Recovery and Gratitude

I'm writing today from my bedroom which is my post-surgery communication desk. An icepack is my new best friend. The site of my incision is beginning to itch, which I assume means the healing is well underway. I have a tad of improvement in my toes, but they still don't work quite the way they are supposed to. I still stumble a bit. (Think Weebles wobble but they don't fall down!) But the good news is, this morning I found myself scurrying around.

I know it sounds weird. I mean how often does on e scurry? One of the things I noticed about my drop foot situation was not only my inability to walk, but to walk with any kind of speed. Forget running. As in running into the store to pick up one item in the back corner while your Sweetie waits in the car when it's 116 degrees outside. I just couldn't do it. I had to amble along while Sweetie sat in the slow cooker.

I can't say I "ran" around the house today, but I believe I moved faster than a normal walk. I scurried!  I know it's going to take a while for the unpinched nerve to get back to normal, but I take today's movement as a good sign.

So what does one do after surgery when she can't reach or bend. I think my bottom is growing roots into Sweetie's side of the bed. It's closer to the TV! I've watched way too many crime shows and Hallmark movies. I've taken lots of naps. And I've made potholders. Remember when you were a kid and you wove cotton loops across a 10 inch metal loom. In and  out. In and out.  I don't know why but I got a hankering to make potholders. Actually these are turning out to be more coaster size. It would have to be a small pot that you picked up with one of these beauties.



I can't drive for another week. I hope to start therapy soon.  I'm ready for this back issue to be over with. I'm ready to go back to work. All that said, I can't help but be grateful. Not being able to do for yourself and relying on others is hard for a person like me who is used to doing things for others.

"We have thousands of opportunities every day to be grateful … 

There's opportunity upon opportunity to be grateful; that's what life is."

(David Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness.org, Word of the Day, Sunday, August 30)

Believe me there are opportunities galore for gratitude when you're are in the hospital or recuperating from surgery. Today I'm grateful for :

• Kind, friendly, compassionate nurses and doctors. Seriously I don't think anyone was the least bit crabby.
• Red socks to keep my feet warm while I waited to be taken to the OR 
• The anesthesiologist who I only saw once, but knew how to put this puppy to sleep faster than she could say where's the doc?
• For the kid in the bed next to me in the recovery room who's finger didn't have to be amputated
• The "cool" ice pack machine that the hospital gave me as a going home present (Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll be charged a gazillion bucks for it, but it is worth every penny)
• Clean sheets and new pjs waiting for me when I got home.
• The prayers and kind thoughts of people from all over. Some I know well, others are complete strangers. Social media took on a whole new meaning. It's not just about cute animal videos, selfies better left unposted and family photos. It's about positive energy reaching across time and space to the very place it's needed.
• My Sweetie, aka Nurse Ratchet if the patient happens to do something not on the doctor's orders, who waited patiently, filled said ice machine several times over, didn't mind me taking over the whole bed, changed my bandages and bought me vanilla ice cream not because I needed it but because I wanted it. God, I love this man. 
• Linda, Jean, Jo, Judy, John, Wendy, Sorrow, Terri, Po, Jeanne, Amy, Diane, Carol and the other Chats, Bella and her mom and Dad, Aunt Letty, Leah, Denise, Amy, Fr. Miguel, Janice, and so many others who show me every day that life is worth living and love is worth sharing.

Here's to being able to move my toes,

Merry ME