Tuesday (9/30/2014)

Update:

I had two medical appointments already this week.  On Monday I had a podiatrist appointment for the doctor to check the sore that had developed on my good foot.  He said everything looked good and it was healing well.  The difficult part of the whole deal is that no one can say why I got the sore where I did.  Seems like a strange place for one to develop.  I felt a little guilty for going in when the wound looked fine; but I confessed to him that I was uneasy about not having him check my foot.  I have an increased probability of having my second leg amputated and I want to do everything I can to prevent that.  So any little wound that I would have ignored before, now gets close care and scrutiny. 

My second appointment on Tuesday was to see my prosthetist.  I’ve had trouble getting my prosthesis on in the morning.  It has tended to remain painful for an hour or two after donning the leg.  The bottom edge of my tibia has been painfully tender.  There will always be discomfort wearing the prosthesis but there shouldn’t be pain.  Sometimes the line between these two—pain or discomfort—is a bit blurry.  So it is good to have a great medical team to help me—especially in this first year or two as I learn what I need to know.  They felt that my leg is swelling some during the night (fairly common) so I was given a tighter shrinker sock to wear at night.  My old one is probably worn out.  I am also supposed to be more mindful about adding additional socks during the day as my stump shrinks.  This is a bit more difficult for me to discern at times.  But I’m learning! 

On Friday (10/4), I have an appointment with my retina specialist.  I’ll have a number of scans and photos of my eye taken at this appointment, including a florescent dye test.  A dye is injected into my blood stream and then photos are taken of my eye as the dye flows through the blood vessels in my eye.  What is really interesting is that for a time after the test is done, I see everything in red.  All the lights and everything is red.  I need some sound track from Star Trek as the captain yells, “Red Alert!”  Also for the rest of the day, my urine is a very bright florescent color.  I was told that it even glows in the dark under a black light.  I’ll have to get a bulb and try that this time.  Hey!  Might as well have fun if they are going to do weird things to your eyes!

Thought for the Day (9/30/2014):

“Life isn’t easy and it isn’t fair.  I’ve had unfair things happen to me.  I bet you have, too.  I’ve made mistakes, made a fool out of myself, hurt people I’ve loved, and experienced crushing disappointments.  I bet you have, too.  We cannot avoid life’s difficulties.  We shouldn’t even try.  Why?  Because people who succeed in life don’t try to escape pain, loss, or unfairness.  They just learn to face those things, accept them, and move ahead in the face of them.  That’s my goal.  It should also be yours.” [John Maxwell, Sometimes You Win and Sometimes You Learn].

It is a difficult truth to face: life can be very difficult.  In our society the dream is that our lives would be one continuous victory celebration.  No harm would come to us.  No disaster would touch us.  Everything that we wish for should be easy to accomplish.  Everything should go exactly as we hoped and planned—unless somehow it got even better than we could even imagine.  But here’s the reality check: Life is hard and unpleasant at times for every one of us.  No one escapes hard times.  Depending upon their economic status, the problems might change; but no one gets off scot free.  We all have times in our lives when we have to “pay our dues,” so to speak.

I praise God that while this is true; yet it is also true that our entire lives are not consumed with heartache and suffering.  Besides tears there is also laughter.  We have periods of health as well as illness.  We encounter new life and hope besides death and a lack of a future.  Not only do we have stormy, dark days; we have bright, sunny days too.

Now I admit that it seems that some people’s lives appear to be devoid of all problems while others seem to have more of their fair share of pain and suffering.  Remember that just because you don’t see someone else’s pain; it doesn’t mean that they don’t have any.  And to be honest, no matter how harsh our life seems, we still encounter moments of sunshine as well.

Maxwell reminds us that since all of us will go through these harsh times, we might as well learn something from them.  First of all we need to expect that things will go wrong at some point.  Just like it is important to tuck a little money away to handle unexpected financial needs, so we should also be prepared for “the bad day” that just might show up tomorrow.  It shouldn’t shock us when things go wrong.  We should just shrug, acknowledge that this is just a fact of life, and move on.  Secondly, we shouldn’t focus all of our attention of what went wrong.  It is easy to dwell on the negative aspects and nurse our wounds over the injustice that live just dished out.  If your attitude sours, it only makes you more miserable (and those around you); it doesn’t change your situation or make it any better.  So don’t rehearse every miserable event; adopt a more neutral attitude.  Acknowledge the hurt but then “pull up your big boy pants” and move on past it.  Next, take time to evaluate whether there is anything you can do to negate the effects of the event or how you might be able to avoid a repeat performance.  Some things you cannot control, so you might involuntarily have to go through difficult experiences more than once.  But there are a number of things that happen to us that we have some control over.  Figure out which is what and make those changes! 

 

You cannot necessarily control what happens to you; but you do get to choose what happens in you.  So what are you going to do?  How will you react when trouble comes your way?  If life hands you lemons, what are you going to do?