AND THIS TOO SHALL PASS

Nearly twenty-two years have passed since I became an amputee and my life literally ended, began anew and was forever changed, all in the briefest of moments. This one memory still stands out to me as one of the most defining, not only of my limb loss journey, but of my life.

When I was in the hospital, literally torn apart, along with other horrific injuries, my left leg was broken and in traction. Weights were pulling the upper bones up and weights were pulling the lower bones down to hold the break apart until the massive infection could be cleared up so it wouldn't adhere to the surgical pins which needed to be implanted. There were times when it hurt so badly it was all I could do to not scream myself unconscious from the pain. Those times I didn't think I would survive, not because I didn't have the will to live or didn't want to fight but simply because I couldn't believe it was possible to live through such unbelievable pain. I didn't think it was possible for anyone to endure.

During those times I kept repeating two things to myself. 1st: "and this too shall pass" and 2nd: "God promised that we would never have more dumped on us than we would be able to bear". Eventually the pain did pass and I saw that promise was not an empty one. Nothing is stronger than the human spirit and that promise is the most important of all ... the promise that we can endure ... always.

--marky5toes

02/2014