A first time for everything.

My first post here in 2014..

My presence here at Taking It On has been sparse, I know. I was here a lot for a couple of years, and then things slowed waaaayyyyy down. Some very difficult things happened in my personal life...some of which I feel comfortable sharing and others, not yet. I doubt I'll ever return to blogging here every day, but I do have a real fondness for you, my Taking It On readers, and for blabbing sharing about myself and life's trials and tribulations and so am still drawn to indulge in this narcissistic outlet from time to time. Here's the latest...

In my last post, which was posted on the last day of last year (lots of lasts), I shared an image of a very diseased hip joint. It was an x-ray taken a year ago, and it was gnarly...in a not good way. For a reminder about what went down, click here to be transported to February of last year. That day I had gone in for a second opinion and I saw that x-ray for the first time. And it stunned me into reality. At that appointment I made the decision that I will get a full hip replacement.

Two weeks ago I had a new image taken. I was x-rayed this time in preparation for meeting with an orthopedic surgeon. It looked even worse...bigger bone spurs, more of that white stuff indicating increased bone due to stress, and weird cysts in the femoral head. Looking at the picture made me cringe. The surgeon said, "Sooooooo...you've got a really messed up hip!"

And while he didn't sing to me, he did spend an hour talking with me about life and surgery and family and joints and "big picture" and zombie apocalypses. He's my surgeon-of-choice and I am excited to get this done.

After a year of basically doing NOTHING in terms of fitness, I'm now cross-training like it's my job. The plan is to be in the best shape time (and pain levels) will allow going into surgery. I need to get stronger and more fit...and I need to lose about 15 lbs. That last part is so humbling. I can't say I've ever been in that place before. But I'm ready to... what am I ready to do????

That's right... TAKE IT ON.

'Cuz that's what I do.

Will I ever run again? That remains to be seen. It is on the "NOT recommended" list for artificial hip recipients, but people do it anyway. My surgeon said, "I can sell you the car, but what you do with it once you drive it off the lot is up to you." 

But enough of that hard stuff...

Everything else in life is going nicely...my kids are happy, my husband is happy, I'm happy. We just moved to a house that suits us really well, and the kids are all still going to their same schools. Big G is loving his high school (and how many people can say that they LOVED high school?). And, if you clicked the right link above, you now know my dirty little, two-timing secret. Please understand that I needed an outlet and I know that some of you have a hard time with "language." We are all multi-faceted...now you have a glimpse of more of my facets :)

Me with wet hair and a beautiful 4-year old.

So, HI, EVERYONE!!!! Have you missed me as much as I've missed you??? And running....I really miss running...

How to define 2013?

The year can be boiled down to three pictures and three words...

 

PAINFUL

yes, this is my x-ray...which I saw for the first time today

 

REAFFIRMING

yes, this is my husband...who'd kill me if he knew I posted this

 FAMILY

yes, these are my kids...who inspire me every single day

2013 was the hardest year of my life...but it finished up well, creating a nice segue into the New Year. I'm ready for 2014. 

May it grace us all with an abundance of joy and good health.

Cheers!

An update of sorts

Not a whole lot of time for this, unfortunately, but here are some random updates on what is happening Chez XL...

1.  We are having crawly critter issues...

This is misleading. The spider is as big as my thumb! 

G came running downstairs the other night...

MOM!!!!! THERE IS A HUGE SPIDER

RIGHT

OVER 

MY

BED

!!!!!!!!!!

I, being the adventurous, unafraid mom that I am, captured it live

and released it to the wild into our front yard.

And then there's this...

we wake up more often than not (or so it seems) to this...

Do you see the ants? I found this photo on my phone. I didn't take it.

I was too busy KILLING THEM.

It was like D-Day all over again.

The ants were like the Allies...they kept sending troops into battle. Relentless, onward they came.

In unheard of numbers. More and more and more strode into the slaughter.

The vacuum cleaner and I heartlessly and methodically decimated their ranks.

Unapologetically committing insecticide...

Yet knowing that, though we might win this battle, 

those little bastards would probably win the war.

2. We've had familial sickness...

No pictures of this. Over the weekend, both my husband and I got some weird zombie-like sickness. No body aches or fever or throwing up, just these headaches and disorientation and inability to function like normal people. On one occasion, my husband was lurching down the hall and I was stumbling around in the kitchen making lunch for the kids and I started laughing so hard. I was seriously like we were two zombies trying to raise a houseful of human children. Guess you had to be there :P

3. I finally got my hip x-rayed.

No results yet. I just had it done yesterday. I'd been dragging my feet on that for about 9 years. Ummmm...yeah.... First it was because a week after the doc wrote the requisition, I found out I was pregnant. Hip x-ray while pregnant, no es bueno. When I was ready to get the x-ray after that baby was born...BOOM... pregnant again. That happened a couple of times. So then it just seemed like every time I was going to get it the wait was going to be HOURS. Yesterday I had a couple of free hours, so I decided to just suck it up and go. I was in and out in 20 minutes. Whoa. Did I feel kind of stupid. Yeah. You'll be the firsts to know what it says as soon as I know.

That's all I've got for now!

I hope life is treating all of you well and thanks for hanging tough with me while I spend a little less time in BlogWorld.

Be well!