Thursday, April 7, 2011

What a month!


Dayspring
"I am the Lord, who heals you."

Exodus 15:26


Recovery from knee surgery is tough.
One of the worst parts was having the 31 staples removed two weeks after the surgery. I "felt" every one of them being removed.  Awful!

My Mandy is a wonderful "nurse" and an amazing daughter and friend.  She did so many things for me.
All my children ~ and their spouses ~ are pretty incredible too, as a matter of fact!
Their care and concern was evident.

Grandchildren make even the really bad days beautiful.
Elijah kept bringing me books to read to him the other day. One at a time. Over and over. Up onto Gramma's lap and down again. Over and over.  He never bumped my bad knee. Not even once. He was told to be careful and remembered. Every single time.
Charlotte took such good care of a balloon I received. Always making sure it was by my side. Always making sure the string was in my hand.  Always.  The balloon broke on Sunday.  : )
She also found my healing incision very distasteful ~ "Ewww, gross! Gramma stinky!"
Penelope wanted to look at my incision. Mostly because her cousins were looking at it. After one peek she'd had enough. Any other attempts to show it to her were met with an emphatic "No thank you".  Penelope accidentally broke that balloon by the way.  : ) 

My father-in-law can beat me on the stairs ~ for now!  He told me that I'm "pretty slow these days".  : )

I needed a "coach" following my surgery and my husband got the job. He truly feels my pain and encourages me to work through it. He's a good coach. He really cares....I needed to be reminded of that. 

Prescription pain medicine messes with my mind and my body.  
I've been totally off these pain meds for four days now ~ I'm starting to feel like myself again!

I've received so many wonderful, kind, & encouraging comments on my blog ~ thank you so much for those ~ and so many sweet emails from blog friends near and far.
And in this age of emails, text messages, and tweets, people still send cards ~ I received so many beautiful ones ~ filled with so many encouraging, uplifting thoughts and good wishes. Who would have thought I had so many friends!
Random acts of kindness! I've been the recipient of some of those too!  Packages in the mail just because! Pretties to brighten my day! 
Visitors to brighten my day too! People have busy schedules ~ what a blessing that they would squeeze a visit to me into those schedules!

Therapy has been tough, sometimes even brutal. But I am definitely seeing progress. I have a great group of therapists and aides that I'm working with.  Bill usually takes me to therapy and on the way back home he rewards my hard work with a large unsweetened tea from McDonalds.  Yum!  
On the days he can't drive me my friend Patricia takes me instead. Bill makes sure that I have some $$ so I can take Patricia out to lunch afterwards. She introduced me to a really great salad at Chick fil A.  A little outing with a friend is wonderful medicine!  
Soon I should be driving myself....but for now I'm being a little "chicken" about getting behind the wheel again.  Besides if I drive myself I'd miss out on the tea and lunches!!

Just last night I started working on some "crafty things".  I'm loving creating again! I just wish I could sit for more than about 30 minutes.  My leg starts to throb after being down that long ~ I need to get it up for a good hour afterwards to keep the swelling down.  But 30 minutes is better than no minutes at all!
I'll post some photos of my creations and the pretties I've received in the mail soon.  But for now Katie is still using my laptop and that's what I use to upload photos.  Who knows how much I will have made by the time I get it back!!

God has been so good to me during the past month.
He's met my needs through the care and concern of so many people.
He's healing me.
He loves me.

My goodness!  What a month!!   : )

This photo doesn't really go with the post BUT I couldn't do two posts in a row without some photos.
My children, children in law, and grandbabies - taken about a year ago.
Am I blessed or what!!!

   
  

8 comments:

Dorthe said...

Hello Dear Marie,
so good to see you back, and hear you are much better,- wonderful you could throw the pain killers away already, soon you will run from your father in law on the steps,again :)
I wish you a wonderfull week-end dear friend, and more and quick healing.
Love and hugs,Dorthe

Raymonde said...

I am glad you are recovering well and are being cared for so lovingly. Praying for your swift healing. Take care. xxx

Debbie said...

I am so glad that your recovery is going well and that your family is taking specially good care of you. I love the family picture! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

*hugs*
Debbie K

Simply Shelley said...

So good to hear your recovery is going good...grand kids can really help in that area :)
I am ashamed to say I have had a card sitting around here for a while now waiting to mail you....I can't seem to find your address so,if you can would you mind emailing it to me,please?
Sounds like God and your family have been there right by your side through the whole process of your surgery and recovery....that's wonderful and such a blessing...
You are such a sweet person....you deserve all the pampering they can give you :)
May God continue to keep his hand on you as you fully recover....blessings,Shelley

Ann said...

Wonderful to see you Marie. I'm so glad to hear that you're getting better day by day. I know several people who have gone through the same surgery and while I don't have first hand knowledge I have heard how tough it can be. It sounds like you have a lot of great people taking care of you though. You have a great weekend

Becky Shander said...

I'm glad to see that you've been blessed with so much family love...their happy smiles and enthusiasm in this photo screams "joy!"

Sheila said...

Hello Marie! it was good to see your post and know that you have been prayed for and thought of. It sounds like you are doing well considering and have had lots of wonderful caretakers. Crafting is great therapy too.
Wishing you sunshine filled days ahead~
Bless you,
Sheila

Cindy Adkins said...

Hi Marie,
I pray that you are getting better each day...and I am so happy that your family has been so helpful...what a beautiful family--I love this picture!
XO
Cindy