One Year Anniversary and Progress

My, how time has gone by:  One year ago, I was waking up with an NG tube stuffed down my nose, a brand new temporary ileostomy, a belly full of lapo sites, and terrible pain in the abdomen and the rectum.  I didn't expect the recovery from the first surgery to be as rough as it was - This would be true for the second as well.  Those first days were critical in a mindset change that this journey is not going to be easy and positive thinking will be my greatest asset.

I'm not going to try to list highlights of the last year: Every day had something new to offer, some good and some bad.  At the end of it all, pocket fulls of lessons and learning.  Other than acknowledging the time past, dwelling on a single day (much like a birthday) seems to steal the importance of the other 364.

I had a followup appointment last week to see the progress since the last procedure of cleaning the abscess.  The pain has subsided greatly and tailbone pain is non-existent.  There is still pain from time to time in the rectum (possibly the sinus?) but only a little and not often.  The steroids are down to every other day and likely to be off with 7 days.  Doctors noted the inflammation has also subsided and things look to be progressing as expected.

I have another (and hopefully one of the last) followups on the 9th of April:  Should everything be healing as we expected, at that time we determine a back to work (and a back to golf) date.