Pain, Pain go away...

I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but pain has become my new "friend". Or enemy.

I've dealt with sciatica, lower back pain, and neck pain for years due to my job. I sit 99% of the day and it takes a toll on me. It got to the point where I needed to treat it and went to the doctors and was told to start Physical Therapy.

One week later, I got hit by a car. Girl tried to cut me off and pass the bus and slammed into me instead. Car was fine, I was shookened up because this was my first car accident with me driving. I felt fine, just nervous and went home.

That night I was in so much pain, felt like someone had beaten me with a cement block.

I went to the doctors to be evaluated and was told to do some exercises and just go to Physical therapy.

I did just that, for three (long) weeks and cried, for three (long) weeks.

Finally, after it was done and the physical therapist said that I need more treatment so go back to my doctor, my doctor sent me to a pain and wellness center.

I thought, more money, more pain medications, more missing work... oy.

I had my first visit there today and let me tell you, I am one happy girl.

First off, my docs office in Newport is swanky. But this office, was swankier. Seriously know how to do it, by the ocean, sea breeze. Nice. I felt like I under dressed, needed some heels and a cocktail dress. lol

I expected them to hurt me, push and probe and I was wrong. I got a massage. A massage... won-der-ful. I haven't felt this good in weeks and weeks.

This is going to do the trick... I know it and I can't wait to get off the loopy meds and be myself again... no more tear fest and irritable Deb. I'm sure the whole household will breathe a sigh of relief when it's done. I know I will.

Looking forward and ready to say "ta ta" to pain.

My Seven Day Nutshell

My Last 7 days in a nutshell:

Tuesday: Sick as sick as could be with a kidney infection

Wednesday: Me + my bed with lots of water

Thursday: worked most of the day but in major pain

Friday: Went to the doctors for the second time that week and was given painkillers and told it was Sciatica and the kidney infection. Need an ultrasound

Friday Afternoon: Got a call an hour after ultrasound. Found a mass on my kidney. "WHAT"

Friday evening: Tears. prayer. scared family. prayer.

Saturday morning: Fowl CT Scan drink. CT Scan. Waiting. Shopping. Waiting.

Saturday Night: Email from Doctor. Mass wasn't there. Must have been a tech mistake....

Sunday morning: Woke up with a smile on my face. God worked a miracle!

Sunday Afternoon: Church. Thanked God big time.

Sunday evening: Dinner with my family

Monday: Work (after missing 4 days) oh joy.

Monday afternoon: Car accident. Not too bad. Not my fault.

Monday night: Pain. more pain and pain.

Tuesday morning: Whiplash and painkiller. Loopy Me.

Happy Week All. :)

Randomness

It's 6something in the AM and I have a rare moment of nothing to do but sit and stare at the computer. I woke up from a horrible dream and pooped(Haha! So much for proof reading... that's too funny not to leave. But I popped) myself out of bed. I can sleep after church today. But right now, I am going to sit my behind down and jot down a much needed blog post.

"WHAT!?" I've noticed my hearing is changing... not going! But changing a tad. My mom started losing her hearing when she was twenty-five, which is when I started noticing it. Her tubes (?) fused together, and they say it's irreparable, but we now found out they can probably do surgery. Anyway, we were in the store and I wasn't wearing my glasses (I never do if I'm not driving) and I was squinting and trying to see what "those things are over there". My mom was walking behind my elbow and whispered...

"I'm tired and depressed."

GASP. What? how did I miss this... tired, yes, but depressed!? I stopped suddenly and looked at her...

"what did you say, mom?"

"I said, that's the tire and lube department."

We had a good laugh over this and then a more serious one about getting those darn ears checked!

NEW PUPPY I have put claims on a new girl puppy to be born the end of this year or early January. I am so excited! She is from the same 'parents' as my brother and sister-in-law's dog, Lola, so they will be sisters. Something special about that to me. I will be the one you see walking with my little dog in a stroller or have her all glammed out in cute clothes and bows...of course I may be broke and have to starve, but my puppy-girl will be beautifully decked out. ;)

WALLPAPER FUN I am in the process of removing blue-striped-wallpaper from my bedroom walls. It is hell! I am telling you! I dislike wallpaper and can't imagine why, oh why the previous owners of our home out it all over... okay, so it's really nice wallpaper... but who can live with blue stripes forever. NOT ME.

