School and recovery and studying and... how old am I??

Well I have completed over half of my first term at OIT. I had someone ask me today "have you registered for spring term, yet?" And I replied "is that the next one?" My biology professor busted out laughing. See... I'm not what you would call a traditional student. No... I'm officially the "old lady in the class." I'm taking two classes- Biology and Speech. I LOVE Speech class but don't care for the instructor. (I have an A) And Biology is a mental stretch for me but I'm hanging in there because I adore the professor. (I have a B+) I'm realizing that there is more to learn at school then what's in the books. It has been quite interesting, being in a classroom again after 20 years. I'm learning things like cell phone etiquette. Apparently the instructors don't like it if they ask you a question and you google the answer from your phone. HUH?? We did have a SUPER cute guest lecturer in biology class one week... Dr. Hempel taught my class! I'd love to tell you what he covered but I was too busy being enamored with the teacher.

Healing from the mouth surgery took a lot more out of me then I thought it would. I honestly thought I would be sore for a couple of days... maybe a week... and then right back to my normal level of activity. WRONG. I couldn't believe how completely fatigued I was as well as enduring a tremendous amount of pain. And the deficit in my mouth was SO much larger then I thought it would be. And deep. Some of my skull was exposed. From inside of my mouth. It still is. Yeah.... And my speech was quite effected so THAT was cute. Especially when I'm presenting speeches in class. Now I'm old AND I sound totally weird.

I'm happy to say that I am now feeling MUCH better. The granulation tissue is filling in nicely. There has been some talk about doing a skin graft but I'm going to hold out and hope my body heals the wound. I'm cancer free, which is a total blessing. And I am FINALLY back to exercising. I had to take an entire month off from working out because I could not increase my heart rate too much. If I did, I would feel my heart BEATING INSIDE THE HOLE IN THE ROOF OF MY MOUTH. I don't know how I did it but I only gained 2 pounds in the last month however, my body is much softer then it was before surgery. I have work to do!!

I'd LOVE to share a photo with you of the opening inside my mouth because it's gnarly... but I'll spare you. Unless you beg. I do love whipping it out at parties and formal dinners. Or while in class. Sharing my huge mouth sore in class makes me the "old-crazy-lady-in-class-who-talks-weird-and-is-disgusting." (What more could I want from a room full of 19 year olds?)