Well, it's almost been a year already...

...since the first of my foot surgeries last year. Remember? It was April 9, 2004: Good Friday. Gosh, Easter came early this year, huh?

It almost seems unreal. From that day, it took me about six or seven months to get to the point where I was able to walk again without a limp. I was still walking with a limp at the time I started my job at the Wichita Eagle in November.

It was kind of Biblical, you know? I was admitted and had surgery on Good Friday, and I was released from the hospital on Easter Sunday. That was the easier of the two foot surgeries, though. The second one, my left foot, the one I had done in July, kept me in the hospital two extra days. Man, I loved my morphine drip! Push-button pain management. How wonderful!

Thank you to everyone who prayed for me during the whole ordeal. Reconstructive foot surgery is not an easy thing to have to go through. Especially when you're falling asleep with a fork in your mouth trying to eat because the morphine and lortab are kicking your rear.

Hopefully, I'll never have to go through that again. I can tell you, though, that I can stand on my feet a lot longer than I could before. Before, I could only stand in one place for about two or three minutes before I started feeling pain, and in another minute or two, I was in excruciating agony! Now, at church, I only sit down when the rest of the congregation sits down. What a relief! It was hell to go through, but it was worth it.

I hope none of you ever have to go through anything like that. Now, I've never had a baby like Devona did, so I know nothing of the agony of childbirth, but I'd almost wager a guess to say that bone surgery is much more painful. Has anyone out there gone through both?

Special thanks, of course, to my wonderful husband, Ron, who went through all of it with me, helping me out with everything that I couldn't do for myself, for loving me even when I was screaming in agony and crying or sleeping because I was in pain and on strong medicine. Also, thanks to all of those from our church who supplied Ron and me with dinners every day for a few weeks. They kind of spoiled us. But we didn't mind.

I'm almost looking forward to when Ron and I are earning a decent income so that we can give back to all of those people who helped us out, including our church as a whole. You are all wonderful stewards of God's gifts, and to you I am very grateful.