Re: Angel Flight -- For Chrissy

[Guest guest]

Dear Chrissy,

This is wonderful news about your progress with Angel Flight! Your friend

was right, you should not feel at all guilty for calling on them. The program

was set up for people like you, who need some help, especially when faced

with possible astronomical hospital and surgery fees. There is no sense of

you going into debt with plastic money, especially since you don't know how

soon you would be able to work again to pay off the plastic!!

I hope you enjoy the smaller planes. Did they tell you what type of aircraft it

is? I'd be curious to know. When I first started dating my husband, he had

just gotten out of the Air Force. When he was in service he'd been stationed

at ton flying C-141's for his military career, and had taken a job as a

corporate pilot flying a few different jets when we began dating. In '84 we

took the company's Lear jet from ton up along the coastline to Myrtle

Beach to pick up his boss, and then flew to Memphis for the night. The first

leg of the trip it was just my husband and the co-pilot, so they brought me up

front so I could sit with them and see what they actually see from the front

windscreen.

That trip was beautiful, in the late afternoon with the sun beginning to set off

to the west. It wasn't my first time in a smaller jet, but it was the first

time I'd

flown with my husband in command. After watching him at the controls and

seeing his obvious enjoyment and natural skill at doing what he loved best,

plus the added bonus of seeing the changing colors of the marshes and

greenery below us as the sun set....it was terrific. I flew with him many more

times before he went into the commercial sector, but that trip was always my

favorite. I hope yours is just as cool as that one was!

June seems like it's just around the corner, and as time is, it will be here

before we know it. Your goal of being at work in June worries me. I hope you

won't take offense at what I'm going to say, because I only say it out of

friendly and sincere concern. I hope you don't feel that you have to be back

at work that soon, because recovery takes a long time and after such an

extensive surgery, it's going to take a lot of time to regain your stamina. I

just

don't want you to set unrealistic goals for yourself and then feel guilty if you

can't achieve them. I know you are a very strong woman and have shown

that by your accomplishments.....going back to school to get your nursing

degree and everything else that you've done. Yet you need to remember to

give yourself generous time to heal. I know everyone is different, and can

accomplish certain things at a faster or slower pace. Allowing yourself less

than three months to heal after this extensive an operation seems like too

strict of a deadline, and I sense that you will be stressing yourself out if you

don't achieve that deadline.

I say this, remembering that it took me over 6 weeks just to fully recover from

that hospitalization I had in October. Granted, I'm several years older than

you, but I had a very active, athletic lifestyle before CP brought me down, and

I've found that this condition we have can really leech out all our energy and

physical resources, making recovery a slow process, no matter how strong

we were to start with. And you're going into this with several months of poor

health in your pocket. The TP-ICT surgery is a really BIG deal. So please

give yourself plenty of time, Chrissy. I don't want you to be disappointed in

yourself, and upset, if you aren't working by June. If you can do it, I'll

stand

up cheering and shouting, along with everyone else who cares for you!! But I

don't want you to try to do something that's medically and technically too

difficult to do well that quickly. You, as a nurse, know the benefits of good

healing.

Please remember to set realistic expectations for yourself, with your focus

being on healing, as opposed to working. The latter will come in time. You

will thank yourself for giving yourself the luxury of healing WELL, so that you

will have the strength to resume working without any setbacks. It's not really

a luxury, but a necessity, if you want to have the stamina to work the hard

hours and constant vigilence that you personally put into your profession.

Well, 'nuff said. I'll stop lecturing. It's just that I care about you and

want you

to be happy, with yourself, and everything else in your life.

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep.

PAI, Intl.

http://www.pancassociation.org/anthology.htm#Heidi

Note: All comments or advice are personal opinion only, and should not be

substituted for professional medical consultation.