I had back surgery on October 31st and it was a very scary time, but God kept me safe and saw me through. During surgery I had a severe asthma attack so they had to stop surgery. I was kept in recovery about 10 hours due to a very low oxygen level, breathing issues, heavy chest, they thought I might even have a blood clot in my lungs, etc. During this time I felt like I was dying and by the look on the faces of my doctor and nurse – they were having the same kind of thoughts. I have since returned to see my neurosurgeon and he told me of how concerned he was and had bad that I scared him. My neurosurgeon is an awesome, caring person and I had the most wonderful recovery nurse that stayed with me during the entire 10 hour ordeal – – even going with me for nuclear test, scans, other tests. She held my hand many times and I told her that I felt like I was dying and I thought if I closed my eyes that I wouldn’t wake up. I could actually feel the life fading out of me. … I prayed for God to spare me to be with my family and see my boys grow up and have families of their own. My neurosurgeon would come and be with me in recovery between other surgeries. I thought to myself “so this is what it feels like to be dying”. After an hour or so of being in recovery the nurse said she was going to make a BIG exception and go get my husband to be with me as well. She said the hospital doesn’t allow any family to come in recovery, but she felt that this one time she needed to make an exception. It was nice to have my sweet hubby for support as I fought for my life. The recovery room was a very large rectangular room with surgery patients lined up on each side but with plenty of room for nurses and doctors moving about. In the mean time my husband, Joe, had called for prayer from church groups, family, and friends. During the time of my ordeal I did think – well, I guess I will get to see Jesus, Lisa, Paul, Uncle Merle, Aunt Sue, Aunt Virginia, Aunt Pat, Aunt Annie, and many other friends and family that have passed on. I went through many tests, scans, and an hour of doing a nuclear test to see if a blood clot had gone to my lungs. During the test I started to slowly feel better and started having thoughts that I might even be able to stay on this earth a little longer. Within the next hour my oxygen level went back to normal, the heaviness of feeling like an elephant was sitting on my chest went away, and I knew that God had answered prayers. They never found what caused some of my issues during and after surgery – God just simply made it disappear. I praise God that I am alive and able to be with my family. I am on the mend, I no longer have constant sciatic nerve pain, numbness, and tingling in my right leg and foot. Praise God! My Fibromyalgia has flared as expected after surgery, but that is something that I deal with on a daily basis. Blessing friends!
Archive for the ‘Constant Pain’ category
I’m BACK!!!
April 10, 2013
I haven’t been on in a while. To make a long story short. I have had a lot of fibro pain and fatigue to the point of having in bed days. Our middle son, who is 21, got both hands burned at work when a torch exploded. It was a large fireball that singed his hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, nose hairs, BUT God spared his face. The only thing burned was his hands. I have never been around anyone that had been burned and it was horrible. Even with pain pills he was in so much pain. We had to put creams on and wrap his hands multiple times each day. The entire family pitched in to help feed him, doctor his hands, give him drinks, and even give him sponge baths out of the kitchen sink. It totally broke my heart. The good thing is we have one of the best burn hospitals within 30 minutes of our home and he had a wonderful doctor. We took him for treatment weekly and he was burned so bad that he had to have a skin graft to one hand and it is doing wonderful. He is back to work, pain-free, and they say he will have a complete recovery. Praise God! I am glad to be back with my friends and look forward to hearing from you and reading your posts.
On another note – our weather has been crazy lately with numerous storms, weather fronts, etc. Yesterday it was 80 degrees and then last night it got down to 30 degrees. Talk about crazy! No wonder I have been hurting so much. Yesterday I picked some asparagus, admired my flowers coming up, saw zillions of blooms on my strawberries, and noticed the peach tree was full of blooms. Today my peach tree has ice on the limbs and it looks sad with it limbs under the stress of the rain that froze on it. Last night we put trash bags around my patio banana, lemon, lime, and orange trees. We put buckets, tubs, pails, anything we could find to cover as much as we could to try to save it from the cold air. The ground is wet and it is supposed to be 28 degrees tonight and then after that I think it will go back to our normal April weather. It is so weird to get a winter storm in April here in Oklahoma.
