I know some of y’all have noticed I’d been away for some time. Just dropping in to say I’m still here, and hoping to be more active in the coming months. 2023 was bound and determined to take me out but I’m still here! Had emergency surgery and a few hospital stays between July and September but I’m on the mend and feeling pretty good now. I’ve missed coming here and keeping up with everyone and everything.
Great to see you back! 
Take your time and heal up fast and well! 
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Glad to see you are back, please take care of yourself.
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Thanks @Seapup and @spamoni! I’m doing my best. There’s been some hiccups along the way, but I’m almost back to 100%. I’m sitting at about 98% right now. Lol
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I’ll send some of the 
gang over to keep you company while on the mend. I have plenty to spare.
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Welcome back! Let’s face it, hospital stays are pretty much never welcome (or the need for them). I got to spend a couple nights in one in August for knee replacement surgery (so planned). Hope you are healing well.
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That is still great. Remember to pace yourself.
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@Antonius I love those little trash pandas!
@K6CCC thank you! What’s worse is that I had to go to er (and got admitted) on what was supposed to be the first day of a week long vacation. Entire vacation ended up being on the 3rd floor of the hospital 
. Back to er and hospital 2 weeks later for another 2 week stay (and halfway through had to have the emergency surgery they had hoped to avoid). Released a week after surgery, just to go right back again a week later for another 4 day stint. Total time in hospital was just under 4 weeks, over a 2 and a half month period.
I’m just over 3 months out from surgery and I’m doing so much better.
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@spamoni pace myself? I don’t think I know how. I was working from the hospital because I begged my boss to let me. I was so bored. I was so happy when my doctor said I could work a couple hours a day in the midst of all this.
I stayed at my parents home between and after hospital stays (they’re retired and my husband and them thought it was best I be somewhere I could be looked after - I got no say in the matter). They couldn’t keep me still. Mom says I’m just like my dad. This nut didn’t fall far from that tree, I tell you what.
We had a second vacation planned in September and by golly I wasn’t gonna miss that. Spent 4 days at Disney world Fort Wilderness. Didn’t do a whole lot. Decided against going to the parks since I was on a strict ‘no roller coasters, swimming, hot tubs, or water rides’. If we’d have gone to a park my butt would have 100% gotten on a coaster.
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Good to see you @towelkingdom!
I’ll play the opposite game… Get back to work. At 98% you should be able to go 110%.
Since @carverofchoice got me thinking about Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy this week, I’ll remind you that a towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Yours is a Kingdom!
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Thanks @R.Good! I’m working credit time right now (so I’m back to work more than full time). I’ll have another surgery next year sometime to hook my internal plumbing back up. But I can schedule that based on what works best for me. And it won’t be as big of an operation. This one can be laproscopic.
I will say that I’ve been struggling with this illness for most of my life and it took this hospital stay and surgery to finally get answers (and relief!). I had been misdiagnosed my whole life. Go figure. I feel better than I have in YEARS overall. It’s a good feeling. I did almost die twice in the hospital, but I’m a tough cookie. No one bothered to tell me how bad it got until a couple weeks after my last hospital stay, they told my folks and my husband but they all agreed it was best I didn’t know? 
My husband joked that if they told me I’d start thinking I was invincible. I’m like a cat. 9 lives. By my count I’ve got at least 2 left. 
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Hell of a vacation! glad to see you are doing much better (than ever).
After my knee replacement, I was off work for 10 weeks. In Q1 next year we do the other knee. All this time off, my boss is saying that I am practicing for retirement.
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I hear cats share their [extra 9] lives with the people they adopt. Get more if you need them. I might have made that up, but my cat told me it’s true. Trying to convert Antonius in the long run too.
Always good to see you around. 
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Where’s the towels?
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Very subtly implied. Look closer.
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@K6CCC I work from home, so it was a but easier to get back to it for me. I just had a hard time staying in one place for long periods early on. I had to get up and move around to keep the pain at bay, so my doctor said 2 hours a day work was fine but the rest of the day I needed to try to be up and moving. I was very lucky to have such a good boss and work support. We did our annual systems update in the midst of my absense and I’m the only person who can test some of our scripts/programs for our work unit. So when I was working, I was really only doing that. I’m gonna suck at retirement. I don’t know how to not work.
@carverofchoice we lost our last cat, Cooper 9/10. 2023 took all 3 of my ancient cats from me (Aston in February, Diablo in May, and then Cooper.) We adopted 2 new kittens early October. I haven’t had kittens in 17 years. It’s a trip! We named them Troy and Abed. I had a hard time being in the house all day by myself after Cooper crossed the rainbow bridge (and I am just beside myself that I missed the last 2 months of his life). It’s hard not to think that me being away from home for so long played a part in his deterioration. I was lucky that I got to spend the last 2 weeks of his life snuggling him. Troy and Abed have been very helpful for my mental well being since they’ve been here. Thinking of adopting a dog next year depending on how everything goes.
@peepeep awww Thank you! It’s good to be back.
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Haha, I wondered if those were towels or not. Well done.
Aww, I knew about Aston and Diablo, sorry to hear about Cooper too.
Kittens are the best. They’re little monsters, but it’s worth it. 
If they’re sharing their lifeforce with you too, you’re going to start bouncing around again in no time!
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Just bluffing. That’s actually ‘Virgin Mary Radiance’ I borrowed* from another pic. 
* venial sin
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