My summer continued

Like I said in another post, I’ve had some medical issues these past months.  During the middle of May, when we were trying to get schooling done, graduation set up and Sarah settled, I found I was not only highly anemic but had very low red blood count.  I knew I was more tired for the past year or so, but I was always excusing it away.  I just need to push harder, I’m not taking care of myself enough etc…  Turns out there was a very valid reason I was so exhausted.  I had to have two iron infusions, which helped some, but then I had to have surgery to fix what was causing it all in the first place.  I’m not going to announce it all here, a bit to personal, but I have had the surgery and I’m recovering well.  It turns out I needed the surgery even more than all of my doctors realized at the beginning.  I’m so very blessed that the Lord was watching over me and brought doctors into my life that could see there was an issue.  I’m healing well, my body is getting back to normal and all pathology reports have come back just fine, which we are truly blessed about.

I went in the hospital early on a Tuesday morning and was out by Wednesday, late morning.  I can’t say enough how my family and friends just rallied around me, and the doctors and hospital staff were wonderful.  The best part, I just have to share, was when I was first checking into the hospital for the surgery.  I had Paul, my mom and Sarah with me, but I was still so nervous.  I got to the nurses station and looked right into the eyes of a young lady, around Sarah’s age, that I know loosely from church.  She looked at me, smiled and all the while working with me was asking me how I was doing, and was quoting bible verses to me.  She even was asking me what my favorite verse was, though my mind went blank.  She shared hers with me.  🙂  I had a longer wait than expected before my surgery, and she was constantly checking on me.  I’m just so blown away how the Lord had her working that morning in the surgery wing of the hospital.  It was so sweet.

The hardest part is what I can’t do during my recovery.  It’s a 6 week long recovery, no heavy lifting, cleaning etc…  That means no heavy exercising either, though walking is highly recommended, just not power walking.  I couldn’t walk far at first after the surgery, but I’m getting a bit farther every day.  Now, almost 3 weeks after the surgery, the pain is just about gone.  The only pain meds I’m on is some ibuprofen before bed, the surgery area gets a bit sore.  I am still very tired at times, of course it’s taking time for my body to come out of being anemic and for my red blood cell count to grow.  But the exhaustion I was dealing with, that I didn’t even realize I had until now, is better.  Now that I’m on the other side, and not nearly as exhausted, I realize how exhausted I was before.  But I’m learning to listen better to my body and resting when I need to.

The Lord is definitely using this time of rest in my life.  First, to teach me about resting and that it’s ok to do.  I tend to be a go, go, go person, and I don’t like being too idle, thinking that means I’m being lazy.  But the Lord is showing me that it doesn’t mean that, and there are seasons of rest, which I’m in now.  I’m also learning how to accept help from others.  Literally the first week, I could barely do anything for myself.  I couldn’t even get my own glass of water at first.  You have no idea how hard it is to not be able to do the little things in life until you can’t do them easily.  I can get my own water now, and many other things, but I can’t do any heavy lifting or cleaning of my house.  I can’t even sweep!  I spilled some dried herbs the other day and had to ask Paul to sweep it up for me.  This, to me, is the hardest part.  I have my way of cleaning, and keeping my house, and all that is thrown out the window for 6 weeks.  Talk about learning humility and letting things go.  It’s getting better as the weeks go on.

Paulie takes care of me so much, it’s a blessing to see.  He does all the main kitchen cleaning and laundry while I’m recovering.  Sarah cooks meals, and even came over the other day and swept, mopped and vacuumed the whole house.  Paul does the grocery shopping, and the rest of the cleaning that needs to be done.  I really am blessed that they are all pitching in and getting things done.  And I’m learning that not all the cleaning needs to be done ‘my’ way.  😀

So my summer is going to be one of recovering, building back up my body to a healthy level, and learning to let others do things for me.  I have about 4 more weeks to go before I’m released around August 5th to slowly get back into my routines.  It will be a good month, just learning new things about myself and what the Lord has for me.  🙂

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