I feel your pain, Steph. Let me eat and drink something. Let me spin up slowly.

When I was at the desk job the fact that the first human I actually had to engage with handed me food and/or coffee was very helpful.

Wake up, walk dog, avoid eye contact on subway… after an hour, food and/or coffee.

Sooo, tired. I just don't adapt well to time change. I'm going to take a nap, which means I will probably stay up too late, which means tomorrow I will be sooo tired again. This is not a great pattern. Yet, tired. Need nap.

I feel your pain, Steph. Let me eat and drink something. Let me spin up slowly.

It didn't help that I woke up with a migraine and took my meds for it, which worked to get rid of it (Ubrelvy my beloved) but always leaves me feeling like my brain has been replaced by dirty socks, so when Tim talks AT me, it's even more maddening/boggling.

Tim's spinal curvature is quite marked and it keeps progressing. The doctor he met with didn't come right out and say "Surgery is the only option here," but that was the gist of the conversation. Tim was really hoping for a non-surgical option like a brace, but surgery is really the only option to improve his quality of life. He's gotten more and more limited as to what he can do, physically -- even walking 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile is impossible now.

The doctor wants Tim to get a CT scan and DEXA scan (he had an MRI recently and he got an X-ray today) and follow up in 6 weeks. I will be very very surprised if he doesn't have surgery before Memorial Day.

I feel bad for him, because surgery sucks, and he just had lung surgery, and had heart surgery in 2020. But it's better to have this surgery now, when he's still comparatively young and the recovery will be easier. And then that gives him his life back so he can go hiking and camping and taking walks around the neighborhood (and, frankly, I told him, "I'm afraid that fucking will break you in half, and I don't want that on my conscience!" [that's only about 30% a joke, unfortunately]).

I don't know why all of his parts have decided to stop working properly, but at least it's the 21st century and they can be fixed (or if not totally fixed, at least managed). If you had asked me 17 years ago which one of us was going to need 3 surgeries in 3 years and which one of us would just keep trundling along, I would not have picked the way it's turned out, I tell you what.

Surgery does indeed suck, but yes easier now than later after it has progressed more. {{Tim}} {{Teppy}} It is just as tough to watch your loved one go through the physical challenges as it is to go through them yourself.

If you had asked me 17 years ago which one of us was going to need 3 surgeries in 3 years and which one of us would just keep trundling along, I would not have picked the way it's turned out, I tell you what.

What? No! You must be confused. It has been explained to me many many times that being chonky causes every problem and being slim means you’re healthy and your body works great all the time.

I’m so sorry he is going through all of this. The two of you are very much in my thoughts.

Poor Tim. I hope the surgery is easy and helps a whole lot!

What? No! You must be confused. It has been explained to me many many times that being chonky causes every problem and being slim means you’re healthy and your body works great all the time.

Right? I, the chonk, with a family history of heart disease and a personal history of back surgery, am watching in utter confusion as my svelte (and genuinely metabolically healthy) husband has both heart and back surgery. It's honestly funny, though I try not to laugh *at* him, since he's the one getting his Frequent Surgery card punched a little too often.

I guess maybe I got my surgery out of the way early? So go me?

Also — and this is 100% true — my brother had surgery today to repair the Achilles tendon that he completely tore [pause while everyone cringes in sympathetic pain] when his dogs got out 10 days ago and he chased them. The good news is, they got the dogs back within 45 minutes. Also his surgery went well, but apparently the recovery is loooooong. Like, measured in months. And he, too, has to have back surgery, because he's been in terrible pain for about 6 months, but that's been delayed because of his incredible shredded Achilles.

Which is why I don't run.

Way too risky.

Poor Tim. I hope the surgery is easy

Apparently surgery for scoliosis is not easy, because they have to do a shit-ton of repairing and aligning and, I don't know, welding? in the lower spine. The doctor said 3-5 days in the hospital (which Tim is a pro at by now) and then 3-6 months of recovery at home before he can return to work. The 3-6 months is mostly to protect his healing back; he should honestly be back to taking walks and such probably within the first month. I fucking well hope he can entertain himself after that initial month or so, because post-surgery caretaking and Covid quarantine have taught me that I will stab a bitch if he gets underfoot too much.