Update:
I haven’t
been doing much after 5:30 p.m. because of pain; but yesterday evening I had an
event at church. My leg ended up being
uncomfortable the entire time. It amazes
me how just a slight level of pain is so draining. I didn’t do much except go to the church and
walk in and sit down. But I was beat by
the time I got home. I was still tired and
had some residual pain this morning. I
also had a knotted muscle in my back and the tendon in my left hip was
screaming at me in pain, so I decided to not go to the gym to swim today. Instead I worked the muscle loose with my
Theracane and then went back to bed and got a couple more hours of sleep. My leg still hurts but the extra rest really
helped. I’ve already decided that I
won’t be going back to the church for another event scheduled for tonight if I
can avoid it. I just can’t face the
pain.
Compared to
many others, I know that I don’t have much pain. Quite frankly, I don’t know how they can
focus and continue on with their life. I
assume that there are quite a few people whom we interact with each day who are
in some kind of pain and not doing well.
It might be physical pain; but it could just as easily be emotional,
mental, relational pain too. We really
don’t know what is going on in someone’s life; so be careful not to judge. Give a little grace. Be observant and ask if everything is okay if
you sense something is not right. It
never hurts to ask if there is anything that you can do to help that person
either. Just knowing that you noticed is
often enough to bring a moment of cheer into that person’s life. “Somebody noticed me!. Someone cared!”
Tomorrow on
Thursday (1/15) I am turning in my current leg and getting a new one which they
hope will solve my pain issue. If this new
leg doesn’t work, they already have a “Plan B” in mind. So if the new one doesn’t solve my problem,
hopefully the next one will. The
difficulty of getting my leg to fit properly allowing me to enjoy a relatively
pain-free day of activity reminds me of Thomas Edison when he was attempting to
create the light bulb. He faced failure
after failure after failure. I’ve read
that he had over 10,000 failed attempts; but he wasn’t discouraged. Each failed attempt got him closer to finding
the one thing that would work. Now that
is perspective! I want to have that kind
of attitude and determination. Everything that I try that doesn’t work gets me just that much
closer to the thing that will work.
My new
prescription glasses came in. Wow! What
a difference. The vision in my right eye
is still compromised but it is much clearer than before. Unfortunately they got the glasses
wrong. They are supposed to be tri-focal
but they made them only bi-focal. They
made the bi-focal lens giant, filling up the entire space where the
intermediate, tri-focal lens should be.
I should get the replacement lens by next Monday or Tuesday. I’m wearing the new, incorrect glasses for
now. My prescription has changed
drastically so I am having a bit of vertigo with them. I can’t easily read a computer screen either
(that’s what the intermediate lens if for).
But the new upper lens for distance works great! I am also having to re-adjust my head
angle. My old glasses were so bad, I had
to tip my head back to use the intermediate lens for distance and the bottom “reading”
lens for using the computer. Now it
feels like I am tucking my chin way down to look through the proper area of the
lens. Weird! Hopefully I will get used to them soon.
I’ve been
trying to get some replacement parts for my wheelchair. It amazes me what a hassle it is to do
so. All that is wrong with my chair is
the arm rests are cracked and broken.
Seems simple enough—I need a set of new arm rests. I was given the wheelchair and it is an older
model but it is still in good shape otherwise.
Since insurance didn’t pay for this wheelchair for me, insurance is
balking about buying replacement parts for me.
They don’t have any trouble buying a completely new chair for me; but a
few relatively inexpensive parts—no!
Does that even make any sense except in our throw-away American
culture?
When I first
got the chair, I spent money out-of-pocket (I didn’t have insurance at the
time) to buy the calf support attachment for the left leg that had been
amputated. As I recall, it took over a
month after ordering it for it to come in.
I was told that a month’s delay wasn’t too bad compared to if it went
through insurance. Since I paid cash, I
got the equipment I needed much sooner than if insurance was paying. I don’t consider one month as fast. What a crazy system! I feel sorry for people who need parts or
durable medical equipment that have to wait and wait.
So my word for
the day is PATIENCE. Meriam-Webster
Dictionary defines it as the act of bearing pains or trials
calmly or without complaint. Okay…I
still need to work on that! Take a deep,
cleansing breath…
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