2023!!! Jan Army thread

[satz123]

Hi all, back from hospital. Well, they were supposed to be removing the 2 biopsied polyps but they removed 3 and another one remains that was too big to remove today as they didnt have back up in case removing it caused a hole in his bowel so he has to go back to have that removed on a Monday when the surgical team are available and might have to have some of his bowel removed with it. My head is screwed, it just seems to get more convoluted and scary.

Starts They will always cover themselves - and give the worst scenario so there will be no recriminations if they have to do more than they advised.
The bowel is HUGE - like 20 feet long so taking a small piece may not be as scary as you think.

Small comfort at the moment but I heard of someone who had a graft from colon to esophagus and it worked. Gross but true.
Amazing what can be done.

So as Molls says leave it to the experts - they know what to do - you melting your head thinking about it will get you nowhere.
Sleep tight Starty & Mr Starty - hopefully things will appear brighter after a good rest. zzzzz

[starty]

Morning all, feeling better after a good kip thankfully. Mr S not yet awake so hopefully he is feeling better too. Yes good point Satz they will give worst case scenario to cover themselves. So will just keep plodding through this tricky time we find ourselves in.

Inchy, thats what you need to do too. The first few weeks are always going to be a bit hit n miss on the psychological front as your mind loses its crutch. Especially hard when you have stresses, but it really doesn't always feel this way. The mind is amazing and it does recover. ODAAT really is the best way of taming this beast

[satz123]

Morning Starts & all to come.

Just heard a lovely old manor house in the middle of the woods here, that our houses were built around, is being repurposed to house asylum seekers.
There has been great activity over there - wholescale felling of old trees and no doubt damage to the surrounding wooded area and wildlife.

80 unvetted men of unknown background to be housed there as our ridiculous government do nothing to stem the flow of immigration when our health system is about to crash, we're going through a housing crisis, and have little to offer them.

Off to work before I say too much more

[starty]

Its similar over here Satz. I truly dont know what the answer is. I continually try and bury my head away from the news as its terrifying

[rustop59]

Its similar over here Satz. I truly dont know what the answer is. I continually try and bury my head away from the news as its terrifying

Good morning

Definitely do that Starty, you have enough going on in your own world at the moment. One day at a time is the only way you can do it and try and get out on those walks.

My old home town was on drive time radio programme last week. They were extremely welcoming in the past and now they are just being dumped on and they do not have the services or infrastructure to deal with such a huge influx of people. Hard to know how to deal with it.

Beautiful morning here, sun is shining. Just back from long walk. Nothing much planned for the day.

[Battle_for_the_sun]

Evening all

Spent the day making art and working through my PhD watchlist for a change of pace, I do a lot of portraiture/fan art stuff and wanted to do something honour of my thirtieth day drug free so its been a nice way to regroup a little, keep my hands and my mind busy. My new favourite weapon is procrastination, turns out any drinking thought can be shut down with the word 'later'. Not easy, not perfect, but it's gotten me through day 6. Feeling good about making progress even if I'm not convinced this is going to stick - but then I guess maybe nobody knows if it will in the early days?

Hope everyone's having a relaxing weekend

[IamMary]

Evening.
Another small comfort @starty, they whipped loads of my mothers colon out years ago, it's was riddled. It actually largely grew back and she's as healthy as a horse these days.

Inchy, you're playing a blinder, your ticking those days off brilliantly. Keep doing what your doing and don't think too far ahead.

Race tomorrow, only 5 miles.. its like a train station here, ffs!!

[IamMary]

Might have crossed post with you Inchy. Your right, we cant know if it will stick, none of us can, regardless of how confident or determined we are. Thats why we stick around here and for the wonderful company too of course.

[starty]

That's a big comfort. Thank you Mary!

Yep inchy no one can know. Falling off the wagon happens as it has done to me a number of times. The thing that does help is the realisation that life is better without. Of course, there are always going to be times where we want a drink for whatever reason but those times never really turn out how we imagine eg Ill just have a drink to ease stress, be sociable, cheer myself up and so on. But it doesn't end there and soon the negative impacts step in

[mollyka]

Evening all

Spent the day making art and working through my PhD watchlist for a change of pace, I do a lot of portraiture/fan art stuff and wanted to do something honour of my thirtieth day drug free so its been a nice way to regroup a little, keep my hands and my mind busy. My new favourite weapon is procrastination, turns out any drinking thought can be shut down with the word 'later'. Not easy, not perfect, but it's gotten me through day 6. Feeling good about making progress even if I'm not convinced this is going to stick - but then I guess maybe nobody knows if it will in the early days?

Hope everyone's having a relaxing weekend

You're doing well Inchy and the more days/weeks/months you clock up the more you really won't want to break that run...that's why I liked counting days at the beginning..some don't.

I'm a wee bit worried when you say ' I'm not convinced this is going to stick'.....I feel we need to be 100% committed to MAKE it stick...you need sort of an armour around you...catalogue the reasons it must stick...understand the reality of each relapse...most here will agree that each subsequent quit gets harder...so much so that some will say they really don't have another quit in them....the first quits are golden...the enthusiasm should be there....arm yourself with all the reasons why relying on substances to get through life is not for you.

What got me through was my mantra ' I can do anything today but I won't drink...under ANY circumstances '
It gets easier and easier if you stay quit...but relapsing really has more consequences in the long run than just picking up that drink or drug on that day.

Sorry if I'm sounding a gloom merchant....but I really don't want anyone to suffer because of the same mistakes that I made.....said with care xxx