Sleepless in Stallings

(So as not to confuse you, I live in Stallings, NC, but my mailing address is Matthews. Our little town isn't large enough to have its own post office.)

I don't know what's up with me lately, but I woke up again around 2 AM and couldn't get back to sleep, so I thought I would blog a little. I received a lot of wonderful birthday cards and happy birthday wishes yesterday. Thanks to everyone. I truly appreciate them. It's not quite the birthday I was hoping for as far as my health is concerned, but it was everything I could hope for otherwise. So thanks again. Your thoughts and prayers mean a lot to me.

I'm officially back to work tomorrow (today) with my first official back-to-work meeting this morning. I think my Aunt Martha and wife Vicki have talked some sense into me, so I'll continue to work from home until after my surgery. I don't like working from home because I feel so isolated and disconnected from everyone at work, and I don't work as efficiently. It's much easier to walk over to somebody's cube and ask a question that it is to call them over the phone. But I don't need to be sitting in a car for 1 1/2 hours every day commuting, and I need to be able to work sitting, standing up, or lying flat on my back. Yes, I can do that! :-)  At Vicki's suggestion I'm going to try to go out to lunch with nearby compadres to ease the feelings of disconnectedness.

I'm a little concerned about the long-term effects of my health problems on my left leg. Like I told you before, I've lost a good amount of power in it already. I can stand on my right leg and raise my heel off the floor multiple times without and problems, but when I do it with the left leg it's a struggle. I'm also feeling numbness in all but my big toe. My doctor, who is a different person than my surgeon, said he thinks I should be able to regain 90% of functionality in my left leg, but I'm going to call anyway and see if I can get an appointment with the surgeon sooner than Tuesday. I'd like to get this surgery scheduled and completed as soon as possible if it's going to minimize any long term effects from this.

I've had a lot on my mind lately as you might imagine. I want to feel sorry for myself and say this shouldn't happen to me at such a young age and for someone who tries to take good care of himself, but then again why not me I suppose? It could be much, much worse. I'm so grateful to still be able to get around and make my daughter laugh. She is teaching me so much about patience and selflessness. I pray that my body will stay together enough while she grows up that we can continue to always have fun together.

Okay, hopefully that's enough to get me wound down again. Thanks for listening.

God bless,

Aaron