What it's like to be a pincushion...

I wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who’s posted encouraging comments on Facebook and who’ve been praying this past week. It’s been a challenging one for sure. I thought I'd give a bit of an update on what went down on Friday.

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’ve struggled a lot with headaches over the past few years. We’ve been to a broad range of doctors and specialists and neurologists and haven't had much success. I usually end up in emergency once a week or so for a shot of morphine...which isn't very healthy I would suppose.

Finally, we were referred to a pain-management specialist and she recommended a series of anti-inflammatory and cortisone injections. I spent the week in the hospital so they could manage the headaches going into the treatment on Friday.

I’m not sure what I expected, but it was a bigger deal than I thought it was going to be I think. We got there at 9 AM and finished up at around 4:30 PM.

They had me in an operating suite with around five or six people attending. They didn’t knock me right out, but had me pretty drugged up. Having said that, there were more than a few of the injections that were pretty painful. They did around fifty of them from my upper neck to my waist and from one shoulder to the other.

When we finished, I did get a good laugh from the medical people when I told the doctor that she needed to make sure to tell my wife I deserved a milkshake when we finished, for being a good patient. My great wife did take me for a milkshake afterwards.

I also strangely remember apologizing for my white gringo butt. I was dressed just in a medical robe and nothing else and I ended up laying on the table for awhile while they got things ready. I’ve been down that road before so it wasn’t too weird, but I seriously don’t know where that comment came from. It made sense in the moment. Fortunately, I think my Spanish was clearer in my head that what came out of my drug-clouded mouth. Sooo...that’s good I suppose. I do have a very white gringo butt…however I’ve never felt the need to apologized for it before. Stay away from the drugs kids.

Afterwards, it took me awhile in recovery, because I inherited my mom’s low blood pressure. Which I guess is better than my dad’s high pressure. The only time it becomes an issue are moments like this. Every time I get knocked out for a surgery or whatever, it takes forever to get me back to normal.

My resting heartrate is often around 55 bpm (I think I told the story once about a doctor asking me if I was an athlete after seeing that, and me glancing at my belly and not missing a beat in replying, “Yes…yes I am…”). One doctor once told me after checking my blood pressure, “According to this, you should be dead.”

So, it took an extra couple of hours probably to get me back up to normal. At one point I thought I felt fine and went to use the bathroom and I’ve never had the room spin quite like it did in that moment. It literally spun off to the left and just about sent me head over teakettle…

Currently, I’m feeling pretty rough still…but it’s good to be home. My wife made me a big batch of chicken wings for supper tonight, which was very nice. She's taking good care of me. I’m trying to keep off my pain meds for six hours or so at a time, but four seems to be the limit. My back is swollen and very sore. And since this is just the first step in fixing the headaches, I’m still struggling with those too.

But I’m hopeful that this is the first step to dealing with this journey we’ve been on. God has been faithful to us, but I would be lying to say that this hasn’t been a struggle. But I feel like I've learned a lot about patience and faith through all of this.

Thanks again for all your support and prayers! Isabel and I both really appreciate that! It’s good to be a part of a community that cares so much about us!