Happy Birthday to Us!

"Us" would be Canada and me. Canada is older and will be around a lot longer than I will. When Spouse and I went for an ice cream lunch, we encountered a young girl wearing a Happy Birthday crown. I asked if today were her birthday, and she said it was. I pointed to my tiara (I wear a tiara on my birthday) and told her it was also mine. We exchanged birthday greetings. She turns four today while I edit the digit in the 10's place and turn 70. I hope that, like Canada, she will be around a lot longer than I will.

So what did the horoscope in The Washington Post foretell for my coming year? It may be more fitting than last year's was.

You are deeply sensitive and introspective. You're also empathetic and compassionate. This year is the completion of a nine-year cycle for you. Take inventory of your life. Let go of people, places and things that have held you back. Do some internal and external housecleaning. Clear the decks.

Moon Alert: Caution! Avoid shopping (except for food and gas) and important decisions from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. today. After that, the Moon moves from Capricorn into Aquarius.

So I have no idea what the Moon Alert is all about. The most important decision I have made today was where to go for ice cream for lunch. Since Spouse paid for it, it probably doesn't even count as a purchase I made, though ice cream is food. 

As for taking inventory of my life right now, I should probably try to accentuate the positive. I can walk on my own if I have to, though unsteadily. I no longer have a nephrostomy tube coming out of my back and a nephrostomy bag of urine on one hip. I also no longer have two kidneys. Does that count as positive given that it's connected to losing the nephrostomy items? Am I better off now than I was on my last birthday? Hell, no. Am I better off now than I was on July 23, 2025? Yes. I have learned a lot about myself this past year, most of it good. Do I want to elaborate on that? Not right now.

I have struggled a bit thinking of resolutions for my upcoming trip around the sun. I would like to write more. All the writing I have managed to do this past year is the two 2026 entries here plus daily entries in a 5-Minute Journal given to me for Christmas. I'd like to do better this coming year not that much of what I write is earthshaking or even notable. Back when we traveled or planned to travel to Vietnam, I made two attempts to learn a bit of Vietnamese. As it happened, the only thing I could say turned out to be "thank you," but just that scored oh so many points. (I was also complimented on my accent by a seven-year-old.) Given that we have no plans to go back there for any sustained period of time, I can't really see the use of giving it a third try. Some--now 60--years ago, I spoke fluent Spanish. I can still read it a bit, but speaking it escapes me. Perhaps I should work on that again. It would certainly be more useful than Vietnamese. Whether to go about that through some sort of formal program (you would not believe how many I have seen marketed) or try on my own, I don't really know. I'm still thinking on that.

As for birthday doings, I did this morning open a card and two gifts a friend delivered yesterday. She nailed the card: "Congrats! You've made it another year of tolerating people." Perfection from one introvert to another. I'm looking forward to reading the book she gave me: Lawbreaking Ladies: 50 Tales of Daring and Dangerous Women from History. I have only heard of several of the women, and those all seem to be in the chapter "Outlaws, Gunslingers & Bandits." I also watched a delightful video birthday card sent by another dear friend and have tried to express appreciation for every birthday greeting I have received on the book of Faces. We'll do the traditional birthday celebration this weekend with Spouse and Older Son, I hope with the addition of Younger Son, Daughter-in-Love, and Spud (our grandson's name in utero). It won't be a true birthday, but I may wear my tiara anyway.

Finally, I continue to toy with the idea of marking my 70th birthday by getting my first tattoo, a small potato (yes, a spud) on my upper left arm. It has been suggested that should I do that, I can follow his progression by adding a tater tot, a small fry, and so on. The plan certainly has merit.

