Update:
I was glad that this week’s my eye injection didn’t hurt like the last one. Usually I just feel pressure as the
medication is injected. Last week it
hurt. The nurse said that the doctor
might have nicked a nerve last week; but she dosed me with extra numbing
medication before this injection as well.
After getting the injection Monday at 10 a.m. I was able to read for a
short time by 8 p.m. Anything that I couldn’t
enlarge on the computer screen had to be read with an extra-strength magnifying
glass one word at a time.
By Tuesday morning I could read fairly well. However, I got a ride from
a fellow pastor to a meeting 30 miles away; I didn’t trust my vision enough to
drive on my own. By Tuesday night my
vision was back to normal.
I had the toughest time getting my prosthetic leg on Tuesday morning. Monday
I had my leg off most of the day and even with my shrinker sock on, my residual
limb must have swelled overnight with the heat. It took me over 30 minutes of
on/off, checking my locking mechanism and a bit of prayer to finally get it
donned. I'd get my leg ALMOST on and then it would get stuck and I had to
battle to try to pull in back off so I could check everything again. At one point I almost had to call for some
back up to help pull my leg (there's a joke embedded in that statement). I finally got my leg close to being on and
just left it for about 20 minutes; by that time the compression of the
prosthesis reduced my leg size enough that I finally got fully settled into the
socket. I was worn out by the physical
effort of trying to get my leg off/on before I even left the house!
Later in the afternoon, I did my exercises and a 9.5 bike ride and that
pretty well wiped me out for the remainder of the day. I had thought about doing some ironing or
going to work at the office for a while in the evening; but my wife suggested
that I just rest for the remainder of the evening. That sounds like pretty good advice, I think
I will follow it.
I left my prosthesis on until the very last minute before bed in an
effort to keep my leg size down so I don’t have a repeat of Tuesday’s
difficulty donning the leg. Along with
cooler temperatures I shouldn’t have a problem.
Thought for the Day:
I remember as a grade school student that there was a nearby special
needs school that used our lunch room facility.
I am ashamed to say that along with my classmates I mocked those
students. I don’t think that we ever
said anything directly to them; but I am sorry to say that I laughed and made
fun of their condition.
What is it about people that lends us to ridicule or make fun of other people
who are different? I would like to think
that we are uncomfortable dealing with physical difficulties and so we use
“gallows humor” to cover our discomfort.
But perhaps it is something darker like the incessant need to build
ourselves up and so we have to compare ourselves to others who we perceive are
“less than we are” in some fashion; or that we are cruel and heartless by
nature.
In school, kids that aren’t very athletic get teased by the jocks. The jocks are teased by the brainy
nerds. The brainy nerds are teased by
everyone else. And round and round it
goes.
As adults we are perhaps a little less vocal about our comparisons and
putdowns but we can be just as vicious.
Perhaps we quickly judge someone by the amount on tattoo ink on the arms
or by whether they have a criminal record.
With our nose high in the air we proclaim that person is “obviously not
very spiritually mature or they cannot be trusted!”
I hope you recognize who the spiritually immature person really
is.
I just heard from a fellow amputee that his backyard neighbor asked him
to not wear shorts in his own backyard because the neighbor was trying to rent
his place and felt that having someone next door with a prosthesis lowered his
property value—“so please keep your leg covered up.” This neighbor is supposedly a pastor in the
community.
Wow! Talk about insensitive and
mean-spirited! People can be so
oblivious to how their comments will cut a person deeply.
Throughout my life I have been rather insensitive and oblivious to the
pain my comments have caused. In the
last few months, I’ve had a crash course in being more sensitive. I’ve got a long way still to go; but I am
making progress.
I hope that you will join me in seeking to recognize the value of each
person and the respect that each one deserves no matter how different or
disabled that they may be. Most people
are not going to be like you (and just imagine how boring and dysfunctional the
world would be if everyone was perfectly alike). Different is not necessarily wrong and not
necessarily bad. Don’t put yourself up
on the pedestal of perfection and believe that everyone should be just like
you. Even if we cannot see our own
flaws; others around us can and they know we aren’t perfect. So give a little grace and understanding to
those around you. Don’t be so quick to
judge and remember that the words you use may cause lasting pain. And it is not just about the words we use, it
is also about the attitude we harbor and the thoughts we think.
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