Three years ago this week…. Looking back with faith

I may not feel very well this week while I am still recovering from severe sepsis, strep liver abscesses and a blood clot but I feel a whole lot better than I did 3 years ago this week.

It was on March 25th, 2011 that we had a terrible accident on the freeway on the way to visit our kids in Utah.

I had 15 broken ribs, a broken sternum and a collapsed lung.

I know we were greatly blessed to recover from this accident.

I know I am being blessed to get through my health problems now.  When I get a bit discouraged by these latest set backs, I just need to remember how far I’ve come since the accident 3 years ago. 

God blessed me with the strength to recover then and I know He is blessing me now.

I have not been well one single day of this year so far…. But there is a lot left of 2014. It may take a while but I plan to be up and cruising through life with my John again before this year is over.

With your prayers supporting me…. and God blessing me, I will be strong and get through this.  Life is good…. and I’m a lot better off than I was 3 years ago.

I hope you are doing well.  Hugs, Grammy Lura

Blogging A to Z X is for ..

Some of you have been so cleaver with your letter X blogs. Dee from DeeCoded gave us a XXX post and Carol from Buttercup Land was    X-traordinary. Hop over to their blogs and see how cleaver they were.
X is a hard letter to do in this A to Z challenge.  I am not as cleaver about it as my blog friends but I have it covered.

The X that saved my life is X-ray

After being hit 3 times on the freeway going about 70 miles per hour I was left with serious internal injuries. If it had not been for X-rays I would have died.

Once the CT scan showed that I had a broken sternum and 15 ribs broken in multiple places I was monitored by daily X-rays. The weeks that I was in ICU intensive care I was X-rayed at least once a day and sometimes more. Once out of ICU I was X-rayed weekly.
At the time I dreaded being x-rayed because it was so painful for me but now I am thankful because that is how they determined that my left lung had collapsed from the pressure of  bloody fluid building up around it.

After them draining 700 ml of blood and fluid from around my lung through my back (a procedure that I did not want done but I am glad now that they did) and putting me on a forced air breathing machine, my lung re-inflated almost all the way back to normal. This saved my life and we would not have know about needing to do it if it were not for X-rays.
So, I guess you can see why X-rays are my favorite letter X.
Have a great day…I’m Yearning to start ready your Y posts.
Hugs, Lura

Sunday Smiles…An anniversary… a time of reflection & thankfulness

Dear Blog friends,

Please bear with me today. I fully intended to do my Sunday Smiles blog about our recent trip to Utah and all of the smiles we found there… but I am going to put that off until another blog post.

My heart is full today.

Today John and I are celebrating an anniversary. Maybe celebrating is not the right word to use…. maybe remembering would be a better word…because this is not an anniversary we chose to have. In fact, I didn’t think I would even acknowledge the date, but I am. In fact I have had many hours of reflection about it during this past week, which I want to share with you.

As most of you know, it was a year ago today that John and I were in a terrible accident in Nephi, Utah, on our way to visit family. It really hit home to me last Monday as we drove through Nephi in a snow storm right passed our accident spot.

We were both badly injured. I spent 6 weeks in the hospital, 3 of which were in ICU/PCU units and then 5 months in bed. It has been a hard year… but it has also been a year of blessings.

I feel in some ways like I am a new person. I feel like I see things in a new light.

I would like to share with you 10 lessons that I’ve learned or had reaffirmed to me through this experience. Each of these lessons make me smile so I guess that this post is my “Sunday Ten” instead of my “Sunday Six”.

I have always known this but now I know it more than ever. My first night in ICU, before they put the epidural in the next morning, every breath was torture. Morphine did little to curb the pain. I thought I was going to die and I didn’t want to be alone. I felt someone squeezing my hand. I supposed it was a nurse but when I opened my eyes no one was there. Then I realized it was my mother holding my hand. I could not see her but I felt her holding my hand throughout the night. I was not in a drug induced hallucination. I was alert and aware of my surroundings. This experience was real and it was a great comfort to me. Life is eternal and our departed loved ones are much closer to us than we realize.

I was told in a Priesthood blessing that many were praying for me from both sides of the veil. I felt the evidence of those prayers. They were a tangible source of strength. They literally held me together and supported me. Thanks to those of you who were praying for us.

 

3. Cards and calls are better than medicine.

The nurses were amazed at all of the cards I got…. and so was I.

