A belated Happy New Year to each of you!  Since I have not been here in quite awhile I just wanted to check in.  I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and will be abundantly blessed during this new year and beyond!

I had a wonderful Christmas holiday season but it ended abruptly on December 27 when I went to the ER that morning with pain in my lower abdomen that got steadily worse.  Turned out to be an inflamed gall bladder and pancreatitis.  Fortunately I did not lose my gall bladder.  The GI doc went down my esophagus and removed "sludge" from the duct between my gall bladder and pancreas and them placed a stent near my gall bladder and one near my pancreas.  So far so good.  The stent near my pancreas has already been removed and the one near my gall bladder will be removed at the end of March.  I will have a different surgery on March 1 to remove a bone mass that is growing at the base of my pinkie finger on my right hand.  The hand surgeon is pretty sure it is benign.

I was almost attacked by a pit pull a couple of weeks ago. I walked out of my garage for my daily walk of my subdivision and made it to the sidewalk when I heard a dog barking behind me.  Looked around and saw a neighbor's (from the next block) pit bull running towards me (unleashed) and barking.  I immediately stopped in my tracks and faced the left side of my body (my brace is on my left leg) towards the dog with my front facing my house.  I did not make eye contact with the dog and was holding my cane in my right hand which I would have used as a weapon had it become necessary. The dog stopped about 20 feet away from me when I stopped but continued to bark.  I did not know what to do so I just stood there motionless.  Fortunately the dog's owner came and led the dog back home. I immediately started walking away to finish my walk, though somewhat unnerved.  I shutter to think what would have happened had the owner not shown up. I pass that house every day during my walk and the pit bull is either in the fenced yard or in a window inside the house barking at me. It would have been nice had the owner offered some sort of apology given I pass his house everyday. Now I wear a can of dog repellent around my neck when I go for my walk.

But all of that aside, I am blessed and am thoroughly enjoying life.  Oh yes, while I was hospitalized for the gall bladder issue (from the Sunday after Christmas until New Year's Eve, we had a huge storm here that blew over two huge trees in my yard, uprooting them.  Luckily no one was hurt and there was no property damage even thought the trees fell on my privacy fence.  The trees fell on a Monday but my family did not tell me about it until that Wednesday when one sister asked the other sister if she had told me about the trees and I of course immediately asked "what trees???" I had the fallen trees removed the day after New Year's and that was not cheap.  But life ain't cheap!

I recently received my Medicare card so I am now officially old. But I don't feel old.  I had my annual echo cardiogram of my heart done recently and my cardiologist ( I see him because I have hypertension) was very pleased with the results.  My heart pumps at 70% which is a 5% improvement from last year.  Anything over 50% is good. My hand surgeon said that is the rate of a 17 year old.  My daily exercise seems to be paying off.

I watch the View infrequently and spend much more time watching court shows like the Peoples Court.  I absolutely adore Judge Marilyn Milian.  She is hysterical!.

I will try to check in here from time to time to see how everyone is doing.  I am looking forward to catching up! Take care, everyone!