A dismal year I would like to forget is 2002. I was ill with bronchitis or pneumonia nine times. I lost a lot of weight but not the healthy way. Finally a cat scan was ordered and the diagnosis was bronchiectasis. It is a condition caused from scar tissue built up after years of bronchitis and pneumonia. The answer was to take out a small portion of the lung. Lung surgery was scheduled for May 2003. The other option was inhalers the rest of my life. I found out later that lung surgery is on a par with open heart surgery! My favorite comment from Shakespeare was appropriate:
“cut it out damn spot!”
One of my most painful experiences was a twelve hour period not long after the operation. The nerves below the ribcage were in the thro’s of dying. The pain was excruciating, unspeakable, unalterable. Frank and Brent painfully witnessed my groans when the Percocet lost out to the breakthrough pain.
After a long painful three months of recovery I felt like a new person. I had never-ending energy and felt I could tackle anything thrown at me. I was so full of gratitude to be up and around, I wanted to do EVERYTHING!!!!
I hope that through the surgery experience I learned something about my capacity for strength, tenacity and endurance. It was very, very difficult and I learned the art of dependence on my Heavenly Father. There was no one else to turn to. I was lower than the lowest. I felt his caring arms gently enfold me. I slept through much of the pain. One of my sweetest experiences was a day that Pat Graham a cancer patient in remission came to stay and bake cookies for me. She later died of brain cancer.
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