It's Only Pain

KD had come to visit me in the hospital and I got a chance to vent my fears and frustrations to her. Going from great cardio and weight lifting sessions to barely being able to get out of bed without help is so demoralizing ... it's tough to be patient, but I really have no choice.

While KD and I were talking all of a sudden I felt my throat clamp up and I knew what was coming - a cough. Something that I was totally dreading - you have no idea how much pain a cough can cause when you've got abdominal stitches.

I started to panic, but she sat me down, had me firmly hold a pillow against my abdomen and said - It's only pain.

It's only pain.

Such a simple statement, but something that was important for me to hear in order to refocus and remember that this is all temporary.

So I quickly coughed a few times and felt an excruciating amount of pain, but after 10 seconds it was over.

Finding the mental strength and determination to keep moving forward is tough. Especially to keep it up on a daily basis, all the time ... it's obviously something that I've posted a lot about in my blog, but determination truly is such an important cornerstone to making progress ... and keeping things in perspective is the key to moving forward.

So, I may need a bit of help moving around over the next few days, and it may hurt like hell to cough, but it's only pain. It's temporary. I still have control over the bigger picture -- what happens over the next two weeks matters, but it's not everything. I just have to keep trying to move forward and not be overwhelmed by setbacks.