Tracey Checking in again

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

First let me apologize - I came " back " to my friends here in

that " novel " length post and then never returned to that everyone who

showed me so much support (especially those that actually read that

long post - sorry " concise " is not a word I an find in my personally

dictionary) I really didn't intend to come here - " dump " all

my " stuff " on you , get a lot of " warm fuzzies " and then drop off the

face of the earth again. Unfortunately it was medical " stuff " that

prevented me from becoming an active member again. For reasons

unknown, my hemoglobin has been dropping fairly regularly and quickly

I've had 3 transfusions in the last month or so - and I've managed

to " stump " the doctors again (dam I wish my odds of winning the Lotto

were as good as my odds at being a medical " odd ball " ) Due to this I

have had all the pleasant testing one could imagine - all the lab

work, in and out of every opening - with mo answers (although I keep

insisting that if they didn't have me giving so much blood to " blood

work " I might stable out - I'm sure that is where I'm losing blood)

Anyway I have one more test scheduled for the 30th of December and if

that doesn't find the problem it's back into surgery to try and find

what's wrong. I hope they figure it out quickly as I am also losing

ground in other areas because of this.

On the 19 of December I went into surgery and had all my teeth

removed. I know that in the long run it's a great thing - I was

counting down the days in anticipation - I knew there would be pain -

bit I have spend so many hours in pain from my teeth that I didn't

mind. Unfortunately the surgery ended up taking more than double the

expected time - the surgeon explained that my teeth would literally

crumble when he tried t pull them so they then had to " go fishing "

for the roots. There is still a lot of pain and welling - but it is

slowly getting better - although I'm still on liquids only as any

amount of chewing can send me through the roof! This, in part, made

Christmas Day " hard on me " . For 15 years I have had to just push food

around on my plate, hoping no one noticed how very little of it that

I ate - I was really looking forward to actually eat a little of each

dish - instead I went and " took a nap " while the others were having

dinner - the idea of not being able to eat even the slightest amount

of dinner was just too much for me - especially as Christmas day was

also the very first Christmas without my daughter home - she has

moved to her boyfriends town - about 4 hours away and both had to

work today so they couldn't come - I must admit - never mind the

health or the teeth, this was a very hard Christmas to get through.

I really do intend to become a active member of the group again - but

it might not be often in the near future depending on hemoglobin and

teeth suff.

I just wanted to come and update and say thanks to everyone here who

so willingly gave me their support and friendship. I do hope all of

you had a Merry Christmas and I know that we all will have a better

New Year.

Take care

Love Tracey