And there we went! ! ! : )

So, I wanted to let you all know that I am recovering very well. I must say that the difference between this surgery and the last one has been night and day. I am doing so much better. I still have my limits... I still need help putting on anything that goes either over my feet or on my feet, if you get my drift!? Ari has been so wonderfully supportive and helpful and he's been a HUGE refuge to me during the really gut wrenching times. For the first two days, the nurses had mixed up the doctor's orders and they were forgetting to give me my regular everyday meds, because I have been on 45 MG of time released pain meds every eight hours, and now I was getting only one to five MG of it every few hours...Needless to say, I was in excruciating, unbearable, and copious amounts of pain.

The first night was the worst of all. All I could do was scream in agony. Poor Ari was staying with me and he didn't know what to do. I was in really bad shape because my pain levels were through the roof! One fairly patronizing nurse asked me if I had any kids...and between my screams of anguish, I told her "not yet." She the glibly replied, "well then, after this, child birth will be nothing." If I wasn't a Christian, I think that I would have seriously considered kicking her or something. : ) There were a couple of times, I have been told, that my body was trying to give up on it's responsibilities. You know, the little things like breathing and the whole circulatory system thing'y that works with your heart and stuff. : ) At one point I must have had five to eight doctors and nurses working on me trying to get me to breathe and asking me really tough questions like; "Kristen, what's your name?" And, "Kristen, do you know where you are right now?" I asked her what she ment, because the question seemed so stupid to me. Of course I KNOW where I am! You people just cut a GIANT hole in my back, cut MY bone and disc and replaced those with these ENORMOUS bars and exceptionally large screws along with something you call "Bone Matrix." Of course I know where I am, I'm in the St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, CO. but I really wish that I were not. : ) I think that my body was in some very serious shock from the pain. I quit breathing and my heart rate dropped along with my blood pressure. I hear that that is not a very good thing to have all three of those things going all kattywhampus. Needless to say, I pulled through. : )

In the middle of the second night in the hospital, my Super Nice and Sweet nurse discovered the COLOSSAL mistake they had been making--forgetting my pain meds and all--and she made it all better. From then on everything was great and I have been getting better and better. I can walk about a half mile with my walker. As my Cousin Emily says, "She's going like gang-busters on that thing!"

The worst thing in this all is that my Dad accidentally let Jack our cat out and he ran away and he hasn't come back. His description and our phone number have been left at every vet's office I could find in the surrounding areas, and we posted his picture, description, our number, and in very large and bold print, we had written "CASH REWARD." These were laminated and stuck to every sign post, mail box and anything else that would stand still. And we also put all of that in the local paper. Several people called, one to tell us that she saw what she thought looked like our cat squashed all over the highway...nice. Luckily, it is nearly impossible that Jack could have made it all the way out there, never the less, we went out to make sure, and it wasn't him...but golly gee, thanks for the phone call! NOT! Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. My Dad also put a scrape on our new Honda Pilot and, of course, the scrape had to be across multiple panels that, of course, all need replacing.

God has given me the grace to let it go. Without God's grace, I think I would be feeling a little bit of anger toward my Dad right about now. I am working to stay WAAAAAAY far away from the self-pity and blame games. In the midst of it ALL, I can still say, and with an honest heart, that God is Good and that I really do have Hope. My Jesus is all my Hope and Stay. I have found Ps. 42 very timely and encouraging. I always follow that one up with Ps. 103. They go really well together when you are going through tough times.

Well, last Wednesday we made the trip back home, so now we are in Telluride again. My dear sweet Sister Jessica came up and stayed until yesterday to help me...it was great to have her here! We drove Jessica down to Fruita/Grand Junction back to her car, and then Ari and I stayed the night and on our way home tonight, we stopped by PetCo and we ended up coming home with a kitten play mate for Jack when he does finally make it home. This new kitty is about eight to nine weeks old and he is super cute. He's sort of charcoal colored. He is long haired and his coloring goes from really dark gray on his back to a lighter gray on his tummy. As far as we know, we have named him Saki...Not after the rice alcohol they serve with Chinese food, but after Ari's cousins in Greece. He has too cousins named Saki and I really think it fits this little guy.

Well, that's all for now. Again, thank you so much for your prayers...I have NO question that I am doing so well because of your love and prayers. Please keep 'em coming!

Love you,
Kristen Fairlight Eddy