tomatillo paella

 hello to all! Hope this new year is much better to all than that of last year.  We are finally going to open the bottle of bubbly that Mark bought two years ago!  Don't know if this is good luck or not, but booze and a wheelchair don't mix together very well so special occasions is the only time I take a sip and that is it.  I never disclosed the reason the blog is called "From my chair". (desde mi silla).  On February this coming year, it will be exactly 20 years since I became totally dependent on a wheelchair and this is not an anniversary I look forward to.  After a full laminectomy that NO ONE told me would put me in a world of hurt (to give an idea, I was being given morphine intravenously and it did not even register the pain level), to point that one of the specialized nurses looked at me and said, "with the level of pain you are going through, I honestly don't know why you are still alive".  Not something one wants to hear.... The famous diagnosis of D.I.S.H, (diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis) is a cute form of saying we don't know what happened and we don't care. I have dealt with caring doctors, extraordinary nurses, incompetent fools and forbearing psychiatrists.  One of these fools told me to my face, I don't know why you are not clinically depressed with all the pills they are giving you.... The fact that my blood pressure has been irregular to the ying yang is also idiopathic and it will go from extreme highs to blood curling lows, to the point of one specialist telling to my face, "will you stop scaring people please?? - my blood pressure has been placed at 40/20 - enough for being declared brain dead, to 210/115 - enough for brain damage,.  I am still here, kicking  all to the best   and driving people to rethink how to deal with quadriplegics who still have use of their brains and hands.  Sorry if this is not my normal happy go lucky but do sometimes wonder why all of this and how is it I have survived all this so far.  Mark, bless his heart, has not only NOT gone crazy with all of this but has gone out of his league to make me realize I am not alone and that I am loved.  For that alone, sweetheart, thank you and I want you healthy and to know I love you too! (He also retaught me how to laugh and not be so critical of myself.)