I haven't written for a while! I just looked back at a year ago and found that today marks one year that I was released from the hospital! I had the surgery to remove the shunts a year and a few days ago and I remember how difficult it was to contemplate how bad my headache could get without the shunt. The Lord is good and has given me much relief instead! What a gift to celebrate a year outside of a hospital!
The glasses have taken the headache down a couple notches to make it more tolerable and allow me to function a little more normally. I have a ways to go and perhaps won't fully regain my strength but I have made progress in that area as well. I just had my eyes checked again this week and will be receiving my third set of lenses. The headaches continue but they feel that my problem was significant enough and long lasting that my brain is having a difficult time figuring out what "normal" is so they aren't sure if this third set of glasses will be it or if I will have another adjustment or two. Very strange, but it has definitely been a help. Is it the only problem that I have? No, I think it has been a process and we have had to walk through each step that we've taken and this is just another piece of the puzzle. Stability in our lives this last year has been such a blessing, though!
The trauma that has been part of our lives over the last 6 1/2 years has had quite an impact on our family though, and I feel like we are now dealing with some of the fall out of that. We have walked a difficult path through my surgeries, hospital stays and some hard days but survived.. Now I am recovering but we need to help our kids deal with some things from the past that has been pretty hard. So the challenges have changed. If I was 100% back it would be difficult but with me being at maybe 60% it is tough and sometimes feels like more than we are equipped to handle. But God is good, His plans are good and we continue to trust his plans for our lives. I can glimpse one possible reason for Him preserving my life and that is now to help the family through it with His help.
Thank you for your continued prayers and love.