Some of you sent multiple cards and letters.

I can’t begin to tell you how much they meant to me…. and they still do. I hope that I will be that much of a support to others when they need it.

4. We are stronger than we think we are.

There were times that I felt I could not go on.

But, with good medical care and prayers I made it. We are a lot stronger than we think we are.

5. You might as well smile through the hard times.

Crying only gave me a headache and stopped up my nose. Even on the worst days I found things to smile about. Smiling helped me get through them a lot better than crying did.

6. Brightening someone else’s day makes you feel better.

My mom taught me this saying “A crying eye can not see” That is true.

When I stopped feeling sorry for myself and opened my eyes, I saw that I had care-givers that were having problems and sorrows of their own. I noticed that this sweet lady that cleaned my room each day looked sad. When I asked her about it, I learned her son had recently committed suicide. During my 6 weeks in the hospital I found several care-givers that were carrying really heavy burdens. I made it a goal to try to brighten their days…. and in doing so it brightened my days too.

7. Family and friends make all the difference.

No words can express how much family and friends helped in my recovery. I don’t think I could have done it without them.

So many went the extra mile many extra miles to help me and cheer me up. I will forever be grateful. I valued my family and friends before the accident, but after all of this loving service, seeing how fragile life is and realizing we never know when we might be taken from one another, I treasure them even more.

8. Accept help graciously

I found that it is easier to give help than to receive it…. but…

my heart is deeply touched by all the loving service we were given.

When help is needed and others are willing to come to your aid, accept it graciously and with a thankful heart.

9. There is a difference between "being”and “doing”.

I was pretty much flat down in bed for 5 months. I got to feeling quite worthless. I have always evaluated my worth by the work and service I could give. Being down in bed and not able to do much was depressing to me.  Then good friends helped me to realize that we are of value just because “we are”. We love and value a new born baby… not for what she does for us…. but just because she exists. God loves and values us just because we exist. Life is precious and we need to thank God for each day of it even if we can not do all of the things we want to do. We need to be thankful just “to be”.

God has been beside John and me on every step of this journey. I have felt His spirit lifting me up every day. Sometimes I feel discouraged that the healing has not been faster and more complete. Sometimes I feel frustrated at all the things I can no longer do…. and….. pain is a PAIN!! From the beginning the doctors told me it would take a year to recover and my ribs to mend. I had it in my mind that I would be “all better” by now. I am somewhat disappointed that I am not, but I am thankful for all the progress John and I have made.

I recently heard someone say that having faith is not just believing in God and that He hears and answers prayers….. real faith is trusting in Him and His timetable, not yours. I know that my life is in His hands. I  need to be thankful for each day and confident that His timetable will always be for my best good.

I am thankful that God has helped me learn these 10 lessons. They make my heart smile.

Thank you for letting me share them with you today.

Have a great week.  Many hugs, Grammy L

My testimony of our accident and our blessings

A few days ago I got a call from our Stake President asking me to speak in our Stake conference today. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) have 4 conferences a year. Twice a year we have a world wide conference which is broadcast around the world from Salt Lake City, where we get to hear from our Prophet and general church leaders. Twice a year we have a Stake conference where all the congregations or wards in a given area will join together to listen to our local leaders.  You can go to Mormon.org to learn more.

It was an honor for me to be asked to share the story of our accident and bear my testimony of the blessings that we’ve received. Hundreds were there this morning and I was nervous, but I was thankful for the opportunity I had to tell our story. I prayed a lot about what to say and I felt that my Heavenly Father helped me say the things that would be beneficial to those in attendance.

I am going to take a detour from our Panama cruise travel log today and publish the talk that I gave this morning in conference. I have friends who said they wanted a copy of my talk and I feel this is the easiest way to give it to them.  I hope that you enjoy our story too.

My Accident Testimony given in Stake Conference on  Oct.16, 2011

Last March my husband and I were happily driving to Utah to attend the temple sealing of our newly adopted baby granddaughter. We were going about 70 mph with the flow of traffic on the I15. When we got to Nephi, bout 50 miles from our destination, our trip ended suddenly in a terrible accident. The car in front of us slipped on black ice, skidded around and hit us head on. Then the car behind us hit us with such force that it knocked us across the wide freeway divide into on coming traffic of the southbound freeway where we had a third collision.

