Jewells of Thought

A little less than a week before Valentines Day I had been scheduled to have my very first surgery. It was one that shouldn’t have happened… but it did. What scared me and freaked me out was just a little bump that ended up being a benign fibrous tissue a cyst that was infected and needed to come out. If it had been treated the right way from the beginning it wouldn’t have even happened. That’s life I suppose.

So my surgery was on a Monday I had to be at the hospital no earlier than noon. It was a long day. I think I ended up being the last on the list and my surgery was so little less than 30 minutes. Although my scar was fairly long compared to the actual place taken out. My stitches were supposed to come off on their own. Thankfully I didn’t have to have stitches taken out like I did with my carpal tunnel releases later down the road.

This was my first time under a scalpel. I was nervous for sure. I had two preachers come in and pray with me. Preacher Tyra my preacher at the time and Preacher Adams he was preaching at Fellowship but also just helping out and good at visiting and with the congregation. Plus he really liked my parents and was more there for them than for me, but it was nice to have them both.

When I got home that evening, Dad went through the drive through everyone was hungry after waiting at the hospital all day. I couldn’t take the smells of the food being in the front seat of the car. It was my parents and my younger brother and they were starving, I felt sick to my stomach. As soon as I got home I threw up and then needed pain medicine and the ice for my surgery site.

As far as I remember I slept fairly well. When I woke up I remember the guys were doing farm stuff. Grandma and my Uncle were going shopping. What I do remember is they said they were going to Terre Haute and I felt pretty good considering I had been cut into the day before. If I didn’t have to drive and I could go to the Open Door I would be happy. Like I said this was the first surgery for me besides my wisdom tooth being cut out. It was a bit different and I wasn’t prepared for how tired I was about to feel.

We went up north and it was kind of funny. My preacher was at the Open Door the day after he knew I had had my surgery. To say that he was shocked I would be out was an understatement. I thought I would be fine since I wasn’t driving. It was literally at the time we got to that store I started to feel how tired I really was and was needing the ice again. After that I think I stayed home and laid around in the house until Friday.

Somehow being stuck in the house was driving me batty, but my parents were at a Valentines Day Party. So Grandma and both my Uncle’s convinced me to go and watch a movie and eat out that night. Ironically I cannot remember the name of the movie. It was still crazy, but we did it. We watched a movie up at Terre Haute and then of all the places we ate at Olive Garden. Yeah I know it wasn’t the smartest decision to make, but now it’s a fun memory with my Grandma who is gone now.

As we left the restaurant that evening I again, was feeling tired for certain and was probably getting close to needing the ice once again. I had to look horrible, like drained of color, by how tired I felt when my classmate walked in with his wife, I am not certain if they were married yet or just engaged. I just know I felt so out of place.

Sunday morning I thought I had felt fairly good I was ready for church. When it came time to sing in the praise team oh boy I felt such achiness. Another piece of my having surgery I had never thought of… singing. The surgery was within the chest area on top of my lungs. So singing at the top of my lungs brought fresh new pain and I actually stayed home that evening to keep icing the area.

This little surgery of mine still took a good month for me to recover from. My next four surgeries were more prepared because of this first one. I can laugh about them now and lovingly remember the ones that wanted to make me smile while I was going through this surgery. A priceless memory with Grandma enjoying Valentines Day together.

I have two more Valentines Day stories to share in this 3 in a row February Special!