Making Progress

Daddy headed out late this morning-have to readjust-we always have so much fun laughn and talking. He's also been my nurse-setting his clock and administering my pain medicine and stripping and draining the tube that is draining the area where the lymph nodes were removed(this morning he watched as I stripped and drained the tube to make sure I had it down)-and my butler-the only time I can wash dishes when he's here is if i do them like i did the past 2 mornings-washing them after my 3am dose of pain medicine when he's still only half awake and to tired to put up a "fight" lol. We made some more homemade chicken & veggie soup this time too-he chopped up the veggies for me and I seasoned (arm still recovering from surgery and not quite ready to carry out that motion). Last night we watched the DVD of a pastoral anniversary that he preached a couple Sundays ago-I was encouraged by it-the part that resonated with me was keep walking with Jesus no matter what; as he was coming to a close in the sermon "Jesus is Still on the Way" working from the account of the healing of Jairus' daughter, he said that in October his baby girl was diagnosed with cancer but it's not over-just as it was not over for Jairus' daughter-of course one difference is God has already begun healing me while I'm yet alive-I believe God encouraged him too through the sermon he gave him for that occassion. The recovery process from this second surgery has been more of a challenge than the 1st surgery. The real pain was on the front end duing the pre-surgery procedures. Post-surgery I didn't require any type of pain meds-not even tylenol. Tired and soreness were the only things I really had to deal with the 1st time around. This second time around I needed pain meds in the recovery room and on but I am thankful that aside from the 1st one or two doses that I took at home, I have only needed to take a half dose, range of motion in my shoulder was limited-going to really have to work at getting it back to where it was prior to surgery, and I have a tube in me that has to be drained twice a day. In spite of the challenge I am blessed to report that God is blessing me to make progress. My "physical therapy" has been washing and putting up dishes, last night God blessed me to add to that touching the bottom of the top part of the door frame, and this early this morning added to that-every time I come out of the bathroom I have to reach up and touch the bottom of the top part of the door frame-eventually the goal will be to touch the top of the top part of the door frame. I'm also blessed to report that the volume of the fluid that drained from the tube has gone from 60ml on Thursday morning to 10ml this morning. The nurse told us on Wednesday night that it would have to be at 15ml or below for the surgeon to remove the tube during the follow-up-TGBTG we're already there. The fluid also looks a lot clearer-not bloody like it was. Thursday night had one of "those moments"-because of the shape my shoulder was in, not being able to raise my hand very high at all-felt like it really needed a lot of work and earlier I messed up with pain meds. Since I had been on half doses, I thought I'd try to go the rest of the day without any pain medicine at all...but that didn't go so well. That pain shot up from about a 4 to a strong 7 and I had to go'on and take it...but TGBTG, He did not allow me to stay there but laid on my heart to listen to Mandisa's "Overcomer" before going to sleep. There's a part of that song that says "you might be down for a moment feeling like it's hopeless but that's when He reminds you. You're an overcomer, you're an overcomer...." Then yesterday one of my sisters in Christ came over and helped me get cleaned up and took a look at the dressing over the tube, to see if it needed to be changed or not. She said it looked great and noticed that I really didn't have much swelling at all and also shared with me that some have to have multiple "collection bulbs" for the drainage tube but that I was blessed to only have one. And you know to even be able to recover in the comfort of my own place rather than in the hospital is a blessing too. God is GOOD, He is still providing and still blessing. It is He Who is blessing me to make progress! "Bless the Lord, O my soul and forget not all His benefits;" Psalm 103:2