Blessings to you!
Where Did my Sleep Go?
January 28, 2013
I have only been sleeping 3 to 4 hours a night for the last week and not sure why. Could it be that the lumbar epidural injection from the 7th of this month is causing it, could it be that my sleeping pill has quit working, or WHAT??? Even before getting sick with Severe Fibromyalgia my body required 8+ hours of sleep. Since getting Fibro I need 9 to 12 hours of sleep each night. Normally the steroid from the epidural injections will make me more energetic a few days and I might not sleep well a night or two soon after, but nothing like this. I feel like a walking zombie. I can’t even take a nap during the day right now. Could it be that my sleeping pill (Ambien CR) has quit working, is it the steroids from the epidural injections, or WHAT?? Whatever it is I am so ready to get back to “normal” and get some precious rest. What are your thoughts?
Results of Appt with Neurosurgeon
December 20, 2012
I was very impressed with the neurosurgeon. He took me and my husband to a conference room to view my MRI on big screen and went over it layer by layer. He said that there are 2 operations that they can do to fix my issues. The least invasive would be to go in 2 small cuts at the lower back and make room for the nerve that is compressed. This operation would take care of my sciatic nerve pain, numbness, & tingling. The other surgery is a bigger surgery and they would go in a larger area to fix the nerve issue AND work to reduce my back pain as well. BUT FIRST he wanted me to do three months of water therapy concentrating on the back to firm up my core area to see if it helps at all. He didn’t think it would help much, but he said it was worth a try before doing surgery. WOW! A surgeon that has alternatives impresses me. I really thought when I met with him that he would want to do surgery soon. So my choices will eventually be to do that first surgery mentioned OR the second surgery that could potentially fix all my issues. If I am given the choice – I will go for the gold! Yes, I want to try to fix everything. Getting rid of some pain and symptoms that come along with it will be wonderful. Then I can just concentrate on my fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis treatment. I wish you many days of low pain and extra energy!!
Appt with a NeuroSurgeon
December 7, 2012
As you know I have been having back pain, sciatic nerve pain down both legs, and now I have numbness and tingling down my right leg from the knee to my toes. My doctor referred me to a NeuroSurgeon to see what we can do. My appointment is Dec 12th. Please pray for me!
Life Goes On
November 28, 2012
My husband and I went out to eat last night with friends. We need to try to do that more often. It was a blessing and really nice visiting and laughing. I am also thankful that I had a good morning with low pain. I was able to be out and about town feeling “normal” for a change. I have been having a bad time with my fibromyalgia this year and have had more back pain issues as well. I have had back pain for many years and it is causing me more troublesome symptoms. I am to the point of needing to think about surgery to see if I can get some relief. I have Degenerative Disc Disease, Bulging Disc, Bony Spurring, Spinal Stenosis, and Compression of the Sciatica Nerve. For about a year I have had increasing pain from the pinching of the sciatic nerve. The pain starts in my lower back, runs down both legs, and into my ankles and feet. To me it is an intense burning pain that sometimes feels like it is on fire. For the last few months I have also had numbness and tingling mostly in my right leg and foot. I continue to do Water Therapy that gives me some relief while I am in the water. It would be so nice if I had an indoor pool at my house that I could get in and out of all day long. Oh, and while I am dreaming it would also be nice to have a hot tub. I might turn into a mermaid! :0) I am thankful for blessings that God gives me each day. I pray for pain relief and extra energy for me and my Fibro Friends.
So what’s going on with you? Do you have fibromyalgia, back issues or sciatic nerve issues? If so, how do they affect you?
Frequent Nausea??
November 1, 2012
I am having a “fatigue monster” kind of day. It is noon and I am just able to crawl out of bed. My body started hurting so much that I had to get up for a while. I am also sick to my stomach so I am making rice to eat for lunch. My son, Tyler, brought me breakfast in bed this morning so I could take my medicine (Carnation Instant Breakfast was all I could get down) . I have nausea frequently does anyone else have this problem?
