On the Way to Recovery

My appointment with my doctor after my MRI, which was painful beyond belief because of the position in which I had to lie, revealed a disk protrusion at L4-L5, directly above the site of my previous back surgery.  I was not happy to hear that.  It took me literally a year and a half to recover from surgery, and it was the most painful experience in my life.  For anyone who has had a slipped disk or other type of back injury, you have my sympathy.  Back problems affect your quality of life.  If your back hurts, you hurt; if a disk is slipped and pressing on the sciatic nerve, the pain is unbearable.  My doctor ordered a steroid injection at the site of the injury as the first attempt to fix it.  I had an injection with my first herniated disk and didn't know what to expect at the time, and I discovered that it is a very brief but painful procedure.  Having experienced it before, I knew what I was in for this time; I definitely wasn't looking forward to it.  I went in to the hospital this morning at 9:00, my scheduled time, for the procedure that took only a minute, but the preparation and paperwork to get me there was time-consuming.  My husband took me, and I thought we'd be out and back home by 10:15 or so, but it was 11:15 before we returned home.
Once I got past all the 'red tape', I was wheeled into a room where I stretched out on my stomach and bared my backside.  Once that was prepped and sterlized, the doctor injected the steroid, which felt like a flash of burning pain shooting down my right leg and into my foot.  There were 2 injections lasting approximately 3 seconds each, and I'm not embarrassed to say that I moaned (actually, it was more of a holler) with pain.  It felt like a stab in the back with a knife which was then dragged down my leg and into my foot, all in the matter of seconds. 
Thankfully, it's over, and I'm sitting typing this.  I won't know for several days if the steroid injection will have the desired affect, but I'm trusting God that it will be all that's needed to fix this problem.  Just the thought of going through another back surgery brings me to tears.
I won't be sitting outside later today as the heat is on here in North Carolina.  It's currently 90 degrees and is expected to go a few degrees higher, and ditto for the rest of the week.  I was awakened by a thunderstorm early this morning, and we can expect more every day as the heat develops, but my heart goes out to those in Joplin, Missouri, who lost their lives (over 90 people so far) in a devastating tornado yesterday evening.  The US has experienced a rash of violent tornadoes this Spring which have taken hundreds of lives, and this week is only going to add to the devastation and loss of life.  Many of those who died yesterday probably contributed some sort of aid to the victims of the Alabama/Mississippi/North Carolina tornadoes earlier this month, and now they are a statistic of yet another outbreak of tornadoes.  None of us knows when our last moment will be, and that's a good thing, but we need to be prepared to meet the Lord of the universe when that moment comes.  Are you ready?  Do YOU know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?  The suffering we experience in this life is nothing compared to the pain that awaits those who turn their backs on a loving God who desires you to KNOW HIM!  Jesus told us the meaning of eternal life in John 17:3, when he prayed for all mankind:  "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."  How awesome is that!  God sent His Son Jesus so that we could know HIM!  I can't wrap my mind around the fact that God wants to have an intimate relationship with ME, but as I'm on the way to recovery, I'm going to spend more time in God's Word so that I may do just that -- know Him better. 

Side-lined

Life has a way of taking unexpected turns, and I'm experiencing one of those turns.  On May 2, as I was getting dressed for work, my back started hurting, and within 2 minutes, pain radiated down my right leg and made it impossible to put weight on my right foot.  In other words, I couldn't walk.  I immediately knew what had happened.  A disk had slipped out of place.  I had experienced a herniated disk in the fall of 2007 and ultimately had  to have back surgery to repair it, so when this happened, I knew I had to get to my orthopaedic surgeon as quickly as possible. 

I got in to see another doctor in the same office later that morning; my doctor was in surgery.  X-rays were taken, revealing a compressed disk.  I was put on medication and told that I'd feel better by the time the medicine was gone, but I didn't.  In fact, I got worse and called the doctor the following Monday and had an MRI on Tuesday.  I will see my original doctor tomorrow morning.  While I've waited at home, resting and doing a lot of reading and needlework, I've finally started feeling better.  The pain is now greatly reduced, but weakness remains in my right ankle.  I'm eager to hear what the MRI revealed and am praying that surgery is not required. 

I was supposed to go to my son's house and help with the new baby last Friday and today (Monday), but that obviously didn't happen.  My husband and I went over for a brief visit yesterday afternoon, and it was hard for the little ones to understand that Nana has a hurt back and can't pick them up.  And it's difficult not to pick them up, especially when Benny comes to me with his arms up in the air.  So my plans to spend time helping with the new baby have fallen through, and I feel like I've let my daughter-in-law down, even though it wasn't intentional.  So I'm side-lined until my back heals, and I don't like it one bit.  I've not been to work since May 2, and there is only so much reading, needlework, and TV watching one can do before it gets boring, and I've hit that place.

Even though I don't know why this happened, I do know that God allowed it to happen, and I have to rest in that knowledge that He is still in control.  Finding my rest in Him is all I can do.  I can't change the situation and can't make my back magically heal.  As I rest in Him, I've found a place of acceptance for what is, and that's all I can do.