Mental-Alert

When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, 'Oh yes - I already have everything that I really need.' 

Dalai Lama

My mind just ran away. That’s why for years we’ve called it the “Runaway-Brain”. I simply refused to mind myself. The physical therapist Marsha yesterday, for our final visit, heard that I refused to get out of bed. I plainly looked at her with a smile and a nod. “I’m just too tired to get up and my primary doctor just told me that I’m well ahead in recovery.” So Marsha asked, “Can I at least take your blood pressure since I’m here and you won’t have to get out of bed?” I flung my right arm off in the direction of open space. She pumped the bulb. “Since you really have done remarkable work in you current recovery I’ll agree with you. You know your body and it needs rest more than a workout. I’ll just give you an outline of recovery and please call if you ever need more help.” 

My thoughts immediately went to ‘no’ - no more medical appointments. Wednesday was a doc-free-day and I called a doctor for an appointment that day for information and direction. And when Marsha asked me to journal about my recovery I said no. I promised her a blog-report so: In the past two weeks I used the walker 90%, wheelchair, 8% and free flight 2% of the time. I have an appointment with the surgeon who placed the steel rod along my femur and gave me a low grade pain recovery from a broken leg.

Why would I stoop to a low where I could tell a fair minded and accurate member of my recovery team that I wasn’t getting out of bed. I was raised differently, manners. This time I dropped to ‘want’ and ‘need’. I knew what was the best physical therapy. Food and rest. We eventually all came to the same reasoning. I was re-praised for my hard work and strength of motion. I planned to ask the surgeon if I’m preparing a 14,000 foot climb might I need further or different therapy. I hope that he will see the value in that thought.

Even though I didn’t get up for Marsha, I did have plans for Pizza Party Friday night with my son and his babies Zoe and Stella. The endless laughter, the pizza, the apple juice and fish crackers of color. Strawberries and whipped cream were wonderful. The movie with “Tinker Bell” was merely in the background. The ‘Best of Show’ went to the iPads. We are ver fortunate that we have 2 iPads, and lucky we have two little girls.

Stella with Zoe make everyone smile and tonight it was my turn. So they brought me back - listening to my brain. My brain has listened to my body. My body listens to the cells and each cell tells the story. My brain can also tell each cell what they might do in this process. My brain tells each cell to remove each weak cell and strengthen each developing cell. Healing and cleaning and deigning is my constant job. Everything I do every day is one of the items. But always do the big stuff before 2:30 PM. That’s “Body Speak”.