...for they remind her that SHE SURVIVED.
The final cast came off my foot yesterday. Thank you, Jesus! It feels so good to be free of that thing. My foot is still so jacked up and I don't know if it'll ever be "normal". I still have pain in the joint and burning in my toes. It's also popping and snapping like crazy and feels wobbly. I am done, though. It's just gonna have to get better on its own or get to some point where I can manage it and live a normal life.
It's ugly. Horribly scarred. Red. Still has a tiny opening. But it looks SO MUCH BETTER than it did. I'm using a vitamin E, coconut oil salve on it every day and I read that aloe helps fade scars, too. We have a massive aloe plant out on the patio. I don't know how much better it'll get but I'm going to help it all I can. My skin graft scar is probably as good as it's going to get but I rub that salve on it every day, too.
My scars are my battle wounds, beautiful in their own way. They show what I've been through and what I GOT THROUGH. All the nights I told Larry, "I'm not going to survive this" and the pain, oh my God, the pain. There were times, very dark scary nights, that I believed that I would not survive these wounds but I prayed so hard that I would. And it looks like I did. Or I'm going to! God is so good to us.
Here's my poor little war-torn foot. It's been through so much trauma and I'm not putting it through any more. No more cutting, no more messing with it. It is what it is. Whatever that turns out to be.
I'll wear these scars forever, as proof that our God HEALS.
No scary foot pics this time! It is getting better, though. Just a very slooooow process. When my home nurse uncovered it yesterday to change my dressing, there was actual NEW SKIN growing!! Just a tiny bit around the edges but I was SO excited!! Thank you, Jesus, for your precious healing hands!!
Today is three months since the last time I was at work. November 5th. And I was only there half a day. I left at lunch since I was SO excited about my surgery and I wanted to go home and get an overnight bag packed (Just in case. My mama taught me well about a lot of things and hospital stays is one of them.).
THREE MONTHS. I sure didn't think I'd still be recovering at home three months later. These days, I don't really mind it much. The pain is manageable now with the meds I'm on and I'm able to DO STUFF around the house. Light housework, laundry, that kind of thing. I give out so easily so I do a little bit and sit down, do a little more and sit down.
My high school friend, Kim, has been coming to see me and I have SO enjoyed her company!! Oh my goodness, I'm so happy to have her back in my life. We have missed decades but we're gonna catch up. She's moved back from Delaware and I'm trying to get her to move even closer, like our neighborhood. Ha!
Since I spend most days in my pjs and no makeup, it was so nice to go out for lunch with Kim last week (even though I was wearing my wound vac around my neck and folks were staring at me like I had something they could catch!) and then go get our hair done. I had not had my hair cut since the end of October (in preparation for my surgery) and I was looking like quite the shaggy dog. I got my bump back and I'm so happy! I've been getting my hair cut short in the back and stacked into a bump and kinda long and tapered in the front. That works for me. It's easy and it's cute, too!
I'm not making any long term plans but I am absolutely giddy about that little bit of fresh new skin that's so pink and pretty around my wound. It's the little things, you know.
Thanks for your prayers. Keep 'em coming!! They're working.
