When Life Gets All Screwed Up
“You could die or become blind.” These, I was told, were potential effects of lying on my stomach during the eight to ten-hour spine surgery.
I fell off my bicycle while riding in Maine's Acadia National Park in 2006. I knew immediately that I had a spinal cord injury because I couldn't feel my legs. After surgery to stabilize my back, I spent two months of rehab in Atlanta, Georgia.
Unfortunately, pain was my constant companion. In 2008, an orthopedic surgeon told me I needed surgery to straighten my back by inserting stainless steel rods and attaching them with lots of screws! Two months later I injured my back again. Another surgery and a couple more screws and longer rods brought the screw count to 26! Wow!
Life had become all screwed up for sure. As much as we loved the Northeast, we moved from Massachusetts to Texas where it is more favorable for life in a wheelchair. Our son lived nearby with his wife and five wonderful children. A New Englander who loved the seasons lived in Texas for 13 years where the summer months are very hot with little rain. We moved to Michigan during the Year of the Pandemic and it’s so nice to be near our daughter with her husband and two great boys.
For years, I had to take heavy meds for the pain. In 2017, I spent three months at Mary Free Bed, weaning off the drugs in the wonderful pain rehab center. I am now essentially pain-free and praising the Lord! By the way, I didn’t go blind during the surgery.
After my accident I asked the Lord, “OK Lord, how are you going to be glorified in this?” Since then I have been blessed with support systems across the world: letters of encouragement, phone calls, visits, meals, and an outpouring of love I never could have imagined. My life has become enriched as now I have more time to read, pray, knit, enjoy crafts and to think. To think of all my blessings, and to listen to that still, small voice of my precious Savior, knowing one day I shall walk with Him. How sweet it is!
I may have lots of screws and two long rods in my back, but I can only give praise to my Lord who reveals to me every day why life is in fact not all screwed up. He has given me purpose and delight every day and a loving, caring husband and family. I am truly blessed beyond measure.
My mottos during these 18 years have included “Joy in the Journey” and “F.R.O.G.: Fully Rely on God.”
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. ~ Nahum 1:7
They are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord. ~ Psalm 112:7