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~ The adventures of Richard and Julie Lary

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Monthly Archives: February 2013

Invocation #20: Gratitude

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by rajalary in Invocations, Rose's Writings

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invocation, Julie Lary, rajalary, rose ridnor

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, O Lord, and we who are gathered here are aware we have much to be thankful for.

Not that we are in the best of health; we are not. Not that we have no anxieties or burdens to carry, we do. Not that all our days are easy and fulfilled, they are not. Nor that we do not feel a longing for days past, we do.

But we are thankful to be able to express these thoughts and understand they are but a part of the cycle of living: That we can feel alive, and look forward to days ahead, can still feel the uplift of spirit when good things come along, and above all, join in the companionship of family and friends.

We are grateful, O Lord, that we can still feel grateful.

As I’ve mentioned before, I randomly post invocations from the series my grandmother wrote for her synagogue’s senior citizens group. Often, I’m driving when it occurs to me that I haven’t published one in the past week or two.

This evening was one such occasion. Driving home, twenty days after writing a blog titled, “Reminded as to Why I Should be More Grateful,” it dawned on me that I should share another of her invocations.

I was amused to learn it dealt with gratitude! What struck me was the final statement, “grateful that we can still feel grateful.”

We experience emotions – whether positive or negative – with scarcely a thought about the miraculous capacity to have feelings. I look at my cats. They have about four emotions: Elation (usually tied to catnip), satisfaction (eating or laying in the sun), needy or grumpy. The latter two tend to dominate.

But as humans, we have a wealth of emotions that shape our lives. We have degrees of happiness and sadness. Jubilation when in love or holding a newborn. Heartbreak over a loss. Contentment after a good meal or spending time with good friends and family. We can be ambiguous or bewildered one moment and enlightened and confident the next.

Indeed, we should be grateful for the ability to feel, express, and experience the cycles of our lives.

Reminded as to Why I Should be More Grateful

07 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by rajalary in Health and wellness

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accident, Julie Lary, rajalary

This morning, like all workdays, our alarm went off at 5:45. Rich rolled over, shutting it off, and dozing back to sleep. I willed myself awake knowing, I needed to go to the gym. I try to work out at least 4 days a week.

Half an hour later, I found myself, doing leg lifts with 90 pounds of weight. Wow! When did I go from lifting 50 to 90 pounds? Didn’t matter. There were other exercise machines to do, followed by planks, sit-ups, abdominal exercises, and finally, the dreaded Stairmaster. The only thing worse than the Stairmaster is running. At least with the latter, I can read while huffing and puffing up flights of stairs.

After the agony ended, it was time to shower, change, and zip to work. While sipping my first cup of coffee, I absentmindedly tore off the next page in my Mary Engelbreit 365-day calendar. It showed a woman opening a wooden box with a red heart inside. The quote was:

The greatest treasures are those invisible to the eye but found in the heart.
Maryanne Williamson

I paid little attention to the saying, returning to the tasks-at-hand. Then a few minutes later, I glanced at the calendar, February 7th.

And then it dawned on me.

Six years ago, while driving to Dell on a rainy Thursday morning, I slammed on the brakes to make way for a car getting on the freeway. I should have downshifted, but was used to driving my automatic Honda and not Rich’s manual Kia. Instead of slowing, the Kia swerved and spun across two lanes of the freeway, coming to a stop when a large box truck slammed into the driver’s side of the car.

It took several minutes until I gain consciousness. By then, the driver of the truck had slipped into the passenger side of the car, and was holding my hand. A nurse who was driving to work stopped to assess my condition… and strangely, a short-time later, an off-duty paramedic showed up, followed by emergency personnel and an ambulance.

Because of two very quirky happenstances, I sustained relatively few injuries. First, the lap belt in the Kia was broken so I was only wearing a shoulder belt, which enabled my entire body, except for my left leg to be thrust into the passenger side of the car when the Kia was struck by the truck. Wrecked Kia driven by Julie Lary

Secondly, a friend at Dell had given me a super heavy black, leather coat, which I was wearing that day. The coat deflected the flying glass from the windshield, and also prevented the shoulder belt from cutting into my body.

In all, I fractured my left pelvis in four places because my left leg got caught under the driver seat while the rest of my body went the other direction. I also cracked two ribs, and had minor abrasions on the top of my head. No doubt, I was outrageously lucky.

I was immediately taken to the Brackenridge Trauma Center in downtown Austin, where my clothing was cut off, needles inserted, and body prodded. After x-rays and a CAT scan were taken, pillows placed under my left leg, and morphine administered, I wondered why they didn’t just slap a cast on my hip, and send me home.

Instead, I was admitted, given little to eat (in case I needed surgery), and told an orthopedic surgeon would see me the following day. The surgeon, Drake S. Borer with Austin Skeletal Trauma Specialists, waltzed into my room late Friday morning. A tall, trim, attractive man, he had an air of confidence and cavalry detachment.

He explained to Rich and me that “we” had two options. He could pin the pelvis, sharing he was pretty good at missing major blood vessels and nerves as he drilled and pushed a pin through my pelvis. Or I could put no weight on my left leg for eight weeks, and allow the bones to knit together. The no-surgery option, however, required that get out of bed by the next morning, balance on my right leg, and use a walker to get around.

