22 Days to Go!

The count down is on...

Flight to Toronto is booked.  Hotel is booked for a long as I could book one for... And it is just across the street from Toronto Western.  As for the rest of the time we're there, well .... WARNING - travelling to the city hosting the G20 summit the week of the summit means NO HOTELS!  I searched at least 20 hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts and even 2 hostels close enough to the hospital to walk or bus to.  Nothing... and I mean nothing available for a price we can afford.  Most are $190+ per night.  And the hostels - uh, no.  Sorry, not subjecting the hubby to rodents and bed bugs.  UGH!!!  I've sent an e-mail to my cousin in Toronto.  She offered us a place to stay with them.  I sure hope the offer still stands if we are still in Toronto on the Friday.  I'm sure it will be!

My best friend is supposed to come from Welland to see me in Toronto and I'm really looking forward to seeing her!  It's been almost a year since we've seen each other.  Too bad she'll see me likely at my worst!

I've started putting together the essentials too.  My scarf to wear home.  Those powdered ice packs you shake and they become cold.  My own tube of toothpaste because it will be very hard to share with hubby if his is at the hotel and I'm at the hospital!  And a list of people's phone numbers and emails to keep in touch with everyone while we're there.

My pre-op appointment is on Thursday - which is also our 4th wedding anniversary.  I've got my haircut booked for the 12th.  I'll try to post before and after pictures.  It's all coming off.  I can't manage this style without hairspray and mousse and a curling iron.  I also have a massage and a Reiki treatment booked for the week before surgery.   I'm going to be beautiful and relaxed!

I bought some new pyjamas on the weekend, but couldn't find any more that buttoned up the front that I could afford. Grrrr...  But I have one pair and then a t-shirt and capri set I can bring too.

I did have an accomplished 5 days off work too.  I have my tomatoes planted with hubby's help.  And I planted a few new perennials and a few annuals just so the gardens don't look empty now that the tulips have died off.  It took me 3 days to plant what I bought with my mum on Thursday... but it was all good.  I'm just not used to operating so slow!  And I have my first sunburn of the season.  Mild, but I guess I should have put 30 SPF on instead of just 15 yesterday.  Ah well...  no huge deal.

So, in the next three weeks I have to ensure that my replacement at work is up to speed on everything I can teach her.  And still work on my regular duties.  Should be an adventure!

June 22, 2010

Got my date!! HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dr. Gentili's assistant called today at lunch.

Have to be in Toronto for pre-admission clinic on June 21st.  I will be admitted at 6 am on Tuesday June 22, 2010 to Toronto Western hospital!

Okay, so now, panic! 26 days.....

Already looked up flights and hotel.  Just waiting for my pre-admission time before I book the flights.  Might have to arrive there Sunday night.

So 1 month to the day from losing my grandma I will finally have my posterior fossa decompression!

99 Little Things

Once again, I have hijacked a great post from Marla.... Thanks!


99 Things About Me (Everything that I have accomplished is in bold)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars - I've slept in tents with holes in them? Does it count?
3. Played in a band - grade 8 band! I played the baritone tuba... and yes, it outweighed me!
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to DisneyWorld - yes 3 times, including my honeymoon!
8. Climbed a mountain - technically I rode up on a chairlift, but I skied down it! :P
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm - Plenty of good ones over Lake Superior...
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch - several
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning - unfortunately
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables - plenty of them!  The lettuce, basil and onions are already up!
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train - not overnight, but a really loooooooong day or two traveling through Italy
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch-hiked 
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill - one I know of
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping - Finn + sauna + the river = skinny dipping!
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice - Never got that far north in Italy :(
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset - plenty of them too!
31. Hit a home run - barely made it to first base - not a big baseball player
32. Been on a cruise - I don't think a weekend on a houseboat counts, so no
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person - yep, in grade 8 and with my bestest friend last July!
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors - yep - even saw the house my dad was born in
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language - not completely myself, but Italian and Finn, plus French in school through to my university degree, ugh, and Latin - a prerequisite for the French degree
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - I'm just about there....
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person - 1993!
39. Gone rock climbing - I was supposed to learn last summer, then I got diagnosed with Chiari and it might be a little to dangerous if I should fall, even though I'd be tethered etc.
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David - yep 1993
41. Sung karaoke - my favourite memory of my friend Martin - karaoke at the Christmas party.... I Will Survive!
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance - in the passenger seat - not the patient
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling - snorkeling at camp
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie - nope, just on local tv
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business - Cassandra's Crafts!
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies - nope
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason - a few times
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving - why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane !
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar - oh sooooo yummy..... drool.....
72. Pieced a quilt - no but I crocheted a couple blankets
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job - yep but the other bosses called me back the next day...
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone - my toes, bones in my foot, my thumb bone, and a pinky finger
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle - heck I DRIVE the motorcycle!
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book - in a book, but not the whole thing
81. Visited the Vatican - yes May 1, 1993 - and the Sistine Chapel was CLOSED! Grrrrrr.....
82. Bought a brand new car - well, a new truck
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper - when I was 4 or 5!
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve - no one stranger than my husband :P
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - fish is an animal?
88. Had chickenpox - yep and shingles
89. Saved someone’s life - no, but help a few injured skiers as a Ski Patrol
90. Sat on a jury - thank heavens no, I work for a deputy judge - I'm exempt :)
91. Met someone famous 
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby 
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit  - no thank heavens again!
98. Owned a cell phone 
99. Been stung by a bee - yes, and a wasp, and a hornet and a few other miserable biting things!

