Well, one piece of good news: One of the women I go to church with (her name is Jocyle) had had open-heart surgery back in June. (She had gone to the hospital expecting to get a stent, wound up with bypass surgery). Just as she was starting to get better, she got pneumonia and was in the hospital for a while.

I hadn't seen her in a long time - since before her surgery, in fact. She was back today, finally.

It is amazing how good she looks. Oh, I don't mean "amazing" that she's up and around after all that - "amazing" in that she looks 5-10 years younger than she did before the surgery. Her son had told me "her color's a lot better than it was" but I hadn't realized how bad she must have been feeling before the surgery (because she never SAID anything) - she's gone from sort of sallow-looking to a very nice pink-and-white complexion, which I guess was her natural state before she got sick. I guess the artery blockages were really adversely affecting her circulation. And her face, which always looked kind of drawn, has filled back out. She looks so healthy. It really made me happy to see her. I hope she continues to enjoy good health; she looked like she was feeling really good today.

It's always great when medicine can give someone that kind of improvement.

Now I just hope Jean, another woman I know from church, does as well after her knee replacement tomorrow.