Free Style Writing Challenge

My topic: A time you had victory over a problem or fear

Probably the first thing that comes to mind was one of the scariest things I faced, though at the time I didn’t quite acknowledge it because I was heavily medicated.

You see I’d torn my rotator cuff in my right shoulder, had bone spurs that had severed one of my bicep tendons and the only solution after MRI’s, X-rays, physical therapy etc – was surgery.

Thinking, “it’s only laparoscopic” I nearly didn’t call my Dad in Florida so as not to worry him. “Oh honey” he said “that’s no small surgery”.

Undeterred, I went in thinking positively, accepted the offered shoulder block which would essentially make my right shoulder and arm like dead weight. I was wheeled away and remember my surgeon (who I call Dr. Cutie Pie) saying everything would be fine.

When I awoke however much later, the first thing I recall is two male voices seemingly right in my ear stating “I don’t mind telling you I crapped my pants a bit when she flat-lined”.

“Who are you talking about” I mumbled, as my eyes opened.

“Oh welcome back, you gave us a little scare” they said.

“I flatlined?”

They confirmed it and by a stroke of divine intervention, my cardiologist who was on the floor was called after the code blue and agreed that they should finish the surgery but that I was to go to cardiology intensive care after recovery.

The following day, I coded again and now it became not if but when they’d give me a pacemaker. In my heavily pain-medicated state, I worried about missing work with two arms down and said, “can you put it in the right side?”

The better answer would have been “no honey, your heart is on the left” but they took my question as my wish and proceeded the following day to do one and a half hours of torture inserting a pacemaker into the bad shoulder – without anesthesia. It was not good and I recall asking someone to find my mom as I was being wheeled back to my room.

Now seven years later, I’m still ticking and have made peace with this chunk of metal that resides in my shoulder, a reminder of what might have been a surgery gone wrong.

376 words in ten minutes

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I was recently invited by another blogger to participate in a Free Style Writing Challenge.

“Sure – how does that work?” I asked.

Here’s the way it works.

Free Style Writing Challenge

Here are the cut-and-pasted rules:
Open an MS Word document (or Pages)
1. Set a stop watch or your mobile to 5 minutes or 10 minutes whichever challenge you think you can beat. (Not sure what that meant so I just set the timer for 10)
2. Your topic is at the foot of this post BUT DO NOT SCROLL DOWN TO SEE IT UNTIL YOU ARE READY WITH A TIMER.
3. Fill the word doc with as many words as you want. Once you began writing do not stop even to turn.
4. Do not cheat by going back and correcting spellings and grammar with spell check in MS WORD (it is only meant for you to reflect on your own control of sensible thought flow and for you to reflect on your ability to write the right spelling and stick to grammar rules)
5. You may or may not pay attention to punctuation and capitals. However, if you do, it would be best.
6. At the end of your post write down ‘No. Of words =_____’ so that we would have an idea of how much you can write within the time frame.
7. Do not forget to copy paste the entire passage on your blog post with a new Topic for your nominees and copy paste these rules with your nominations (at least 5 bloggers).

I’m now going to follow suit and nominate 5 fellow bloggers to participate.  And I hope they do.  This may not have been my best work but it stretches the writing muscle like the writing class I took last year which required us to write, on the spot and then share with the class.  

I nominate:

mangoes to mutts

cupid or cats

Bali info

the view from the porch

lucile de godoy

I will reach out to these five bloggers, if you’d like to participate, great – I will send you your prompt.  If not, I get it – this may not be your thing and if so, that’s cool.  Just know that I enjoy your writing and thought of you! 

Okay, for those who accepted the challenge, here is your topic. First however, set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes, then scroll down, get your topic and go!

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Your topic:  What is the best quality you possess?