Saturday, January 2, 2016

Happy New Year!

I just got home from celebrating Christmas with Sister, Brother, and their families.  Sister has been seeing a man for a couple of years, and they are moving toward marriage and blending their families.  Between them, they have 3 girls (ranging in age from 8 to 15), who do very well together.  Brother now has two sons, and they are wonderful boys at age 4 1/2 and 18 months.  The little one loves Mickey Mouse, so he was delighted with the MM hoodie I gave him. 

Daughter has been here with me since the 23rd.  She has done well over all.  She continues to move very slowly, and I think much of that is a medication issue.  Her October and December appointments with Psychiatrist were both cancelled.  She now doesn't see her until the end of February, which is out of compliance with her service plan (which calls for psychiatry services 2x's a quarter).  I wrote a letter of complaint to the head of psychiatry, but did not receive any reply.  I haven't made time to follow up. 

Daughter is no longer cleaning for me on Tuesdays.  She wasn't getting much done.  I would come home every Tuesday to get her her lunch and insulin, and then, after I left, she'd call and order pizza, paying for it with money she stole from my purse.  We are no longer eating out, as I told her we had to make up for all the money she took from me.

The result is the house has been very neglected as I've been working very long hours at the church.  We have worked on it over this break. I tackled the paper monster, and I beat it into submission.  I had purchased a ScanSnap last year in recognition of the reality that I don't do well with paper.  I have done a ton of scanning and shredding, and it really feels good to have it done.

I worked in the church's concession booth for the last home football game at the university.  The team did well this year, and it was a very busy day.  I ended the day in a great deal of pain in my troublesome left arm.  The issue is the radial head I broke in July.  Apparently, it tends to form a fibrous union.  Repetitive motion can cause it to tear, creating pain.  I can feel the bone moving at times, and I've already lost enough bone length in the radius that it is causing problems in my wrist.  On January 14, I'm going to have surgery to replace the radial head.  It's outpatient surgery.  I'll have it on a Thursday, and plan to lead worship on Sunday.  We'll see how that works out.  I will cut back some in the days following, but it is a busy time of year, and it is too hard to reschedule things like the board planning retreat, which begins on the Monday night following the surgery and continues on the following Saturday.  Fortunately, I have someone who helps lead the retreat, so he will take the lead on Monday and Saturday, if necessary.

I went out and purchased some elastic waist slacks, as I anticipate they will be easier for me to handle in the days immediately following the surgery.  I'll start range of motion exercises almost immediately.  I'll be in a sling for a couple of weeks, and it will be 6-8 weeks before I can do any lifting with my left arm.  It will be challenging, and I'll get through.  This will be surgery number 3 on that arm.  The ulna has now healed from the original fracture (May 11, 2013).  The original fracture in the radius is healing.  I broke the radial head when I tripped coming out of the tent on July 22, 2015.  It has shown no sign of healing in the x-rays. Daughter is going to stay with me to help me for a few days following the surgery.  We'll see how that goes.  As of now, Sister is planning to come for the surgery, which will be nice.

It has been an intense time.  There has been a great deal going on at the church.  Daughter has not been stable.  I lost my cleaning help at home.  I'm facing another surgery.  My hope is that I'll be able to work in my garden without restrictions this summer.     I know that the arm will never be right and I'll always struggle with some pain.  I just want to be able to get out and work in the yard.  The last 3 summers I haven't had that freedom.  I could do some things, but I continually ran into things I could not do, and that was so frustrating....

My hope is that 2016 will be a year when we are able to put some of the challenges behind us and move forward.  I wish all of you many blessings in this new year.