A Few More Days

Just a few more days and hopefully we will get some answers.

I found out that my appointment to see this specialist at Stanford is April 11 at 11:30 AM. The good news is because it's on Monday Jim will be able to go with me. His parents still agreed to drive us so we will leave on Sunday, have dinner with his brother who lives south of San Francisco and then spend the night so we are there early enough for Monday. As soon as we are done with the appointment we will immediately get back in the car and drive home so Jim only misses one day of work. It seems strange too that Katie & Matt are old enough that they can handle everything at home.

Today will be spent putting together all the paperwork to send up to the university so the doctor can review specific details of my case. As I've done some more research, I learned there are many other people who deal with lymphedema, and I am seeing one of the best doctors possible. It ended up that my therapist was able to speak to her instructor who knew this doctor personally. She sent an e-mail to him and he agreed to see me. Without this connection he wasn't seeing patients until the beginning of July. I thank God for his providence in this situation.

Right now it's 3 AM in the morning. I am no longer awake due to the steroids, but I'm awake due to the pain. The pain just seems to get worse and worse. They believe that the frozen shoulder is increasing my pain. Please pray for this pain. Please pray that my shoulder will loosen up. The pain patches have never seemed to kick in. I'm miserable. It's exhausting trying to get comfortable and often the medication it's just making me sick.

It's only been a week since I've been off work. I know it was the perfect time because I have no idea how I would have been able to work with all of my appointments and then handling the pain. I'm also being seen by a new Dr. that is specializing in helping heal the wound under my arm. The cut is so wide and deep that it's difficult to treat because of my frozen shoulder. I'm still not able to get my left hand to my head. The cut has begun to release fluid constantly, which just adds one more thing I need to deal with. It's so frustrating. My therapist does believe that even though there hasn’t been an improvement, I haven't gone completely backwards. Sitting here in so much pain is hard to believe that.

Every extra minute and every bit of my energy I’ve had has been focusing on planning Matthew's 18th birthday. I never knew something so easy could be so difficult. I just take it one day at a time and do whatever I can do. Come rain or shine, or should I say pain or no pain I will make sure Matthew has his time of celebration. I feel like the kids have given up a lot in the last couple of years. Giving Katelynn her 13th birthday party last June was a labor of love and I was feeling so much better than I am now. I want Matthew's party to be just as special, with many fun memories. We need our laughter to return to this house.

I thought if I blogged it would help keep my mind off the pain…no luck.

Please continue to keep me in your prayers. I fear my body can’t take too much of this. It’s sure enough not much fun.

Like I said, just a few more days and hopefully we will have some answers.