Day 23 post op

Time for another update.

On the vision front:
Praise and news
I had a migraine aura on Tuesday morning, none on Monday, Wednesday or Thursday and a really odd experience on Friday.  I had the little blank dot that graduated to a little thin line and then it disappeared.

Now, when I wandered off to the bedroom to lie down to wait it out, Ian asked if I were ok.  In a resigned voice I had replied, "Yes,  I just have a migraine aura again," and very soon after that was when it disappeared.  I decided to enjoy the rest on the bed anyway (and give myself opportunity to see if my brain was playing any other tricks on my vision) so I didn't get up and rejoin Ian straight away.

When I rejoined Ian 20 minutes or so later, I mentioned how weird it was that the aura had disappeared.  He said, "Well, that confirms it."  He then explained that when I had mentioned that I had another aura, he had prayed against the attack and commanded it to be gone in Jesus' name.  So we think that there is a spiritual dimension to the aura attacks (and to a certain extent there is to any illness).

So far today I have not had any auras. :-)

Prayer requested
The downside is that my vision is still not 100%.  I can't look at the computer screen for more than about an hour before I have to take a break as my vision blurs.  Watching TV also can be tiresome after a while, hence I have a lot of programmes recorded that I haven't yet watched.  I have problems with bright points of light (hurts the eyes - I hate the opening credits for all the Catalyst programmes we have recorded), fast moving images (my eyes can't follow them easily) and I see after images / ghost images easily, particularly words or lines on the TV.

Fortunately my vision is stable and fine for the purpose of driving - I did my first driving post surgery today to our church and back for a church 'picnic'.  :-)  Of course, these were short trips and longer trips will have to be judged on experience.

I also seem to be more sensitive to light generally - it takes my eyes longer to adjust to dimmer light after bright light including light reflecting off a bright white page. Some of all this may be caused by the drugs I'm on - Ian says that he's seen light sensitivity mentioned as side effects for various drugs in the past (though not necessarily my drugs).

I do actually need to be able to do some things on the computer (e.g. writing a few reports to finish my TESOL assessment; creating a digital scrapbook before month's end) so please pray that my vision will improve to allow this.

On the physical stamina front:
Praise and news
I have been doing 20-30 minute walks around my neighbourhood the past several days and can see a definite improvement in stamina and speed.  Next Tuesday, I will treat myself to Chinese take-away from the shop down the road if I have done a 20-30 minute walk every day.  I'm tossing up whether to give myself a grace pass if the weather turns so nasty that I can't get out of an afternoon but of course I could pace the house for 20 minutes and even over these last few days I have been able to go for a walk after the storms have passed.

Next Monday at 5pm, I will have my first appointment for my rehabilitation over at Browns Plains.  We originally thought that this was conducted at the Logan Hospital which is only a few kilometres away but it has moved. My original appointment date was to be in early November so we are very thankful that it has been moved forward.  Getting to classes will be interesting as the available times do not work well with Ian's schedule, however Ian's mother (Doris) may be able to provide transport to the class with Ian picking me up later.

Prayer requested
I am very much not a morning person.  At the moment I tend to have breakfast after Ian has left for the day (he leaves around 7:15am) and often go back to bed, or at least the couch, after breakfast.  However, on Friday I'm hoping to go into town to the quilt show at the convention centre, which means either going with Ian in the morning so he can drop me off at the train or working out which bus will get me to the train or walking there or getting a lift from someone.  Although the distance is not much further than the distance I'm walking at the moment, I'm a little concerned that I will be all out of puff by the time I get into town and then want to walk around the show itself (I still need a fair bit of rest).  Of course, it's a week away and many people who have had this op are back up to speed by 4 weeks post op.