Thursday (4/26/2018)

Thought for the Day:

Back in 2013-2015, I had trouble with my eyes, which made much printed material difficult or impossible for me to read.  I needed a magnifying glass and bright light to read, unless I used my Kindle Fire where I could increase the font size to whatever size was comfortable.  My eyesight has since improved, but I still find it more comfortable to read on my Kindle, in fact, I do almost all my reading on it now.  It puts much less strain on my eyes than printed material.

I haven’t been as consistent in bible reading as I want to be lately.  Last night I decided that I would read my bible the first thing after breakfast.  So after breakfast, I got out my Kindle as I had planned; but every time I tried to open the bible, it would automatically shut down.  I tried several things on my own to fix the problem which made no difference.  I did discover that I had the same issue with a couple of other books on my device as well.  This was apparently a bigger problem than I first thought.  I poured through the Help section on my Kindle and found that it was misnamed. Ha! Ha!  I even went on-line but didn’t find anything that made a difference.  I finally hit the Mayday button on my Kindle to get Tech Support.  I was led through number of attempts to correct the problem—reloading the book from the Cloud, emptying the Cache, etc. (don’t ask me what those things really mean)—but it didn’t help.

Finally my Tech Advisor suggested that I do a Factory Reset.  Everything on my Kindle Fire would be erased.  All the Books that I had purchased were saved in the Cloud and those would be easily accessible to download again.  I’d lose some Apps, but nothing that I couldn’t re-install.

So I did it.  I hit the Factory Reset button and wiped it all out…

It took some time to erase everything and then for the Kindle to start back up again; but it worked!  After about two hours of fooling around, I could finally open the bible on the Kindle and read it again.  And as a side benefit, it cleaned out a lot of programs and apps that I was thinking of getting rid of anyway, freeing up a bunch of memory. 

As I was working on the Kindle, it struck me how easy it is to get distracted and derailed when attempting to something good to do, like reading your bible, exercising, play with the kids, or whatever.  This morning, I even reached a point where I decided to grab my bible out of the cabinet and read it while I waiting for the Kindle to start working.  Of course, I had only read a few lines in my good, old, leather bound bible before I noticed that Kindle was finally repaired and I could now use it.

Huh! Funny how easy it is to get sidetracked from doing the most important things, even after you’ve made a commitment to yourself that you will do them.  Despite the ever present temptation to check your Face Book feed, your emails, or watch your favorite TV program; we’ve got to set as our first priority to do the things that feed and enrich our souls.  I’ve found that it is best for me to do the most important things (like bible reading) earlier in the day, before doing too much else; otherwise I get distracted or something last minute comes up.  It’s all too easy to find out at the end of the day that you just never got around to doing the thing that you said was so important.

You might have to give up something else to get it done; but if it really is a priority, then put it first in your life.  And make it happen!  And I know from past personal experience that as I make that daily decision and actually do what I decided, it gets easier to do it over time.  Make a decision, and keep making it happen each day.  Soon it will become a habit which can have a major impact on your life.

Wednesday (4/25/2018):

Update:

As kids, we often imagine what we will be when we grow up.  Will I be a police officer, a solder, or a firefighter? And we might also imagine who we will marry and what our life will be like as we grow older.  How many kids will I have?  Where will I live?  But in all of my thinking about the future, I never once dreamed that I would become an amputee.

Up until my below-the-knee amputation in December 2013, I rarely went to the doctors.  Now in the last four and a half years, I’ve been in the hospital for 26 days and have had 378 medical appointments of various types (yes, I’ve kept count of them). That’s an average of one appointment every four days!  Wow!  Hospitalized with sepsis, it affected my body on a number of levels besides the amputation.  I have a number of on-going issues with my eyes.  I’ve have heart issues, kidney issues, nerve issues, etc., besides the “normal” amputee issues with prosthetic legs and residual limbs.

Yep!  My life has not ended up exactly as I had imagined!  Honestly, some days are harder than others.  Some days I’m more apathetic and less optimistic.  It seems like I’m making good forward progress and then hit a series of speed bumps and road blocks, bringing my journey to a grinding halt.  Some days I am definitely in stop and go traffic on the highway of life.  And yet, life is still good!  For all the changes that have happened, I still enjoy life.  I’ve got a supportive wife, a loving family, and good friends.  With some limitations, I’m still able to get out and do some of the things that I enjoy. 

One of the most difficult things for me has been the uncertainty.  It’s hard to make plans because a problem develops that cancels everything.  I just never quite know what tomorrow, or next week, or next month, will bring.

