The Return to the Fortress

This is what my friend Julie named my new place....which has, as my friend Kelly later recited to me (after heaving up a backpack full of groceries) FIFTY-ONE steps (I counted 54 later because I included some shifts & turns she gracefully omitted).

Yes, my friend Lisa came by the Woods, partook in scrumptious Shirley-made fare and took me back to the Fortress, which I ascended gently and gingerly on my derriere. Whoever does crutches UP stairs, let me know 'cuz I don't get that. Though I did ditch the crutches a few days prior anyway - they HURT!

Lisa took great care to make sure things were positioned where I needed them to be: chair in the kitchen, chair in front of the bathroom sink, blankets on the front couch (I have a futon flat on the ground in the bedroom - the bedroom set didn't survive the move), and then it was just me. Here.

I have this thing about sleeping IN your bed....so I relented and moved my stuff back there. And I survived!

The drift from gratitude to impatience

It so easily happens! We start to lose sight of all of God's blessings and want to take the reins again. I could see that happening to me as I began to resist the time I was in...to resent not being able to move....to want to complain more readily than sing His praises for all He'd done. The human condition persists.

Follow up appointment #1 and bigger lessons learned

It was great to get a "good report" from the doctor...or at least, as good as I could surmise. He's pretty poker-faced and tight-lipped when I try to ascertain where I stand in the spectrum of things. He finally gave in to saying I was an "A+" at this post-op phase, so I let it go at that.

Even better than the visit was the time I got to spend with Mary Flaherty, who, like Lani, barely knows me and yet made the tiem and effort to serve me (in fact, she is mentoring Lani right now so she is effectively the patron saint of our small group :). She got me there very early, was careful to make sure I was supported at every move, and even invited me back to their beautiful beach-view home in pacifica when we returned before Shirley was back from her errands. It was a great opportunity to share in one another's lives more...something we sadly just don't do in the normal course of things.

That is one big learning from this surgery: that the "normal course of things" squeezes out so much opportunity for blessings: taking time to be with others, serving one another, and - for me - being able to RECEIVE the gifts of others and the gift of "non-productive" time. Lord, let me retain these ever-so-important lessons.

(the other interesting learning being that, even when life is UN-scheduled, we can still choose to squeeze God out by a busy and distracted mind....ah we do need His help so much!!)

Good thing we had the elections

Otherwise I would have been mind-bendingly bored to tears with all of the 'normal' programming television has to offer us these days. Instead, I was able to finally see some checks and balances restored to the U.S. government for the first time in six years. Remember those? We learned about them in elementary school, but we have lacked them for a while. Nice to have them back.

Give-me-the-drugs...and life in a spiritual womb

My friend Lani - saint that she is - after knowing me barely two months, came to get me from the surgery with 1-year-old Cole in tow. He was such a good boy, especially given that he was past due for his lunch by the time Lani was able to get my pain meds from teh pharmacy (my doc sort of forgot to call them in beforehand and that was not something we could just "see" if I could get by without!).

Lani braved the rain to get me the meds and take me down to Pacifica, where I was whisked into the haven of Shirley, Eunice & Lydia Woods' gingerbread home.

It was pure pampering from that point on - both physically and spiritually. Shirley waited on my every need, and it was a complete blessing, after living 5 years with Eunice & Lydia, to be able to get to know Shirley more. I thought she was great beforehand, and I got to test it out for real there. She really IS that great and more. In fact, I think she is one of the most generous people I have ever met. Both with her time and her service - to pray and to serve.

I was a direct recipient of that - and all at a time when she was going through a home sale and preparing for a two-week excursion to Malaysia. There will be many crowns at the thrown with Shirley's print on them!

Day o' the Surgery: November 2

Clearly God was in control. Not only was I able to get the 5:40am bus ON TIME to be at the hospital...but my attending nurse happened to live where? In the Haight. Where? On Clayton. Which part of Clayton? Between Haight & Waller. That would be 639 Clayton. That would be our old place. As Ginny Bunnell used to ask: "Coinkidinky?"

Signing all of the pre-op 'releases' certainly drives home the seriousness of surgery. No wonder I kept confusing anaesthesia with anethenasia....glad it was the former...though the reluctance I had to come "out" of it after the surgery led me to believe they may have goofed a bit. My first post-op memory was looking into my inquiring doc's face and then down at my toes and pointing sternly at them and asking defiantly, "why are they still crooked?"

After all of that hoopla, I wanted beautifully straight toes. But the surgical booties can hide a lot - the good, along with the ugly (Frankensteinian stitches and pins that I woudl later see -fortunately, however, this ugly involved no "bad" in between!).

Bipedal Auston-Chevron Bunionectomy with Osteotomy

or: what my life has been about for the past ~month. Today marks Week Three + 2 days post-op of me deciding to go under the knife.

This is the culmination of a long road: it started with my grandmother...Gramma Brown....who always wore pumps and had the worst bunions ever. Somehow I took up the mantle - I swear it was when I wore those tight Jack Purcell sneakers when I was like 5 - and have had these charming projections from my feet ever since. When my co-worker Gina had the procedure done, I was curious.

I went to her doctor (having felt comfortable that I could ride off of her prodigious due diligence) and he used his standard M.O: don't be knife-happy. Take preventitive steps and monitor. I did...got orthotics...new orthotics...and then finally, about 1.5 years later, he proudly pronounced that I was getting to an "advanced" stage. One of those rare situations where "advanced" is not a badge of honor.

Sadly my own experience corroborated this: I was starting to feel pain, despite my religious foot massages every night (ask my former roomies: they'll tell you I worked my toes for ten minutes regardless of what was going on!), it was time to accept the fact, suck it up and do it. Stay tuned....