I love Facebook. I can see what people are doing and see photos of their children and grandchildren. Yesterday, I found my best friend from a grade school in Oregon on Facebook. I'm so excited to catch up with Susan again. What irritates me about Facebook, is when people post a one-liner and expect others to know what they're talking about! Perhaps, you don't know what I did from my various posts, nearly three months ago, so I'll tell you.
On May 9, I was quickly stepping up into our RV van when something happened that drastically changed my life--and my husband Jim's--for the next three months, and beyond. I stepped up four stairs, tripped somewhere on the last two steps, and then fell. Did my ankle break while on the steps, or after I hit the ground, three feet below? I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter, for I knew I'd done something dramatic to my leg. After going to the tiny hospital in Tillamook, together with the physician on duty, we determined we should go back to Vancouver to see my own doctor for surgery. So in the middle of the night--me on the bed in the back of the van--Jim driving up front, we drove back to our town. The emergency room was waiting for me and so was the doctor on call. Surgery followed. I had a soft cast for two weeks, then they put me in this orange beauty--I chose the color.
Lots of people signed my cast. Even someone at Disneyland! My favorite, though, was the one prominent in the photo "Enjoy the Miracle of Healing." Medical science is so good at putting broken bones together, fighting cancer, replacing joints, too many for me to mention here. But what medical science can't do is heal. That's up to our bodies. So when my doctor looked at the seven broken bones in my ankle and had to put them together with seven screws, a plate, and several pins, he did what he could do. Now it was up to my body to do the healing.
Weeks passed. No weight on the ankle for seven weeks. I did lots of sitting and used a knee scooter which is very helpful, but still not the same as two feet. Each time I saw the surgeon, he said it was healing a little better and at last this week, he told me the ankle is completely knitted together. Most likely stronger than it was before.
I'm working with a physical therapist, for though the bone is totally healed, my ligaments are stiff and need exercise and therapy. That will take more time, but I'm willing to do the work.
I am grateful to the surgeon who put my ankle back together. We didn't choose him, but we found out he is a nationally recognized micro vascular surgeon and a specialist in orthopedics of the extremities. Wow.
I love reading the Psalms. One of my favorite Psalms is 139. That chapter has brought much comfort to me when in grief I wondered why my husbands had to die when they did. It reminds me God knows our days and I can rest in that. I found more today. I'm going to quote from The Message, which is not as poetic as other translations, but for today, it's appropriate:
God, investigate my life;
get all the facts firsthand. I'm an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight.
You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too--
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful--I can't take it all in!.....
(1 - 6)
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God--you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration--what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body (emphasis, mine); You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day. (13 - 16)
Do those words give you a tingle like they did me? I know I can rest in those words. I can know this accident wasn't a surprise to God.
So today, rejoice with me in the miracle of healing. And God's providential care, and love. It's real. And breathtaking!
A+!
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