Grandma is Here

May 25, 2010

So with Grandma Theo here, I tried to fix up the house a little. Concentrated on her room, placing a big bed in there and a comfortor set that makes you want to crawl into bed and stay there with a fireplace, chocolate milk, and chocolate chip cookies on a cold, rainy day. It has been gloomy and sprinkley here for the last week, on and off. Every time I see the clouds, I think, "1. Yeah! I can go outside and not get sun poisoning!; and then 2. Yeah! the roses and the garden love the sprinkles, especially when it is in the form of a mist that one is walking through.

Grandma has been wonderful in her company, in her style, and in her presentations. She has presented us with my husband's favorite meal when he was a boy. Oh and now today is Irish day, so we're having cabbage and that marinaded corned beef. I can hear it and smell it and guess what?

I can eat it. Yesterday, I decided to be bold and see whether or not I could swallow one of my daily pills. Amen and Amen! I did it! Unless you have been in the situation, you have no idea what it is like to not eat. And after cervical spinal surgery, I was unable to swallow my pills for almost exactyly 2 months. There is nothing more bitter, more yucky and more simply nauseating than awakening to have to eat crushed pills. It was a new 'low' in my life, an unexpected one. Just when I thought all was getting better....wham!

The slit on my throat tells tales of bar room fights, however I joke and say, "you should have seen the other guy." My throat was a hideous slab of raw meat, it seemed, for weeks after the surgery of C56 and C67.

And then I went to kill a mosquito. This thing was HUGE, and it scared the living daylights out of me. It was instinct, jurisprudence, and the magazing in my right hand. In slow motion, I set out to throw a good punch. I lifted my right arm, made that extra !Umph! bend posteriorly, for greater speed (F = M x A) and acceleration in my wild attempt to get a bug out of the house. I was still in 'panic' mode when, as my arm thrust that last burst of speed, my right foot silently but ever so completely...it fell out from under me.

I was in mid-air, with nothing to hang on to, nothing to crasp at, nothing to reach out for, no hope in sight. And I was falling onto hard wood, no carpet. This I knew. As my body was pivoted in the air, it seemed as if an external force swayed my pivot towards the left, and it kept me spinning ever so slowly as I started to descend to gravity's eventual plight.

I fell.

Smack. I didn't want to land on the tailbone, as I did not want to fracture it. So my body leaned forward, providing the impact site just at my lower back. From there, the Forces still had me falling backwards, and in 2 seconds, a sequence of events happened that saved me from injury. From the impact onto my lower back, I put both hands out, trying to protect my head and neck. Elbows hit, hands hit, back of the head hit. Thank God, that last one was ever so slowly and ever so medium-hard that it was not a huge crash or bang.

I look back now, as Grandma was cooking in the kitchen. She wears hearing aids and says she has bad ears, but they really are not that bad at all. She heard me fall from the next room, and she could not see me. So she ran in, then my husband ran in,...the rest is unimportant other than I was okay. Sore neck. Sore lower back. Bruises here and there.

I could have broken a hip. I could have hyperextended my wrists, or broken an arm. Could have fractured my pelvis or femur, could have sprained an ankle.

Just the lower back and neck pain persists. I should shut up about it, as it is nothing compared to what it could have been.

When we wake up in the morning, we just have to be thankful for each day, each morning. I hear the birds and the wind chimes, and I see the faces of those most dear to me. I long for my mother Renee and am glad to have these women in my life.

Just another day, just one slip. All is well. And I can eat. And swallow pills. Life is good. I am grateful to God for hearing my prayers, I am grateful to my angel for protecting me, and I am thankful I can make one more entry in this journal. I hope you open your eyes in the morning and are able to thank God for one more day, one more privilege and opportunity to see God.