With the slightly slower pace of life over the holiday period, I've had time to think about the day to day practicalities of my "new-normal". Yes, I know it's been over a year since the new-normal surfaced and it could probably be considered plain old normal now, but I refuse to accept anything as normal now. The reality is I'm still treating each day as somewhat of an added bonus and trying to make the most of them. So I can't accept that a "normal" normal exists.
It's with these rose coloured glasses that I look at what my days consist of and that's why I've named this post what I did.
It would be very easy to say that the major changes are all now over, so I'm just getting on with it (thus the "same old, same old") but there are still enough little "quirks" that convince me otherwise.
The experts always said it would take a year or so for my body to normalise after treatment finished, and they were right. This is however, the first real summer since that period sort of lapsed and some of the nuances over the last month or so have been quite interesting - to me at least.
My old nemesis - the AWOL saliva - has actually become slightly less of an issue. Yes, it is still ever-present, but I was expecting it to be more pronounced in the summer heat. Instead, I've found I'm actually "needing" less water. This could of course be partially due to the fact I've been doing less talking with people away, but even so, my need to lubricate my throat is reasonably lower than it was even a month ago. Just as the hair on my jaw has grown back when it wasn't meant to (radiated = no more hair), this slight "softening" of the saliva issue may seem minor to most, but to me it is a very interesting development.
Another interesting tidbit is that despite the holiday excesses of food and reduced exercise regime, my weight has remained pretty static. Given my weight pre-treatment, I was sort of expecting to see some of it creeping back by now. Sure, I've been pretty committed to exercise of late (my bike is my friend again and it's rather therapeutic out either cruising the streets or pounding the pavement), but I still expected to put on a few kg during the "downtime". It would appear my body is quite happy now processing what I'm eating and no longer stores excesses "just in case". Great. I can also confirm that once I resumed my exercise, the extra weight such as it was faded away within a week or so. My weight has now been stable for a year - that to me is a real positive.
I've also had some good news from both my osteopath & acupuncturist They're both happy with the way my neck is finally starting to loosen up, and the appointments for both have now been extended out to monthly from fortnightly. There is still some way to go, but the degree of movement I have now is a vast improvement.
Add in an ever improving level of energy/stamina/fitness (whichever label spins your wheels), and there are enough changes still occurring that I have no doubt my life is still far from being days filled with just the same old same old.
