The Kindness of Hernia Repair

November 13 is World Kindness Day. At The Tuesday Ten Link-Up, we are honoring the day with kindness posts. If you stop by often, you might realize one key characteristic about me: I am independent stubborn. Since having surgery to repair a hernia, I am unable to go “full speed ahead” or do everything myself all the time. Where I am used to doing several things at once, I must slow down and focus on one task at a time. I feel so much better, and I can feel that my core is stronger, BUT I also feel it the second I’ve done too much. Hernia surgery will teach a person many lessons about being kind to yourself and accepting the kindness of others. These are my Ten:

1. I am used to doing everything, doing it a certain way, doing it all at once, and pushing beyond fatigue. Military Wife.
2. Sometimes, no one is around to help. Sometimes, learning to do a new thing on your own, realizing you are capable of more than you imagined builds Strength and Wisdom.
3. In contrast, stopping when I feel the slightest discomfort, admitting limitation, and doing only one thing at a time is frustrating when I’m used to doing so much more.
4. My dad came with groceries, did the cooking and laundry for a week, bought a few more staples while here, AND made me breakfast every morning during my first week of recovery.
5. Our church family took over with meals after that. We just finished the leftovers. I’ve only added a few things, with minimal effort (crockpot here, some vegetables, already cooked rotisserie chicken).
6. Though an annoyance, perhaps a blessing in disguise that the military doctors “missed” the hernia, because Peter is not deployed. Though he was on-call last week, for the most part, things were manageable.
7. I’ve learned to ask for and accept offers of help. When a friend says, “The kids and I want to come visit,” then folds four baskets of laundry and tells you not to do anything, THAT is a big kind of love – shown by acts of service.
8. The kids generally are very sweet and helpful through this time. Madilynn goes from extra snuggly to just out of reach… she figured out I’m not supposed to lift her.
9. I didn’t realize how much I’d been ignoring the signs that something was wrong, compensating for the hernia until a couple of months ago. Sometimes being SuperMom means admitting something needs fixing, and you can’t do it alone.
10. As I look forward, regaining physical strength and endurance, I know I need to take it slowly. I also know the changes I make for health and fitness from this point forward need to stick better than in the past. Building slowly seems like the best way to create lifelong habits.