13-06-13

Thursday, June 13, 2013

I need to start today with being direct and honest. Well, when am I not? I started this morning with kicking myself and beating myself up over the way I reacted to my doctor telling me I'm at least two more weeks away from going home. However, I came to realize later in the day that there are enough people and circumstances in life to kick you around and so you don't need to do it to yourself.

With the help of good sleep, Switchfoot, yummy food, Jesus time and some hugs, today was a lot better than yesterday. Sure, this morning was a bit slow and annoying because apparently they were busy but I know for a fact Thursdays are not busy, just the person looking after me is a slow worker. She's not a person who doesn't care and she isn't bad at her job, just slow. Therefore I didn't get out of bed until 11:45, so not even enough time to get outside before lunch would arrive today. That wasn't really a bad thing though because I wasn't feeling too awake still as I'd had no coffee because for some reason they missed me this morning. Well, it happens sometimes and when you realize that one person is responsible for making all of the drinks for every person, you begin to understand that sometimes mistakes do happen without intention.

I honestly can't remember what was for lunch, but it couldn't have been terrible or it would have stuck in my mind. Finally, I managed to get outside and it was so good today.Then, this is where the hugs and yummy food were happening because it was Sheila's birthday today. Sheila is a lovely staff member from South Africa and she loves Jesus heaps. She's said to me previously that I am like her white Australian son that she never had. Seriously, as one other guy said today, you can't help but have your mood lifted when Sheila is looking after you. We had chocolate and caramel cheesecake, pies, spring rolls, sausage rolls and it was all homemade, nothing store-bought. Also, in reference to the hugs, it's apparently unprofessional for patients and staff to hug, but that went right out of the window today with Sheila's birthday. She gave everyone a hug and so the other staff joined in and there were hugs all round today. Hopefully this is the start of a new thing here because if you ask me, NOT hugging is unprofessional! Oh, I guess I need to mention here that during the eating of the cake, the stupidest action of the day award went to myself. I wasn't concentrating on what I was doing. I thought there was cake already on my metal fork, didn't have my mouth open very much and managed to stab myself with my fork in my gums and make myself bleed enough to require medical attention. All is fine and dandy now and I managed to talk my way out of getting stitches.

After all that, my mood was definitely lifting. It wasn't fine, but definitely better than it had been previously. After all the mess was cleaned up, both of the birthday shindig and my injury, I went back outside and just stopped for a few minutes. There is one spot outside where if I position my chair properly, I am in the sunlight, looking at some great flowers and not looking at any medical buildings, so I'm feeling like I'm somewhere else, for a few minutes at least. I grabbed my iPod, turned my phone off and just sat there with some Switchfoot. My mood then came right back to normal and after some Switchfoot, I had some good Jesus time and gave the entirity of yesterday's situation into God's hands. Seriously, when you're in a situation like that, who do you believe? God, or the doctor? God has kept me alive and prevented death 20+ times at least. Sure, medical science and doctors have done well for me, but they haven't shown the faithfulness that my God has shown.

After my afternoon tea coffee and having a renewed mood, I made my way over to the physio gym, with a keen focus on making up for my no-show yesterday. Sure, I did nothing different with my weights sets, but on the hand-bike, I was told to do 100 revolutions. I looked Peter in the eye and said I will raise him to 500. I ended up doing 1000. Sure, I practically fell out of the gym and into my bed and absolutely stunk of body odour, but I did it because you should never poke a bear in the eye because when he gets back up, you're dead. That's what yesterday felt like to me and today I got back up. Today I wanted to make amends for yesterday and I feel like I managed to do that. Even Peter who is a hard man, said it was good today, so I'm happy. Now the important thing is to remain consistent with that kind of effort and to be fair, even though they didn't state why, I think my inconsistency with that could be one reason I am not going home just yet. Therefore I am going to do all I can with eating properly, resting, going to physio and then I will know I am doing all that I can to look after myself. Then, I know God will do the rest.

The evening hasn't had much, just the standard boring stuff on television and the eating of chocolate. In closing, I must admit mixed feelings ahead of tomorrow as it would have been Zoe Johnston's 25th birthday. It's good because I know she has a perfectly healthy body in heaven and is pain-free, but it would be cool to be celebrating her birthday with her tomorrow. Well, I know she's happy and will be having a good party in heaven and even though I don't like it, I will do my best to have a vanilla Coke for her tomorrow.