The Joys of Life

Hot summer days are hard on  my head, simply due to this crazy humidity that never leaves in Nova Scotia.  However, last night it was a little cooler and I set out to mow the grass.   All these small things when you are still recovering are HUGH.  This is not my first try at this job and luckily my grass is just a wee bit bigger then a postage stamp.  When I finished I will admit I was tired but the pounding throb in my head was far less noticeable.  Hmmm this is progress as I admire the fresh cut grass.  In my "before brain surgery" life mowing the grass was usually done after working all day, with some whipper snipping, and maybe some weeding to go along with it.  But for now, mowing the grass and living to tell about it is fantastic.

The amount of rest I require between task seems to be lessening.  Doing laundry does not do me in for a day anymore.  I might even get the bathroom cleaned on the same day!!!  I KNOW...I'm blown away too.

 Months ago I couldn't stand being in the grocery store or Wal-mart because of their shinny floors.  Shinny floors and my eyes didn't get along.  I'm happy to report that looking at the floors in box stores no longer make me want to throw up.  This is progress!!!  :)  I still have photophobia, sadly this is not something they can correct with the prisms so I might be stuck with that one.  So my solution...don't look directly at any lights.

When you are in the crazy part of your recovery ( the beginning when everything is happening all at once) you really have no clue where you stand.  It's all too complicated, too busy, too scary.  I finally feel like I have things under control.  I understand what I can and can't do, my limitations both mentally and physically.  I realize that I'm never going to be the same as I was pre-brain surgery.  But maybe that's not who I was meant to be.  Perhaps my calling is to share my brain tumour and brain surgery stories to others in similar situations.  Just as I so desperately searched for this exact thing when I was scared out of my mind.  Maybe the point is for those of you who are healthy to thank God, Karma, Fate..whatever you believe.  Be grateful, be thankful that you are not dealing with health issues.

Life is short, call a friend, kiss someone, adopt a dog, eat chocolate, sing with the windows open.  Start living your life because the joys of life are good for your soul.

Happy Belly on Hot Days

As I said in my last post I've been trying to figure out things I can do for my health. One of my health problems that is totally unrelated to my brain tumour is diverticulosis.  This little problem I have can cause big problems if I don't keep in check.    Diverticulosis are small pouches on the inside of the colon..  These pouches are not normally a problem unless you misbehave with your diet and then you can develop painful diverticular disease.  The symptoms of this are similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome, pain, in my case constipation and more pain.  It's awful.

So one of the things that I figured out in the past two years is my body does not like wheat products, I have a Gluten Intolerance.  Gluten is in EVERYTHING!!!  When I took gluten from my diet, suddenly the painful bowels took a hike.  As long as I stay on the diet, I'm ok.  Well, I love bagels, and bread, and tea biscuits, and cookies and sauces, and...you get the idea, it's in everything.  UGH!!  So back on the Gluten Free diet I go.  It takes a few days to get back into it and it helps to just not go anywhere so you don't have to see yummy delicious gluten foods.  HaHa, although that would help, reality is you just have to stick to your guns and do it.  In a few days I started feeling better as I always do when I jump back on my gluten free wagon.  This time to treat myself I bought Betty Crockers Gluten Free Cake as a treat.  Now normally anything Gluten Free in a box or bag is nasty!!!  However, this cake was so yummy that it lead me the the Betty Crocker web site and I found all kinds of Gluten Free recipes...my mouth was watering.  I am beyond excited to try out a few of these.

Hopefully if I make my belly happy, that will make my bowels happy which in turn has to make my head happy.  Now if I could just remove the humidity from the weather here in Nova Scotia.