Hi, thank you for coming to read my blog. I want to share with you my story as I came to live in the USA with a physical disability and how God has been my strength through it all. He has been faithful. Hopefully, the lessons that I have learned on this journey will inspire you and help you to live "Day by Day" in your own journey.

August 16, 2010

Weakness

I am back! No, I have not abandoned my readers. After almost a month of silence due to my computer passing away and complicating my life, I'm back! Here is part two of the story.

I was feeling very vulnerable on those days I was in the hospital. I have had several operations in my life due to my disability, but this time something was very different. I didn’t have my family with me this time. And it works this way, when you are sick you want your mommy! So I did and I remember the next night after the operation I was on the phone talking with my mommy and my sister from Peru. Also my brother and his wife came to visit me to the hospital that night. At least they lived in the next State over so it was a little easier to see them. That helped.

After a week I was able to go back home. Before I left the hospital, the resident doctor tried to give me a blood transfusion to make up for some of all the blood I had lost. It didn’t work! My veins simply refused to receive anything! Every time they put a needle in, my veins just kind of pushed them out… So finally after 2 or 3 times I just said no more and I went home. I haven’t had those problems since then.

When we left and were on the sidewalk before entering in the car, I was able to see my reflection on the glass walls of the hospital and I was shocked to see my face white as a paper! It was really bad and made me nervous; I had never seen myself or anybody for that matter with that color. I was really anemic and the doctors warned me that I was going to feel very weak and I needed to rest and be lying down as much as I could. Because if I sat for long, the blood was not going to have enough strength to go up the brain much and I was going to feel light headed.

When we got home we realized I was going to need more attention than we thought. I didn’t have any energy, I could not cook or even stay sitting on my chair for long periods of time. Vic took a couple of days off but then he had to go to work, he didn’t have any more vacation days left and we didn’t have anybody to take care of me during the day. We were in trouble! Thank God, my sister volunteered to come from Peru and take care of me for a couple of weeks. That was God’s provision for my need at that time.

I would get up and go sit on the couch because I didn’t want to stay in bed. I felt good for short periods of time, but just as the doctors said, I felt very weak and dizzy all of a sudden and I had to lay down immediately to have the blood go up to my brain. It was a very strange sensation I never experienced before or after that time. It was not pleasant to feel that way. Actually I couldn’t do anything because I felt too weak to do anything. So it was kind of boring. But at least I got to be with my sister during the day and she cooked for us. Then Vic would join us after work that was fun.

My sister and I had a funny thing happen once. We didn’t have much experience using microwave ovens back then and I used the microwave to cook a lot. So one day I wanted her to cook a piece of steak in the microwave and it was in a plastic container. Since I normally used plastic containers to heat the food that was already cooked for a minute (not anymore), and the container was supposed to be microwave safe, I thought it was ok for cooking too and she didn’t know so she followed my instructions. So she started the meat in the microwave and I asked her to leave it there for 15 minutes! Then the meat started to smell really good almost like grilled meat would and I was excited about it. Then by the time the time ended, the plastic container was practically gone since it melted onto the meat and the meat was scorched! So much for steak that day! But it certainly gave us a good laugh and still does every time I remember and we also learned a good lesson!

After the couple of weeks were over my sister had to go back home, but I was pretty much recuperated. At least I could spend more time sitting up and on my chair. Feeling a little weak still but I was able to do things again. Only I was a little shaky emotionally and I have to admit I was afraid to be alone in the apartment thinking what I would do if I felt light headed again. But thank God it didn’t happen. I just had to adapt to life as usual again. After a week after she left I was back to normal.

Only one thing left to say, there is nothing like having family close to you in times of need. I am blessed beyond imagination with the family I have. They are always there for me no matter what or where.... Thank you sis!