The good news: Sarah's surgery occurred as planned and without incident (fortunately we saw a recent program on the History Channel featuring anesthesia horror stories after the operation). What's more, despite some residual pain in the left leg due to the severity of nerve damage, the microdiskectomy was successful.

The bad news: Because we were living in Florida and not paying California state taxes during the arbitrary period of time which the State of California reviews for wage and tax information ( which they use to calculate disability payments), Sarah is inelligible for California State disability insurance. Because eating and living indoors are pretty high on our list of basic needs, Sarah now finds herself in a position of cutting short her convalesence by at least a week and returning to work sooner than health, love, and doctor's orders would advise. This is particularly galling in light of the fact that for sixteen or more years before our ill conceived Florida detour, Sarah worked hard, paid her taxes and never once utilized the system of support we need now.

I hope you don't mind
the good news first
and the bad last.

It is simply my inclination
to save the worst
for the last.