A while back, Mary Loging wrote a guest blog for me titled ‘Are You Blocking Your Blessings‘. She gave some really great insight into how we can open up an unblocked channel in order to receive abundant blessings. She also shared some quotes from some friends about how they regard blessings. One of those quotes was by Yours Truly…Nancy says: “I don’t always recognize blessings…sometimes they come disguised as problems.”
Ha! Over the past week, I have experienced a situation in my life that at first blush looked like a huge problem, but which instead turned into a huge blessing for me. I wouldn’t have chosen this to happen, especially since it didn’t happen to me but to Ms. B, my dear 83-year old MIL. Last Saturday, she had to have emergency colon surgery. At 83, she is the picture of health, but suddenly became very ill and at the ER, they told us she would have to have the surgery to correct a life-threatening situation. They also told us that it was possibly due to a tumor, and that she most likely would have to have a colostomy, at least for a few months.
A little background: Ms. B lives with Cowpoke…(most of my readers know that although Cowpoke and I are married, we don’t actually live together). He brought her from Kansas over 5 years ago to take care of her, but in truth, she takes care of him mostly. At 83, she does all his laundry, dusts, mops, vacuums. (She is a-m-a-z-i-n-g!) In turn, he does all the shopping, cooking, maintenance, and makes sure she has a baseball game to watch on TV from the first game of the season til the last game of the World Series. She weighs 90 pounds and at 4’11″, looks frail, but she can just about outdo us any day. And on top of all that, she has smoked for 65+ years! Here she is on her 80th birthday, with her two ‘boys’.
Anyway, this sudden illness came at us like a freight train. She had the surgery last Saturday morning. They had told us to expect that she might have to stay on the ventilator…she didn’t. They told us she might have to have a colostomy…she didn’t. We expected her pain level to be high (they cut a 7 inch incision in her abdomen!) but she had pain meds for only 24 hours! We were thankful, because the pain med (morphine) did have quite an affect on her mind; however this was temporary. The surgeon did in fact remove a tumor, which was malignant, but they feel very confident that they removed all of it and her lymph nodes look clear. She was released from the hospital yesterday, just 7 days after major surgery that would have kept a lot of people half her age down for the count. She is up and about, back to smoking and drinking her coffee, watching her ballgames…did I mention she is amazing?
Although I wouldn’t wish this on her for anything, this week truly has been an abundance of blessings. It has given Cowpoke and I a closer sense of partnership and a deeper sense of purpose. It has blessed me with the gift of being a caretaker. It also has deepened my already deep respect for her, as well as for the aging process, and made me less fearful of aging myself. It has doubled my inspiration to physically take good care of myself.
How very blessed I am; I am simply full of gratitude this morning.
Blessings to you all,
Nancy
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