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Share your quitting journey

20/20 for 2020

KMC56
Member
3 11 75

Love the beautiful meaning of Christmas first and foremost, also the secular festivities.

Wishing all the Exer's a Wonderful Christmas - keep it smoke free and stress free - enjoy all the magic memories  that it will produce! In less than 10 years, our Christmas gatherings have gone from 30 to our little family of 4 on Christmas Day.  Thankfully, my husband's side which is HUGE, still gather the weekend before Christmas Day, and my dad's side is on Christmas Eve with all the cousins taking our turns to host..the Italian side!!  So enjoy, celebrate, but mostly the celebrate the beautiful meaning of Christmas!

I had to be mindful of the necessary appointments to close the year end  (meeting the obligations of use it or loose it from our health care spending balance).

In less than 8 hours, my annual vascular appointment informed me of the great possibility of surgery to my right carodic artery.  A CT on Jan. 3, 2020 will determine the out come. Not really not what I wanted to hear, but knew two years ago the 80% blockage would most likely increase to a higher percentage -and would need to be addressed sooner or later, without experiencing a stroke first.  Of course this is smoking related, another reason to keep the quit!

My next appointment was a post op for cataract surgery, that was determined by me, so I could exhaust my spending account for 2019. To my absolute surprise, the result of post op, is my retina of my right eye has become detached. This really was something that I DID NOT expect to hear.  I'm still in shock. So January 8 will be informative from the specialist in scheduling a surgical appointment, and education on the procedure and recovery.  

Dang, I was so looking forward to crystal clear vision for 2020!  Now, I will need to wait 12 months for cataract surgery, which will bring me closer to being on Medicare coverage...which will cover the surgery.

I do believe early cataracts and the detached retina  is also smoking related, shoot, I'm only 63!!

So the closing of the 2019 year, has handed me a clear 20/20 visual of 2020!  Once again, I feel blessed (although I'm not looking forward to any of these procedures)  that my medical guardian angel above is looking out for me!

With all that being said..I am ready to party down at a roaring '20's theme New Years eve party..I am celebrating another smoke free new year,  darn blessed to be amongst all my friends, relatives and my Ex friends, old and new!

May God bless you all!

~Kathy

11 Comments
About the Author
Have smoked for over 40 years....approaching 60. Wake up call...time marches by, and want to be smoke free...as I have promised myself when I turned 30, 40, 50!!