Happy New Year!!!

I realize I'm technically 6 months off on my title but I've had a goal for the last couple months that July 1st was going to mark my starting to get healthier. It is the first day of the second half of the year. I was starting to doubt that was going to happen when just a week before the 1st I ended up in the ER again. It was again because of severe pain, it was the area of my surgery. I was actually in more pain that visit than I was when I went in and was hospitalized for my gallbladder!! Turned out to just be really bad post-surgical pain.

Since then I have actually started to get better though. I'm still far away from being 100% but yesterday and today I actually put in 8 hours of work each day! I hadn't been able to do that all year. I'm tired, and sore, but the pain hasn't been unbearable. Yesterday my pain never got above about a 5 (on my up to 10 pain scale). Today is a little worse, maybe a 6 - 6 1/2 but I can live with that. It's uncomfortable but it's not completely disabling like when it starts to get to 7 and above. Also, just this week I've started to be able to eat semi-normal again. The past month or so I've only been able to eat very plain things; chicken, rice, potatoes, bananas, etc. I still have to eat low-fat or it hurts right away, but I'm branching out.

Lately I have been reflecting a lot on all my many blessings. There are so, so many things to be grateful out there. I could probably post a blog just dedicated to that (maybe I will!). Thinking about all my blessings has made me realize where I believe the true source of all the blessings, and healing, I've received have come from. That is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Prior to this ordeal I didn't really fully appreciate that The Atonement covers not just our sins (for those who truly repent), and the resurrection of our bodies someday,  but also is a means of sending comfort and aide to us in all our afflictions, trials, and sorrows. I truly have felt this power when sometimes I've been in too much pain to be able to handle it on my own and I've turned to prayer. I've felt comfort and seen blessings, not necessarily in relief of pain, but of comfort and peace that can only be provided by heavenly intervention. There is a quote I really like from a talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It reads:

"Healing blessings come in many ways, each suited to our individual needs, as known to Him who loves us best. Sometimes a “healing” cures our illness or lifts our burden. But sometimes we are “healed” by being given strength or understanding or patience to bear the burdens placed upon us."

How true that is! Right now I am feeling some of the "burden being lifted" but more importantly I have been given so much more strength, understanding, and patience through this trial. I realize that I am still day-to-day and that I could wake up tomorrow in a ton of pain. If that happens I'll still be grateful though for this time that my pain has been reduced to a manageable level and I know that it will happen again.

Again, Happy New Year! I hope the second half of this year is a great one for us all!!!