Friday, July 29, 2011

Me: a Great Gramma... How Can I Pray For You?

I am going to be a GREAT  GRAMMA early next spring! Our grand daugher Emily was married recently to her Navy fiance  and this week they announced that she is due to have their first baby ! Since my  daughter in law  and  my son were both born when her mom and I were VERY young and Diana had Emily when she too was VERY YOUNG, I will be a VERY VERY YOUNG Great Gi-Gi. (Y'all know my age joke..."42 is a big enough number for an age so that's where I parked mine." I AM  of course 42....plus,  so saying I'm 42 is not untrue. If I said I was 57 THAT would be a lie. I am not there yet. ) My son will be 37 next week and Emily is almost 20. WE are ALL very young!  Emily told me that (and I took this to be a tribute to my dad  and tradition) Joshua will be called "Pop" like he called my dad. Diana said that she will be "Lolli". YES, that is how we roll. I guess the Family Crest will have a Tootise Pop on it!!
Youthful as I may feel, some of my parts are inconflict with this concept. Overusing my right hip while on crutches for a left knee problem trashed my hip joint and the X-rays  and my orthopedic doctor indicate that a Total Hip Replacement is in my future. He told me that I will know when I am ready , and they will schedule it accordingly. The prosthesis used for younger more active people is a bit different from those used for more sedentary or less active people. It's still the  opening up of my leg, the removal of my God-given  ball joint and sanding down of the hip socket, gluing in a plastic socket and skewering a new ball into the top of my thigh bone, putting me back together and teaching me how to use a hip that will be void of wear and eventually  of pain, but with some limitations that my painful ,worn out hip does not have. My painful, worn out hip is already limited since I lost full range of motion quite a while ago, I limp almost all of the time and include Motrin or Aleve as part of my daily diet. There is the option of hydrocortisone injections into my hip to give me a bit more time before The Big Event, and I am going to take advantage of that until later in fall.  I dont' want to be on a different floor of the hospital from Esther when she has Riley and I need to be ambualatory to help her for a while. A planned trip in August  is also not conducive to a walker and rehab three times a week. I know that I "knew"  this was going to be the diagnosis and prognosis was before I saw the orthopedic surgeon, he thought he "knew "too from my desciption of  of events and my time line. When he and his PA assessed my X-rays  they REALLY KNEW.   It's not nearly as radical as it used ot be even a few years ago. There is no  more in-patient stay for 2 weeks or in-patient rehab for  5-6 more  weeks. I will be hospitalized for maybe 4 whole days ( a Tuesday morning until some time on Friday) with  walking  and rehab starting on day 1 in the hospital. I will definitely be slowed down for a few months but I'm promised I can swim and walk the 5K lake path again  before too much longer.............depending of course on how seriously I apply myself to my rehab regeime.  God sustained me through the need for gall baldder surgery and through the need for vein stripping surgery and healed me up in remarkable time  from both of those ,so I am praying and trusting for a similar recovery. If you'll remember to pray with me as I prepare spiritually and physically for the procedure, I would be so very grateful!! Thanks in advance for your prayers! 
NOW,  please tell me ,  HOW CAN I PRAY FOR YOU????????????????

3 comments:

Ranee said...

My very young and active father in law had hip replacement a couple of years ago. I think he is just now at 60, but it is a sight to watch him go. He too had the usual reservations, after all who wants to go into surgery and do all that pesky recovery? He was very happy with the process and the way he can move now! You too, will do wonderful when you see fit to do work this into your schedule.

I must have my tonsils out. They keep telling me now is the time, but I just don't see it that way. So you can pray that they magically disappear over night! This way I can avoid all the hassles.

I have to add that the photo of Diana and Johsua at the top of the blog is a photographers dream. Gorgeous!

Jenna said...

Hi
My name is Jenna and I came across your site. U are a wonderful, caring, person, wife and mother. You have a big loving family, with great kids and grandkids. Daniel is an amazing, courageous, strong and determined fighter. He is a brave warrior, smilen champ and an inspirational hero. U will be in my thoughts when u go for your hip replacements. I am very young yet I have had 30 operations so far. I had two jaw replacements, and I will be having a knee replacement done and possibly my hip. I was born with a rare life threatening bone disease, have very bad Osteoporosis, Osteo Arthritis, Fybromialgia, and more conditions. I love it when people sign my guestbook. www.miraclechamp.webs.com

Kathy M said...

I will pray for successful hip surgery with an easy recovery and you can pray that my kidneys hold out for a very long time which means I need to keep my blood pressure down. Not so easy sometimes. Congrats on the coming of your great grandchild. I'm a bit behind on that- gotta get Kelly to get a move on. :)Love ya