amen, I am alive

I’m pretty sure I should have been killed in July of 2003 when they first opened my skull and dug into the meat behind my eyes to scoop out the mass of nasty cottage-cheese-wrapped-in-tissue-paper, but I woke up.

I kept surviving being put under for shunt implantations and revisions and then another operation that removed the back of my skull so they could get at the rest of the mess inside.  I lost count of how many surgeries I had that year, and nobody’s given me a clear answer (or at least not written out so I can look back at it to tell you for sure).

And then again in 2020, when the world was going crazy, I had a very-last-ditch-no-other-option operation to get the absolute rest of that angry gerbil out of the middle of my brain.

Sure, I don’t have my own short-term memory, but I learned how to record my goings-on and that has acted as my short-term memory for the last twenty-two years.

Talked to Shannon on the phone again this morning.  I am so very much enjoying the laid-back ease with which we are talking to each other.  I know I keep saying it, but I am so excited to be in her presence with my free brain.  I found out that she’s an unashamed Nickelback fan, like me, and that made me feel seen and like I belonged which is always nice.

Man my solar-powered Bob Ross bobblehead is amazing.