Jewells of Thought

When my surgeon saw me today she said I had graduated. Today marks 5 weeks after what now is my last surgery. God-willing, I am not looking for any other congenital anomalies to come out of nowhere again. Although I am grateful for my talented surgeon and her deft touch left me with scars that are not somewhat visible and some mostly gone now. It’s a blessing.

Graduated… I don’t know if I heard that word all 4 times, but at least 2 or maybe 3 times. After 6 surgeries total; I know I heard that word after each Carpal Tunnel Release and today for sure. Goodness, it has been on my mind that this could be my last time in that office and to see the ladies in that office including Dr. Peck herself. Thinking about this almost makes me teary eyed because I have spent so much time around those ladies, the receptionist, my therapist and the nurses. Yet it doesn’t seem real yet, that I won’t be somehow going back.

Dr. Peck and I began with my first Carpal Tunnel talking about my need to get back to my music. Today I told her that last week I was playing and it was achy, but yesterday I played a few different songs again and it didn’t hurt. She told me that would be my new version of therapy. Trying to get up to maybe an hour of playing each day which will be hard to do but I am two weeks at 15 minutes. Last week maybe not quite that long because of the pain, but it was a start, then tonight I was able to play through 3 songs about the same time frame I think about 15 minutes give or take. I played a more difficult song today so I did have a little trouble moving my hand a bit, but it’s a start and it does feel good.

My thoughts still want to analyze why! Why did I have to go through these last 4 surgeries. I want hands, wrists and arms that don’t have problems and keep me from my hobbies. Not being able to cut up onions, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and so forth has been frustrating. I love cooking and having to make others do work I would normally enjoy doing wasn’t exactly fun. Now once I allow a little more time to heal fully I will be able to exercise and add my 3 pound weights back to my routine. I haven’t gotten back to the 4 or 5 pounds that will hopefully come in time, but I’m not quite there yet.

It’s my hope that I was able to deal with these surgeries in a way that my faith showed God was in charge. I knew my doctor was confident in her abilities and I had seen it over and over again. I put my trust in her and she didn’t fail me; I felt at peace because I had prayed over every surgery. I knew I had to get through them in order to get to a place where my wrists were more normal than they were. Although I know I am not necessarily normal; I like being uniquely me. Having surgery doesn’t really change my identity and character so there is no fear of that changing at all.

In the next few days it will be neat to see how far and what songs I bring out to practice on for my therapy sessions day to day. I challenged myself this evening with a piece from one of my all time favorite Christmas Cantatas. I am excited because I really haven’t played much at all this year because of both surgeries. I am so happy after today I can breathe a sigh of relief for now. Even while I say prayers for friends and family who are having surgeries that weren’t scheduled. A couple have been on my mind over the past week. One was scheduled last week and one not this week thank goodness the Lord is watching over them.