Heading in to surgery

Today feels long as I dreamt about work last night. I feel like I’ve already been here and done this. Except my dream was clearly not based in reality; in my dream the CEO had a group of important visitors in. They were midgets, business midgets. They made a big mess & I had to clean it up. It was terrible. They all wore suits and managed to stay spotless; they were used to making messes and not getting dirty.



Paul and I are having a lot of fun in life. A few weekends ago we drove down to the states and slept in his parents van in a walmart parking lot. It was actually so much fun. We have friends over, we go out to visit friends. We play games. We laugh. We eat. We see our families, we go to work and school. We love to have people in our home, especially when we get to feed them and really especially when we get to have good deep conversations with them…though we also like to play games with them too.


Today is a busy day at the office. A bunch of executives from other locations are here and it’s neat to put a face to different names. It means that today is hectic, and yet when they are all in meetings it’s slow.


I’ve been doing pretty well at getting to bed on time since I started working here. I am usually asleep by 10:30 on a work night. I wake up at 6 and am out of the house at 7:05. This week though I have been up to 12:00 or 12:30 each night. In reality I don’t really feel that much more tired than normal; but as I am fighting a cold this is not a great lifestyle choice for the week. However there have been things to do, and people to see. I will be off work for 2 weeks starting Monday to have lower back surgery so at least I can rest then!


Yes, I am having back surgery! Since March I have been experiencing pain in my lower back/right hip. Really the pain feel like it centers in my butt on the upper right side. For the first 3 months they told me it was just a stress induced pinched nerve. Then when it persisted past my wedding and honeymoon they told me it was Siatica. Then when I couldn’t sleep next to my husband because the it hurt to lay in bed (though it hurt to stand and sit as well) they told me it “wasn’t that bad.” Finally I went to Emerg and got pills which actually helped relieve the pain for the first time in 4 months. When my GP saw that those pills were making a difference he realized it had to be worse than Siatica or stress. He finally had me sent for a CT scan in early July. This scan showed that I had a protruding disc that had fragmented and that the only way to clean out the fragmented pieces and keep the disc from protruding was surgery. This was discovered the day before I started a new job! The surgeon told me I needed surgery and that he would book me in for that night, as it was a fairly urgent surgery. However after 2 and a half months of not working I couldn’t afford to lose the job I had finally gotten! I asked the DR if I could do the surgery in the fall and still be ok on pills until then, which he said was fine. Then I went to visit my new workplace to explain what was going on. They very generously agreed to let me have 2 weeks off for the surgery and recovery sometime in the fall. Well that time is this coming Monday. I cannot wait! I have been in pain 6 months; through all the wedding prep, through the wedding, through the honeymoon, through job hunting, etc. Everyone said that the pain would be gone by the wedding/honeymoon. They said, “God is good, he will remove this pain.” Well God is still good but he did not remove the pain. Instead he used it to teach me. I have learned to slow down. I have learned to be patient and gracious with people in pain (especially when you can’t see the problem obviously). I have learned my husband is very kind to me when I am not feeling well. I have learned to be grateful for what is good, instead of complaining about what’s wrong.


Lessons aside, I am glad to be rid of the pain though 


So for the next two weeks I will mostly be at home. I have been prepping meals and PVR’ing TV. The recovery will not be bed rest. I will be moving around my home AND resting in it. My goal is to spend some time with God each day, to connect via phone or email with a long distance friend each day, and do every piece of physical therapy they give me to help heal. I will rest as long as they recommend and to my best ability follow everything they say to optimize healing.


Today I had lunch with a friend. I don’t know her very well yet but we have a lot of things and people in common. We go to the same church. We dress similarly. Heck, she was Paul’s only other girlfriend! In my head I think of her as a “dear friend” even though we are new friends. I look forward to getting to know her better. I love the start of friendships that you just know will be good. I look forward to figuring out how to make time for her in my life (on top of all the other people and friendships that are already a priority!).






Alright, I have a mountain of booklets to put tabs in, then bind in a binding machine. Woo!