Thanks

Thanks to those who told me how to spell "cupboard." As soon as I saw it, I knew that was it. As a child I won spelling bee after spelling bee after spelling bee. I never lost one that I entered, but lately, since having several strokes, I find that spelling is not one of my best subjects. Bummer.

I've been away for a while -- not out of town, just away from the computer. Is it the weather that is causing this absence? Don't know. All I know is that walking has not been happening and over the weekend Alan and I made several decisions.

First, we're getting a pop-up chair for me -- pushing myself up with my legs is so very painful any more I know what people mean when they say they "blacked out from the pain." Once I get walking -- after about 10 or 11 steps, I can bear the pain much better, but getting to that point is not happening very often.

Second, we have hired a dear lady to clean for me and to do my food shopping. In a panic over the weekend, after not being able to reach my daughter-in-law, Amy, I called my best friend, whom I hate to burden with my problems because she has enough of her own, and asked her to please do some food shopping for me. As I mentioned in my last post the "cupboard" was bare, truly. It's still mostly empty, and I really need to get out to the butcher, but at least I can order what I need and it will be waiting for me at the door, and Alan can go inside and get the package. And my new "personal shopper" lives near the butcher and that will be handy as well.

Third, I'm going to have a teenager come in and get my attic cleaned out and put up my Christmas decorations. That will be fun for her and for me.

Fourth -- and really this should have been put first -- is that I'm asking all of you to pray for my health. I know that pain causes stress and can lead to all kinds of other things not connected to the cause of the pain. I would like to be a little more pain free. It was so bad this weekend that when my friend gave me a hug, or should I say "tried to give me a hug" I pushed her away because the touch hurt so bad.

Fifth, if Medicare will pay for a hoover-round chair for me, we'll get one. We have a wheel chair, but that requires me using my arms, which are very sore from using them to keep my legs from full pressure on the floor. And, I'm wondering, how do I cook or do anything like that from wheel-chair height. The hoover-rounds have me sitting about six to 10 inches higher than the wheel-chair does.

I have to say, I never thought I would be in this state of disrepair at such an early age -- yes, younguns, 65 is an early age when most of your neighbors are in their mid-80s. Alan and I are the "kids" of the neighborhood.

I'm happy that God has still given me breath, and that I'm able to be here for Alan's recovery from eye surgery. And, for those of you who asked, he's coming along, slowly. The eye isn't as red as it was, and it's not weeping and gunky anymore. It still hurts him, and that along with a mild shingles flare-up is making him very uncomfortable. The stitches come out in 7 days. I can actually see these tiny stitches when I put the drops in his eyes. It's amazing what doctors can do these days. And the cornea is clear now, not cloudy as it had been for the first few days, so I'm praying that it is attaching itself properly and that he will have good sight in that eye.

Well, I'm going to be at the computer as long as my back holds out today. So, I may have a more happier post later in the day.

mtf