Fatigue Monster
October 5, 2012
The BIG, BAD, Fatigue Monster has me again. After having injections in my hip I got a virus that made me so sick for 4 days, then the fatigue monster took over and I can’t seem to shake it. It has been a week since I first got sick with the virus and I am still so fatigued that I can barely get up much less STAY UP all day. I have been sleeping 12 to 16 hours at a time and then taking a nap during the day as well. I told my husband that I am so ready to get back to my “normal sick”. With my chronic illness I am in constant pain and fatigue with numerous other symptoms and when I get an illness on top of that it is almost more than I can take. I am even ready to get back to my “normal sick”. I told my husband that it is weird to want to get back to ONLY being chronically ill. Does that mean that I am ok with it or have accepted being chronically ill?? NO!!! I still don’t like it one bit and I still haven’t accepted it, but it is what I am used to since I have been chronically ill with Severe Fibromyalgia for over 10 years now. All I can say is the Fatigue Monster better watch out and go away soon or I will have my friends, family, and my fibro friends kick his butt!!
Steroid Shots for Pain
September 30, 2012I had steroid shots placed in the bursa area of my hip on Thursday to see if it would help with my hip pain. I had developed pain with walking and it felt like it was bone on bone. X-rays showed that my hip was ok. The specialist put multiple steroid injections around the area of pain. I could tell by the next day that it was helping, which was wonderful!!! The drawbacks or side-effects of the shots were: I was so wide awake that I only slept a total of 3 hours for 2 nights straight, my Fibro fog increased, the site was fairly swollen, bruised and painful, and it caused my Fibro to flare this weekend. The GOOD news again is that it reduced the pain in my hip area so I no longer have the terrible pain when walking. It is sad that so many things start flares in people with Fibromyalgia (meaning that their Fibro symptoms get worse). Even treatment like steroid shots to help with hip pain start flares that make your Fibro worse. I am thankful for any help I can get to reduce pain or increase energy, even at the cost of going through a Fibro Flare. I don’t always…… but I want to try to look at the positives in my life. May you be pain-free and have extra energy!
My Faithful Friend – Emily
September 24, 2012
This is our Cocker Spaniel, Emily. She is 13 years old and we have had her for 8 years. Emily is a rescue dog. We had a dog, Watson, at the time and thought he needed someone to play with besides our family. I found a Cocker Spaniel on line at a place called Pets and People that rescued dogs for placement in good homes. The Cocker Spaniel was a male named Suds, so I went after work the next day to get him. He was out for grooming that day so I was starting to leave and return the next day when the lady said “We just received another Cocker Spaniel yesterday… would you like to take a look at her?”. I said sure since I didn’t care of the sex of the dog, but I really wanted another Cocker Spaniel. We had a Cocker Spaniel years before and she was an angel. The lady brough the dog out and she was the UGLIEST dog I had ever seen. They had just picked her up off the streets of a neighboring town and she was so malnourished that most of her hair had fallen out. What hair she had left was long, stringy strands of bright red hair. She was so skinny you could see her complete bone structure of her back, ribs, etc. I was surprised the dog was standing. They had to of seen the surprise on my face, but asked “Would you like to take her for a walk?” I agreed and when I took hold of the leash the ugly, malnourished Cocker Spaniel held her head high and walked like she was royalty. We walked down the pathway and I stopped and petted her for a few minutes and noticed she had the prettiest, brown eyes I had ever seen. We instantly fell in love with each other and she became my best friend. When we went back in I said “I want her!” On the way home I put her in the front passengers seat on a nice, soft towel. About 5 minutes into a 40 minute drive home she moved over right up against me and laid her head on my shoulder. When we got home I gave her a bath and she was right at home. My husband and our boys looked at her with the same shock that I did when I first saw her, but they fell in love with her as well. We fattened her up in no time, her hair grew back more of a blondish red and she has been princess in our house ever since. She takes every step that I take and when I am sick she stays in my bedroom the entire time. I was in bed for 2 years at one time and Emily stayed with me only going out when my husband or boys took her outside to go to the bathroom. She is my FAITHFUL FRIEND.
