration and the rules and she was pretty miserable there. After a couple of meetings with the principal and talking to her, she decided she wanted to try online learning. She's now going to a public charter school that is virtual. It's only day 2, but she's loving it so far. She's a straight-A student and is self-motivated so I think this year will go well for her. The current plan is to send her back to brick & mortar for middle school next year. She likes being able to self-pace (aka move through things faster or slower) and she likes having choices in what subjects she works on and when. Right now, she's finished all the orientation (which was supposed to take all week) and she's already working on the assessments. Yeah, she's a bit of an over-achiever (wonder where she gets that from?). Overall, the main reason we pulled her is because she wanted a different challenge academically this year. So, I'm letting her do that. Her class area is off of my office so I'm there when she needs me. I'm her learning coach, NOT her teacher (remember, it's still a public school) and she's all set up with a good organized desk area, headphones, supplies and dual monitors. She's rockin' it. We have rules and consequences and a loose schedule so we're pretty organized over here.

My 7th grade son... sigh. I regret that I never got a 504 done for him. In elementary school, it was easy, his teachers just accommodated his needs without the need for a formal plan. Last year, he was able to use a backpack so he made his own accommodations. This year, they are saying the kids won't be allowed to use backpacks. He has ADHD-Innattentive and social anxiety disorder. Using a locker is impossible for him. He's not able to focus enough on where he was, where he's going plus deal with all the kids in the hallways to make it work. So, I'm working on a 504 to allow him to use a backpack (we're doing it anyway, frankly) as well as making sure teachers make sure he writes down his homework and he has textbooks at home and in the classroom because he can't lug all those books back and forth in the backpack they allow, plus he walks to and from school. I hope to have that all in place, formally, next week.

Weight-wise, I've been settling in between 152.5 and 153.5. I go up sometimes and then down. Totally normal and I'm okay with that for now. I still want to settle under 150, but with everything going on and the face that I'm really failing at logging my food right now, I'm just going with it. I'm using common sense on my choices (for the most part) and doing the best I can. Hell, I started this thing at 375, so I'm not going to whine over a few pounds at this point. I'm still undecided if I want to try for my first round of plastics over Christmas or wait until Summer. I guess I need to decide that and work on it and make a decision by the end of this month.

Work is going okay. A few things are falling the wayside because I simply can't get it all done while recovering. My team is doing the best they can, but I'm trying to up my hours and slide back into things as I'm able.

That's it for now. I'm pretty absent on the boards while I deal with all this personal crap, but i do check in every few days on the maintenance thread on the VSG maintenance group and I do read the regular board as I'm able. Again, I"m paddling just to keep up with life at the moment.

A few people sent me notes so I thought I'd better update on what's up in my life these days :)

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