Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Five weeks ago today



Notice the black cover on left arm, cast is off. I will get the bar and pins removed on right arm Monday. I will also get unwired the same day. I am hoping my mouth will work freely. I am a little nervous about that. My surgery was 5 weeks ago today. 2.5 weeks on right arm, second surgery. I cannot see clearly if I look straight ahead. I have to tilt my head back to see. My eye socket was crushed on right side. They can fix it with more surgeries later. I am hoping glasses can fix the double vision. Simply my right eye is not in the right place. I still have a way to go before I am well but am well on the way. I am still so thankful to God for all the prayers lifted and for sparing me for more use. I hear so many stories of people falling such short distances and getting paralyzed and even killed. It makes me cringe to hear that and know how far I fell. God was looking after me for sure.

I am able to dress myself now. I can do most of my hygiene duties. Grammy still blends my meals and still gives me a shower. I may want my shower continued after I am well. I know what all of you are thanking so quit it. I can use my hands some but not any heavy lifting. Hopefully I can do more after Monday. My hands are very stiff. I still do not have more than 50 percent of the feeling back in my face. It may take up to a year to get that back and some will never be back. That started to bother me and I just decided to not worry about that. For those who know me, I am a person who worries and some times gets depressed. I suffered from severe depression at age 30 for a year or so. I was given xanax for that and panic attacks which I had for years. It worked and the attacks subsided after some time. I continued taking the med for probably 15 more years because of fear of more attacks. If you never had panic attacks it is life shattering. Those that suffer know what I am saying. Anyway on to my reason for bringing this up. I was taking 3 mg daily when I was so sick. Over the years I tapered myself off to .25mg daily which is a very small amount. When I was in the hospital, I was not given any xanax. When I was being released the Dr. asked if I wanted a prescription for it and I said no because I had not taken any for 2 weeks. Praise GOD I am off of that very powerful addictive drug, however it is a great drug when you need it. I do not have panic attacks any more. I say that to say this. Through this tough time I have not been depressed, I have not complained very much and have not felt sorry for myself. I told Leslie one day that this mountain was very hard to climb and she said, Dad most of them are. How true, but what matters is How you climb it. I am climbing it with a purpose. The purpose is to do whatever God has left for me to do. I praise God for all who have prayed for me. I love you all, Larry