Pain Doctor

Tomorrow, Mom & Dad are going to Mom's pain doctor appointment. Please pray that everything will go well and that the doctor will try a new treatment or refer her to someone who can help.

Research

Mom woke up at 4am this morning and started researching causes for her pain. She came across a doctor who wrote about occipital neuralgia, and Mom said that all of the signs and symptoms are just like hers. The pain is due to whiplash or a fall. We have not thought much about it, but Mom had a huge fall on the BACK of her head with the puppies. All of her pain in on the right side of her head and neck.

She is going to see her doctor on Thursday and talk to her about this idea. This has given Mom hope because she feels sometimes that what she is experiencing the doctors do not see as real pain. Please pray that her doctor will have wisdom and know how to treat her.

Pain will not Leave

I am sorry for not keeping everyone up to date with what is going on with mom and her recovery. I have asked so many times for prayer, and I need to ask you again to continue to pray.

For Thanksgiving, Mom, Dad, and Elisabeth drove up to Virginia so that we could all have Thanksgiving together at Josh's. At that point, Mom was doing great. Her pain was down to a level one and her energy was high. She felt great.

I do not know if I have mentioned this before but when Mom went to her pain doctor, she said that she believes that Mom was positioned incorrectly for her surgery. The result of this is a possible pinched nerve in her neck that might be casing all of this pain. Mom has had two nerve blocks on either sides of her neck to try and reduce the pain. The procedure is extremely painful because the doctor sticks multiple injections of steroids into different points in Mom's neck.

After Thanksgiving, Mom was exhausted from the travel and being with so many people. Then just before Christmas, my parents went to a Christmas concert that had strobe lights and very loud music. Mom was overwhelmed, and Dad had to almost carry her out because it was too much for her. My parents both think that that incident set her back to before Thanksgiving. Her pain has escalated.

During the mornings, Mom does fairly well expect many mornings she wakes up from sleep due to the terrible pain as well as being dizzy. Throughout the day, she tries to cope and most afternoons she needs to rest. Then at night, the pain overtakes her body.

My parents are going back to Mom's pain doctor this coming week. Please pray that she will have another option of how to treat the pain. If not, please pray that Mom and Dad will seek other medical advice and go to a bigger city for more options.

Please pray for complete healing for Mom. She can not continue to live like this. Also, please pray for Dad and Elisabeth because this has been hard on everyone.

"My pain is a level one"

Mom called me this morning and said that her pain is at a level one! For those of you that do not know, in the medical field we always ask our patients what their pain rating is, ten being the worst pain they have ever experienced. Mom was thrilled with how she feels today. She woke up this morning and has not felt this well since April. Thank you, thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray that she will continue to feel well and improve. We really appreciate your support.

More Pain

Mom went to her pain physician today for treatment. Recently, the doctor has started her on shots of low-dose steroids into her neck to try and help the inflammation of the nerves and muscles. It usually helps with her pain, but the procedure is painful, as you can imagine of having needles injected into her neck. This time, however, she was given versed, which is used for conscious sedation. it helps during the procedure, but mom was in severe pain from the procedure and extremely nauseous when she got home.

Please pray for her pain and that there would be complete healing in her body. I think that mom is hitting the point of when the doctors consider her pain to be chronic, which is when pain becomes harder to treat. Please pray that her body would be completely restored and that she would be pain-free. She never complains about how much she suffers and continues to bless others throughout this situation. Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

Three MRIs and Spinal Tap

Last Tuesday, Mom went for three MRIs of her brain and spinal cord. Then on Thursday she had a spinal tap. She also went to the ophthalmologist to see if there was any pressure build up behind her eyes. He did not find any.

After the spinal tap, her migraine increased in pain, she was nauseous and had pain down her spine. The pain did not subside so on Friday I talked with her, and she had Dad call the hospital. Mom and Dad went in and after waiting for hours, they took her back and did a blood patch on her spine. They took blood from her arm and infused it into her back. She had an epidural afterwhich she had to lay flat for thirty minutes.

Friday night and Saturday, Mom felt better and her nauseous subsided. Sunday morning however, she woke up and the pain was as bad as it had been on Friday before the blood patch.

Today, Mom and Dad are returning to meet with the surgeon who will hopefully have some type of result from all of the tests that have been done. Please pray that he will find something that will take away the migraine and spinal pain.

Continue to Pray Please

Mom continues to have a constant migraine. Mom and Dad have gone to see an neurologist who was extremely unhelpful. They are looking into other options for doctors to find a solution to her migraine. Please pray that she will be completely healed from all of the pain.