Surgery tomorrow

I am scheduled for a 1:30 back surgery tomorrow. A minimally invasive lumbar microdiscectomy. Whew! I am ready. I have heard from others who have had the surgery that the pain in my leg should be gone shortly after surgery. It sounds as if the recovery should not be too bad. (I expect it to be less pain than what I have been experiencing.) The surgeon told me that he is hoping that I will be so happy to have the pain in my leg is gone, that I will not mind having the pain in my back from the surgery.

The surgery itself is scheduled to be 40 minutes long and will basically be a removal of the disc material that has escaped from the disc and is pressing on my nerve that goes down to my leg. I am planning on spending the night at the hospital, but it is possible to be discharged in the same day. The surgeon also has given me 3 weeks of disability leave from work so that I can focus on recovery.

One thing that God has been showing me is how much He and others love me. My sister-in-laws were quick to volunteer to come and help me through the surgery. (There's nothing better than family!) Mindy volunteered first, so she gets to come and is on her way already! She comes in tonight and will leave on Friday. I'm sure thankful for Bill, Audrey, Ben & Luke for letting me have her for the week! My co-workers have been loving me as well. They have been coming and helping me--making sure that I have food, they've been washing my dishes, doing my laundry, cleaning my bathroom, taking me to appointments, and even rescuing me from my appointments (when I drove to them myself and was in too much pain to drive myself back home). And of course they have been praying for me. Today a friend is even brushing and washing my dog. Mia has been neglected a lot since I stopped being able to go out on walks.   

I've had to focus on some of the promises of God recently. Here's some of them:

God will work things out for good:

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

^{God is with me and won't leave me:}

^{Deut 31:6} Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

^{His grace is sufficient for me:}

^{2 Cor 12:9} But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

^{God can heal me:}

^{James 5:15} And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

I find that if I focus only on myself then I am fearful, but if I focus on God and serving Him and knowing that He knows what is best for me then I suddenly have the peace that He has promised me! 

Pray that the surgery will go well and bring forth the needed healing & that I would continue to experience His peace. Thanks for all of your prayers & keep praying! 

In His Peace--Denise

Waiting on God

Well, I had my epidural injection on Monday. The injection wasn't too painful. It would have been pretty cool to watch. In fact, since it was done with fluoroscopy so the Dr. could see where the needle placement was, I could have watched it on the screen. However, I hate being at the receiving end of the needle so I just closed my eyes and prayed that it would be over quickly. So if you want to know what it looked like you'll have to ask Dr. Vicki who accompanied me!

It left my legs a little shaky afterwards and I was super happy to have Vicki there to drive me home. The injection left me feeling better that day but also tired. The injection included a couple different drugs. One was a short-acting anesthetic and the other was a long-acting steroid. It was a treat to have very little pain the first day as the anesthetic did its job.

The next morning I could tell that the steroid hadn't started working as the pain was back. It can take 5 or more days until it kicks in and up until now it hasn't.

I did find someone who works with non-surgical treatment of herniated discs using something called decompression therapy. This was something that I had wanted to try and is a similar approach as the inversion table. I had my first session at Parkside Spine Care on Friday. It is a different approach then my previous physical therapy and was warned that this might make me sore at first. Although it was fairly gentle traction, it did make me sorer later last night and today. I figure it is worth the try this week since nothing else has been effective.  I will still meet with Dr. Houston, the neurosurgeon on Thursday to officially re-evaluate my condition. I'm sure that we will be discussing surgery unless there are drastic improvements. My pain level today is such that I generally get up on my feet for about 5 minutes at a time before I lay back down to avoid the pain. I pretty much avoid sitting altogether. My big adventure of the day is getting down to the mailbox.

This week's devotional for CVM was "Waiting on God." I was reminded that I am not the only one who has ever had to wait on God, and that God is still working while I wait. One of the verses that I like to think on is Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" I am challenged to use my time of waiting to seek Him, to stay encouraged and to pray for others. This next week CVM is holding a Training of Trainers (that I was supposed to help teach) so I am praying that it goes well as the participants come into town and for Drs. Karen, Monty & Shelley who will be teaching.

Thanks for your prayers as I wait!

Frustrating days

Once again, it has been a long time since I last updated my blog. I am updating again as I ask you specifically for prayer, and want to catch you up on some of my life.

The last few months have been frustrating for me. Many of you have asked over the last couple years how my back has been doing, as I struggled a lot with it a lot during the last couple years I worked in Ethiopia. It had continued to do well during most of my time in Seattle. It sure has been nice to not have to always deal with packing the truck, hauling water and traveling over the rough Ethiopian roads all which aggravated my back. Until February my back seemed to be doing very well and continuing to get stronger and I didn't have pain as I increased my activity level to get rid of some of the post-Ethiopia pounds that made their way onto my body.

In the middle of February though, my back started hurting a little bit. I went back to the exercises I had been given for lower back pain which had always helped before. Then the back pain got worse and started traveling down my right leg. A visit to the doctor led me to physical therapy. PT helped for a time, but I had 2 major setbacks during the last couple months. The last setback went from bad to worse pain than before with the pain traveling down to my ankle and the start of tingling in my right foot. This led to my getting an MRI showing my back in much worse condition than the one in 2009 during all of my back problems in Ethiopia. (I now have a herniated disk at L5-S1). The last couple weeks have found me working at home for CVM on my living room floor where I can lay on my stomach to work on my laptop as I can no longer sit for more than a few minutes at a time (even with lots of pain killers on board).

