How To Handle Adversity

How To Handle Adversity

When you are faced with a situation that alters your quality of life, you have to know how to handle adversity.   My hubby has not had the best year, he came down with the flu in January and was so sick for almost a month.  We though things were looking up, only to have him end up with bronchitis.  Since he was scheduled for a right hip replacement in March, we knew he had to be healthy.  Thankfully his lungs cleared up and surgery went on as planned.  The recovery for this surgery was great, Rich was back to work within a day after he was released from the hospital.  Fast forward to July when his left hip replacement was scheduled but that one wasn’t easy at all.  Since he already had a replacement in 2007, they had to remove the damaged one along with a large cyst before hammering the new replacement in.  The recovery on this hip was long and he’s still in pain.  But the kicker is when they did an MRI of his back and hip, the surgeon found major damage to his low back with the discs and spinal cord.  Surgery for that will require delicate repair of adding rods and screws.  Anytime surgery is performed on the spinal cord, there is a possibility of paralysis and the surgeon made sure we knew what the outcome may be because he has never seen anything quite like Rich’s situation of how the spinal cord is located.

So what do we do? Rich has been the hardest worker since he was a little guy delivering newspapers before and after school. We have had our interior decorating business for 53 years but his health is taking a toll on him even though he keeps on going.  Gone are the days when he can climb a ladder to install drapery rods and beautiful window treatments.

 So when adversity visited us, we had to come up with a plan.  We made the decision to close our retail shop but that doesn’t mean we are “retired”. We are far from that, Rich is only 73 years young and I’m closing in on 70, way to young to retire.  We went with plan B and started another business making soft and furry baby blankets which well be very exciting but less stressful than having a retail shop.   As the Mar-C’s Interiors era ends, the Mama’s Minkys begins.  We don’t let bad things get in our way, we just keep thinking positive and move on to exciting times.  Like the saying goes, you can’t keep a good man down and we stand by our motto, “If you want to explore deeper oceans, you first have to leave sight of the shore.”

Since we are watching the LA Dodgers in National League Championship Series tonight, I thought I would share a blog post I wrote about the adversity the Dodgers faced last year in one of their games.   http://themarthareview.com/dodgers-faced-adversity/

On a side note, the little Dodger baby in this photo is our Granddaughter Alexandra, Lia Faith’s mom!