There
are all sorts of pains; physical, financial, mental, and emotional.
THEY all can be large and small, and short or long, etc. I've overcome
financial pains frequently, as well as physical...the other two seem to
be much more difficult.
Life has a way of changing from minute to minute. One minute you are fine, yet something happens to you, or someone who secondarily affects your life, and bingo, your life changes. Sometimes this happens suddenly without notice, or gradually, with plenty of notice. Yet either way, sometimes the pain is SO great, it's hard to overcome.
Physical pains, for me, have come and gone throughout my life. The first physical pain, which I do NOT remember, happened the day after my first birthday. I've been told about it numerous times, BUT only have the scar to remind me daily of what I don't remember. It seems that not long after moving to Hawaii we were still living at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, waiting for our home to be finished. My dad had taken me down to the lobby to wait for my mother, who was getting ready for what ever it was we were going to do. Those details have never been related when this story was told; only that my dad and I were in the lobby and he was reading the paper. Apparently I was standing/jumping on the couch, fell and landed on the corner of the glass coffee table, splitting the end off of my cute little nose. No one was sued. No glass coffee table manufacturers were told to put warnings on their tables. No couch manufacturers were told to put warnings on their couches. The only thing that happened was...I became the youngest person ever to have a nose job...probably. HAHA! I'm sure it was painful, yet I remember nothing. Knowing my dad and how he is, I'm sure he fainted. Over the next few years I would collect several more scars on my knees, head, elbows, etc. from falling, running, jumping, flying, or trying to, etc. Yes, I was a tomboy; climbing coconut trees, playing "Cops and Robbers" or "Cowboys and Indians" or "Army", trying to be "superman", football, baseball, rollerskating. It became commonplace for me to receive a wound one way or the other. I had two black eyes one summer from playing "Hotbox". I've had other black eyes, but we won't go in to that.
Most physical pains just leave scars; then there are those which can also leave emotional scars as well.
When I was about six years old, we were visiting relatives in California. My uncle was building apartments, and they were at the stage of having walls, etc. but no carpet, just the concrete floors. Several of my cousins and I were playing hide and seek. I was running to the base when the cousin who was "it" pushed me down and broke the corner off of my top tooth, which was just coming in. The other one was already out, and hadn't started coming back in. I picked up the piece and took it in to the house and showed my parents. While my aunt was making a phone call to the dentist, I heard my mother say, "Well, now she is damaged and no one will want her". My real first emotional scar was forming.
I've broken a couple of toes, but nothing major. I've had stitches, but only a few here and there. Kidney stones have come and gone. NEVER believe any hospital staff who says they are like being in labor! NOT!!! I repeat...NOT!!!! It is NOT like being in labor. I've been in labor four times; two weighed pounds one ounce, one was 8 pounds 11 ounces and the other 8 pounds 4 ounces. My longest labor was with the last one, which was induced against my wishes; the shortest labor was around an hour and a half. The pain comes and goes and you have a child when it's all said done. Kidney stones are completely different! The pain is unbearable; so unbearable I have passed out. It's unquestionably excruciating. No doubt about it. AND when it finally does pass, you have this 6mm stone with all of these pokey barbs on it. NOT good!!!
I've had a couple of surgeries. My tonsils were removed when I was about six. The fear of a mask on my face left a mental scar that erupted later in life when I was learning to scuba dive. NOT a good thing. That was another horrifying experience. I also went through a partial hysterectomy at the age of 28. Then a cyst removal on my hand when I was 29. Finally had my wisdom teeth removed when I was 30. Other than that, I am blessed, AND so thankful, to experience incredible health!!!
While physical pain leaves a scar of sorts, the memory fades and, for the most part, you are fine. You remember going through each thing, but the memory fades and sometimes the stories are funnier and funnier.
AND so, my next blog will be about financial pains...
