I hope this is a day of rest and recharging for you. We all need to refuel and refill our cups so we can give from the overflow. Let’s do it together on this beautiful Sunday. I’m putting dinner in the crockpot, heading to church and then watching football with hubby (well, mostly he’ll be watching football and I’ll be sitting with him working on one of my projects).
A BIG THANK YOU
I want to thank all the people who have been praying for my husband’s health and the improvement of his chronic pain. I especially want to thank those who have lifted me in prayer as well—as his caregiver there are lots of challenges, and watching my HeartMate deal with significant pain from crushed nerves each and every day is crushing my soul.
The only thing I can do is walk with Faith that this, too, shall pass. I do have Faith that there is a solution to alleviate his pain and I do trust that we will find it. I am ecstatic to say, the search may now be over…
Prayers Answered
Apparently, Jim had to jump through a lot of hoops before this solution would be available to him—in order for his insurances to cover the substantial cost (and perhaps to learn a few lessons along the way).
Everything he’s done over the past seven years has been leading to this. Four failed back surgeries. Second and third opinions about spinal fusion—discovering it is not a good option for him. Pain management treatments, including steroidal injections at multiple levels of his lower back and SI joints over the last four years, nerve ablations, pain patches, opioids—all of which provided minimal relief and have run their course and no longer offer much relief at all. And then, there is the depression that comes with all this disappointment and chronic pain.
It’s over! I have Faith that it is over! He is now a candidate for a Spinal Cord Stimulator Implant. As soon as we learned last week that he is a good candidate, from the pain management docs and the manufacturer of the device, things started to fall into place.
The very cool thing about this device is that Jim can do a trial run for a week before he has it all surgically implanted. Awesome! We scheduled the trial for November 19th. Not as soon as we had hoped, yet it was scheduled.
Yesterday, Jim went back to pain management to have an interim injection to see if they could make him more comfortable until the implant can happen. We planted a seed while we were there by asking if there was any chance they could move the trial sooner. They said no.
Later in the afternoon, I got a call …
The new date for the trial is next Thursday, October 25th! I’ve been praying like crazy, if this is meant to work for him, please let it happen already. Not one of my most eloquent prayers, for sure, but I know it was effective!
I’ve felt this feeling before. When things are meant to be, things start to happen. Once he completes the successful trial, he’ll need to consult with a neurosurgeon for the actual implant surgery. For this, he’ll likely need medical and cardiac clearances. He happened to have his annual physical this last Tuesday and, in anticipation of the trial working, we got his medical clearance. He had a cardiologist follow-up appointment on November 13th and they just called us to say the doc won’t be there on that day and would we be able to move it to October 30th? Heck YES! Cardiac clearance on the way!
Walking With Faith
This has been a roller coaster journey and each time we’ve ridden to the top—with great hope that this time we found the answer—we rolled back downhill to discover that it was for a while, and didn’t last long. This time it feels so very different.
I am walking with faith there is a reason for that. This solution has been known to give others considerable and long-term relief from chronic nerve pain—it WILL do the same for my Jim. Please continue to pray for him (and for me) … it’s not over yet … and we are ready to plan our next trip as soon as he’s walking again without pain! Spain, here we come!
Step Onto Your Bridge
When life-changing moments flip your world upside down, I create a bridge so you can turn chaos into calm. You build resilience and learn to live a life guided by your own values and vision. Are you ready to take the first step onto your bridge? Do you want to explore how change can impact you? Would you like to learn how to move through it with more dignity and grace? I’m here to help. Get my free ebook From Darkness to Light: Learning to Adapt to Change and Move Through Transition.