The Shafferland Shuffle

Well there certainly has not been a shortage of events this week!! Full, full week! Here we go!

* Last Sunday, Ryan had to work, which is a rare thing, but it does sometimes happen. (By Friday, he had worked 13 days in a row, and we were both exhausted.) When he got home, we went to an open house for a recently built house in our neighborhood. We love to see what's new! Ryan likes the light fixture and I photo-bombed. :) And that night, we began the first of allllllllll the visits to the hospital. That night? To see his mom.

* Monday I spent an hour and a half at the Goodwill, buying clothes for my spring capsule project (more on this later). I think that may be a record for the amount of time I've spent at the Goodwill in one day. That night, we went back to the hospital to see Ryan's mom again, and then out to my parents' house to drop off the 30 freezer meals I made for them. (They were surprised!)

* Tuesday was Mom's surgery day, so I hurried to get all my chores done in the morning and then we spent the whole afternoon and evening at the hospital with her. (And threw in some visits to Ryan's mom while we were at it.) We had Bible study that night and made minor pigs of ourselves on the snacks provided, because we'd never gotten around to having dinner!

* I'm sure it will surprise you that I spent part of Wednesday at the hospital, attending Mom's therapy sessions and delivering flowers. Ryan and I went back that night to see her again and to get our daily hospital selfie. We tried to get one every day this week, but this was the last day we actually remembered to do it.

* Thursday morning, we went on the first portion of our "C" date (more on this to come), and then while Ryan went to work, I went back to the hospital to be Mom's therapy coach. Even got to eat lunch with her! Ryan and I went back that afternoon to help with her release and to get her home and into the house safely. Quite a production!

* Friday morning, my dad had a previously scheduled appointment, so I went to sit with Mom while he was gone and to help when the home health nurse came. (Lots of questions and Mom was still pretty groggy from all the happenings of the week.) Came home, worked all afternoon and then that night, Ryan and I had part two of our "C" date. We were so tired, we ended up sleeping on Mo and I missed the entire end of the movie we watched!

* Woke up yesterday to SNOW. COME ON, INDIANA! Snow was so last month. Let's move on to spring! We went out for the third and final portion of our "C" date, and then I had to get back home for a podcast interview. It was Ryan's first day off in two weeks, so he enjoyed updating his phone and doing other fun at-home chores. Well-deserved. We paid a quick visit to my parents, and it's great to see Mom doing so well!

The Amazing Human Body

Thanks so much for all the kind words regarding my mom yesterday. She apologized for "spoiling" my post with her rules about pre and post op pictures. {hee hee hee.}

I. Am. Absolutely. Amazed. at her progress in 24 hours. Amazed, I tell you!

I'll be the first to tell you I was a science failure in school, so I don't have a commanding comprehension of how the human body works, but being married to someone in the physical therapy world has helped me understand its ability to heal and adapt after surgery.

So I sort of had an idea of how things would go for Mom, but even "sort of an idea" didn't prepare me for how well she would do in the first twenty-four hours.


When I got to the hospital yesterday morning, she was already in a therapy session, and when I walked in, she looked totally normal! Dressed in her own clothes, with her hair done and her glasses on, she was up in a chair, stretching her leg!


I stayed for a while and watched while she got up to walk for the first time. It was painful for her, but she powered through. She took it nice and slow, one little step at a time, and she actually would have gone longer than she did, but they reminded her it was just the first of many sessions, so she needed to take it easy, and she did listen and take a rest!


Though I promise to spare her the posting of any therapy photos or videos, I will share this one I took of her with some of her flowers...can you even believe this was less than 24 hours after surgery??

I left right before lunch so I could come home to work for a while, and when Ryan and I went back after work, I was shocked to my very core. She got up for walk, and she just powered through the whole hallway at breakneck speed, compared to her morning speed! It hadn't even been twelve hours, and she was walking as fast as she did before surgery. Maybe even faster!


It truly does amaze me how a person can be up and moving so soon after having whole new PARTS put in! The body is an amazing thing, and I am grateful God built in all the things He did to make such healing and adaptation possible. As Mom told the hospital chaplain yesterday, she's grateful for the knowledge and skill of the medical community, but she's also grateful for God's help and healing! Great teamwork between the two!

We're excited to see her on the road to recovery. This waiting for surgery thing was so drawn out that she had a lot of time to overthink it and worry, and I didn't blame her. I would have done the same! So we're just excited for her that the day has come and gone and now she can get well soon!