Lately I’ve spent a lot of time thinking what could have been as opposed to what was in my life. That’s a strange occupation that often brings tears, but then I shake myself and order a reboot. Time to remember all the good times and discard the bad. Bad only brings on regrets. On thinking about it I hope I didn’t do too much stuff that I’ll regret. Okay, order number one. Discard regrets and concentrate on those memories that bring rainbows and flowers, smiles and joy, love and passionate thoughts.
It’s taken a year to come through some really hard times. But when I think back on that year you know what comes to mind first? All the smiling faces of those who helped me through. My daughter and the rest of the family come first of course. Without them I would never have made it. Never be sitting in my own small home perched out here on the side of the mountain, and not locked up in a one-bed-room with no birdsong or view of flowers and trees out my windows.
Then there are the faces of all those who are responsible for my still being alive and kicking. The heart specialist in Little Rock who made me one of the first 100 to undergo a new heart surgery in Arkansas that saved my life. As they told me, gave me ten more years. And that ain’t bad considering I’m 82. Those who drove me back and forth and back and forth till we accomplished what they set out to do.
This all began though back in December a year ago with a surgery for what looked like a tumor and could have been cancer but wasn’t. Then we went on to the heart surgery in late April which we’ve already talked about. Two days after I was released as okay I took a dive from my walker in the bedroom and broke my left arm. No, I didn’t pass out or faint or anything dramatic like that. I simply turned the thing around too fast and it threw me. Across the room missing furniture that could’ve done me in.
Now I’ve ridden horses for a portion of my life and never been thrown. Certainly not like that. I was thrown off my bike a few times as a kid, come to think of it. Anyway, off we went to the hospital, tended by some of the finest people in the county, our first responders from the Boston Mountain Fire Department. They’ve been involved in my life for a while too. Scary times cause I couldn’t walk and now I only have one arm to use. And my therapy at Health South was finished, thanks to many wonderful therapists, nurses, etc. Now there was discussion about taking me out of my home. How could I cope living alone?
What happens next in a situation like this might be of interest to my readers. If so, I’ll post the next chapter next week to keep this blog from being so long. I do hope I’m back to posting weekly and will move away from health issues to what I hope will be of more interest to regular readers.
Velda Brotherton 