Languishing Lion

Here I am, in bed languishing in my hospital room. I am still in pain from the surgery on Tuesday morning. The neurosurgeon opened up some space in my neck to stop my spinal cord from being squished. (Don’t you love the way I’ve caught on with medical terminology?) Mrs. Lion has been with me the entire time. Without her help I’d be completely lost. There is a rare side effect of this surgery that causes one arm or the other to lose control of several of the larger muscles. Wouldn’t you know I’d be the one to get it.

It’s called C5 palsy, the period of which can range from 24 hours to forever, when I lose most of the use of my right arm. Without this dictating software, I wouldn’t be able to write at all. This is really bad luck for me. I’d be in big trouble if this persists past the month. I doubt I can do my job one-handed.

There are things I used to do one-handed that were a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I don’t do that anymore. The stuff I do need my right arm for to make money includes driving, typing, shaking hands, leading meetings and other such boring activities. My company is really nice and accommodating I’m not sure what they can do to keep me working without the use of my right arm but I know they’ll do their best. Meanwhile Mrs. Lion fills in every single right-handed task I have to perform.

We went out to lunch to celebrate Mrs. Lion’s birthday on Monday. One of her friends joined us. Even eating a messy hamburger becomes a project with rules and regulations. Fortunately, Mrs. Lion has suspended punishments during these difficult times. She even cut today’s hamburger into quarters to make it more manageable.

I’m very grateful to all of our readers who have taken the time to wish us well. Your comments mean a great deal to me. As you may know, writing is a rather solitary activity. When on days like this, readers come out and wish us well and mention that they feel like they’re part of our family, gives me a really warm feeling.

Most important to me is this a new reminder of how much I can count on Mrs. Lion. She is always there for me and treats me with consistent love and affection regardless of how the awful situation. It’s about time for my pain medicine now so I will close this post wishing you happiness and good luck. Your well wishes truly mean a lot to me.

5 Comments

  1. I’ve done a little research on your C5 palsy and usually it doesn’t seem to last for very long. I’m hoping that you’re the usual in this case. Get well.

  2. Health issues are humbling. It is awesome that you reflect on what a wonderful thing a loving wife can be. Hopefully you’re back to “better than normal” in short order and Mrs. Lion is punishing you for infractions real and imagined in no time.

    Get better and thanks for keeping us so well informed.

  3. As always, you seem to have a great mentality for getting through this. For whatever it’s worth, we’re cheering for you both.

  4. Lion….. I can empathize what your experiencing. I had surgery for a Partial C5-C6 Diskectomy back almost 25 years ago for my left arm. (The surgery took place on my 1st wedding anniversary – lucky us) With newer developed diagnostics and surgical procedures from my time…I would hope and expect a VERY favorable recovery for you. Though with recovery from the spinal surgery itself, expect to walk around like a very old man in the near future and for a short time. The trauma to your body is very significant and healing needs time.

    While your mending, I have to believe Mrs. Lion will be calling even more shots (and even to your dismay) for this recovery period (My lovely Mrs had to do this to me recently as I was recovering from hip replacement). Like in the animal kingdom where the lioness “hunts” the food for the pride (and your pride), don’t lash out and bite the hand that’s feeding you. She cares too much for you and you might just regret it sometime later.

    Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
    luv2serve

  5. I don’t do prayers but I will on this occasion, let’s hope this is a temporary setback, brysia wella (get well soon in Welsh).

Comments are closed.