Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
I see that the last time I wrote in this blog was Aug.3; Alot has happened since than. I went through a period of time where the pain shooting down my leg when I would get up to walk would limit greatly the amount of time I could be up and on my feet. This was pain coming from the nerves in the lower spine where the surgery took place. Now at the same time the pain in the surgical area of the lower spine was still greatly felt and "sitting" was painful as well. I have a tall chair in my master bathroom and it was a short time I could sit there, one is due to the very little bit of strength I had and also that the pain in the tail made it override the desire to complete whatever I was needing to do to shower or cleanup. In the last few days, sitting up on the tail has not been a problem and I can tell that is an improvement.
One thing the Dr. had told me/us was that I would slowly and surely start to see the improvements from things "I couldn't do" to "things I could now do'. About three weeks ago the Dr. prescribed a nerve healing med and a muscle spasm med which when added to the Morphine pain pill, all three of them together had DROWSY, nausea as a side affect. And so what we would find is that I could sleep all day long between doses, and was not gaining any strength. And so we had to become proactive in that I would get up out of bed for several hours in my "gravity" chair next to the bed, and would only sleep a couple of hours. Have breakfast at a regular hour, use the computer, read some of the book I had started, have lunch around noon. etc. And of late with some improvement that pain is not a constant in movement while lying or sitting, the pain meds were taken only when I was going to get up to walk or had to get down the steps. So this reduced the drowsiness quite a bit.
Well my alertness was a much needed reprieve from the "comatose" state that I felt I was in for a couple of weeks. My appetite was just above a zero and struggle with food being of any interest, so I have lost weight and strength in the legs especially. I had lost 10 lbs while in the hospital 4 days, and 15 lbs since coming home coming home July 2. Now to gain strength alone and not the weight is the key..
Now, on Thursday Greg had to go out to see a customer in the mid afternoon and no one else was home. (rarity) While he was gone, I was sitting in my chair and thought that it was a bit warm in the room, and that the ceiling fan needed to be turning a little faster (not remote). So I walked over and to the end of our bed where I reached up to pull the chain once.. and lost my balance and fell to the right turning my right leg behind me... It was quite a surprise to be laying on my back looking up and glad that not that anything felt out of place. Now you'd think that once I worked my way up off the floor using my walker I'd have headed back to bed or my gravity chair... but I wasn't really thinking that clearly and so walked back towards the footboard to pull the chain once more and AGAIN I lost my not so strong a grip on strength and balance. Once again landed on my back taking the skin off my knee with rug burn and since than have had a difficult time putting pressure on the left foot without a stabbing pin prick when just sitting still or stepping. Yes, I got myself up and walked around the mattress and laid in bed.. Yep, Greg was not happy that I made the attempt at all, just for the sake of the fan speed, regardless of how "simple" it seemed to me. And I was bummed that such a simple task and it proved unthinkable for 6 weeks beyond surgery and the slowness and setbacks encountering.
So pray that with a new game plan that I will gain strength, fight against the extreme drowsiness with routine and activity.
Thanks
No comments:
Post a Comment