Weekly Update

Praises:

• God has so graciously provided us with generous financial gifts from a couple of friends. It is so amazing to watch God provide for our needs.
• The botox injections were covered by my insurance!
• My husband is being transferred to a new location for his job. The boss there really likes to help his assistants get promoted. My husband is working hard at this, but we feel this transfer will greatly help him in his endeavor to get promoted and make more money.

Prayer Requests:

• We traveled to see my pelvic pain doctor and pain management doctor this week. Last time I saw my pelvic pain doctor 6 months ago she was very against the idea of me having pudendal nerve decompression surgery. After seeing my continued decline and poor results to botox and conservative treatment she seems to be more accepting of the idea of surgery. My pain doctor on the other hand thinks I should first trial a spinal cord stimulator (SCS). It would be a Boston Scientific Precision Plus (SCS) Unfortunately using it for pudendal neuralgia would technically be off label usage, but my pain doctor feels I could get significant pain reduction with this. It is not a cure, just a pain management tool. There has been poor success rates with SCS and PN however and I cannot find a lot of research on it. My pain doctor has treated pelvic pain with SCS, but I do not think specifically PN so while he is incredibly intelligent and probably one of the best pain doctors in my region I am nervous about choosing this option. I would have a two week trial of the SCS before a permanent implant is placed in my body. I am young and while I have come to accept the fact that I will likely have pain the rest of my life I would rather have a chance at fixing the problem not just masking the pain.  So we need serious prayer concerning this option as well as whether to pursue surgery. I need to make a decision in 2-3 weeks if possible so that the SCS could possibly be done before the end of the year (for insurance purposes) or so we can purchase airfare/make reservations to go to Arizona for the surgery. I am trying to get in contact with the PN specialist to ask him some questions...please pray he calls back soon!
• While the botox was covered by our insurance the anesthesia bill was not. That bill is $900! We are hopeful it was just a mistake with insurance coding, but please pray this will be covered as well.
• Also please pray that whatever direction God leads us (SCS or surgery or something else) that insurance will cover these procedures. It will likely be a struggle and both these procedures will be thousands of dollars so we definitely need insurance to pay for this.
• Please pray that God would give hope and joy in Him alone. The days have been "dark" spiritually and emotionally. Satan is trying hard to get me to despair. Pray that I would cling to Truth during this time
• Please pray that God would ease some of my current pain. I have a lot of burning around my "sit bones", upper hamstrings, adductor muscles, and my calves/feet. I can't sit for even 10 minutes without a lot of pain. I don't know what has caused it and so far nothing really relieves it. I think it's possible it might be a delayed response to the botox as the muscles that were injected "release" the surrounding muscles have to pick up the slack. This new pain concerns me about having surgery because I don't know if PNE is what is causing my pain. I am fearful of having an unnecessary surgery and the outcome being worse than my current situation.

Thanks as always for your prayers!