Friday, June 17, 2011

We Hope for Better Things

A hand effected by rheumatoid arthritis.Image via WikipediaCarol, my daughter, is having surgery on her feet to remove rheumatoid nodules that cause walking to be painful.  We've been through this before, but we always hope this time we'll find a medication that will reduce the problem.  So far that hasn't happened.

Carol has suffered a lot.  She has had RA for 22 years since she was 23.  It has been a long hard road.  Her joints have been replaced--knees, hips, and shoulders.  Her wrists were fused.  She lost her right arm because of infection when they tried to replace her elbow.  It has been bad.  Then her husband died in February of this year.

She is tough.  She now lives with me.  We are struggling to get our lives together in a form we can both tolerate.  Carol was a cook in a small, country cafe.  She enjoys watching the cooking shows.  For about five years I owned and operated a small catering business, and she was my meat expert.  We didn't really make any money, but we had a good time.  Now she is still oriented toward food.  She likes to design dishes, choose ingredients, and dictate cooking methods.

When she is planning a dish or thinking about how it should go together, she says she will stir it over low heat, knowing all the time that she is going to tell me how to do it.  In her mind she still has the ability to stir and cut and blend.  I admire her attitude and praise God that she has an interest that sustains her in bad days.

I'm glad she still thinks of herself as active.  I still think I'm young.
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