One Week And Three Days.

Anniversaries:

Defined as “The annual recurrence of a date marking a notable event”.

So here we have reached the week in the year that I have come to dread, especially after last year.

Here is what I am looking at and they all have a similar destination.
My anniversaries happening this week.

On August 2^nd 2010 I woke up in the University of Minnesota hospital after having a brain tumor removed.

On August 4^th 2015 I woke up at the Mayo Clinic after having my stomach removed.

On August 5^th 2017 I woke up in intensive care at North Memorial hospital after an accident. Actually I woke up on the 6^th, but the accident was on the 5^th. I had 3 cracked vertebrae, a cracked skull, and the right side of my face crushed. Right eye all messed up.

The results (so far) that are due to these three misadventures. I have had 5 surgeries and been put under an additional 12 times for tweaks or fixes. That’s a grand total of 17 times going under anesthesia to fix things as a result of waking up in a hospital during one of these upcoming days.

So as you can guess I kind of want to skip this week.

I know I can’t skip the week but the anxiety still remains. Goal for the week? To not wake up in the hospital. I got this…… I hope.

So how am I doing with all of these anniversaries, well you have to take them by date.

On August 2^nd  it will have been eight years since my surgery and the reoccurring tumor has not made a second appearance. The good news here that the surgeons don’t think it will return. I had a final CT scan done a few months ago and there was no sign of the tumor. I was given the all clear. This chapter of my life is now over.

On August 4^th it will have been three years since I had my total gastrectomy. I got lucky. No cancer was found back then and I continue to live without the fear of Heredity Diffused Gastric cancer ever rearing its ugly head. The months following the surgery were pretty tough, but today I am fine. There are still foods that I can’t eat or if I do they give me trouble however my weight has stabilized. This chapter of my life will never end. Living without a stomach still sucks at times, but for the most part I am good with where I am at.

Then there will be August 5^th. It will have been one year since the accident. Where most of the injuries have healed, the eye is still out of whack. The University of Minnesota has done all they can and are sending me down to a doctor at Mayo who has “preformed some miracles in the past”. According to the U I am going to need him to perform one more miracle if I am to keep the eye.

I should know in the next week or so when my appointment at the Mayo Clinic will be. Stay tuned.

This week consists of work (full time job), 2 shifts at the store and the Hanover Harvest Festival on Saturday. Oh and the second shift at the store is on Saturday, during the Harvest Festival, just like last year…

I just need to make it to next week and I will be good.

Right?

Especially at night I worry over situations

I know will be alright

Perhaps it's just imagination

Day after day it reappears

Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear

Ghosts appear and fade away

(Overkill  Men At Work)