Welcome

I'm just setting this up to celebrate a much anticipated relief from pain. A couple of months ago I vowed to change the name of my blog to Chocolate Chip Mint when all this was over. This being an interesting, if not frustrating, odyssey of back pain. The kind of back pain that has you taking narcotics for months without relief, navigating the health care system, and finding relief only by lying down.

This experience for me was unique only to me. I know others who have suffered from the same, similar, even worse pain and for longer periods of time. I know some who are still suffering, haven't found relief, in fact have pain always no matter what they do.

If surgery relieves my pain, there's nothing to say it won't reoccur. I hope it doesn't. I hope the surgery works and I can return to the things I love.

I really haven't missed out on too much. Work, yes, but it was my off season. Friends, definitely, but they were always there for me by phone or on the internet, some visiting. Cooking, some, because I couldn't stand for longer than ten minutes - although that's getting better now. It used to be I couldn't dress myself below the waist without help. I can do that now. Same for shaving my legs and cutting my toenails.

I gave up walking outside, driving, and cutting my hair (because I couldn't sit). But I didn't give up my sense of humor. (I hope to never suffer anything so bad that I do.)

So I'm changing my blog to celebrate all the things I love and cherish: family, friends, food (not necessarily in that order), humor, ..
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...and most of all Chocolate Chip Mint.