Four years ago, I made this post, all about my hospital and brain tumour gubbins. It's been a long time since then, so I guess it's time for an update...

In general, my health is about the same. Over the past few years, I've learned the sort of things that can cause me to get queasy, and am attempting to avoid such things. I've learned that over-exerting myself can cause a lot of unexpected sickness, and that if I want a somewhat pleasant day without feeling bad, I generally just need to sit in one place and not move.
It's certainly not the greatest lifestyle in the world, but at least I can get my coding done.
.. :/

-=-=-

My balance is still severely broken.
When they removed the tumour (/cyst/mass/whatever!) from my head, they left a fairly large hole! The "fourth ventricle" had apparently been squeezed by the tumour, and the expectations were that the ventricle would reclaim the space once the tumour was removed.
...It hasn't though, so instead there's an odd hole in my head.

As I move, the CSF (CerebroSpinal Fluid which is a normal part of your brain, continues to slosh about in my head, and since there's now a large hole for it to slosh around inside of, the slightest head movement causes a wave-like motion inside by head.
I have a Shunt inside my head, and down through my body, which collects a lot of the CSF and pumps it down into my gut where it's less of an issue.... But there's still plenty of it rolling around in here!

It's not easy to cope with. Over the past few years I've become accustomed to moving around without whooshing my head about, but if I dare go outside, things become much harder.
Glancing around is more natural outdoors. Watching for pedestrians. Looking out for cars.. And constantly checking your footing to ensure you're not about to step in anything messy!!
That all requires lots of head movement, quick glances around, and the resulting "waves" in my head are extremely difficult to cope with. Too much, and I also start to get queasy too, and then things get rather unpleasant!!

At the rear of our house is "the ginnel" which is an enclosed shortcut through part of the village. I can generally walk up and down in the ginnel because I'm not having to watch out for cars there. (Although there's usually plenty of "mess" out there!!) But the second I hit a roadside pavement, things get much trickier.

My lack of balance also results in lots of fancy footwork! Although I'm apparently quite good at holding myself upright (eg, not physically falling over) I do tend to stumble quite a bit, especially when trying to stay stationary. As the fluid sloshes about, my body tries to compensate by stumbling back and forth. Thankfully I've not yet fallen down, but if I'm in a precarious position (such as on a flight of stairs) this can be quite a dangerous thing to be doing.
As such, flights of stairs are attempted as swiftly as possible, and at a constant rate. I have to psych myself up, then go without stopping, lest my body start stumbling backwards to its doom!!

For the most part, then, I'm stuck indoors. A weekly-or-so trip to the local Tesco is about all I can manage, regularly. Luckily they built the new Tesco so close to my house that it's literally just three very short roads away from my home. But even then I need someone (My Mum acts as my Carer) to watch me incase my stumbling results in me waltzing into the path of oncoming vehicles.
I'm dangerous out there!!

And so, I continue. Coding is easy, as it's done seated, and indoors. Which is handy!
I'm glad I have my coding, and I'm thankful that my online community are there to keep me from going completely crazy!

Thanks, all!
Now, back to the coding!!