Rich chose the latter.

I had my doubts. As the morphine wore off, and I switched to hydrocodone every four to six hours, I realized every aspect of my body was connected to my pelvis, and the slightest movement caused surges of pain. Moving my left leg even a fraction of in inch caused blinding pain, not to mention the agony of sitting up.

Wrecked Kia_2My broken ribs added to the misery, making it painful to lift my arms, let alone pick up anything or use them to move my body. Nevertheless, Saturday morning, I was eased out of bed, my catheter removed, and a belt placed around by waist by two physical therapists, who then proceeded to help me onto my right leg.

I thought I was going to pass out, but managed to grasp a walker, hop on one leg out of the room, into the hallway, and then back to the bed.

Sunday morning, I walked a bit further, and by that evening, I was wheeled over to a rehabilitation center to start a week of intensive physical therapy. By the time I left, I could get in-and-out of the bed by myself and into a wheelchair, race down the hallways in my chair, dress myself, tend to my personal needs, and even use the walker, but for short jaunts. It would take weeks before I could go any distance using a walker, mainly because holding up my left leg, using muscles attached to my fractured pelvis was astonishingly painful.

Eight weeks after my accident, I was cleared to start putting weight on my left leg. I visualized immediately walking.

Even though I’d spent the prior few weeks doing physical therapy in a pool in preparation to walk, my first few steps were horrifically painful, and I immediately plopped down in my wheelchair.

While Dr. Borer had mentioned the first year after my accident would be painful with the pain decreasing every year after; and by the third year, I’d be nearly healed; he neglected to mention two little words, “leg cramps.”

Yes, leg cramps. Like CONSTANT leg cramps. Like horrific leg cramps that wake up from a sound sleep if you happen to flex your foot. And he also didn’t mention it would be at least six months before I could lie on my side for more than 30 seconds. I slept on my back with my hips flat on the mattress for close to a year. Rolling over was painful and not worth the effort. It was even uncomfortable to lie on my right hip because my left hip wasn’t being supporting. Wrecked Kia_3

When I moved to Washington in late June, a few months after the accident, to accept a position with Microsoft, I made a point to walk as much as possible. Until we purchased a house in Kirkland, I lived an apartment, which was a mile from Microsoft so I could easily walk to-and-from work. And on weekends, I took long walks or visited area parks to build up strength and mobility.

Many of my walks ended in tears with my hip hurting, leg cramped, and exhausted from the exertion.

There was no denying the first year was challenging. Year two was much better, and by year three, I nearly forgot about the injury, except for the occasional leg cramp in the middle of the night!

And today, I’m whining about twenty-minutes on a Stairmaster, oblivious to the fact six years earlier I couldn’t wiggle a toe or shift in the bed without wincing in pain, and the only relief was a beautiful, white hydrocodone pill.

I had a remarkable recovery, considering what happened. I need to be more grateful for the opportunity to not only be able to walk, but hike, bike, kayak, gardening, torment Rich, and yes, work up a sweat at the gym.

Invocation #19: Power Outrage

04 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by rajalary in Invocations

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9/11, invocation, Julie Lary, power outage, rajalary, rose ridnor, Super Bowl

It was six o’clock and 104○ of an early September day, and we were settled down watching the TV news. All was comfortable and serene.

Then just like that, without warning, the TV went black; the hum of the air conditioner ceased, clocks stopped, and appliances froze.

We were stunned. A power outage. How terrible. Food in the refrigerator and the freezer. What should we do? Panic started setting in.

Then slowly it occurred to us. Get out the candles, the matches, and the oil lamp. Sit down Don’t waste energy in useless handwringing. There was nothing we could do. It was out of our control. Relax. Wait it out.

We know, O Lord, it is inevitable that at any time we could be faced with upsets, emergencies, tragedies, minor, and heaven forbid, major. And prepared as we could be, we will still be unprepared.

Whenever that happens, O Lord, help us not to panic; to be unafraid. To stay calm and collected so we may do what has to be done. Help us to think positive thoughts, and have faith in our ability to cope.

And let us remember O Lord, that as dark as is the night, the sun will rise tomorrow.

I’m flabbergasted. This evening, I thought to post another of my grandmother’s invocations… a day after the power outage during Super Bowl XLVII between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers. A major glitch was blamed for the electrical belch.

No doubt, an overloaded power grid, during a scorching summer day in Burbank, California, caused the clocks to stop, appliances to freeze, and beloved air conditioner to cease in my grandparent’s house.

While people watching the Super Bowl expressed disappointment, confusion, amusement, and perhaps wonderment as to whether the game would be postponed or rescheduled, several spectators at the New Orleans Superdome, where the game was being played, were initially afraid. They wondered if the lights going out was a precursor to a terrorist attack.

The day after the Super Bowl, 30-minutes of darkness is little more than water cooler chit-chat. We can only hope that if it had been something more ominous, the authorities would have been prepared, and we wouldn’t have experienced the horror, which occurred on an early September morning, eleven years ago.

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