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If you’ve been following my journey back to health for the past several months, you know how I’ve struggled to get back to normal. Physically, there may be little left to improve; I’ll probably always have to work at keeping my shoulder strong; my jaw may or may not get much better — I’m still working on that and time will tell.

One of the most important things to me has been getting back to work, and I’m doing that slowly but surely. I’ve just recently finished a website for a new client, Southland Safety.

I’m almost done with a DVD of a slideshow tribute to the recently deceased father of a friend, which I’ve done pro bono and which may lead to more work. I’m also preparing — along with two other artists — to mount an art show and we have hopes of making it not only an annual event but something that could grow and even outlive us all. The website at FortWorthArtShow.com just went online and I hope you’ll visit it and make plans to attend the show on Saturday, September 20th.

Referrals seem to be coming at me from many directions. In the past week, I had one that has produced, at this stage, a warm prospect. I’m hoping to heat things up a bit and bring them on as a client. Another in the past few days didn’t pan out. But that’s the nature of prospects; isn’t it? You win some, you lose some.

I’m beginning to change the way I look at finding work. Seems that it’s beginning to find me! That’s a good feeling.

☆

Last Friday, I had a PET/CT scan, which I covered in the last update. The actual scan went well. Time or, rather, the passing of it while I waited for the scan was not nearly as difficult as it is at Parkland. UTSW Medical Center doesn’t have nearly the amount of traffic of Parkland. I won’t know the results of the scan until my next ENT clinic appointment.

Tomorrow morning, I go in for an FNA, doctor-speak for Fine Needle Aspiration — a biopsy. The young resident who examined me last time at the ENT clinic found something she thinks needs further examination. My thinking is that it’s a bit of scar tissue that’s been with me since the operation in October. I honestly can’t feel anything that feels even remotely new and/or out of place — and it’s my body! I see in my mind’s eye a very befuddled technician trying to figure out just where he/she is supposed to stick the needle.

Now, here’s something that is good news and has happened so slowly that I didn’t notice it until just this moment. Since the surgery in October, I’ve had no feeling in my neck, right below my jaw on the right side. Nerves take a long time to come back but it would appear that I’m getting some feeling back in the area — about the size of a slice from a medium-sized tomatoe — that’s been completely numb for 9 1/2 months. This is really exciting because it gives me hope that the muscle control of the right side of my chin might return, as well.

That’s it for now. I’m grateful for all that is going my way, no matter how long it takes. I’m a very lucky man.