Prayer

There was a company party in Wichita for L's company. But because I have been out of the hospital for a week, obviously we didn't attend.

So I haven't been on the computer all evening long until recently. There was an email for Urgent Prayer and an email following up with the name "B" as the subject line. Scrapbook Granny's husband, B is an employee of the same company as L and was at the company party/picnic.

Apparently he (B) had a heart attack while there and went to Wesley Hospital. I was shocked and saddened. I wanted to do "something" as Scrapbook Granny and B had been there for us a week ago when I had my surgery. How I want to just talk to my friend D and tell her that I will be there for her just as they were for L and me nearly 2 weeks ago. I thought about going to Wichita and telling her that but realize that I am still recovering from surgery.

Then I remember that L went to church today and he wrote (from the sermon): "Prayer is a process, not just one event. We all need to keep praying."

So I think there are two things (for now) that I can do for B and D. That is to pray for both of them and to send them a card, telling them how helpless I am feeling but yet, somehow lifting them up in good cheer.

For those who know me...please pray for my good friends "B" and D (scrapbook granny). They are in need of prayer at this time.

Unstapled!

I was finally unstapled yesterday afternoon. YEA!! I can cough without impailing myself! I thought it was kind of interesting how the nurse did her work. She had a staple remover (not like the type used in schools, thankfully). She worked quickly and painlessly. I commented how I didn't need to be put out for that, but was grateful that I was for the actual stapling procedure itself. Now I am held up by little strips of tape (which hopefully won't come out for a week to two weeks). Gotta watch those hot showers!

Afterwards L and I went to Wal-Mart. I needed a few things but I didn't want to sit in the car waiting for him to find the groceries. So L parked in front while I walked up to the handicap motorized scooters. The associate at Wal-Mart showed me how to run it and I told him that I was a week out of surgery. I wondered if he wanted to see my taped incision?

So L followed me with the cart looking for various fruits, vegetables, breads, etc. I never knew how defensive of driver you have to be driving/riding a handicap cart. You have to watch out for carts darting out of the aisles, kids racing back and forth and people who block the lane. I now have a new found respect for these people who are "handicap" and straight out of surgery, or whatever their problem is. I got these looks like "Huh? She looks fine. She doesn't need to be riding/driving that." Anyway...I perceived that I was getting those thoughts/looks as I was motoring around. I saw other people on these carts. Granted they probably had like 20 plus years on me. Then I saw some standing up to get their item. I thought "Hey, no fair." But I had L to do my "grabbing" of items.

I really enjoyed that motorized cart. It came in handy in my recovery. Then when I got home I fell asleep for hours. Boy! That was a taxing day!
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Today I walked around a little (slow) but I'm not training for a running race. I want so much to work around the house. Be it laundry, dumping the kitty litter box, or general cleaning. But I have at least 2-3 weeks more to be cleared to do those things.

I still have a "Battle Bruise," from the day after surgery. The guy who was was trying to drill from one my little veins in my right arm to get blood gave it to me. Wonderful. It still has a black look to it after a week!

Meanwhile, I have to have my "special" diet of apples, wheat bread, water, grahams. Oh what fun! But maybe, I'll lose some weight, who knows? :)

Hospital food vs. real food

Today I got an update on someone who has been on a light diet for a week. She is getting to eat "real food," according to the health update. I questioned was it "hospital food?" And the answer was depending how hungry you can be hospital food is real food.

This past week since getting out of the hospital, I have had REAL food. Delicious dishes cooked by the women of the church! It has been so great, a godsend. My kids and L love it. They have enjoyed the "real food." This "real food," is a lot better than what I cooked before I went to the hospital. I'm thinking that the kids would like to see me have an operation more often since they are feasting on this great food. I love the desserts!! We've had apple pie and chocolate cake....yummmy!!! This real food is even better than store bought stuff. My thanks to the ladies (and you know who you are) of the church who have sent things over. ((((HUGS)))) This real food will get me to feeling better fast!

Hospital food....ugh! I guess it would depend how hungry you are. After anesthesia it's hard to get your taste buds working. I had called to get a bowl of "orange sherbert," but for a reason unknown to me, I couldn't as I had an allergy to it. ??? WHAT??? I always have it at home. What was up with that? My allergies are peanuts and eggs. Do they make orange sherbert with peanuts? The way things were made at my hospital I probably shouldn't doubt that it IS made with peanuts. I asked for orange juice one morning. It was a thick sludgy looking liquid not fit to drink. I took a sip...gaaacck!! What do they want you to do? Not get better!? The biscuits, weren't of KFC standards, or even my standards. I ordered mac and cheese and it had an aftertaste of peas (which if it did I would be in big trouble, peanuts, legumes, peas, all the same family). I had L taste it. He didn't like it either.