BAKING I love to cook and bake. It relaxes me and is comforting in some strange way. I made a cake for my boss' birthday. He loves German chocolate cake, I dislike it. Not to gross you out, but the fresh coconut in the frosting makes me think I'm eating little bugs, Andrew* Zimmer*man style. ugh.

I decided that if I was going to eat German chocolate cake I would make it fresh. Night before the birthday, I got lazy and bought German chocolate cake mix. BUT I did do the rest from scratch. It was so gooooooood! Yes, coconut bugs and all.

PRAYER On Wednesday night we had such an incredible service about prayer, intercessory prayer. More than ever it's been on the minds of our church body that prayer is the only thing that's going to get the job done. We fight today more than ever before. We have a world to reach with this incredible news of Jesus' saving grace and love. But we must pray. I'm not talking a little pray before you go to sleep, it's time to be in a committed prayer relationship with God. Be faithful... I have this little card on my desk at home (in front of me now) that says, 'God is only a prayer away'. I bought this when I was struggling with fear and felt like I had nowhere to turn... I saw this little 'sign' and taped right where I can see it as a reminder... He really is just a prayer away.

What a good God He is!

Happy First Day of the Week!

Ths is my 351st post... :)

~*~
Deb

Back Breaking

As I said in a previous post, I messed up my back sometime in the last couple of weeks and it's gotten progressively worse.

Going to the Chiropractor is no fun. I don't like people massaging me. It hurts. A deep tissue massage KILLS.

I felt pretty good as I laid down on the board/bed... whatever it is, and relaxed my body while my skirt was yanked down, slightly, and the little vibrating "thing" was placed on my lower back. I'm left alone for a few minutes and use this time to plead and beg God to not let it hurt.

The Doctor comes back in and begins to massage and shoot the breeze, chatting about his techniques and how I ripped my muscles around my spine... everything is going good and I feel like God really is going to numb me from the pain. Before I know it he's massaging my bum/hip and talking about an increase in taxes for California. My thoughts are, Hey, you're too close to my bum to talk about paying taxes.

Everything feels good minus the couple of sore spots that he feels need extra attention. I am focused on his shoes as my face is scrunched in the head rest. He decides to crack my back and hits down so hard that the bottom of my spine feels like it came out of my skin. I wanted to stand up and smack him in the face, "Hello, I have an injury, Buster!"

"What happened?" He asked after I screamed. I managed to yelp, "It hurts here", as I pat my back. He then wiggles my back to find out where the pain came from, no pain. Then he wants to crack again. I was too chicken to tell him not to, so I just smacked him in my head. He cracks it and everything is fine.

After he massaged my back and legs with a massive massager that makes you jiggle all over, he left so that I could gather myself.

I scoot off the bed/board and yelp, again. It's bad. Very bad. I whimper my way over to my purse and bend a few inches... I'm stuck. Here I am standing with my arms hanging down and my butt in the air.

He comes in looking concerned while I think, You better look concerned buddy, you broke my back!, "What is hurting?" he ask.

After a few back exercises I limp out to the lobby and thank God that my sweet mom came with me.

I pay, and wobble out to the car. My mom ask, "How are you feeling?". I whimper in response, "Ooooowweeee".

God's bigger than Brain Tumors!

What would we do without God? Where would we be? I feel sick just thinking about those that don't know Him. Not knowing Him, feeling Him is something that I never want to experience. How do people turn their back on this God who is faithful and loving? I can't imagine life without Him. In the good and the bad, He proves Himself faithful and true!

I have no doubts in God's ability to heal. I have no doubts in God's ability to provide. He's never failed me and I know He never will.

Right now, I am leaning on Him for strength and comfort. I am trusting, and sometimes begging, for His healing power. To be open, I sometimes find myself asking God why? Why my mom, she's been faithful in serving You and those around her. The only thing that keeps coming to mind is, why not her?

Yesterday my mom and I went to see a renown brain surgeon who used to be head of neurology at UCLA. He's performed thousands of surgeries on pituitary tumors. People from all over come to California to have him perform their surgeries. I was confident that he may have an answer for us, something different and not so grim.

We waited in the John Wayne Cancer Institute, funny thing that it was called John Wayne since everyone close to me knows that I have this quirky thing with John Wayne, "John Wayne says..." "John Wayne is...". The nurse came and showed us to a room and we waited... and waited... I took some pictures of myself in the big metal light, trying to make the time go by a little quicker.

