A woman I know just had hip replacement surgery and it’s really getting her down. She is healthy and sassy and spry and assumed she’d be in a bit of pain, but also assumed she’d be back to her old routine in no time. And she will be, but right now it doesn’t feel that way. Right now, she’s in the midst of the storm.
Saul and I were talking with her husband when my sweet never-forgets-ANYTHING soulmate reminded me that I was in the same situation less than 5 months ago. I swear that man has a mind like a steel trap when it comes to basketball and stupid things I’ve said.
I expected to feel like crap after my mastectomy. We had planned for it. Saul took some time off work and the kids went to live with their cousins for a few weeks. What I hadn’t mentally prepared for was the turmoil after the recovery. That period of time when I’m no longer on drugs (prescriptions, people!) and yet I’m not quite back to full speed.
It was that sliver of space that felt the darkest. I would walk up the steps with an empty laundry basket and get totally winded. I would reach up to grab a glass and realize I had lost my range of motion. I would sleep flat on my back night after night because lying on my side reignited the pain.
Saul may have known about all that, but what he was referring to was the time I started to cry because I’d never again be able to pick up my youngest son. Ben is 5. He’s in kindergarten and weighs about 50 pounds. He can walk. He doesn’t need me to pick him up. But as his momma, sometimes I want to pick him up. The window of opportunity where he’ll even let me pick him up is closing and I was missing my last few chances.
Here we are, post surgery, post recovery and life is returning to normal. I go to the gym, climb up on the counters to grab the high glasses, and sleep any which way I please. I also pick up my son and carry him through Walmart sometimes, just because I can.
If you are going through a storm right now, please, let this encourage you. You aren’t stuck in a difficult time, you are walking through a difficult time. If you’re not quite ready to believe it today, then slip this truth into the back of your mind. You will get through this. You will get your life back. I assure you, this too shall pass.
