... Four Years Later...

Today is the 4th anniversary of my craniotomy, a day that has all sorts of special significance to me. For starters, that big tadpole-shaped white blob you see on the right of the scan? That (a tumor) was in my head the morning of April 30, 2008. By 2 pm that same day, it was gone, all but a few shreds. I was in surgery about 6 hours with a team of two neurosurgeons and about 12 other miscellaneous and assorted doctors and nurses. I walked into the OR (brain surgery patients at NYU Medical walk into the operating rooms, rather than being wheeled - gives you a feeling of empowerment if you can get past the desire to run screaming from the building in your peek-a-boo gown!) and remember saying to the room full of gowned and masked people, with my last shred of bravado "okay, let's get this show on the road."

I never truly imagined what post brain surgery life would be like - intellectually, I understood all of the risks and potential aftereffects, but it's a bit different when you start realizing that life isn't going to "get back to normal" in the same way it was before. It's been a journey, and it continues to be a journey. But there are SO many good things that have come from this - so many friendships I've made (Lorenzo, Sue, Kathleen...so many more), so many things I've experienced.

So today's photo is just a snap taken of my computer screen using my iPhone. I expect to take Big Daddy out today and take some much better and more interesting pictures, but this is today's blip. I already know it's going to be a good day - while I was having my morning tea on the deck, in the sun, I saw blue jays, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers, house finches, tufted titmice, nuthatches, chipping sparrows and the little chickadee dad who was taking food to mom in her nest box. This was all in the space of 30 minutes ... see, I told you it was going to be a good day.

Thanks for indulging me today.