Update, and a lovely day

Since last time I posted, I've been to a few doctors and received some news.  I saw the DO on Wednesday and was referred to a pain management doctor. She (DO) put me on a mild pain med for the time being, which ended up being a bad idea. I've learned that my body does not like pain meds, thankyouverymuch.  It would rather wretch and heave than have help with that pain. Weirdo.

We went to the pain management doctor on Thursday. He's great-- seems sharp and aggressive and ordered an MRI for later that morning.  I was quite ill from the previous day's meds, so when he walked in and saw my green face he said, "You look pale.  Is this normal for you?"  Oh, nice to meet you, too!

He gave me a shot in my neck to try to reduce the inflammation and sent me off to the MRI.  Have I mentioned I'm claustrophobic?  And was wretching?  God's grace got me through those 25 minutes in the tube uneventfully, and we got home just in time for me to do a little more wretching.  Poor Brad is probably getting tired of having to grab a bucket whenever we get in the car.

Friday was a better day-- the pain was a bit better and I was up and about for a little while.  Saturday was rough again, though.  And Sunday the pain was even worse.

On Monday we got the results of the MRI.  "I can tell you're in a lot of pain," doc said, "Look here."  Two discs (the squishy pads between vertebrae) in my neck are torn.  The inflammation is causing a nerve to be pinched and to radiate pain down my left arm, and the bulging discs are pushing against my spinal cord.  So far I have no balance issues or bladder control loss (sheesh!), so surgery is not imminent.  The doc wants to do a series of epidural shots into the disc-inflammation area to see if that can reduce the inflammation.  If the two shots work, then great, we'll focus on strengthening the area and learning to take care of it, as the discs can never be repaired.  If the two shots don't work, then we need to look at surgery.  The good news is that most adults between ages 30 and 50 develop torn discs, so it's not an earth-shattering thing.  Not everyone feels pain as a result of them, so that's the difference now.  We just need to get the pain under control.

So after a few tears (I was hoping he'd say that everything will go away in a week or two) we went home to mull things over.  Not one to leap happily into a needle-situation, I wanted to think things over. At this point I think I'm going to stay with the vicodin for pain and zofran for nausea for this week, as it's a full week of school and I want to be there. Next week I'll do the one-week-of-steroids prednisone pills to try to reduce the inflammation.  If that doesn't work, I'll have one more week of pain (school) and then can do the shots in December and not miss school.

Today I went back to school and it was just a lovely day!  The students were glad to see me and quite compassionate with my loopy explanations of how to find the multiplicative inverses of matrices.  My boss, who I think I'll nickname Mr. Gracious in sincerity, told me that despite the fact that I don't have benefits (sick days), my pay will not be docked for the two weeks I missed, and that he was glad to cover some of my classes for me.  Oh, and the schedule issue I've been worried about for next semester?  The one where I can't fit in all the labs I'm required to do? No problem, just do the 6 you can fit in the schedule and we won't dock your pay, even though you're only doing 3/4 of a full load.  Thank you, Lord, for this gracious man!

As we drove home this evening we got a call from brother-in-law Jeff, saying that he had bought us dinner at the grocery.  Oh, bless you, Jeff!  We enjoyed the rotisserie chicken and I have the leftovers and bones simmering to make homemade stock. (Note to self: just because I watched a zillion hours of food network does not mean I need to make a zillion new recipes.)

And to top it off, we got a phone call from a friend of Ralph and Chris's who is a pain management doctor.  Brad talked to him and told him what was going on, and he confirmed my decision for my course of treatment, down to a T.  I am so thankful for the family connections and how they are ministering to us.  And thank you, God, for being our Father.  We need you!

So we're hanging in, and are happy to be back at work.  The energy on campus is a lot of fun to be around and we are grateful to have jobs in this slim-pickins economy. 

Mom and Steph come into town on Thursday of next week for the weekend and I'm so excited.  It will be a subdued time but terrific-ly fun none the less.  And then the 27th is Brad's birthday!  Lots of happy going on this month.

Thanks for your prayers and well wishes.  They are needed and appreciated!