My Motorcycle Injuries

I handled the second of two recent funerals today. I often say that people rarely call the preacher when things are going well, and as a result death is sometimes a part of what I deal with in the ministry. I never really find it to be a difficult thing because I maintain the perspective that I am doing what I always do, which is to present a biblical perspective to the things that people are facing in life. Still, the two people for whom I have done these services were friends and it's not really easy to grieve when you’re the guy in charge of the service. I guess my thought today is that I’m grateful. I appreciate the fact that I still get to see so many wonderful things happen in the lives of the people that I love and I’m thankful that my body functions in such a way that I can be an active part of it all. Life is full of incredible joys.  My leg and my hand are getting progressively worse, albeit in very small increments, but I’m generally healthy and active. Pain and discom...

Yeah, that's actually my selfie on a couch, with my internet anonymity kept intact. The title of this blog entry involves a term that I've grown accustomed to using often. People ask me how I'm feeling and how my body is managing all the time. It's become a bit of a cliche' for me to answer when anyone asks me about my physical condition. I usually answer with a sense of flippancy because I just want to move past the moment. I only talk about my physical condition in any detail with my wife and with you, my little internet friends.  The truth is that I'm not always fine. My hip, thigh, and knee/shin areas hurt or feel discomfort according to my body's mood for the day. My hand is a mess and provides some sort of pain or hindrance every day. As for my mind, there are times when I grow really tired of having been in an accident years ago. There's nowhere to escape from it, you know? The thing is that "I'm fine" is a little bit of a lie. I try...

  Today was a big day for me. Seven years ago I was given a very large amount of blood during my time in the hospital after the motorcycle accident. It was given to me for several days. I’ve been trying to donate blood for years now because I feel a strong sense of appreciation for the donations made by others that benefited me seven years ago. Today was my fourth attempt to donate blood since then, and it would have been my last attempt if I had been unsuccessful. I spoke about this once before on this blog (here) . In past attempts I’ve been turned down for low blood flow, thin veins, and a low iron level. I last attempted to donate this past November 29 th on the anniversary of the accident. It was a little disheartening when I was told that my iron level was too low to donate blood. I’ve been taking iron pills for the past 2 ½ months in an attempt to raise my iron to an acceptable level. When my iron level was first tested today it registered at 11.9, which is short of the...

I’ve been pretty much tired since the accident seven years ago. Sleep deprivation and physical “whatever” has me tired all of the time. I haven’t slept in any way that can be considered as normal since my stay in the hospital so long ago. I slept like clockwork before the accident but now nothing about my sleep pattern is regular or even gratifying. I’m thinking of getting one of those tranquilizer rifles with the darts that can put down a lion. My wife will need to practice her aim. My body continues to function pretty well, all things considered, but my energy levels have never been the same since the injuries from the accident. I don’t really know what it is about my body that is doing this. Oddly, the fatigue occurs in different levels of intensity. I know a guy who placed things in a better perspective for me a few days ago. He said that a car is never the same after an accident. You can get it repaired, but there’s always a noise or a shake or a grind that remains and it serves...

I'm finishing off the last of my medical appointmets in a couple of weeks. I go through several of them at the start of every year, and I've had nothing but good news thus far. My A1C is at 5.6 (prediabetes begins at 5.7 😎). My CT scan showed that there is no movement involved with the stent in my aorta, and all of my bloodwork results came back squeaky clean. So yeah, my body's doing great. Except...I pinched something in my lower back that I think relates to the sciatic nerve. It's at the top of the leg that I injured in the accident, and I can't help but to feel that it's related to the way in which I must compromise the use of that side of my leg and hip in everyhthing that I do. Sciatica is totally painful, but it does go away in time. I've had it for a while, but I really aggravated it on Saturday afternoon while lifting a heavy box. Today is Wednesday, and the pain is significantly less than it was this weekend. I'm pretty certain that the pain w...

I’ve been dealing with the different things needed of me by my doctors the past few weeks. These things involve tests and exams, but I’ll be done with it all in a couple of weeks. The appointments are running a little late this year in comparison to years past because of insurance issues and general miscommunication, but everything is back on track now and I should be done with this round of appointments by the middle of February. I complain about these obligations every year, but my rational mind understands the reasons that doctors demand that I go through these things regularly. I feel as though I’m healthier and in better shape than many people my age, but I know that something can go wrong with some of the things that my accident has left me with physically. Year after year every test proves that I’m very much healthy, but some of the lingering issues with my body cause my doctors to focus on the risks instead of the assurances. So… I’m healthy, but I’m at risk. I’m in a good plac...

This is my first blog entry in several months. I ran into an issue with BLOGGER when I transferred everything to this website from WordPress. After a short time they lost more than half of the images on my site. It distorted some of the text and made a bit of a mess with the greater percentage of my posts. No one at BLOGGER could explain what happened or how to undo the damage. I left it all alone for a few months    because it was really disheartening and I wasn't sure if I could fix it all, but when I finally got over the shock I logged in and put things back together one image and post at a time. It wasn't exactly quick work. I should have taken care of things immediately, but I focused on the challenge more than I did on the solution. I’ve learned over time that I have to avoid that type of thinking with my health. Things continue to happen with my body in relation to the accident injuries that make me want to ignore it all, but it’s always best to deal with things immedia...