Thought for the Day:

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4:16 NIV)

Life can be very discouraging if all we do is focus upon the physical.  Illness, accidents, and aging all have their effect upon us.  If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it probably will someday.  And what can we do about it?  We can eat well, exercise, and make healthy lifestyle choices; but eventually it will catch up to us.  And then we have to adapt to our “new normal.”   While fighting to maintain whatever we can for as long as we can, eventually we have to accept and embrace our new reality.  That can be a mental bummer and very discouraging.  So how can we fight this downward mental spiral?  We work at renewing our mind.  We have to find and do things that energize us and give us a sense of purpose.

For me I’ve found that starts with my faith in God.  Bible reading and prayer are foundational to not letting life drag me down.  Reading other good inspirational material helps too!  Find a way to serve others.  Purposefully be involved in the lives of others.  Do things that recharge your spiritual and emotional batteries.

Don’t allow life to wear you down without a fight!  Do what you can do to be renewed!

Tuesday (3/27/2018)

Update:

After taking a shower, I was in my wheelchair drying off my right foot. I was wondering why I only ever had to brush off the bottom of my right foot before putting my sock on--and my left foot never needed to be brushed off (lint, sand, etc.).

Then it hit me! Oh Yeah! The left foot was amputated 4 1/2 years ago. WELL, THAT EXPLAINS A LOT!!! Ha Ha Ha!

It's amazing to me that the mental map of our body stays intact, even after radical changes.

Saturday (2/210/2018)

Update:

I spent about three hours working on my prosthesis this afternoon. I had a leak in the vacuum system and got a replacement sleeve (the most obvious problem) in the mail. AND that didn't fix the problem.

I texted my prosthetist, Rob Pinkston. He's outside of Cincinnati and I'm in West-Central Wisconsin. He walked me through some diagnosis steps and then several potential repairs. The bottom line is my vacuum pump needs some work and needs to be sent in. (the thing that looks like a hockey puck--that alone is a $4,000 piece of my prosthesis).

Fortunately, I had the exact pump on my old prosthesis, so I disassembled it (my blue socket) and reinstalled it on my current socket (black socket). It took several tries but I finally got it working!!!!

I'm very grateful for Rob taking part of his Saturday afternoon to help me long distance!

And I'm very happy to get my prosthesis working correctly again. As I've jokingly told people that an elevated vacuum prosthesis sucks when it is working--and it sucks worse when it is not. :-)

Monday (12/11/2017)

My bother made the comment last time I talked with him on the phone, "How can you shovel snow one-handed?" so I made a video today. 

  

I had surgery on my right wrist and elbow for carpal tunnel two weeks ago.  Being limited to one-hand is frustrating; but as much as possible I cannot let it stop me completely.  I've got to do what I can do.

It is very tiring to shovel one-handed and much slower than using two-hands.  Glad it's been small, light and fluffy snows so far.  Thankfully my old work coat barely slides over the cast.  It's the only coat that currently works.  I usually just have a sweat jacket draped over the right shoulder.  A glove won't fit over the cast on my hand, so that's a sock to keep my hand warm.  I get my soft cast off my arm on Wednesday.  I'll still have weight and activity restrictions for the next 4-6 weeks, so I suppose I'll be doing more one-handed shoveling ahead.

I still have the sore on my leg.  I'm not wearing my prosthesis except for an hour or two a day at the most.  Some days I don't wear it at all trying to let it heal.  Cannot happen soon enough!

Combined together not being able to use one leg and one arm is frustrating.  I've been much more house bound than I'm used to being.  There are so many things that I just cannot do.  Working hard to keep a good attitude and being creative to get whatever I can done.

Monday (12/4/2017):

Update 

I had surgery on my wrist and elbow last week. I still have swelling in my fingers, so the nurse told me to ice my armpit and elevate my arm up to head level.

I told my wife, daughter, Ruth, and son, Joshua, this while we at lunch at my wife's office.

This was Ruth's solution for me.

It actually worked pretty well!

​

I'm still having trouble with my prosthesis.  Only wearing it an hour or two a day.  And it is a tremendous effort to put it on one-handed.

Wednesday (11/29/2017)

Update:

Surgery on my right wrist and elbow went well yesterday. the cast stays on for two weeks. I'm right handed so I'm learning how poorly I do with my left hand and with only one hand. Some things are beyond me. Cudos to all my upper extremity amp friends--you are amazing!!

I am also still waiting for the sore on my residual limb to heal so I can wear my prosthesis.

At least I haven't lost my mind...wait a minute!!!! Now where did I put that???