Today is the one year anniversary since my last and second complete external surgery. Styloids and stylohyoid completely gone after 3 surgeries and years of pain.
Today is a blessing
I am hoping that anniversary number 2 will have me in a gym or swimming. Praying that I can continue unwinding my neck and shoulders. My recent therapy is moving forward. I am grateful. Turning back time as my muscles are beginning to respond to therapy.
Be safe everyone and keep washing those hands.
Stay the course everyone. You are very strong people and you must be tenacious. Keep up the battles until the war is won.
3D CT scans and 3D technology are the tools that will change our doctors and make rare diseases more visible.
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Thank you Emma for all your input and infoâŚglad that things are slowly moving forwards for you. I hope that you continue to improve & that you are able to get back to more activities in the future, your patience & ability to keep searching & keeping going is inspiring! Best wishes 
What an encouraging post, Emma! Iâm so glad to know things are getting better for you. This will give hope to those who arenât seeing quick results from surgery. I, too, had slow recovery from some symptoms, & amazingly, 5.5 years post op am still noticing some nerve recovery going on.
Thank you Emma for the update and glad to hear that you are progressing.
I am three months post op from my second surgery. June will be one year for the first side. I have neck and shoulder issues and its been a bear on my well being but I can say that I have seen some improvement from physical therapy, massage and stretching. My throat has been hurting recently, which is a worry but I realize its the incisions that have tightened and nothing more. Its part of the waxing and waning of the healing process.
ES patients are particularity vulnerable to anxiety but we need to use every trick in our arsenal to tamp down the worry to stay healthy.
BTW, the secrete thing I wanted to share back in December was a new job, but I wanted to hold off until I could give my two weeks notice. I was offered my dream job - a senior architect position for NYCâs design and construction division (a city job with tremendous benefits) then it went to the cityâs budget department to wait for release. I was told it could take one to three months before the job was released. Now of course it wont happen and I am ok with that. It was an honor to be nominated - LOL. Seriously though, staying healthy and safe is our first priority.
I am so grateful for my ES family. Thank you for helping me through some of the tougher times in my life. We are all in for tough times ahead and we need to do what we can to help each other.
Peace and health to my ES family.
Teresa
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Hi BG!
WOW! What an amazing gift you had being able to apply for that job. Is it certain, the job wonât be offered to you or just a delayed chance because of COVID19? When the dust settles from this whole thing, I expect our economy will gradually recover & job opportunities that have been put on hold will reappear.
I canât believe itâs been almost a year since your first ES surgery & three mos. since the second. Iâm glad youâve found resources to help w/ the problems that are still bothering you & am sorry the incisions are creating uncomfy symptoms. I hope you can massage them or get cold laser therapy to help loosen them up. And yes, the healing process does wax & wane. Thank you for making that observation. I am very thankful that you are so much better than before surgery even though your recoveries have presented some unique challenges for you.
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Youâve had a long & difficult journey, clearly not over yet, but glad that there are improvements. Itâs been great to have you here, glad that youâve found it a supportive place, & weâve learnt alot from you. Youâve paid it back & been real help to others too!
Wow, what an amazing job offer! Such an honour, I hope that it will still be open laterâŚ
Best wishes for the rest of your recovery, keep safe & well in these difficult times
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@jules @Isaiah_40_31 Thank you both for the support and love.
The job offer may be there. but time will tell. The city will need to reboot after this is all over so maybe. For the time being I hope that my current job can survive.
My daughter and I are now working form home. My colleague has family members in NJ were three of them have died from the virus. He had some contact with them while still at work. I started my 14 day countdown clock yesterday to make sure that we are ok and to isolate to keep others safe as well.
We need to get through this very difficult and scary time with support and compassion.
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Iâm so sad to read about your colleagueâs loss. How terrible! So far we are safe here though sheltering in place (except for grocery shopping & taking walks). My husband is still having to go to work. I wish he could stay homeâŚIâm praying for Godâs protection for each of you & your loved ones. This is an interesting & challenging time for sure!
BG
So sad to hear about your colleagueâs family. I am hoping that we can get on top of this and move forward. I do hope that job offer comes back once things get to normal, but it might be a stretch especially if there are cuts because of the economy I wish you the best.
We have been at home mostly, though my husband plays a bit of tennis in open air.
We went to a quiet beach in the early morning on Wednesday at about sunrise and left before the afternoon crowd showed up. It is a place that attracts mostly walkers and mature couples. It was very pleasant and relaxing. If the younger generation keeps on going in crowds, the beaches will be shutdown, but we were safe that one morning or we would have left. I love the breezes where I live in Fl in the winter. Our winter, has quickly changed to summer heat, though. I hope we get a few more cool days before we hit the 98 temps. We are already in high 80âs and hitting a record of 90 today.
Keep the hand washing up.
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Your poor colleagueâŚa terrible time. Hope that you & your daughter keep wellâŚall getting quite scary in the UK too, food shortages on top of everything else 
Prayers & hugs to you 
Thank you @emma @Jules @Isaiah_40_31
My colleagueâs family is very close and always getting together for family functions. He was suppose to be at the family gathering from where many came down with the virus but he had a fraternity brothers weekend event in Vermont. That reunion could have very well saved his life.
My neighborhood grocery store is very busy and still had plenty of food - but no toilet paper. (at least when I was last in there 4 days ago) The store sent out am email to my local listserve posting jobs available for all grocery store positions. Not only are the health care workers on the front lines, so are these employees helping to make sure we can eat.
I am looking forward to my favorite time of year when the migrating song birds pass through. It shouldnât be long now. The early stragglers are coming through now. Brooklyn is one of the best places to see them with high concentrations in Prospect Park - and Central Park in NYC. I also live near Greenwood Cemetery, which is about 3/4 the size of Central Park. Its a beautiful, historic place and a wonderful place to find serenity - birders love it too!
Hope springs eternal. 
Stay safe and positive.
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Letâs hope all key workers stay safe & wellâŚmy son is a team manager in a store, he does come under the class of people vulnerable to the virus, so could stay at home, but he wonât. Hope you get your toilet paper, itâs such a random thing to be panic buying, same in the UK, paracetamol I could understand! Ironically at sonâs store today they were short on everything that shouldâve been delivered, but did get lots of toilet paper! It all went though!
Hope you can still go out to see the birds, take care of yourselfâŚ
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Hi BG,
Iâm a âwanna beâ when it comes to bird watching. I had suet feeders hanging in my backyard for several years & got a wonderful variety of birds through but eventually took them down because the tree squirrels were devouring & wasting the suet when they discovered it. Maybe in retirement, Iâll become more of a birder. What a gift that you live in the flight path of the migrating song birds!
Fortuitous for your co-worker to have a previous engagement but still very sad for him & his extended family.
The toilet paper thing is hilarious. My husband found this picture on the internet yesterday. Looks much more enticing to me than a standard roll of tp! 
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Love the pic!
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