It’s My Choice

Good Tuesday, August 28, 2018 to you. It is 21:00:44 and I am inside my chamber for today’s dive. Yahoo!

I am on a roll after about 12 dives in. I think its 12..might be 11. I have set a schedule that works for me and D and our doggies too. Fezzi and Little always greet me when I exit. So, I will be doing my dives in the evening after dinner. It works out best with D’s work schedule too. I am already seven minutes into the dive. I have my cool vest on and my cool towel on my head. The cannulae is on and my personal fan is blowing at my chin. I am comfortable in my zero gravity chair. The psi is steady at 1.3 so we are good to go. I took a cold medicine before I came in here because my left ear is still pretty sensitive. I am swallowing and yawning and stretching. I have an ice-cold coffee between my legs so I can type freely. The drinking, actually gulping seems to help to regulate my ears also.

I have been noticing that my tiredness is increasing. I am experiencing blurred vision also. So basically I am not feeling energized yet. Eventually I will though! Right now, I feel that my body is adjusting to all of the changes I am making to my health. I am sore all night long as I sleep. D says that I moan a lot more than usual in my sleep. The room looks like it is gently waving or softly roller coastering every time I stand up or turn quickly when I am sitting down. I steady myself more when I walk. I am sure that if the neighbors watched me walking across the street to our son’s house they would wonder if I am a full-time drunk. Cognition is not great but ever since my fall at work that has been the case.

‘It’s My Choice’ is today’s theme. I have been asked quite a few times by well-meaning family and friends and even my primary physician if I knew what I was doing regarding this mHBOT chamber. YES folks! I do know what I am doing. I researched hyperbaric treatment for traumatic brain injury for well over one year. I read the best book available on its use for multiple medical needs. If you are interested please take the time to educate yourself with  “The Oxygen Revolution, Third Edition: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT): The Definitive Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) & Other Disorders by Paul G. Harch, M.D. and Virginia McCullough” I chose well. You see, I am going to live well too!

“Its My Choice’ to write about tough stuff. Life is so complicated. Life is full of things that need to be discussed. It is when we block or hide or run from things that we actually have just packed them away in our invisible bag and we end up lugging that stuff around all of our lives anyway. You will read things that might surprise you about me or you might even read about my Christian walk. Get into it! Get ready to read things that might cause you to think about the tough stuff in your life or it might challenge your faith.

I am going to talk about how I met D. Its My Choice….Right!

I was 20 years old and because of the terrible years between 12 and 18 I did not have any desire to marry or even have a steady boyfriend. I tried that for those two years and what a disappointment it all was. The lies and betrayals and the empty promises resulted in me not wanting to have a thing to do with relationship. I was told by an ex that a city nearby was looking for recreation leaders. I could do that in the late afternoons and on Saturdays while going to college. I stopped by their main recreation office and asked if they were still accepting applications. The director recognized my voice. Immediately I was escorted into his office and we had a great time reminiscing from years past. He told me that I was hired. I would begin the following Monday at 4pm. The first day of work I got out of my car and was walking toward the office to sign in and noticed a well-built guy ahead of me. I heard inside of my head the following, “His name is D and he is your future husband.” WHAT? HUH? NO! Yes, I signed in under his name. He wrote the name I heard. The whole…first and last names.
I worked at a park with a really nice married guy. He was studying to be a police officer. He was married and very safe for me to work with. I would see D in the park at times and shake my head. I was hoping that it was somehow a fluke and that somehow, somewhere I had heard his name. The following spring I tried out for swim instructor and lifeguard for the city. I got a great job that summer and loved every minute of teaching those kids to swim and had fun with the local kids as they enjoyed their summer at our municipal pool. I got a great tan too!
I transitioned back into being a rec leader following the pool closing. I was assigned to another park and my co-worker was D. O my goodness. I had a crush on him by that time. He was a college student at UCI and was studying medicine. He was smart and handsome and he barely even knew I existed. I was my choice to either believe what I heard or discount it because another of my co-workers had her eyes on him too. I chose to believe. We began dating in October. We were engaged in December. And we were married in April. Our marriage has been God’s story. He told me who D was. And for the past 45 years we have lived and loved together just as God intended.
It’s My Choice to daily live as D’s wife, the mother of our two adult children and their spouses, and the grandmother of our five grandchildren. It My Choice to follow the Bible’s instructions regarding marriage and to love as 1 Corinthians 13 says.
I am using the Passion Translation:
Love, the Motivation of Our Lives

13 If I were to speak with eloquence in earth’s many languages, and in the heavenly tongues of angels, yet I didn’t express myself with love, my words would be reduced to the hollow sound of nothing more than a clanging cymbal.

2 And if I were to have the gift of prophecy with a profound understanding of God’s hidden secrets, and if I possessed unending supernatural knowledge, and if I had the greatest gift of faith that could move mountains, but have never learned to love, then I am nothing.

3 And if I were to be so generous as to give away everything I owned to feed the poor, and to offer my body to be burned as a martyr, without the pure motive of love, I would gain nothing of value.

4 Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. 5 Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. 6 Love joyfully celebrates honesty[j] and finds no delight in what is wrong. 7 Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.

Perfect Love

8 Love never stops loving. It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades away. It is more enduring than tongues, which will one day fall silent. Love remains long after words of knowledge are forgotten. 9 Our present knowledge and our prophecies are but partial, 10 but when love’s perfection arrives, the partial will fade away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke about childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned like a child. But the day came when I matured, and I set aside my childish ways.

12 For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries[s] as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face.[My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me has been fully understood. 13 Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.

This is the love that I share with D and our family. It is how I choose to live my life daily.

After all, It’s My Choice.

Love,

Suz

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Author: livewell5777

Today I woke up hopeful. In just a few hours I fee the walls narrowing and the floor sloping. Time to take a breath! Recovery from TBI requires patience and awareness. What a journey it has been. Think positively Suz. Keep the mind of Christ. Love yourself. Love others. Take care of each moment. Cherish the good. Repent of the bad. And always keep living your life well!

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