And I think I'll add one:

100.  Had brain surgery - will - very soon!!!

Nice to have a little distraction this evening.  My brain's working overtime....

How do you Heal a Broken Heart?

My heart broke this morning a little after 8 am.  My beloved grandma passed away.  Love is not a strong enough word to express how I feel about my grandma.  She is my friend, one of my best friends. And my heart is going to take a very long time to heal.  This is grandma, mum and I on my wedding day - June 3, 2006.

The List

1.  You can't hold onto anything - dropping toothbrush, hair brush, stapler, iPod, fork, etc.

2.  Standing with pressure on one leg or the other makes it goes numb

3.  Ice pick pain in my left temple

4.  Reaching up to brush my hair makes me see stars

5.  Typing the number 6,000 makes me go cross-eyed

6.  No point in eating breakfast... it's not going to stay put

7. A ton of pressure in the left side of my head behind my ear

8.  Turning a corner while walking down the hall makes me dizzy

9.  Dinner consisted of mashes potatoes and gravol (dramamine for my US friends)

10.  Shaving my legs is impossible without resting my head and hip against the wall so I don't fall down in the shower

11.  My ears are ringing so loud they drown out most everything else

12.  There's not enough ice in the freezer

13.  There is so much pressure at the back of my skull it feels like someone has reached into my skull and is pulling it downwards...

14.  My eyes want to pop out of my head

If you can relate to the symptoms I felt today, you know it's not been a good day.  If you're feeling the same, I totally sympathize.

Who Could Ask for More?

Certainly not me.  I'm back online! Hurray!  And I'm typing my blog on my brand spanky new Mac Book Pro.... I'm in love with my little 13" aluminum friend.  I haven't been able to blog since our old laptop began it's new life as a doorstop.

So, I guess I should bring the last couple weeks up to date and then drool over my new laptop later. I still have no surgery date.  Last week Dr. Gentili finally replied to my 3rd email requesting an update as to where I am on the surgery list.  But his update wasn't much.  They won't be booking until the last week or two of May for June surgeries.  And he "hopes" I will be on the June list.  Gees I "hope" I'm on the June list too!! If he pushes me back that will be more than 6 months wait for surgery since I decided to book it. So I am going to wait until the end of this week or even after May long to call again and see if I'm on the list.  Please, please, please let me be on the list!

I've had some good and some bad days.  Nothing lasting days and days, but the dreaded Chiari headaches have increased in their appearances again lately.  And unfortunately I know exactly why - STRESS!!!  Stress at work training my temporary replacement - which is going very well.  And it's been crazy busy at work, so that doesn't help.  Short lunches, staying late, training and still trying to do all of my work - I burnt out.  So I did take Friday and Monday off so that I'd have a 4 day weekend to relax. 

Relax??? Hahahahahahahaha!! That was a good plan, but it's not happening. My grandma is still in the hospital but was transferred to the rehab hospital to regain her strength and hopefully go home in a couple of weeks.  So I spent a couple hours each day up there visiting with her and papa.  And then of course there's the usual errands to run.  Plus it was my birthday Saturday and we had the family over for cake and coffee.  So before the family visited hubby and I had to clean house.  I had started on the bathroom - just the toilet and sink - when hubby came home and took over :) So I vacuumed, changed the bed, did some laundry and cleaned up the kitchen instead.  So much for relaxing...

Cake and coffee with family is always a really good time.  And being my birthday presents were involved.  I got some amethyst earrings and a ring from my mother-in-law, money from my grandparents, roses, garden stuff and two gorgeous glass pendant necklaces from mum, and from the hubby (who has now accrued some mega brownie points) Out of Africa (a favourite of mine) on Blu-ray and the piece de resistance...... a 13" Mac Book Pro.  We've been laptop shopping for some time and I've been ogling a Mac for ages and ages and now I finally own one!!!  I'm quite spoiled my grandma says, but I'm not spoiled rotten.  Once  I have a chance to figure out more like the photo aps etc I will post some pictures of my jewellery.  There is a lot to learn on a Mac - hubby and I are old Windows people... trying to convert.

Today we spent the morning setting up the laptop and trying to link my iPod.  And we discovered the wonderful trick of Apple not allowing a backwards transfer of your music from the iPod to iTunes...  Grrrr.... So to download the 1000+ songs on my iPod need to be redownloaded or I have to find some software to reverse download them.  Learning new stuff all the time!  After a long visit with grandma and papa I came home and went outside.  I managed to shuffle 2 of my planters around to plant some onion seeds, and two hanging baskets with basil and lettuce.  That was more than enough gardening me for one day.  Everything is harder this year.  The planters are heavier it seems.  The tools are too high on the shelf to reach.  The ground was too low to work from with the planters so I got a little stool.  The soil was too hard when I turned it, but it had to be turned after the winter...  I guess I won't be doing a lot of gardening this summer.... We also went for a 2 mile walk tonight, having skipped last night to have the family over.

I still have tomorrow off with plans to see the dentist for a cleaning at noon, a visit to see grandma, and hopefully I'll just sit on my duff and do nothing for a good part of the day.  Here's hoping.

So goodnight my loyal readers, thank you for hanging in during my technical difficulties.  I'm going to finish watching the rest of Out of Africa...