"Just Another Day In Paradise"

I had a dear Aunt who passed away in the year 2000 from a botched heart valve surgery. She had kind of a hard life with some extremely difficult trials. She was always one of my "heroes" while I was growing up. When I would ask her how she was doing she would always say,"I'm up and taking nourishment so it's a good day." My Mom is another one of my heroes, she calls me every morning to find out how my night went and what I have to do during the day. When I ask her why she's so happy she says, "well, I made it through another night," and then she laughs. I'm not a morning person, I never have been so that has caused some problems being married to a "rise and shine, get up and get going" kind of guy. This morning when I got up Rich had already been up since 4:00 a.m. and worked out. We were passing by each other in the bathroom and I said, "just another day in paradise." Now anyone who knows me well will hear a little sarcastic ring to that statement. When I was in the shower just now, yes it is 4:00 p.m. and I decided I could take a shower by myself and get dressed without any help. As I was thinking about my comment "another day in paradise" I realized that compared to a lot of the world I do live in paradise. I have had another hard week. I had NO idea that this surgery would take such a toll on me physically, mentally, spiritually and psychologically. I don't know why I thought I would come out of surgery and be walking on my own within a few days. I became so discouraged this week that I thought my parents were going to give up on me. They came over yesterday to help and as I was talking to my Dad about how I was feeling he explained to me that I will never be the same as I was before the surgery. The main reason I went through with the surgery was to relieve the pain I was suffering from. I may still walk with a limp and there may be things that I just can not ever do again. I may be using a walker for another month, or a cane for the rest of my life, but if most of my pain is gone my surgery will be a success. He also reminded me of the importance of praying and asking for help, that I can cope with the feelings I am having. My Dad is another one of my heroes. He keeps reminding me of the important things in life. I hope they know how much I appreciate all they have done for me in my life. So I will continue to work hard each day to realize how much progress I am making and continue living my life in paradise.