# 148 - I'm Still Here!

It's been around three years since I last posted on this blog. The last post I made was during a very difficult time that made managing Addison's Disease a great challenge. The GREAT news is that I had surgery in 2015, and everything is about as perfect as it can get. Nothing fell, collapsed, prolapsed or otherwise hit the wall...or the floor. My surgeon put me into ICU after surgery as a precaution so my vitals would be on constant display. It worked. I'm here, and I'm doing fabulous as a happy uterusless woman.

Another celebration I've enjoyed this year is when I was blessed to turn 50 years old! Oh wow! I still feel like a young, young woman, but I'm now further from young and closer to old, according to the numbers. Lol.

The reason this birthday was especially meaningful to me is because...at the age of 33 I coded due to undiagnosed Addison's. After that, I had a solid ten year run of extremely serious health issues that required one major surgery after another, and life was brutal as it took being sliced, diced, glued, and screwed (the titanium version) to keep me going.

In so many aspects, I experienced life in a sort of suspended state of existence...in limbo. Today I'm technically in better health and am doing better than I was in my 30's.

In fact, we've built our country home and have been SLOWLY working to finish the interior. That's one area where I've not progressed much, I'm still slow. Even so, what I lack in speed, I make up for in persistence and duration. I don't go as fast as others, but I often outlast them threefold. That gives me reason to smirk, a little.

The last few weeks I've been steadily sheetrocking, taping, floating, texturing and now painting one of the rooms upstairs.

It's given me tremendous satisfaction to accomplish things that are tangible and enjoyable on a daily basis. This room will serve as my official writing room.

Once upon a time, Addison's Disease made Finding Lana a challenge for me.

For years I didn't know if I could come out from beneath a disease that often threatened to smother me, but I've been doing GREAT for the last couple of years, and life is better than it was in my 30's!

Life is beautiful.

Go CONQUER!