Now, I've had hospital food before, at another hospital in W town. The food at W. Hospital was a little better, if not too bad, as I recall about eleven years ago. I remember eating turkey and dressing with pumpkin pie....wow! Now that was food fit for a Queen.

This food at S. J. wasn't even fit for a serf!

Oh, it's great to be home! I love "real food," not "real hospital food." There is a big difference.

Pain

I woke up today in such pain and finally took my pain meds. They help control the pain but make it worse for another "part" to work. I'll stop there, too much information.

The following could be too much information as well, read if you are brave:

It will be a week ago tomorrow that I had surgery and that I will finally get rid of the staples!! I swear it looks like someone had fun with the staple gun. I think I have 25 of them! Ugh! I wonder how these lovely things will be taken out? I've thought that maybe they would have a staple removal device. Hmm...that might be a little to a lot painful! I'm guessing they will deaden my skin and remove them. Then I will probably have sticky little bandaids on until they are ready to fall off. I'll be able to move a little better then and (oh joy!) sleep on my sides. I worry if they would get caught on zippers. I can't help but look at a spiral notebook and think of me now!!

Just hoping for the best almost one week post surgery!! So many more to go.
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At work, which I cannot do, for at least 6 weeks, I have had so many nice offers to help us out. But because certain people changed us from salaried to hourly, I have had to turn them down. I would love to say, "Sure that would be really nice. Thanks." Then I could have my family home with me taking care of me instead of work. But because we are hourly we have to work every bit to make what we were making on salary. S thinks that I am PMSing about this. I am not.
I know that not everyone agrees what a few individuals did and that they truly care about us. I thank them for that. But to say that I am okay about being hourly I am most certainly not. If they wanted to change us to hourly they could have picked a better time to "spring" this on us. But it was their lousy sense of timing just before I went out.

Why couldn't they think that things at work would be cleaned if I wasn't there to do it? Why did they think that was the thing to do is put us on hourly? We need the money. Salary was nice, no pressure, no time constraints, it was whenever we got the work done. Hourly however, is a pressure.

I really have thought about quitting, despite the money situation. I really wanted this job and I thought we were doing a good job, if not a great job. I felt that a prayer was answered. I don't know what went wrong.

I just really feel this was the wrong thing that they did to us. I would think that "Christians" would care for one another. This doesn't seem very "Christian-like," in my opinion.

When we first took on the job, I heard many people tell me it was hard for them to secure this position. Well, if they were treated like we are being treated currently I can see why.

Home from Major Surgery

I'm baaack!! I got back home on Saturday after having major surgery on Wednesday.

I am so grateful to my church family as Scrapbook Granny and B were over at the hospital before we got there. They kept me lose and gave a prayer for me as I was about to go into pre-op.

While in pre-op (a totally new experience for me) I felt it was so surreal. Like, "Is this REALLY happening to ME?" I felt like I was in a play and that it wasn't real. I went into cubicle 2 and laid on a bed. Meanwhile I had a nurse named Alice and a new male nurse, Caleb. Alice said that he was new here and I smiled and said this was my first time for surgery too. They took my bp and it was high (I wonder why). Caleb looked over at me and said, "Don't worry we will take good care of you." And, you know what I did feel better after he told me that. Then I talked to the anesthesiologist about what allergies I had, etc. I was doing okay, until I saw my doctor. I don't know why. He held my hand and reassured me that it was okay. He left and another male nurse/assisting doctor...I don't know who he was, was there to take me to the operating room. They gave me a lovely hat and he was talking to someone saying it was "pirate day," and he started to say "Ar." So I answered him back with an "Arrr." We got to the operating room and he was talking to my doctor about "Pirate Day," and I gave him another "Arr." The nurse/doctor leaned over to me and said, "Hey you're pretty good at this." He got my mind off of what was about to happen. They took one of my arms on one side and the other one I said, "Here you go." Then they gave me an oxygen mask and I said, "Oh that feels better than the other one I got." I heard something like, "This is the good stuff." And off I went.

A second later (more likely 2 hours and 30 minutes) I was out of the operation.

