When will I learn to listen to the Spirit?????

It's not that I do not ever listen to the Spirit.

It's just not always.

Sometimes I argue with Him.

Usually, when what He wants me to do seems, to me at least, not necessary.

Take last month.
Sept 13th.

I am assigned as Visiting Teacher for a fairly new convert to the Church, who had not been to the temple yet. The lesson was on temple attendance, so I listened to the Spirit and invited her to go with the youth on Sept 25th to do baptisms. She seemed excited and accepted the invitation.

As Fall approaches, the days are get shorter and darkness comes sooner, leaving the house dim for ascending the stairs for bed at night. But, on Sept. 22 there was a bright moon shining through the landing window!!! Thus, when the Spirit told me to turn the light on, I said that I could see well enough. Sometimes I get too caught up in being conservative with the electricity. You know, when there is less sun there is less electricity coming from the solar cells. Long story short, I thought I had traversed the 10 steps to the landing, only to discover that there was one more and my hands were full, one with a bottle of water, the other with a full glass of milk. Not wanting to have a huge mess to clean up, I contorted my body to attempt a soft landing of the milk, and my body. With only a little spill and my body not feeling to bad, the mess was quickly cleaned up and the bed was soon comforting me. Saturday, was a delightfully warm and sunny day! Off to the temple Margery and I went getting to know each other better along the way. After clearing up some misunderstanding about temple work, she had a delightful experience in the temple and we also visited a couple of church history sites. Home we went.

That evening was Relief Society General Broadcast at church, and I was rushing around getting the house Sabbath ready, even more so, because we were having friends over for dinner after church on Sunday and I didn't want to be tempted to do any more work than necessary on the Lord's day. The last load of laundry was ready to come out of the dryer. Upon opening the door of the dryer, and bending over my hip gave out and it hurt so bad that I screamed!!!!!!!!!!! Not even child birth was that intense......... Fortunately, the dryer was there to grab onto or I would have fallen right there. Gradually the pain lessened enough to stand back up, and with much difficulty the rest of the load was cared for. It was time to leave. Darci had been called. Dad was moving the truck, so that the car could be pulled out of the driveway; the car door was opened, but my leg would not go into the car. The tears could not be contained and freely flowed down my cheeks.

Dad arrived beside the car after parking the truck and said that I was going to the doctor. But how, my leg would not bend in my hip to allow my legs to get into the car...... It felt out of place. It's a good thing our car is not any smaller!! With my head at one door and my knees at the other while my feet were in the window, off we drove, while I held onto the headrest to stabilize myself. Darci was outside waiting for me to pick her up, so we stopped by on our way to the walk-in to let her know what had happened. She is a sweetheart and has been much moral support throughout this ordeal. :) The doctor said it was either one of two things or both: Greater Trochanteric Bursitis or pulled ligaments. Eventually, it was discovered to be both. A shot, which was just a painful as the hip was, was injected into the opposite hip! Through covered face, the tears flowed along with soft sobs. The nurse and doctor were terrific, very sympathetic. By the time we arrived home the worst of the pain had subsided, in both hips, so off to bed I went.

For the first time in years, I missed church. Sigh...... How I missed taking the Sacrament and feeling the Spirit so near..... The walk-in doctor had given my an order to get an xRay of my hip on Sunday morning, in case it was broken. No break. By the time our guests were to arrive, I was feeling a LOT better. That shot and 4 Ibuprofen every 4hrs was a miracle to me!! Monday was to be a difficult day for a hip, which would not allow my leg to bend, as I had an eye exam which required sitting and bending forward for a long period of time. There was no time to change the appointment, as my new diver's license now requires me to ware glasses to drive, sigh... and I was to head out for a 2wk road trip soon. After much prayer and supplication to the Lord, (I had forgotten to have Dad and Stewart give me a blessing after dinner), Monday morning arrived pain free!!! Exam successful, glasses ordered, porch worked on, other chores accomplished, only to wake up Tues, morning to have the pain returned, but not quite as bad as at first.

Fortunately, Dr Zander was available and Prednisone was prescribed along with Acetaminophen!!! That night Dad gave me a blessing. The medicine took a while to build up in the system, but after a couple of days the pain was 80% gone and by Friday 98% better, aaaaaaaaaah. I had forgotten how wonderful it felt to be pain free, not only the hip, but all other aching places in my body!!!!! This medicine has to be weaned off from, so Sat. the decline was started, only to find that I was not to sure if the hip was actually ready. The weather was changing, which always stirs up little aches and pains under the best circumstances, but proceed I went to decrease the medicine along with the Acetaminophen.

Yesterday, Dr Zander redeemed himself in my eyes, by calling to check on how I was progressing!!! I will stay with him as my doctor.

In the wee hours of this morning Wed Oct 6, while rolling over in bed, my leg POPPED back into it's rightful place in the hip. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! What relief!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Must be patient now while it heals. :)
AND
do the exercises, which the Spirit has been telling me to do for about a year now!!!!

Maybe I will stop arguing with the Spirit!!!

Maybe...
I'm so stubborn sometimes.....

OK, Many times!!!! LOL!!

I do turn the light on now, when I go up the stairs at night!!
and have been walking almost every day!!! :)

In the end, this was a blessing in disguise, because the hip had been hurting for a LONG time with gradual compensations to tolerate the increasing debility, but not enough to pay the $20 copay to have the doctor say, "Take 2 Aspirin and call me in the morning" type of thing, and I was sick of taking over-the-counter pain relievers for so many other aches and pains, only to have them not completely take the pain away, along with all the other side effects they bring on.

Anyway, all's well that ends well!!!