Weekly Update

Praises:

•  I was able to attend the “secret church” simulcast at a Sunday School member’s house on Friday evening. It wasn’t over till 1 a.m. but I made it and it was such a great time of Bible teaching and fellowship with friends!

• After a bad day on Monday I was so encouraged when some old friends, some I haven’t talked to in over 10 years, have contacted me offering to help me and bringing meals this weekend! I was just blown away by God’s favor and their kindness.

Prayer Requests:

• As of now we feel that the spinal cord stimulator is not a good idea (although right now my pain is so bad sometimes I just wonder if I need to try it). But I have concerns about the long-term effects of going that route. So we are now trying to decide between having the pudendal nerve decompression surgery as planned in January or traveling out of state to see a “top-notch” PT for sacroiliac joint dysfunction(SIJD),which I know I have as all 6 PTs I have seen have said I do.  My concern is that my pudendal nerve may not be the true source of my pain and the surgery is horrendous with the possibility of making me worse. However, I feel like my SIJD is past the point of conservative measures helping so if I pursue treatment from the specialized PT I would have to put off my pudendal decompression surgery for months (probably at least summer 2012). We need wisdom. These are huge decisions for which we really do not have answers and we really have to decide soon.

•  Some days I feel like I am going to lose my mind if I do not get this pain under better control and figure out a “next-step”. One minute I feel like SIJD is my true source of pain other times I think it’s pudendal neuralgia, and sometimes I worry it’s a different nerve altogether. Please pray that God would give me peace and help me to trust Him to guide me in the right direction.

•  I recently started a muscle relaxer, Baclofen, but stopped it due to dizziness. I restarted it on Friday because I am not convinced the dizziness is from the medicine. Please pray I will be able to tolerate this medicine and it will help or that in some other way God would give me some relief from this big increase in pain I’ve been dealing with for weeks. So far nothing is helping much.

• Pray for our marriage…that my husband and I would be slow to anger and abounding in love. Chronic illness is so hard on a marriage and often times it feels like we are just “getting by”. Pray that we would make our strengthening our marriage a priority during this difficult time.