My husband was knocked out at the first collision and was totally unconscious for 35 or 40 minutes. He did not come to until he was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. He was bleeding badly. I was covered in his blood. I thought that he was dead. It was the worst experience of my life.

I didn’t have a scratch on me but the force of the 3 collisions crushed my chest leaving me with 15 shattered ribs, many of which were separated from my sternum which was also broken, a collapsed lung and a bruised  heart and other internal organs. No one that saw our car or my x-rays believed we could be alive. We consider it a miracle that we are here today.

I spent 6 weeks in the hospital in Utah before I could return to Ca. for continued medical care. The first 3 weeks I was in the intensive care unit. While I was in ICU, our Stake President came to visit me. He told me he wanted me to tell my story in conference. I told him that I already had enough to worry about. I thought he had forgotten about it until he called me a few days ago. However, I am grateful for the opportunity I have today of sharing our miracle with you and bearing my testimony. In some ways this has been a terrible experience… but in some ways, it has been a blessing.

The blessings started immediately after the accident. My first night in ICU I was alone and in agony. I thought I was dying and I didn’t want to be alone. I felt someone squeezing my hand. I thought it was my nurse but when I opened my eyes no one was there. I soon realized that it was my mother who passed away many years ago. I never saw her, but I felt her holding my hand thoughout the night and I knew that she was there. That was a great comfort to me.

Each breath I took was torture. I was convinced I was going to die that night partially because of an experience I had a few months before. I was in church singing the sacrament song when a scene opened in my mind’s eye and I realized that I was viewing my own funeral. I’ve always supposed that I’d be really happy to be dead and excited to be graduating from earth life and moving on… but as I looked at my family and friends, I could not only see their grief, I could feel it. Their sorrow weighed heavily on me and made me very sad. That night in ICU I thought I’d been given that experience to prepare me for death. All night I kept begging Heavenly Father to hurry and call me home. I told Him that the pain was more than I could bear and I wanted to be released from my crushed body. I was a bit perturbed when I found I was still alive the next morning. A Bro. Smith dropped by my room. He asked me if I wanted a priesthood blessing. I thought to myself, I don’t want a blessing…Can’t you see I am trying to die! Of course I didn’t say that to him. I told him I had already been given a blessing the night before. He said that’s ok… they were free… and he felt the Lord had a blessing for me.

When he laid his hands on my head and started to speak, I was amazed. It was like he was reading my mind and knew my secret thoughts. He said that my Heavenly Father loved me and He knew I was suffering in terrible pain… but… He was not going to call me home because I had not finished the work that I was called on earth to do. He told me that our loved ones from the other side of the veil had surrounded John and me at the time of the accident and protected us from death. He said that  many prayers that were being said on both sides of the veil and that they would support me, comfort me, give me the ability to endure the pain and the patience I would need for my long road of recovery. I wasn’t too thrilled about the “long recovery part” but I was thankful for the blessing. It then became clear to me that my funeral “vision” had been given to me to help me live…. Not to help me die… In the following weeks, each time I took a turn for the worse and I wanted to give up, I would remember the sadness I felt watching my loved ones grieve… and I would find the strength to go on.

I bear witness to you that the blessing Bro. Smith gave me 7 months ago has come true. I have felt the power of the prayers that have been offered in our behalf. They have been tangible support. They have indeed comforted me and given me more strength than I ever knew I had. John and I have been overwhelmed by the love, concern and help that has been given to us. It has been wonderful. Many times our prayers have been answered through loving service. Our hearts are touched and full of gratitude for all those who are praying for us and coming to our aid.

We are still recovering. We still have pain. My doctors tell me that my lung and ribs will  never be normal again...but we are so thankful with the progress we have made. Last week our dear Temple President and matron let me return to working in the temple again as an ordinance worker with my sweet husband. How I love Pres. and Sister Morgan. They have been such a loving support to us during this whole ordeal. I so missed not being able to go to the temple during the months that I was in bed. I am thankful that I am healed enough now to be able to work in that sacred house of the Lord again each week and partake of the wonderful spirit that is there.

We all will probably face some hard times in our lives. There may be challenges at times that seem to overwhelm us, but I know first hand that our Heavenly Father loves us and He is always there to support us and help us succeed. All we have to do is turn to Him and trust Him. I am thankful for this knowledge. This is my testimony, which I bear in the name of our dear savior Jesus Christ, who willingly suffered all for us and knows exactly how we feel. Amen

Have a great week. Hugs, Lura