This Week's Mission was Transition

It has been 5 weeks since Becki's surgery and recovery continues to go well. This was a transition week as Rod returned to work.

Becki is continuing to walk daily about 3 miles, now with a walking pole. She has had to take a break from walking hills as they were aggravating her vertigo.

As Rod returns to the workforce, Becki is trying her hand in the kitchen. She started this off by making a chocolate soufflé. Rod still does a lot of the meal preparation, but Becki is starting to help out as long as it does not involve using knives. We don't want to have a Dan Akyord/Julia Childs moment http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7tnc9_the-french-chef_fun#.USAqlBG9KK2

With Rod going back to work, he has not been as available to Becki to do all the things around the house and to take her to all of her medical appointments. On the upswing, Becki has very much enjoyed seeing friends this week as they took her to medical appointments and helped her around the house. It was the highlights of her week to see friends.

Clip Clip Here, Clip Clip There

Week four - I am writing this blog entry, which is my first entry since my surgery. I am using "Dragon Speak", dictation software and "text to speak" feature on the iPad to create this blog entry.

This week's milestones consist of the following three things:

1. My lifting limitation has been increased to 15lbs, so my cat Simon is now in the range (pretty much) to be lifted for hugs.

2. Rod and I have done daily walks of about 3 miles, with a couple of days of about 4 miles that included a hill. (At times I am able to walk without a cane on the smooth straight stretches or when holding Rod's hand for stability. And sometimes I just hold Rod's hand because...)

3. Wednesday I had my first outing (non-medical related) since my surgery. I got my first hair cut in 6 months - clip clip here, clip clip there. I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nlD_BQnAFw

I was very excited about getting my hair done by Christina at Lush after so long a wait. Whew, it felt wonderful to have my hair styled and tidied up!

I should explain that I halted all hair appointments back when I first learned I had a brain tumor and might be having surgery. I did so because I thought I would be losing some or all of my hair when I had surgery. I learned only a few weeks before the surgery that only a small credit card size patch near the base of my neck would be shaved and the top of my hair would cover the surgery point of entry. If you saw me you would not be able to tell from my hair that I had brain surgery.

This week was my second PT baseline assessment for vision and balance deficits. The testing aggravated my visual senses, causing me to relapse for a couple of days. This was a reminder that my recovery is not a straight line. It was advised that I should not go out in public for another month due to my difficulty in handling sensory stimuli.

Thank you to all of you for the words of encouragement during my journey.