[Sundaycommunity] How am I?

[Patricia Smiley]

Hi, all,

I think I have been asked this question by some of you who join our zoom
gatherings a few minutes early..  Unfortunately, the past few weeks there
is something in my computer where the microphone isn't working properly.  O
have spent a good deal of time trying to figure this out (this starts even
before I am muted) but can't find an answer.

So, as I am really bored I am going to give a quick written reply to all of
you.  I am still in the hospital, St. Peter's in Hamilton to be specific.
This is a chronic care hospital and I will be here until the wound on the
bottom of my left foot is sufficiently healed that I can stand on  it.  I
had my 3 biggest toes and the ball of that foot amputated in early October
after another gangrenous infection set in.  Did you now there is more than
one type of gangrene?  I didn't.  The infection that caused the right below
knee amputation in 2019 was caused by a gangrenous sore on my right big
toe.  And, by the time the amputation was done, it had spread all along the
bottom of the whole foot. So, this partial foot amputation managed to get
rid of the infection.

I expect to be here for another 2-3 weeks.  I keep myself busy with all
kinds of things but i am getting tired of hospital life.  I am glad I have
my laptop  here.  Because of problems with my eyes,k I have bought a small
tablet to be used for reading.  i can't see the printing on anything but a
large print book and I confess that while  I prefer a real book, I can
enlarge the font on the tablet while reading and it is much easier.  This
is not a problem that can be resolved with glasses, even prescription
glasses.  The glasses you all see me wearing while on Zoom are reading
glasses so that I can see the small stuff on the screen and I've been
wearing reading glasses for about 20 years.

I will be happy to be home, eating my own food, getting a good night's
sleep in my own comfortable bed . . . I will get a partial prosthetic for
this oot on an outpatient basis.  There is an excellent rehab unit with
prosthetic department next to Hamilton General.

Like many others in the community, I am deeply upset about what happened to
Lee Piepgrass recently.  I consider her one of my closes friends and this
accident happened just after I had spoken to her on the phone one Monday.
She provided a great deal of real physical help through my move to Hamilton
in 2020 (both packing up and moving in) and has visited me here several
times.  And many years ago,, she and her husband Don (Moncrieff) would
drive me and my 2 kids to the CIC on Sunday mornings.  Lee in particular
would open her house to whoever came on many occasions which many of us who
have been around for a few decades remember well.  She was also very
helpful to me in understanding my son's autistic spectrum disorder (once
called Asperger's Syndrome) and often how to cope with it.  She was also
very supportive to me in my work as an anti-poverty advocate which
certainly has continued to gratify my ego.

So, all we can do is pray for the best recovery possible.

So, this has become longer than I expected.  I don't have a missal or a
Bible to read from - I will let you know when I feel comfortable doing that
and possibly planning a liturgy again.

Much peace to you all,

Pat Smiley
(and do give me a call - i'm almost always available)



*Patricia Smiley*

*email:  smileypatricia76 at gmail.com <smileypatricia76 at gmail.com>*

*mobile:  647-517-1599*
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