I don’t often, (I really mean hardly EVER) participate in hops or join groups of bloggers writing about the same subject, including gratitude, but I met a new friend online, Lizzi Rogers, who writes at Considerings, and she inspired me to share a list of ten things for which I’m thankful.
Here’s an extra one…Thank you for your kind invitation to share my Ten Things of Thankful.
Considering that my personal planet shifted on April 28 when I received That Dreaded Call at 3AM, causing me to fly (literally) across the country to be at my son’s side in the hospital, living there 24/7 for about two weeks while he underwent emergency surgery, helped to pack up his office at Yale (he’s a professor) and brought him back to California to recuperate — two days after I got home, I had to take my tugboat man hub to the airport ON MY BIRTHDAY to begin a month-long assignment — AND two days after THAT, I began to see sparkles in my eye that had nothing to do with diamonds, that was a very mean signal that I had a retinal tear for which I had laser surgery to repair (successfully). Whew! That was ONE LONG SENTENCE, but hardly worthy of a Faulknerian comparison.
Oh, and my lovely MacAir exhibits the BLACK SCREEN OF DEATH so I’m on a very old but still functioning Lenovo laptop, which leads me to my first of TEN THINGS OF THANKFUL
1. I turned 60 on May 14, and I am old but still functioning, just like that old Lenovo.
2. My very painful laser surgery to protect my retina from further damage in my left eye was a SUCCESS!
3. I didn’t lose any sight, even peripheral vision is totally intact.
4. My absentee mariner husband sent me a box of presents — because he is AWESOME and makes me happy even in absentia.
5. There’s nothing more fun than shopping, except for knowing that very same plastique has the ability to purchase an obscenely expensive ticket to fly that very same day 3,000 miles to the East coast (actually two tickets, ‘cos hub came with me).
6. I’m VERY THANKFUL that my DIL refused to leave my son’s side in the ER and insisted they admit him, and that action actually SAVED HIS LIFE.
7. I’m glad that I listened to my RN mom who told me to never leave anyone’s side when they’re in the hospital and she taught me how to be a VERY ASSERTIVE patient advocate.
8. After a brief setback with a couple of infections that responded to antibiotics, my son will have a full recovery from major abdominal surgery, so every day is a wonderful day, because it was touch and go for a while and I don’t even want to think about what could have happened.
9. The eye surgeon told me I can start going back to the gym and resume my work out routine of boot camp, weight lifting, yoga, and Pilates.
10. My wonderful tugboat man is coming home this week! (Hopefully, saying it doesn’t jinx it. You can never be sure until he’s on the plane.)
And now I’m on my way to the Genius Bar at the best Apple Store ever, located in the same shopping center as Anthropologie! Hopefully, the black screen of death is a simple fix. Fingers crossed.
I am so glad you are joining in on this! Ypur list is wonderful too, finding the good during times of high stress.
Good luck at the Apple Store!
LikeLike
Got to find the good and the funny or I’d go bananas! On my way to Apple!
LikeLike
Welcome to the TToT! I’m so glad you joined us!
What a good mama to fly across the country to be with your son (not that I wouldn’t have done the same thing, but still – awesome!). What a relief that he will recover fully.
And poor you, to have retinal surgery right after all that. I’ve heard that is very painful, and the only good thing is they have very stylish eyepatches now.
Where does your tugboat man go when he works? Is it one month-long trip or several shorter trips within the month?
And YES to having an advocate with you in the hospital! I learned that when my dad was there a few years ago, and when I had major surgery two years ago, I had people lined up to stay with me when my husband had to be gone for two days of my stay. That squeaky wheel thing is the truth!
Happy belated birthday!
LikeLike
You are awesome! A pleasure to meet you and I’m honored to join such a lovely group. I always say I was just being a mom, cos that’s what moms are supposed to do, like you would for sure. And I hope you never have to!!! I didn’t get a patch, I asked him about it but he said no, just no reading for 72 hours, which was torture. But yes, the pain was hellish, worse than my c-section and a root canal combined. My tugboat guy goes all over the world on his assignments. He’s been through the Panama Canal a zillion times, to Singapore, Korea, Russia, Africa, Amsterdam, Alaska, South America, and all that’s in the last couple of years. No, I never get to go with him and so far I haven’t been able to visit him cos he never rally gets off the boat. Usually he goes away for 2 months and he’s home for two months but it changes like he was just gone for a month and he’ll be home for about 3 weeks and then gone until October,but last year he came home in November and didn’t really go back until this last trip in May. The way it works is that he’s still paid when he’s home so timewise it kind of balances out.It’s very confusing! He’s only been doing this particular type of being a seagoing mariner for about 5 years, before that he only worked tugs in our local harbor and was here mostly every day. And I’m glad to meet a fellow advocate! I hope you’ve fully recovered from your surgery!
LikeLike
What a fascinating job your husband has, even if most of it is from the cabin of the tugboat! So cool!
LikeLike
It’s also fairly stressful and for us mariner wives too, who worry about our guys…
LikeLike
YAY! I’m so happy to have met you, and to read your lovely first list in the TToT 🙂 I am so enjoying getting to know you (even though we’ve already been, what, to the beach, shopping, and drinking? – this place is so fun).
I am glad that your retina healed – that’s such a scary thing to have happen. Not as bad as the emergency with your son, and THANK GOODNESS your DIL was so adamant about him being admitted, and that he received the appropriate medical interventions, that you got to go and see him, and that he LIVED! My goodness, that has to be one of the biggest Things on a first list of thankful that I’ve ever seen! Yow!
I’m happy for your pretty things, and for the imminent return of your Captain 🙂 I hope you enjoy the hop thoroughly, and have a gorgeous week 🙂
LikeLike
Welcome to TToT!
I hope that black screen was an easy fix. And I’m very happy for you that the surgery went so well. Eye surgery is a scary thing. Also happy that your son’s surgery went well.
LikeLike
Hi! TToT is a lovely group, thank you for including me. Bad news on the mac, had to leave it there, but on the bright side, Al Gore was there too and we had a nice conversation — all true and I’ll be blogging about it! My son is doing much better, I’m still a little afraid about my eye, tho…
LikeLike
YOU GOT TO MEET AL GORE?! I voted for him….
LikeLike
I looked all over for secret service but they must have been disguised as Apple employees haha. Not only meet him, but sat 1-2 inches away thigh to thigh. True! I voted for him too.
LikeLike
I can hardly wait to read the Al Gore story!! 🙂
Saying a prayer for your eye.
LikeLike
Thank you kindly, and I’m gonna work on AG tonight, wait, I mean the story, not actually the man lol
LikeLike
wow… what an opening… you guys have had a run for the money … so glad your son is going to recouperate fully as will you! Now for the computer! Welcome to the TToT! Hope to see you here again! I am also a bit rabid when it comes to advocacy but truly it is a necessary evil in health care on all levels today.
LikeLike
LOVE to meet a sister advocate. It’s so important!!! I think I’m over the bad stuff (fingers crossed) and hope to join TTOT again, but hubs coming home and I have less time to play on the internet! Thank you for stopping by 🙂
LikeLike
Wow, Im glad everyone seems to be on the mend now!
LikeLike
Geez Louise, it was a hell of a month. Yep, even my mac is back in action as we speak, not a major problem and free repair!
LikeLike