While at the hospital I really liked my nurses there...they were the best! My favorite RN's were Suzanne, Brenda, and Glynda. My favorite Patient Care Tech's were the two Kim's. They were the sweetest bunch of girls ever. They kept calling me "dear" and "sweetie." I felt like an old woman!

The hospital food was the PITS!!! If you know of anyone in the hospital I would suggest that you smuggle in some food because that stuff wasn't good at all!! I think about it now, and I get sick just thinking about it!!

Well...the good thing is that I am home. Needing to rest, needing to walk, and needing to get my staples out....!! Once they come out, I will be hopefully on the road to recovery.

I still have another 5 weeks to go before I am at full strength. Stay tuned.

Surgery day!

This is it! I had my pre-op from my doctor yesterday and he asked me if I still wanted to do this surgery. I had to laugh as I said, "Why would I back out now?" But it was a thought, well, it was a thought before I came to the decision in July to go ahead and do it.

My doctor told me that he wanted me plenty rested. So he prescribed a sleeping pill for last night, which I immediately had to research as I had never taken a sleeping pill ever in my life. I heard they weren't so good. So when I read all about the drug and told myself "no way." I also talked to a church elder before making the decision and we prayed about the surgery as well. So the elder had never taken a sleeping pill either. My decision was not to take it. Doctor wanted me to bed by 9 pm!! Nine PM!!?? I wanted to watch a couple of reruns of "The Office." So I planned this very strategically. I decided to take my nice hot bath, blow dry my hair, read my Bible (Psalm 27) and watch "The Office," and not take the sleeping pill. So after I finished watching my two Office reruns. I turned off the TV and listened to the shower running upstairs and drifted off to sleep until around 4-5 AM.

At 5 AM I had to take my bp med with a sip of water...I hope it was a sip. It was enough to get it down my throat then I tried spitting out the "excess" water. OH, how I wished I could have taken a HUGE gulp. But if I did, I would be pretty sick at surgery. So I'm doing as well as to be expected without water.

This morning I will be in prayer with another elder and his wife at the hospital. Prayer is really great! Things just go smoother with it.

My doctor told me how long the operation would last and it was a lot shorter than I had previously thought. Praise the Lord!

He asked me if I had any allergies to drugs. I told him Keflex. He asked me what did it do and he replied saying it was a side effect. A true allergy was when your throat would close up and you can't breathe....I know that only too well. Peanut allergy does that to me.

I will be sleeping a lot (trying to heal) tonight and hopefully I will not be in much pain. The following day I should be up and around.

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog, for your prayers. I'll talk to you later.

Time's are a changin'

S got her Learner's Permit last week. So it is strange to see her get in on the driver's side and back out of the driveway. Strange, okay, maybe not that word, but a little scary. I am glad I am not in the car right now! She is driving with her dad for hours and then next summer she will be taking Driver's Education and then getting a restricted driver's license.

I can remember when I was her age and my mom rode with me. She had lots of patience. Oooh, not me. I remember it was in 1970 when I took Driver's Education, slightly older than S. We drove with a teacher (a brave football coach, as I recall) but they had a brake built into the passenger side of the car. I remember going around the cones and getting used to power steering. It was scary for me! Then I remember the little simulators we had. It was a large trailer complete with steering wheels, clutches, brakes, turn indicators, and gears. We would watch a film and "drive" with the film. I remember that my "car" kept dying on me as I could never understand the clutch/brake system.

After I took Driver's Ed (by the way I flunked it). I had to wait and take my driver's test to get my license a year later. I was a horrible driver. I once hit my high school Principal's son's car (I was driving down the street a little too fast and hit MM's car while he was at football practice). I was SOOOO embarrassed!! I never lived that down (okay, maybe 36 years later I have!). Then I had another accident on a busy intersection in H town that now has a traffic light. My car was broadsided. I was sooooo scared. The day after I must have had a delayed reaction and was pretty sick to my stomach. (I wonder why?)

My insurance was costly and so my parents banned me from driving, which at that point I really didn't care. I finally got to drive my freshman year of college. When I was a sophomore in college I got a car with a stick shift (the clutch and brake thing that I hated). I got that set up because it was cheaper. In fact I had a stick shift in my autos for nearly 19 years after that. I got so I liked the clutch/brake combination.

So now my S is driving. I know she will be careful. But it's the other guy you have to watch out for and there is a lot of highway driving out here. That's what scares me as a parent. Letting your children grow and hoping they keep safe.