Skip to main content

Last night my wife really opened up about the ordeal

I don't know, I guess I never thought about how it was for her to see my ice glass, or to see me laying on a hospital bed unresponsive. I know that the stroke affected me in a tremendous way, but I have never stopped to think about how it affected my wife and kids. She told me the kids were crying when they got to the hospital because they did not know if they would ever see daddy again. That is pretty terrifying for children 7 and 10, not to mention a 16 year old that is just about ready to finish his first year driving.

It was a pretty traumatic experience for everyone involved, which makes me appreciate them more that I am home. Yeah, it irritates me when my 16 year old does not get his jeans into the laundry room and then complains that he does not have any jeans. Or when my 7 and 10 year old fight over a littlest pet shop toy. But, the alternative is having them bury their father, and that makes me enjoy the little things. I may not like all them, but I enjoy seeing them.

Comments

  1. strokesurvivorJanuary 21, 2009 at 3:37 PM

    It was a scary time Jim, but we were comforted to know that you were and are in God's hands and His purposes for your life will be accomplished - whether that be here or there. We begged God to spare your life and touch your body in a miraculous way and we are so thankful that's what He chose to do. As you tell us soooooo often....God is good even when our circumstances are not.

    ReplyDelete
  2. strokesurvivorJanuary 21, 2009 at 3:40 PM

    Hey, I'm right there with you...it also drives me CRAZY when YOUR son doesn't put away his clean clothes and I find them back in the DIRTY LAUNDRY!!! Ugghhh!! But, I agree, this experience has reminded me to take pleasure in all the experiences of life...even the annoying ones. :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A stroke survivor's memory is tricky sometimes...

Tomorrow I will preach the funeral for a dear friend of mine. He was the definition of a selfless person. I truly appreciated all that he did, but, when I was meeting with the family on Wednesday a memory came to me suddenly and I was suddenly overcome with emotion. Let me back up a little bit: After my stroke in December, 2008 my license was revoked for obvious reasons and it took me some time and practice before I was able to drive again. I finally got my license back in February, 2009. But, shortly after I got my license back the reality of the severity of my stroke became evident: my stroke had seriously impacted the PONS area of my brain stem, and therefore, a lot of my nerves were negatively impacted. One of the nerves that was damaged was the nerve that controls my eye movements; my left eye would would twitch, at times almost uncontrollably, and that made it really difficult to drive, particularly at night. That brings me to the memory that left me so emotional. Fast forwar
1 comment
Read more

Making a BIG, but somewhat hurtful, decision...

A few years ago I was presented with the opportunity to come back to Stratford, Iowa, to First Baptist church, as their pastor; for those of you who have followed this blog for some time, FBC in Stratford was my first pastorate. Let's just say I prayed about it as I was jumping at the opportunity. The church has a parsonage, so I could live there and not have to worry about a houe payment; and I needed to slow down, and this was a part time position (which, as a side note, allowed for me to get a greater disability from the VA than when I was working full time with St. Croix Hospice...) We love Stratford, and absolutely love the church; the people are wonderful and accepted us, again, with open arms. This was, for me, the perfect position: I get to pastor a church I LOVE, I get to do life with people I LOVE, and I have already had the opportunity to do weddings and baptism services for kids (adults now) that I have known their entire lives. IT IS GREAT. The longer I have been here,
Post a Comment
Read more

What's it like to live in the brain of a stroke survivor???

First , quit calling us a "victim of a stroke", we are survivors of a stroke; the majority of us have found a way to live, as one professor said, not under our circumstance but above our circumstance! For many of us, we are some of the funniest, loving people you will ever meet. Second , don't expect us to be able to multi-task easily. If a football player tears his ACL, no one expects him to be on the field playing at a high level the next week; most who have suffered a torn ACL never play at a high level again. If a skier breaks his leg, no one expects him to be on the slopes the next week, skiing for gold; most who have broken their leg will never ski at a high level again. If a pitcher has to have Tommy John surgery, no one expects him to be on the mound pitching in game 7 of the World Series the next week; most who have had Tommy John surgery will never pitch at a high level again. What do all of thes have in common? A muscle, tendon or bone was severely injured, a
Post a Comment
Read more