Saturday Day  12 –  3/19/11   My incision from my back surgery itches!

 Medications: Friday, the day before: Tylenol #3 with Codeine (TC3) and a Robaxin at 4:30 am to start the day.  Extra Strength Tylenol at 9:00 am and 3:00 pm.  I took another TC3 and Robaxin at 9:00 pm and went to bed at 10:00 pm.  I woke up at 12:30 am and 2:00 am.  At 2:00 am I took a TC3 and Robaxin as the outside area of my right hip and iliatric crest was aching.  It is 5:30 am at the time of this entry and I suppose at 6:00 am I will take another TC3 to start the day.  

As I was saying, my incision itches!  I could scratch it but it is not covered with a bandage and I do not want to cause an infection.  I also do not want to make any of the self-dissolving stitches come loose any sooner than they are supposed to.  Because the stitches dissolve, one of my instructions from the doctor (and not my wife) has been to only shower every other day.  If you have visited me and I looked nasty and smelt bad, that wasn’t my day!  Using a wash rag and toweling off is not the same; especially when one wants to wash their hair.  You roll the dice when you visit me because if I have not had a shower you might think you were visiting Red Skelton.  No pictures please!

I was talking to a good friend yesterday and we both agreed that sometimes it seems like the healing process is very slow and that nothing is going on.  But I know that something is happening for at few important reasons.  First, people have been praying for me – and God answers prayers.  Second, my incision itches!  And third, my bones ache!  At least the part they sawed off and the places they pinned together do.  The aching and itching is definitely a sign of healing even though I cannot see it.  It reminds me of what Jesus said about a farmer sowing seeds in Mark 4:26-27:

And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;  and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.”

 Just as the seed grows without the farmer being able to see it, our bodies heal without our being able to see the day to day progress.  There are things that happen and occur in the physical world and in the spiritual world which we don’t always know about.  The farmer has faith that the seed tended to properly will be blessed by God and grow.  You can have faith too that God is at work within your body and that a process of physical healing is going on.  Faith, the bible says in Hebrews 11:1 is “The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  

Follow your doctor’s orders and don’t overdo it.  Tend to yourself properly.  Trust and have faith.  Remember, God has your back.