Upside Down Pickle Brain (Sunday, May 15)

Firstly, Mia wishes all the well wishers well. We finally had a chance this evening to catch up on her emails, and she is very grateful for the loving and supportive comments. Mia is actually doing quite well, in many ways better than we expected. It's just hard for yours truly to blog and care for my honey at the same time. My apologies for keeping you in the dark.

Each day gets better and each day gets easier. Her pain is easing after each night's rest. They gave her Valium and pain killer and encouraged her to use both. A relaxed, stress free body heals faster. Initially she needed 2 Valiums, then one, and today she began weaning from that. It does have a slightly intoxicating effect. Nothing severe, but it makes for interesting conversation. She's maintained her sense of humor and says she has an upside down pickle brain. That's my girl. It also makes her drowsy, and she nods off regularly, usually awakening one notch improved over when she fell asleep.

During the week we managed to soak in some back yard sunshine, and today Mia took her first walk around the block. Too bad you couldn't see how cute she was in her outfit: a homemade, crochet hat, trench coat for the elements, and of course, every patient's perfect accessory, a soft collar wrapped in a lovely scarf.

Mia says, "Thank you!" to every one who sent flowers. They are lovely. The roses she cut from her garden last weekend were done and due for replacement. So today we tossed out the old and Mia took her gardening assistant/blogger along to cut roses for the home, which she had fun arranging. The picture is the cuts for her bedroom. Her garden is a refuge and soil is medicine for Mia's soul. Her herniated disk robbed her of this joy and we hold on to hope and prayer that she'll be able to feel the dirt in her hands again this summer.

Monday we enter a new phase as I return to work. Mia must be careful not to reach too far, too high or too low, and must turn her body, not her neck--all to protect the surgery and bring about proper healing. It's much like healing a broken arm or leg. So we're arranging objects in the refrigerator and other shelves for easy reach while I am at work. Again dinners are being delivered this week and it has helped enormously. Thank you so much, those at Mercy Ministry and WBS friends that have helped us in this way. (Please don't bring food, if you haven't signed up already. We're covered.)

God bless you as he has blessed us!