Back into the swing of things

I haven’t been much of a blogger lately, and I’m not sure why that is. I’ve had a lot of ideas about what would make for some interesting entries, but lately with everything going on I just haven’t really been able to write anything. Hopefully I’ll start to change that.

I spent the weekend up at Cultus Lake with John and Rebecca, and I had a great time – check out Rebecca’s entry for all the details. We drank an impressive amount of booze considering we were there for only two nights. Most of my immediately family made it up for a visit, and it was good to see them all again. For whatever reason, I just never seem to have time to visit with them these days, something I’m hoping to correct over the summer.

I got to spend a little while down by the lake with my niece Jessica and my nephew Derek. It’s funny how fast time goes — seems like just yesterday I got the call that Jessica was being born, and made my way out to Chilliwack to be there for her first moments. Now, she’s nearly nine years old, tromping through the wilderness with uncle’s hand in hers, taking him to the lake to show him how to skip a few rocks. After they left, I thought to myself that I really haven’t spent enough time with them in the last few years. Sure, I make it to Christmas and as many birthdays as I can, but it just never adds up to any significant amount of time unfortunately.

In terms of my surgery, it’s been nearly four weeks now, so it’s probably relatively stable. Like the first surgery I had, the first few days after were the best in terms of visual appearance. My eye seems slightly different now than when I first got home from the hospital. That being said, it’s still alot better than how it looked pre-operatively, so I guess in that regard the surgery was a success. The double vision is still there, but I don’t think it’s nearly as bad, and given time and lots of eye exercises, will hopefully correct itself even further.

One of the interesting parts of this surgery is the disruption of the infra-orbital nerve. This nerve supplies sensations to the cheek, lips and gums, and the operation occurs near it so it usually gets slightly damaged during the procedure. So, part of the recovery involves regaining sensations in that side of my face, which manifests itself in sort of pins-and-needles type sensations as the nerves reconnect. I have to say, it’s rather uncomfortable, and feels sort of like someone constantly rubbing a feather or something against your face.

Now that everything is behind me, I’m going to step back up and get the Duane Reduction Program going again. I’m hoping to drop 20 pounds before leaving for Ottawa in about 2.5 months, so I better get at it. If anyone is up for some tennis, rollerblading or badminton sometime, just drop me a line. I’m going to start biking to and from work (the from work part will hopefully involve going along as much of the seawall as I can), so hopefully it all helps. No more beer for a while — I’m going back to rum and diet coke for a while.

I’m hoping to make a small trip to San Francisco for a weekend sometime in June to hang out with my friend Jason and his wife (they are having twins shortly), which will hopefully involve a day trip to Napa and some fun in downtown San Francisco. Other than that, I’m going to stay close to home for a while and reload my bank account (which has continually dwindled since Northern Voice for some reason). I have a few projects I’m going to “finish” in the next little while, and then I’m purposefully not taking anything else on for the summer and going to spend most of it away from a computer.