A doctor that works with the surgeon came in, he looked like Henry Mitchell from Dennis the Mennis. Nerdy and young. His first remark once introductions were made was, "This tumor is very bad and nasty." Oy. He told us that it was risky to remove but there was no other way. Other pituitary tumors could be treated with medicine, but this one could only be treated with surgery. The shots that she takes three times a day were only holding the tumor at bay. Keeping it from growing and feeding itself. The only way to treat this would be to have fifteen sessions of radiation, then surgery that would remove 80 - 90% of the tumor and then radiation again. I was not thrilled when he left to get the surgeon. I felt scared, angry and helpless, on the verge of tears, but I had to hold it together for my mom who was just bummed. She grinned and joked with the doctor the whole time and giggled when he checked her nerves for any damage. You would think I was the one with the tumor and not her.

Once the surgeon came in he brought a photocopy of her MRI, I had yet to see the tumor. He pointed out things that we already knew, size of a golf ball with fingers going into her blood vessels and arteries, wrapped around her main artery and attached to her pituitary. What a mess.

My mom will be making a decision in the next few days. I catch myself thinking the worse and then remember that what the doctors and surgeons say is NOT final.

I feel strongly that God will heal her. I believe He's setting it up and He's just asking us to trust Him. Or I might say, asking me to trust Him! lol. I can never take for granted the peace of God. I am blown away when He shows up and there's a genuine smile on my face and the faces of my family. We trust Him. Completely and with our whole hearts!

I believe with everything in me that He will work a miracle in our midst. The Lord is my light and salvation. Whom (or what) shall I fear?

Mystery Solved!

I had an interesting doctors appointment today... bizarre is the right word!

On July 4th I helped my cousin clean raw shrimp and squeeze about 20 limes. I developed some sort of burn like formation on my right hand a few days later, known here on out as the "thing". I went to see my doctor the week after and was told that "it didn't look scary", no need to worry... My cousin developed the same sort of burn like formation and went to her doc. She was told that she had a disease that came from shellfish, a disease that is fatal to some people that are infected! Of course being the hypochondriac that I am, I called my doctor and anxiously patiently waited until she called me back later that night, I was told that it was a far fetched diagnosis and I had nothing to worry about.. I was still unsettled but figured that I'd just keep my body alert for any other weird happenings over the the next few weeks.

The "thing" burned and itched like crazy causing me to put gallons of lotion, itch cream, Vaseline, and anything else that would help. A few weeks later things still weren't looking good. Sometimes the pigment would change to a purplish color and then back to a light brown. It wasn't long before the "thing" began to peel and turn bright pink, as if it was scarring. Then to add to the "thing", my fingers begin to crack and bleed and hurt like crazy!

Last week I had had enough, I called a Dermatology Clinic that was connected to a very good hospital and made an appointment.

I saw this doctor that asked me if I liked Coronas, "say again..." I said, confused. "Do you like Coronas, the drink?", "no". He looked confused, he then asked me if I ate celery, "nope". He looked confused, again. The he asked me if I had lime? "YES!" I told him about the shrimp and lime, he was surprised and said, "wow" or something like that.

He then told me that they saw this lady come in with something similar to my "thing", she had passed out with a Corona in her hand, it spilled all over her arm and she woke up with a burn like formation on her arm.

The doctor called in the senior physician and they both looked, squeezed, rotated, and pulled. They told me that this comes from the skin of Brazilian limes. I apparently got a burn because there was some left on my hand when I went into the sun. BIZARRE! Medical term - phytophotodermatitis, which sounds fancy... but it actually means some sort of burn.

The doctors then asked me if I would mind if some other doctors came in to take a look... "sure, why not..." My room turned into a lecture room with the intern doctors trying to diagnose my "thing" and pull and pick at my arm and answer their teachers questions... that was not the end.

As I was leaving the senior doctor pulled me over to the front administration office, gathered his employees and gave them a look at the "thing" lol.

I laughed all the way to the car... Who would have thought it!

So let me just warn you... BEWARE OF LIME! Specifically the skin of Brazilian limes!

Below is a picture of my "thing", it actually looks really good here and not so ugly, this was before it was beginning to peel and scar.