It’s a New Day Dawning

My last InSights and OutBursts blog post was over a month ago. I compared the thousands of snowflakes piling up on our mountain ash berries to the many tiny improvements in Jo’s recovery from her lumbar laminectomy. We give thanks for this continuing recovery process. Many of you readers wrote to tell me this concept of giving God thanks for even tiny improvements was an encouragement to them.

Here are some major changes Jo is experiencing: first, the constant terrible pains going down Jo’s hips and legs have totally stopped. Hallelujah! Jo reduced her painkiller use drastically.
Her legs, however, are still numb from the knees down, probably the neuropathic side effect of her cancer chemotherapy. When Jo walks, holding onto her walker, she constantly looks down to see where her feet are. She has one “dropped foot” so she can’t feel if one foot is standing on the floor or on top of the other. A major tripping hazard! She has two appointments in the next few weeks: with her neurologist and her surgeon. They may prescribe an AFO, ankle-foot-orthosis.

The other problem is that in the middle of the night, she wakes up with pain as if a needle is jabbing into the heel of her dropped foot. It doesn’t let up unless she walks about, so she is losing sleep. We are now trying a new special Capsaicin pepper pain-management ointment that I massage into her heel before her noon nap, her bedtime, and whenever she wakes me up during the night. It seems to be working, and we are learning to look “on the bright side” which is also a Biblical command.

“He gives His beloved sleep” Ps. 127:2, is a promise we claim every night. We also take a lot of courage from John K. Paine’s hymn, based on Psalm 103, which we sing frequently, the chorus of which goes:
Bless the Lord, oh my soul,
Oh my soul, worship His Holy name
Sing like never before,
Oh my soul, I’ll worship Your Holy name

The three verses also inspire us enormously!

The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning
It’s time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes

You’re rich in love, and You’re slow to anger
Your name is great, and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

And on that day, when my strength is failing
The end draws near, and my time has come
Still, my soul will sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years, and then forevermore!

May God inspire and encourage each of you as you face your own “pains in the night” while waiting for the new day to dawn.
Blessings, Jack