  

And the Birthday Looms

I still haven't come up with any kind of resolutions for the rest of 2026. Whenever I think of my July 1 birthday I find myself reminded of the July 22 surgery that started what has been politely called (not by me; I'd likely be more impolite) a year from hell. I've said all along that the ureter--now kidney--damage bothered me immensely more than the nerve damage. The nerve damage has required physical therapy, something I've done for multiple other injuries or surgeries. I'm used to it. I know how to make it work--do what my therapist tells me to do and not do what they tell me not to do. I have control. I had anything but control over the ureter-kidney deal. Well, I did have control over the decision to try for an autotransplant that turned out not to be feasible. I can't fault the surgeons there; if the kidney wasn't fit to be put back in, I'm glad they didn't try. 

So, I now work at keeping the one kidney I have left as healthy as possible. The nephrologist I saw told me that a big part of that is simply keeping myself as healthy as possible. That, along with no longer using NSAIDs, drinking at least two liters of liquid daily, and keeping my daily sodium intake under 2,000 mg (that's less than is in one teaspoon table salt). While I had no definite plans to take up kendo again, the thought had crossed my mind from time to time. While I could certainly still do sword forms, partner work and definitely sparring would be very bad ideas. I'm not sure how much fun that would be, though it's definitely something I'll keeping mind.

This weekend, I look forward to getting into a swimming pool for the first time in over a year. Spouse and I will be in Newport News for his pre-hip-replacement lab work, and I persuaded him that what could have been a one-day trip should involve an overnight at a hotel with a pool. Even if it's full of screaming children, I plan to get in, possibly swim, at least float, and, at the suggestion of my wonderful physical therapist, just walk a bit. The little things I look forward to now.

And now, noting that they can indeed be little things, I'll get back to thinking about those resolutions. 

Where Has the Time Gone?

My last post was almost a year ago, noting the birthday I share with Canada and offering an update on the something resembling a resolution I'd made six months earlier. Since then? Well, it's been a hell of a year. I have lost count of the number of times people have told me how well they think I've handled that year, but now, as an actual one-year mark approaches, I find it harder to find the humor that's helped me laugh instead of cry, though I admit to having cried more in the last eleven months than in any previous eleven months, babyhood excepted. 

I went in for spinal surgery last July expecting to be in the hospital, maybe, around five nights. I left five weeks later ... with COVID even. I have a vague memory of the night of the surgery being told that due to a problem with a robotic camera, surgery had taken seven hours rather than the expected three-and-a-half. I have vague memories of total delirium including one of watching my world split apart and wondering if that was what a psychotic break was like. (It's not.) When I actually became aware of life around me, I was in a hospital bed with a tube coming out of my back, a bag of urine at my side, and unable to move my left leg. The spinal fusion  itself had worked--what walking I can do now is without the pain I used to have with every step--but in the process, three spinal nerves were damaged, and my left ureter was severed. Fast forward almost 11 months, and I can walk on my own very unsteadily though I typically use a walker or rollator, or occasionally trekking poles. I also just started wearing an AFO (ankle-foot orthosis) on  my left leg. That progress is thanks to 81 (yes, 81 so far) appointments with a stellar physical therapist. I also now only have one kidney and will this coming week find out just what the ramifications of that may be. No, this has not been a good year.

So why write something now? Because I'm supposedly handling this so well even if I'm not, and talking to a keyboard is easier than talking to most people. And I do typically write something for my birthday and have been thinking just what I might say then and whether to offer any resolution(s) to make up for the one(s) I did not make when the calendar year began almost six months ago. 

The year has not been totally a loss, though. One year ago tomorrow, our first grandchild was born. We have reveled in watching him grow not to mention watching his parents deal with the many challenges he presents. To date he has opened child-proof medicine bottles, cabinet locks, supposedly-secured toy boxes, and refrigerators. He learned to pull off outlet covers but was stopped before sticking something in. He knows how to prop a cabinet door open with something while working to empty it of its contents to create a cave. He also loves books and dogs, two things dear to my own heart. This year would have been a lot harder without him. (We agree with his parents that there will be no social media photos of him.) 

I'll continue to ponder any resolutions I might be willing to make and possibly even post again before the upcoming birthday. For what it's worth, I'll be joining my husband and older brother in the 70s.