Back At The Shop & Scan Results

Praise the Lord I felt good enough to spend six hours at MMS today! What a blessing to be back at the shop after two and a half weeks away.

And it was a busy day in my office as the team returned from Oshkosh with 18 requests for program information and 17 requests for information related to volunteering with us. Karen jumped right on organizing the program info packs for mailing. We'll organize the volunteer response packets tomorrow.

Karen organizes info packs for 20 prospective candidates.
(18 from contacts made at Oshkosh).

Scan Results
The results of Monday's scan were inconclusive.

We'll continue to address the pain through chiropractic care and massage therapy to see if we can eliminate the need for medication. If not, we'll follow-up with an orthopedic doctor.

Thanks for your prayers! We'll get good rest this evening and see what tomorrow brings!

Released to Limited Service

While we have yet to receive a diagnosis for my hip and knee pain, the chiropractor has released me to return to MMS on an "as able" basis starting tomorrow. Praise the Lord!

Though still taking the maximum pain relievers to make it through the day and night, my mobility has increased and the pain appears to have stabilized to the point I can return to the mission for light duty. The last two chiropractor appointments have been very beneficial.

Lord willing, I'll work my way back into a full-time routine over the next week or so. We'll see how my body responds.

I just talked with our doctor's office and they confirmed my scan results had just arrived from the hospital. Doc Miller will review the report after her rounds this evening and give me a call tomorrow with the results and her recommendations.

Thanks for your continued prayers.

Stay tuned...

Working from Home

Today is a good day in relation to lowered pain and increased mobility. Though I'm still not able to return to the mission, I was able to sit at my desk downstairs for a couple hours and work on some ministry projects. It felt good to sit. It feels good to walk instead of hobble.

Lord willing, we'll move toward a diagnosis once the results of the scan are in tomorrow.

No problem with the scan. Man, it feels so weird when they IV that dye into your blood. It was like an intense "warmth" that spread in seconds throughout my body starting from my mouth all the way to my toes. I could feel it "bounce" off the inside of my skin and reflect back like ripples of water on the surface of a calm pond. Our circulation system is rather amazing in design and function. It's so totally God.

The bright hospital lighting; the humming and whirring and clicking of the donut-shaped scanner as its internal mechanism spins up to speed; the robotic "breathe, hold your breath, breathe" instructions from the machine's sound system; coupled with the smooth, silent back and forth motion of the scan table through the donut's hole...you've been there right? If not, it's always something to look forward to.

The barium "smoothies" I had to drink prior to the scan weren't all that bad. Raspberry flavor.
Yum.

With that behind me (yesterday) and the results before me (tomorrow), after a morning downstairs, I'm now back in my temporary"office" upstairs. It's not fancy, but it does allow me to keep my hand in the game.

Here I am in my "home office."

Karen designed and fabricated the handy-dandy laptop sling that allows me to work from the horizontal position. She is an amazing woman.

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers as we take this one day at a time!

CT Scan Today at 1:00

Well, it's been something of a physical roller coaster the past two weeks. Since having to leave MMS because of pain in my right hip and knee back on July 17th, there've been a couple good days (Friday and Saturday morning were nearly pain free) and a bunch of not-so good days. Right now I'm flat on my back again doing the wobble-hobble when required to move from Point A to Point B. For some reason the pain pills seem less effective than they were last week.

The bright spot is I'm scheduled for my second CT scan this afternoon. Lord willing, there'll be something the doctors can see in the scan so that we can come up with a plan.

Karen continues to be the perfect nurse. Tanner is concerned and lays at my feet when I'm downstairs (the dogs aren't allowed upstairs). He's very quiet and just stares at me and wants to be close. Tucker? She's wherever there's a chance of food.

Thanks for praying. Lord willing, we'll know more soon.