Sadly most ppls don't save their umbilical cord, who knows it could be such an irreplaceable trinket.
To bad to hear that these last months have been rough on you, but well, at least you had family there and on top of that they were able to give a subjective point of view over your improvement :)
On my side I've stoped the TA and started my real pasion, poems, i know, lame, but it's kinda easy to me, at least in spanish, in english all I get is... strange for now, but I know I'll improve, as you are in all of the hits you've taken.
Happy to see you once again around, I thought that there was a good bye forever.