Understanding the Process

The Parthenon in Centennial Park, Nashville, TN

October 16
The second graders at my husband's school sent precious handmade cards. Their teacher sent a card which said, "Praying for daily doses of sufficient grace as you progress toward a full recovery."
Is that perfect or what?

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 

2 Corinthians 12:9

HUGE praise to the Lord for my new primary care doctor.  I love her. She was so patient with me and helped me understand every question on my list!  
"Lists and sticky notes will be key for awhile," she explained.
So here's the stay tuned part:

For the most part I feel like I'm making really good progress physically, but it's some of the simplest things which are "show stoppers" or a bit frustrating.  My husband took me to a grocery store in a nearby city, so I wouldn't run into people I know. (Communicating can be exhausting, be it on the phone or in person.)  I'd been to a grocery store in Nashville with about 5 things on a list and handled that very well. But this was an unexpected stop without a list.  He's watched me grocery shop for 39 years and bless his heart he was at a loss seeing me at a loss.  What he didn't understand was that my brain was really struggling to know what to do. It was a new store and with the clotting disorder I'm shopping for things now which are not high in Vitamin K (a natural clotter).   I went up and down every aisle not knowing what I really needed.

Then we got home with groceries to put away, luggage to unpack, rehab apparatus and medications to set up, mail to be opened and all my exercises I needed to do. This ole brain didn't know what to do first.  

When I woke up the next morning, greeting the Lord for the day, the word process came to mind.  That was it, I was overwhelmed by what should be natural processes.

Process: "a series of actions that produce something or that lead to a particular result;

                a series of changes that happen naturally."  Merriam Webster

My husband had to go back to work and would be gone until around 9PM that day.  I was to text him every hour that I was ok.  Our daughter called to check on me and I explained how frustrated I was.  She had great advice. She said to think of it like when I would bring home a newborn. With the nursing schedule I might have 45 minutes to myself when that baby napped.  I had to choose what was of most importance...a nap, doing laundry, fixing dinner, etc.  So, I took that advice and chipped away at things in a not so orderly and oh so dreadfully slowly fashion.

Talking to my speech therapy friend, she explained that is perfectly normal for someone with a right brain injury. It is that side of the brain, which organizes and processes.  She said she had a patient  call her once and say, "I'm so embarrassed. I've done laundry most of my life, but can't remember how to do this."  Talking to someone who understands the brain injury process and can say, "You are doing great!" is such a breath of fresh air.

One of my hesitancies is getting back out there again and people not understanding what I'm going through.  They will see the same person who could host multiple groups in the same weekend, but on the inside I'm in super slow mode.