Claimed, gathered and sent

I have been making great progress with rehab after a total knee replacement. In one week, I have gone from not being able to move my leg to permission to walk (with walker) unassisted throughout the facility. I can't help bur think of the Southwest ads, "You're now free to move about the country," or for me, the facility. Last week, I could not slide my heel toward me (aka doing a heel slide) and now I can get out of bed unassisted. A week ago, my leg bent 60 degrees out of 90 and now it's 76 out of 90 degrees. Progress does not come without pain, however. The big turning point was yesterday, which began with the Mac truck. With knee replacement, it's essential to get and keep the joint moving so it doesn't freeze. To accomplish that requires aggressive, often painful therapy. Yesterday as my PT Charlie was pushing to get that bend to where it needs to be, it involved pain like I have never experienced in my 52 years. I cried. Dear Charlie, along with tw...

God is faithful. He does not require of us more than he gives us strength for. The reality of daily life sometimes makes us wonder. Case in point: I am struggling greatly to catch up on school work from last week when I was in the hospital and began rehab. The factors which have increased the difficulty of doing so are working around physical and occupational therapy (twice I lost some work on a lab for biology), exhaustion from therapy and pain meds, as well as visitors like my wonderful husband as well as friends. Among the blessings of my stay at Kent Regency Rehab has been meeting physical therapists Ed, Hunter and Charlie, wonderful fellow travelers in the journey of faith. In our conversations, I have been reminded of Don Moen's song, "God W ill Make a Way." In an online search of the words for Charlie, I came across this YouTube of it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hOjYR8UZT8. Again I am reminded.

Witnessing the community of faith living the call of John 13:35, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another," is a thing of beauty. The church being Emanuel, God with us, is a reminder of his great love and faithfulness. During my hospital and rehab stay, we have been overwhelmed by the love of the good people of Emanuel Lutheran Church: meals, support, rides for Ray etc. Great is God's faithfulness and great is our gratitude to our church family.

This is one of the most balanced, well thought out posts I've seen in a while on a Christian approach to poverty and living a simpler lifestyle. You will find it at http://krusekronicle.typepad.com/kruse_kronicle/ . Powered by ScribeFire .

Take a look at Bob Robinson's article, "Inequity between the Rich and the Poor" on http://vanguardchurch.blogspot.com/. It's very thought provoking, calling the church to task regarding the rich and poor. Peace Powered by ScribeFire .

The adventures of Marie and me at rehab continue. This afternoon, after Ray had left, a frail, elderly woman in a wheelchair turned the corner and entered our room. We kept trying to tell her it wasn't her room...to no avail. She just kept on coming...past my bed over to Marie's. Marie had been relaxedly reading the newspaper, now at the foot of her bed. The woman started pulling at the paper and Marie kept telling her, "No!" Eventually an aide came and took her back to her own area. Not five minutes later, here she comes again! This time she headed for our bathroom. I thought she'd never be able to manage opening the big door in her wheelchair. Was I ever wrong. Again we rang for help and she was whisked away. This lady was persistent. We found out she's 104 years old. We should have her energy and determination! Later in the day we were telling Rob, the young nurse about her and in she comes again! Rob took her out into the hallway and was talking to her. Th...

I was praying about who my roommate would be and asking God's grace that we get along well. He is indeed faithful, even in the small things. Marie is my roommate. We have an extremely hot room. Our Biology studies this past week on global warming seem quite apropos. I am always hot, but thankfully, so is Marie. We both arrived at rehab on Thursday. We died from the heat and were both soaking wet by morning after sleeping all night in our sauna...I mean room. Even Ray found it very hot here. Friday we met many people: dietitian, physical and occupational therapists, activities director...you name it. More importantly though, we learned the secret of cooling off the room, which involved turning off the heat entirely and opening a window. But, if we left our door open, the heat would come into our room from the hallway and would overheat the room. When we are way too hot: the window is open, the heat off and the door closed. We kept saying imagine if one of us was always cold and the ...

Now that I'm on the other side of my surgery last Monday, I can say I have a new knee! This is what a typical healthy knee looks like. In meeting with my husband Ray, after the surgery, the doctor used a very technical term describing some of what he found around my knee: junk! Apparently due to said junk, the procedure was not so straightforward. Sparing you all the gory details, suffice it to say that I am at a very nice rehab facility close to the hospital and I am improving daily. I get around pretty good with my walker. This is what my knee looks like now--well a knee, not mine specifically. " I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well" (Ps 139:14). pictures from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PTG_P.jpeg and http://www.righthealth.com/Health/Picture_Of_A_Knee/-od-images_1-s.