Hello faithful family, friends, and followers and welcome to Friday. Because we do not currently have a vehicle to announce when updates are posted and at least at this time, have chosen not to link notices to social media, we’ve decided to just publish on a schedule each Friday. So once again, thank you for joining us.
While I recognize that I just posted on Tuesday, I wanted to get on schedule for our Friday updates and we’ve also had some eventful days emotionally and experientially. It probably should be no surprise that on the day I posted about how we have felt the support and compassion of your prayers and God’s mercy, that Joy would have an emotionally challenging day, followed by a generally positive Wednesday, but then another very challenging emotional day yesterday on Thursday. And at the same time, both Tuesday and Thursday had a number of positives as well, which Joy genuinely felt, so the roller coaster of emotions was moving rather fast upward and downward and upward.
The positives Tuesday included being contacted by the orthopedic surgeon we had consulted about Joy’s wrist on our return to Minnesota and his suggestion of removing the plate from that wrist; his office called to schedule that surgery which is slated for October 24th. This was something Joy has been looking forward to, so this was a positive. The negatives came from various physical challenges Joy faces everyday, but which seemed to compound that day. She can often be good natured about the challenges with her upper right quadrant blindness, but that day it was understandably annoying her. Her right ear, which we feared had been crushed in the accident, now thankfully allows Joy to hear fine, but her Eustachian tube is often plugged on that side so it sounds weird to her when she speaks and again, is annoying. She was feeling particularly physically fatigued and just felt overwhelmed with her physical and cognitive challenges to the point of tears and despondency, for a period of time, but then her spirit seemed to lift.
Wednesday was generally a positive day with Joy feeling especially accomplished in her advances in reading. Joy had gone to our basement and dug out several books our children had read in their early elementary school years, and slowly, haltingly, word by word, started reading them out loud. The more she read, the more confident she felt and this was a great encouragement to her. But at the same time, she still acknowledged that these were early elementary school age books. However, the recognizable progress encouraged us both.
Then yesterday (Thursday) started with what I considered a significant positive. We met with a new physician who we were hoping could be Joy’s new primary care doctor and she was wonderful. She was unhurried taking ample time with us, answered all our questions, put in referrals for more PT and OT sessions if we need them, and checked Joy’s right ear which looked ok, but acknowledged there may be a slight bulging from the plugged Eustachian tube for which we discussed treatment options. However, on leaving the visit, which Joy acknowledged went well for our purposes, she broke down in tears, saying she felt like a child in the visit being taken to the doctor by their parent because she couldn’t answer any of the doctors medical questions and had to defer to me for providing the answers. She said, “I was a nurse for 45 years and I didn’t understand a thing she was asking me. I was looking forward to the visit, but now I know how much I don’t understand or remember.” We took a long walk which often helps but through lunch and into nap time, Joy was rather despondent. However, after her nap and another walk, she acknowledged feeling better.
We started this morning with baking some gluten free pumpkin spice muffins and baked oatmeal for Joy’s mother who we are visiting again next week along with seeing her oldest brother and his wife who will be visiting at the same time. And, since we were running low on Grandma Muffins for the grandsons, did a batch of pumpkin spice muffins for them as well.
When we have several days in a row where life feels very near “normal,” the reality check smack downs that happen can be rather jolting. So just in case you were wondering if you need to keep praying for Joy’s healing and recovery, for sight to her upper right quadrant, and healing for her cognition, recognition, aphasia, and her emotional wellbeing, the answer is a resounding yes, please! We have been blessed with amazing answers to prayer and many physical and cognitive gains for Joy, but it can be a bit of a “Catch 22.” The more gains Joy makes and the more aware she becomes of her present state, the more dissatisfying it can be at times, when she sees where she is now versus where she used to be. So prayers for patience and long-suffering are appreciated as well. We rely on and treasure your prayers for us and they are undeniably felt and mean so much. We pray your week ahead is blessed and we will be back next Friday with another update.
