Update:
This morning I added to my routine the new and improved exercises that my
physical therapist gave to me. I felt them
working some different muscles—whew! It
is amazing how much strength you can gain just by doing some very simple
exercises without much equipment if you are consistent. I’ve got a long way to go but I see marked
improvement.
I am a member of a regional critical incident stress debriefing team
for emergency service personnel (Police, Fire, EMS). I haven’t been participating in any of the
debriefings for the last few months while I recover. Some of us are trained to be the facilitator
for the debriefing—that’s the role I play.
We had a request for a debriefing and no one else was able to facilitate. After evaluating myself physically, mentally,
emotionally and spiritually, I realized that I could lead the debriefing. So I spent some of the afternoon of Tuesday preparing
for the Wednesday afternoon debriefing.
One of the things that Karen and I have been discussing is for me to
resume driving. Although I’ve been
medically cleared to drive for quite some time, I cannot load or unload my
wheelchair by myself so there hasn’t seemed to be any point. I’ve been talking about driving to a
conference in Janesville in mid-March (about 200 miles) but we weren’t certain
if I was ready. We talked about me
needing to practice driving some before then.
Well with the debriefing taking place in Alma (about 50 miles away) I’ve
got my chance.
So on Tuesday, I had someone get me to my truck and I got in and went
for a drive to see how I would do. The
drive went very well. I was alone so I
couldn’t stop and get out; but I went into Eau Claire and got the truck
washed. It was very dirty. Then I noticed that I really needed gas
before driving to Alma on Wednesday. I
couldn’t think of any full service gas stations; but I did remember that there
was a gas station a few blocks away from my son David’s office. I called him and asked him to meet me at the
station and he filled it up. It was strange driving again at first after
being a passenger for all of December and January. It feels good to claim one more piece of my
life back.
I spent the rest of Tuesday afternoon at my church office working. Karen came and picked me up and had dinner
ready when we got back home a few minutes past 7 p.m. After dinner we watched some TV and then I started
working on my computer until bedtime.
So on Wednesday morning, I’ll get someone to help load my wheelchair in
my truck and then I’ll drive to Alma, WI.
Members of my debriefing team will unload my wheelchair for me and there
we go! After the debriefing they’ll help
me load it back in and then I’ll head for home. I’m not certain what time I’ll
get home. When I do, I’ll have to find
someone to help get my wheelchair out and assist me getting back inside the
house. It will be an adventure!
Thought for the Day:
One of the things that really confused me at first while I was in the
hospital was the army of doctors that attached themselves to me. The ER doc that took me through the first
hours of my stay, the infectious disease doctor who worked on knocking out my
blood infection, the surgeon who located the source of infection and then
removed it, the anesthesiologist who made certain that I went to sleep at the
beginning of my surgeries and woke up after they were completed, the
cardiologist who checked to see if my heart had been damaged by the infection,
the podiatrist who makes certain that my remaining foot remains healthy, and
the hospitalist who oversees my care and made certain the correct specialists
were called in. I’ve since added my
family doctor who has taken over from my hospitalist and a physical rehabilitation
doctor with the fancy name of physiatrist (never heard of it before and still
can’t pronounce it). I am certain that
there were others that I don’t remember or who worked behind the scenes and I
never knew about. It seemed like every
hour a new doctor would come into the room and announce, “I’m your doctor.” At first I thought it was the drugs I was on or
that the hospital had a high turnover rate.
I eventually got it. I have a
team of doctors, each with their own specialty or strengths working together to
get me healthy and back up on my feet (correction—back up on my foot).
After being released from the hospital, I’ve had a team of helpers
doing whatever they can to help me recover and get through the day. My wife and children, members of my church,
members of the fire department and police departments where I am chaplain, as
well as neighbors and friends. There are
people who shovel my snow. People that
give me rides. People that do
errands. People who pray for me and my
wife (this is an important group).
People who visit, email or call.
One neighbor comes over three times a day to feed my wood stove in the
basement to keep the house warm. I don’t
know about “it takes a village” but a good portion of the Village of Fall Creek
where I live have been involved.
I want to take this analogy a step further. All of these things have been done focused
upon my physical well-being. But we are
more than just flesh and blood. We have
a spiritual side and an emotional side that needs to be cared for as well. For good all-around health and vitality we
need a number of things besides the basics of food, shelter, and clothing.
We need things that will feed our spirits. For me that is my relationship with God. I spend time reading the bible and praying each
day. I am involved at church with a
group of like-minded believers who encourage me to go deeper and farther in my
walk with God. I read a lot of good
inspirational, devotional, and theological material from books, emails and
websites. I’ve got people praying for
me. In the fall especially I love being
in the woods. One of the best things
about bow hunting is the hours you spend just quietly sitting observing the
woods around you. It took me a few years
to realize that it is part of what I need to do to recharge my spiritual
batteries. I look forward to getting out
in the woods again this fall.
Those things also help me have good emotional/mental health. They help me keep a positive perspective and
to think good thoughts. They help me minimize
negative, wistful thinking. In addition
to the things that feed the spirit, I’ve got friends who communicate with
me. Facebook has been a good source of help
in this area. I laugh at the silly
things people post. I take encouragement
and often copy and repost things to my page that I find helpful. Getting out and doing some “normal” things
like going to a movie, going out to eat, helping do the grocery shopping, and
driving myself somewhere all help boost that positive mental energy that I
need.
One the physical side, I am doing my daily exercises. I attempt to do everything that I can for
myself. Sometimes my wife can’t take it and
tells me to let her do it for me (usually when it means she has to stand out in
the cold waiting for me); but overall anything I can do for myself I do. Sometimes I get help when the activity would
drain all my energy that I need for other tasks. Early on, I also had someone push me down the
carpeted hallway at church to conserve my energy. Now that I am getting stronger and have more
stamina, I normally wheel myself down the hall.
Regaining some independence is also great for me emotionally.
You get the idea. A lot of
different things make up our sense of well-being (I didn’t even directly
mention relationships which are so essential).
You need all aspects of your life to be in a healthy balance for you to
be healthy. Have you ever seen a wooden
stave barrel? The town where my parents
retired to made those things by the truckload.
They have metal band around all of these shaped wooden staves. Imagine each part of your life is represented
by a stave. In this illustration, the
stave heights vary according to how healthy you are in that area. If you struggle with being overweight, you’re
inactive and you have a poor diet, then your physical well-being stave is drastically shorter than
the others. The thing that is important
to understand is that the holding capacity of your barrel is determined by the
shortest stave. Even if every other
stave is seven inches taller, water will flow out of the barrel at the shortest
stave. Your life is limited by the
shortcomings that you have in the various areas of your life.
So take time to evaluate the various staves that make up your life,
your health, your well-being. Don’t
neglect the areas you are currently doing well in; take some effort to length
the shortest stave. Get it back in
proportion to the rest of your life. So
that you can enjoy a full, healthy, enjoyable long life.
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