Requesting prayers

A good friend of mine from grade school moved to South Jersey with her husband and daughter two years ago. Last Friday the 15th she gave birth to her second daughter. All went well, but within a week my friend was in the ICU with a staph infection that reached her heart causing endocarditis (inflimation of the aortic valve in her heart).

She is out of critical condition now, but still very sick, tired and in pain. Thanfully, several members of her husband's family live in the area, so they are available for support and to take care of the children.

My husband and I visited her yesterday. It makes me so sad to see her this way. It's simply not fair. She was unable to see her newborn for 5 days and was only able to see her children briefly this weekend! I can't even imagine how heartbreaking (pun not intended) that must be.

She will recover, but it will be a long process.

I know that most of you don't know her, but if you could say a little prayer for her and her family that would be appreciated.

The season is changing

The school buses are running, the sun sets before supper; today I noticed leaves strewn on our lawn...

We are working to reseed part of our lawn and plant bulbs before it gets too late; neighbors, too, finish gardening business to prepare for the first frost; soon will come the time to clean-up the lawn mower so it can rest for the long months of winter...

In the summer we keep only a sheet on our bed, but last night we pulled out the blanket; it's getting more difficult to get up at 7am to take our morning walk because the air outside of bed is so cool; sometimes the sun still hasn't quite burned through a thin veil of fog as we step out to walk, but soon it will rise to warm the air, as long as clouds don't over take it...

Dew still drapes over my car when I head to work; I shiver from the blast of air conditioning and quickly switch to heat, which is utterly unnecessary on the way home...

it's not quite time to turn on the heat, but the air conditioning hasn't been on much lately either; our cats are already acquiring thicker coats; it's not quite time for us to "change out the clothes", but give it a few more weeks...

Although I do not relish shorter days, I do look forward to the trees dawning their fall colors, a change of wardrobe myself, pumpkin bisque and cozy blankets...

The season is changing.

Doctor Fears

It's absolutely unbelievable how much anxiety I have deciding whether or not I should go to the doctor.

Take these muscle spasms for instance. I knew that I was in a lot of pain for two days and typing was excruciating, but I couldn't decide if I needed to go to the doctor, chiropractor or just let it rest. I called the doctor's office, and he believed it was worth getting looked at. When he saw me, he listened to my story, inspected the area and determined the problem and two possible courses of action. We decided that I would make another appointment to get trigger point therapy (medicine injected directly into the knotted areas of the muscles followed immediately by pressure to inhibit bleeding and start the relaxation process) to relax and heal the muscles. He also gave me a topical solution to help the pain in the meantime.

I rested that day, but made it to work on Wednesday and Thursday. I felt good enough Thursday afternoon that I started doubting whether my doctor would still see the need for the therapy. By Thursday night I was back in pain, but I didn't really feel as though the knots were there as such. I was really confused! Is this all just more manifestations of fibromyalgia, or is this still a "real" problem? To top it off, I was afraid of the needle, because he said that if it *hurt* we had hit the right spot!

As I lay in bed trying to get to sleep last night I thought about several of the times that I had needlessly gone to the emergency room (some probably fibromyalgia symptoms and one rather unfortunate ambulance ride because someone misinterpreted a panic attack resulting from a muscle spasm as a spinal injury!), the doctors who did and the doctors who didn't believe that I have high blood pressure, the times nothing was wrong, and the times the doctor looked at me and said, "What took you so long?" It's enough to make me doubt the reliability of my assessment of the situation.

Of course, it is harder to remember the times I *did* make the right decision!

I slept poorly and was still rather worried when I got to the appointment this morning. My doctor *did* definitely still see reason for the therapy, told me exactly what was going to happen and that it would hurt, but in a good way. He exuded calmness and compassion. The injections went well, and we could definitely feel the muscles start to relax. It will take 24 to 72 hours to feel the full effect, but I made the correct decision.

I confided my fear to my doctor, who wisely reminded me to listen to the small voices inside me-- the ones like the Holy Spirit. You may have to dig through the voices of fear and judgment, but you can trust the small voices.

Have I mentioned that I have a fabulous doctor!

If it's not one thing, it's another!

So things in my life were improving. Pain was better, mood was stable, sleep was sooo much better, exercise more consistent... But, as one of my favorite songs says, "It looks like smooth sailing, so I better hold on tight."

In short, over the past week I developed this painful stiffness in my neck and shoulders. It was aggravated by having to hold music for most of the choir rehearsal on Wednesday. And then thoroughly aggravated by having to hold music for rehearsal followed by two services on Sunday morning. I was in so much pain during the NT reading and sermon that I was missing every three or four words. I ducked out to slather my neck and shoulder with IcyHot. It dulled the pain a little bit. Yesterday I lasted at work for 2 hours before I declared that it was simply too painful to type, much less sit up in the chair. I went home to watch four movies and try to loosen my poor muscles with my trusty heating pad.

I called my doctor for advice, and he had me come in this morning. Anything dealing with pain is so complicated when you throw fibromyalgia into the mix. Thankfully, it's nothing serious, but no less painful. Muscle spasms-- when the muscle works non-stop instead of relaxing every once in a while. He gave me this topical stuff to help the pain, and then I'll go back for shots to loosen and heal the muscles. Fun!

It feels a little better today, and I plan to go to work tomorrow, but I hurt. :(

First photos

Today I had a lesson in putting on make-up, and doing a few more creative things with my hair! It's going to take a long time for me to get accustomed to make-up, especially putting on eye make-up! But we had a good time.

Here are a few picutres.







Finally, here are before and after pictures. The before picture is the one that inspired my mom to help me improve my self image!

John's incredibly insightful observation

John and I went to Red Lobster tonight to celebrate his getting hired as a flute teacher by a local boarding school. John has been going to Red Lobster since he was a kid. If I remember correctly, he and his grandmother had monthly dates there. He even remembers when they started serving their cheezy biscuits.

Tonight after over 15 years of eating Red Lobster biscuits served in their specially shaped basket John made an "incredibly insightful observation."

"Hey, look," he said pointing at the basket. "There's a fish!"

I couldn't help bursting out laughing.

I noticed that the basket was shaped like a fish the first time he took me to Red Lobster!

I've always said that he has selective vision. :)