Point of fact, Mr Jefferson...

The Fourth of July is a HUGE deal for me! I love studying the writings of our Founding Fathers and Founding Mothers. They were so well-read and passionate about their causes! They were an elect group of citizens. 

"The Committee of Five" approved Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence and gave it to the representatives of the Second Continental Congress for approval. Congress declared independence on July 2, 1776 and approved their edited version of the declaration on July 4, 1776. On the third of July, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail explaining how generations to come would celebrate independence:

"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

And yet, John recognized the cost associated with earning such independence:

"You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. -- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."

Wow! Powerful words! I'm grateful and humbled to be celebrating this day of Independence and freedom as John so rightly foretold.

(The original letter is available here: http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc…)

And here's a bit concerning the very definition of a "good citizen"... 

James Madison, in a National Gazette article on 3 March 1792:

"The class of citizens who provide at once THEIR OWN food and THEIR OWN raiment, may be viewed as the most TRULY INDEPENDENT and HAPPY. They are more: they are the best basis of public liberty, and the strongest bulwark of public safety. It follows, that the GREATER the PROPORTION of this class to the whole society, the more FREE, the more INDEPENDENT, and the more HAPPY must be the society itself."

Patience

I want to share another great talk with you. This one was given by Elder Neal A. Maxwell in a devotional address to the students at Brigham Young University in 1979. He title it "Patience." 

"There is also a dimension of patience which links it to a special reverence for life. Patience is a willingness, in a sense, to watch the unfolding purposes of God with a sense of wonder and awe, rather than pacing up and down within the cell of our circumstance. Put another way, too much anxious opening of the oven door and the cake falls instead of rising. So it is with us. If we are always selfishly taking our temperature to see if we are happy, we will not be."

Neal A. Maxwell was a President of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was given at Brigham Young University on 27 November 1979.

That We Might "Not ... Shrink" (D&C 19:18)

This is one of my ALL TIME favorite talks! Watch with a box of tissues.

David A. Bednar

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

CES Devotional for Young Adults • March 3, 2013 • University of Texas Arlington

Recovery Day 16

I skipped a couple of days. I had nothing new to report and anything I would've posted would have been pretty whiny and/or depressing. But I definitely have a message today...

I think the most difficult part of living with chronic pain is trusting yourself after so many medical professionals have told you that you're wrong.

Until yesterday afternoon, I literally could NOT even sit or stand up for more than a few minutes without getting the worst headache you can possibly imagine because my shunt had been overdraining since the day of surgery. Those of you who have had epidurals leak after delivery or a lumbar puncture and you didn't stay down the full 24-hours or any kind of CSF leak understand the kind of headache I'm talking about.

I was almost hyper last night, giddy like a little girl walking around Disneyland, because I got to sit up and watch the Olympics trials. I coughed at one point and braced for the spike in pain only to call out, "It didn't hurt!!!" My mom and Glen were so excited! Sarah Jane was like, "is it supposed to hurt?" No sweet cakes. Coughing should not make you feel like you're going to die. I even got up several times for a snack or three because I wasn't even nauseated! I've been taking Phenergren for nausea since the middle of May. And I didn't even think to take it yesterday afternoon because I didn't desperately need it!

YOU ARE YOUR OWN BEST ADVOCATE!!! Trust your body! And if you're wrong here and there, who cares??!!! I promise that you will be right more often than not!!!

The Shunt Is "Off!"

I had my shunt adjusted again today. It was still overdraing (a LOT!) even set to a 6 out of 8 settings. So now it's set to an 8, which is virtually "off" because the pressure required to open the shunt valve is really REALLY high. I'll get another CAT scan on Wednesday to check the size of my ventricles and hopefully this will work for a while! I finally feel great! I sat up and watched the Olympic trials this evening without any headache pain! Woohoo!!! 

But the BEST part of the doctor's appointment today was that my wonderfully smart and resourceful husband, Glen, was the one who figured out how to use the shunt's magnet tools to properly adjust my shunt. This shunt valve hasn't been on the market very long and I'm our nurse's first patient with this type of valve. She was having a difficult time getting the setting to read and adjust correctly so we had to go get an x-ray to check the setting. When we got He was helping the neurosurgeon's nurse follow the manufacturer's instructions he found online in a pdf document. He's my hero!

I had my shunt adjusted again today. It was still over draining (a lot!) even set to a 6 out of 8. So now it's set to an 8, which is as close to "off" as a shunt can be. I'll get another CT on Wednesday to check the size of my ventricles and hopefully this will work for a while!

Recovery Day 13

There are days when you get a teeny little glimpse into the suffering of others and you realize your life is beautiful in comparison. This video is... Well, the music is absolutely beautiful and the images are ridiculously heart breaking!! I could only watch it up to a point, took a break for a while, and then watched to the end.

Folks, the sex slave trade is real and over two MILLION children are being held captive and used today. TODAY! If you can, please donate to Operation Underground Railroad so this organization can help rescue as many as they can!

Recovery Day 12

I've discovered a problem... I can't raise my voice without inducing a ridiculously awful spike in my headache pain! This will become a bigger problem when my mom leaves on Sunday. She's been AMAZING with the kids and has kept them busy enough that the potential problems created by our little humans have been kept to a minimum!

Glen Varga will be home for the most part throughout the rest of July, so he can play referee with the kids. But this ability to raise my voice has been a mommy super power!! And I'm not even talking about yelling. That's totally out of the question because I think the pain would kill me. But I've lost the power to use my voice to grab everyone's attention because someone is about to do something ridiculously dumb that will probably hurt someone/everyone else. Or to end a loud argument mid sentence because I say the mommy magic word that shuts everyone up immediately. Or to get all of the potential A/C drainers on hinges closed at once with just a few words projected loudly. And with four little humans, it's physically impossible to be in each of their spaces all the time so that we may converse at a below normal decibel level. And even if it were physically possible, that would be a disservice to my children who are learning degrees of independence as they are taught correct principals and expected to govern themselves.

Captain Von Trapp had the solution, but I'd need a whistle that requires minimal air power. Anyone have one of those?

In other news... That moment you realize your hair part for almost 13 years needs to switch sides to cover up a few newly-created bald spots.🤔 #hydrocephalus#failedETV #newshunt #firstworldproblems