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Surgery, Traveling, Bible Reading

After having slowly lost my voice over the past year, I finally went back to the ENT to see if there was a remedy. Turns out there is. All I needed was a new doctor to look at my vocal cords. I had the required minor surgery yesterday morning. I am told everything went well, but it is hard to tell based on how my voice now sounds. The doctor reiterated several times to me and Mama that we must “trust the process.” Full recovery may not happen for several more weeks, which is a little disconcerting since we were also told that the gel inserted directly into my vocal cords may be absorbed by the body in only a few months. Six at the most.

The pain from the injection is not at all difficult to bear, but the pain of talking is worse for the moment. I have explicit instructions to speak in a normal voice – no whispering and no shouting. The second of those two admonitions will not be difficult to abide by. The first, speaking in a normal voice, is proving a bit more difficult.

Once I found out that surgery was required, I had originally prayed that I would get the surgery prior to leaving for Honduras. My thinking was that I could spend the time there with a stronger voice as I recovered. I am glad that did not happen. I did just fine whispering to everyone in English and Spanish. Savanna was extremely attentive when she did not have earphones on. 

Mama and I had a wonderful time with Cori, Nate and the kids. We went to the beach in Tela the first day we were there and stayed fairly busy throughout our stay. Mama and Savanna gathered about ten pounds of small rocks from the huge piles on the beach. All of them were taken away from her as we went through security. We were disappointed but not shocked when one of the four agents insisted that we could not take any of the rocks or glassware Mama had in our borrowed checked bag. She was the only one who had an issue with the items, but she persisted until everything had been confiscated. 

Come Away was great. It seems to get better each year. The weather was mild, towards cool. Most of the Hondurans were dressed very warmly. Pleasant morning walks in their neighborhood were one of the daily highlights of their new home. Back on the farm, the weather was extremely cold. 

The ice that kept Norman, Grandma and Grandpa housebound for five days accumulated to the point that the roof of equipment shed attached to the barn collapsed. Norman estimated that there was over five inches of ice sitting on top of the roof. I did not build that roof with that kind of burden in mind. The repair will be difficult but not overly so. That is the only damage we suffered on the farm. Praise the Lord!

Mama and I got back to Texas about 1:30 Friday morning. We were in bed about an hour later and up at six a.m. to take care of our animals. Mama was anxious to see her recently hatched chicks. Needless to say, we took a long nap that afternoon. Saturday was catchup to all the farm and household needs. Sunday was church. Monday was shopping for essentials and a pre-op appointment with our ENT. Tuesday morning, we picked Victoria up at the airport. I have to say, “Thank the Lord” for the online flight apps. Victoria’s flight was delayed twice, and the arrival gate was changed three times before we met her. Those updates got us to the right place at the right time, otherwise I am not sure how things would have worked out.

Yesterday was my surgery. We had to be at the Denton Surgical Center by 6 a.m. and so we were up at 3:45 for me to get cleaned up, showered and shaved before we headed to the surgery center. I slept for several hours after we got home letting the anesthetic ware off and fought severe dizziness for most of the evening. The dizziness was the residual effect of a narcotic based pain medicine I was given before I was told what it was. All in all, it has been a good experience. Though I do not look forward to repeating the surgery on a semiannual basis, if this does restore my voice, I will have to plan accordingly. 

For the first time in our married lives, Mama and I are using the same Bible reading program to read through the Bible this year. It is nice to share ideas and questions with each other as we read the same passages in our Bibles each morning. I highly recommend it. I am not exactly sure why we have not done so before except that I did not like the program Mama used in the past. We had each been using our respective printouts for years. At least since we lived in Amarillo twelve or thirteen years ago. But as we looked over a Bible reading program put out by Victory Baptist Church in Milton, we both were attracted to it and have been using it since the start of the year. 

Good times.