On Vacation

I’m on vacation this coming week, in Destin, Florida. A very nice place to vacation indeed.

And I have all four kids, two daughters-in-law, and most importantly, two grandchildren here with me. So I plan to be a little distracted.

The week before last, I had back surgery to remove four screws and two rods. It seems the accusations were true: I had a screw loose. Four actually. And now that they’re out, I feel much better.

The doctor thought he might have to redo the L4-L5 fusion plus do a new L3-L4 fusion — which I dreaded. But it turned out that the fusion I already had is just fine. I just needed the hardware taken out. And that has eliminated nearly all of my back pain and spasms.

On the way home from the surgery, however, I began to pass a kidney stone and had to be hospitalized to have it removed. So I had two surgeries in one week and so spent most of this last week recovering enough to be able to go on vacation to really recover.

So that’s seven hospitalizations since October 2013 — and to my knowledge, I’m done. There’s no known reason to go back in, and I’m finally enjoying the pain relief the first surgery was supposed to provide.

The goal now is to get into shape — walking, exercising, that sort of thing. There’s a gym here at the condos, and I’m intending to spend some time each day on the treadmill working up to “geriatric.” That’s one setting above “afflicted.” As in “sick and afflicted.” Being those pitiable people we always prayed for at church. And of which I am now one.

The goal, you see, is to get off the prayer list. But not before the ladies of the church have properly feted me with dinners as one of the sick and afflicted who are found in the “food book.” All Southern Churches of Christ have a ministry run by the women to provide meals to the sick and the afflicted after a hospitalization. And I have eaten quite well on this program.

In fact, being in the food book is about the only good thing that comes with being in the hospital. Although I do think I’ve pretty much worn out my welcome for the foreseeable future. Apparently they think I go in the hospital just to get on the food book — which is tempting, I confess, but as good as the food is, it’s not worth having a kidney stone removed through the only available orifice.

So I posted the recent series on marriage, divorce and remarriage from the hospital rooms, and I hope I haven’t been too terribly harsh in my responses. Sometimes having various metals and stones removed from your body and can leave you a bit short-tempered.

And so I said all that to say this: I have no idea how often I’ll be posting this week. I try to stay several days ahead in my posting, but time has caught up with me. I got nothing. And nothing it may be for a few more days. Or who knows? Maybe grandkids and sand will inspire me. These things cannot be predicted.