It’s been quite a while since I’ve shared an actual life update on the blog. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, then you know that 2017 got off to an unexpected, rough start. 
I had my surgery on December 5. I was dealing with expected post-op pain, sickness, & misery especially since I had 2 abdominal incisions…one of which cut into a piece of my 12 inch incision for the THIRD time. 

Compared to my other surgeries this was a tiny baby operation. In the past I’ve been in the hospital for nearly a month after surgery… I actually only had to spend one night in the hospital (super crazy!) for this surgery. If I hadn’t had such a dramatic surgerical/medical history this would have felt much more major. It’s all about perspective. 

For Christmas we traveled one whole mile to my parents house to celebrate Christmas Eve with my Chaney family. Christmas Day was quiet & strange with just the two of us in our apartment. Unfortunately I was terribly sick that day (my body punishing me for the day before) but we watched movies, football, & napped. 

December 28th Tyler’s parents & siblings headed our way to do family Christmas/sleepover at our apartment since we could not travel. Tyler was in the middle of cleaning that morning when his back suddenly, painfully, dramatically gave out on him. He fell onto the bed unable to move or even speak from the intense pain. He has a history of serious back injury & even had surgery on it in high school. This turned out to be severe muscle spasms that kept him in misery for two weeks. 

((It took several hours but the guys got Tyler onto his feet long enough for him to pace a bit & snap some pictures.))

The timing was bad…I was less than one month out of surgery & fully reliant on him. We were also having family over, this was supposed to be a fun time. But the timing was also good…we had family coming who could help the both of us & our time together was a good way to get through the pain. Also, Tyler was already taking off work to care for me so he wouldn’t have to miss as many extra days. 

We expected him to recover in a few days… unfortunately his healing was much much slower. For two weeks we were both majorly down physically & emotionally as well. What would we do if he didn’t get better? I was struggling just to take care of myself independently let alone having to physically care for him as well. He also became sick from the meds he was on, then he got strep throat the same day he returned to work. I had to be quarantined at my parents house for a few days. 

We are used to having one spouse who is ill & physically limited, but having both people in a marriage who are in extreme pain was a very heavy burden to handle. 

Praise the Lord that this week was SO MUCH BETTER. It seems like as quickly as Tyler got hurt, his healing was also somewhat sudden & fast. He woke up feeling much better one day & said his back was normal soon after. Of course he still needs to be very careful & not push it, but seeing him able to sit up, walk around with no issues, drive, & not be in pain is a total answered prayer. 

Thanks everyone who was praying for us! And thank you to both of our families for caring for us in every way that they could. Our God certainly provides through every moment, that doesn’t make suffering easy but it does make it liveable. It’s by His hand that we stay afloat. 

As for me, I slid downhill when all this was happening yet this week I felt a lot better comparatively & am noticing healing. It seems like my stimulator is making small changes, lessening some very severe symptoms & for me that feels huge. I’m quite hopeful at this moment that things will only go up from here. Just because we started off the year in a bad way doesn’t mean all of 2017 will follow suit. 

This weekend we had some FUN! Finally!

Friday: We celebrated my mom’s birthday on Friday at the house with all my siblings, parents, plus Vince. It was also my father in law’s (Pat) birthday. He spent the day traveling internationally for a medical mission trip in Tanzania. Please pray for his team!

Saturday: we saw a late afternoon movie when Tyler got off work. We had not steeped foot in public together (besides at the hospital/doctor) since November. We needed a date & seeing a movie was doable! 

Sunday: Early church plus a quick trip to Kroger. I’ve used up all my “spoons” for today & probably tomorrow but it was a wonderful day.
 
It’s gonna be a great year! I have faith! #ThoughtofThanks