It's been frustrating because I had been doing everything I was supposed to be doing that I had been taught--taking care of myself, doing my exercises, using lumbar support, lifting properly, etc. At the risk of being too theological this has reminded me a lot of spiritual life. One can do all the right things, but really without the hope and reliance in Christ one is just spinning their wheels slipping further and further away from God. Helpless as I am feeling now. Even now I am realizing how much I need God to heal me--whether it be through miraculous healing on His part, or through the doctors' hands as they treat with steroid injections & more therapy or through a surgery. Of course, my life is in His hands everyday, but I am much more cognizant of it now.

I wanted to update you all and ask that you pray for me. Tomorrow (Monday) I will get a steroid injection. My response to that will determine whether or not the next steps will lead to surgery. I hope to keep you updated on my progress.

Relying on Him, Dr. Denise

Reflecting on Ethiopia

Recently I was challenged to have Stones of Remembrance in my life to remember the good things that God has done in my life. (Similar to the pile of stones left by Joshua and the Israelites when they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land in Joshua 4:1-9).  I asked myself, What are the Stones of Remembrance in my life? I realized that I had done a scrapbook for each term I served in Ethiopia, and that they are the Stones of Remembrance of my life as they remind me of the things that God has done while I served overseas.

This inspired me to finish my scrapbook on my last term and thankfully it is now finished so that you can also see it. Putting it together has been a great time of reflecting on the work God has done and is doing in Ethiopia. So many of the faces in it are special to me and I know that God is still working in their lives and in my life today.

You can see my scrapbook online by clicking on the following link:
Denise's Ethiopia Scrapbook (2008-2010)

So what are the Stones of Remembrance in your life? I would love to hear.

Last Day in Haiti



On Monday Pat & I rode with Keith as he went to visit people in the valley in the area of the cholera outbreak. Here Keith is giving chlorine for water treatment to one of the health agents in the area. One grain would treat 1 gallon of water.

 

The Artibonite River was the contaminated one bringing the cholera infection to the people. It is the largest river in Haiti.

While there we visited lots of people Keith had connections with. He treated any sick animals present. Here a little boy is bringing his goat for treatment.



Pat & Keith treating a goat.



I just couldn't leave a pig out of my trip blog from Haiti. Pigs are not kept for food in Ethiopia and so seeing pigs tied up and raised in Haiti was a treat for this Iowa farm girl! A lot of Keith's work has been spent on eradicating foreign swine diseases from Haiti.

On Tuesday morning Kelly brought me to the ocean so that I could put my feet in before leaving Haiti. The water was clear and beautiful.

A little girl at the ocean fishing. She caught a little fish just as we got there.

Pray for Haiti. Hundreds of tent cities exist that popped up after the earthquake. Pray that the Lord would calm the storm Tomas that is heading towards the southern peninsula. The missionaries have strong houses and are not in danger, but these tent-dwellers are super vulnerable.

Quote from Kelly's blog on Monday: "Please pray for Haiti as we face Tomas. The reports are better this morning as Tomas has weakened to a tropical storm. The discussion on the National Hurricane website say it will weaken for another 48 hours and then strengthen into a hurricane again and turn and come across the Southern part of Haiti. We REALLY don't need a hurricane. We had a freak windstorm a few weeks ago and it killed several in tents, a hurricane or even a tropical storm will really be bad. Please pray that Tomas will stay away. Not to worry though if it does come we will be safe. Our houses are strong and we have supplies on hand. It's the hundreds of thousands in tents that will not be ok."
Kelly's blog site:  http://vetmissions.blogspot.com/

Photos of Haiti

Photo 1: The vet trainees with their certificates at the end of the training on Friday.

Photo 2, 3, 4: Earthquake damage. Vertical cracks are least concerning. Horizontal cracks are bad & “X” cracks are the worst. Several houses had missing walls or leaned, others slid off their foundations and others were reduced to rubble. Many walls fell also. Leaving houses vulnerable to thieves.

Photo 5: Earthquake cleanup. A lot is done with sledge hammers and buckets. Ree Bar is salvaged and can be resold.

Photo 6: CVM helped to distribute tarps to provide temporary houses for people. Other groups gave out tents. Many parks and empty spaces are now full of these tent cities.

Kelly’s friends, “family” & workers:

Photo 7: Judeline, Poppy & Mackenlove

Photo 8: Kelly & Ronald

Photo 9: Workers and “family” at the vet training center

 

Haiti visit post training

Yesterday Kelly gave Crystal and I a tour of downtown Port-au-Prince. It was neat to see. Amazing to see collapsed houses sometimes just next door to a standing one. Others were leaning and yet others had large cracks. She showed us that the houses are being inspected. If they have a green mark then they are good and stable, yellow means that they need some repairs to be stable and red means that the house is condemned and not liveable. She told us lots of stories of people lost, trapped or dying. Somehow everything revolves around the earthquake, and some buildings look war-torn from the earthquake. Many parks and even the palace have been overtaken by tent cities. Amazing.

 

At noon, Crystal went to the airport and Kelly and I had lunch at a cool bakery/café. We had an amazing steak sandwich and fries. Yumm. Then I moved over to Kelly’s house for the remainder of my time. In her house she has a teenage girl, Judeline living with her, a gal with a baby and a caretaker of the baby. It is a relatively organized circus here.

 

Kelly’s next short-termer, a vet student from Wisconsin arrived today. Tomorrow he & I will be going out with Keith Flanagan to deliver some supplies out to the valley—the cholera affected area. I’m looking forward to seeing some of the Haitian countryside.

 

Hurricane Tomas is coming towards Haiti area. I fly out on Tuesday noon…a little before the hurricane is forecast to be sweeping past. Pray for me that it won’t affect my flight. Pray for Haiti. Lots of people are living in tents. Can’t imagine that tents and hurricanes mix well. The latest forecast shows that it may hit Haiti harder than previously expected.

 

I’ll try to post some photos later.