September 15 – “And now we wait – again”

Ah, Monday.  I spent the whole morning and half the afternoon doing church work on the computer.  Well, that’s what my body appeared to be doing.  My mind was constantly wandering to thoughts of a, as-yet-unseen MRI report on my back.  I checked at regular intervals with no success.

 

Finally at around 2:15 I got a call from the UTMB scheduling department.  The very nice voice on the other end informed me that my doctor really wanted me to be seen by the neurosurgery department as soon as possible.  An appointment had miraculously opened up for Wednesday at 2:15.  Did I want to take it?  Well, let’s see … yes.  I agreed and got the details.

 

Not long after that I received a message from my regular doctor.  She said she had seen the MRI, and “It does not look good.”  She used her patented phrase, “I am worried” again, and included a few warnings about potential scenarios to make the point stand out.  Well, OK then.

 

It took a while, but the MRI report finally showed up on my online MyChart screen.  Come to find out it was a test of just the lumbar area and stopped just short of the T12 vertebra.  Oh, it found some “issues” down that far in my lower back, all right.  But my biggest (well, my most recent) issue is at the juncture of the L1 and T12.  That appears to be the area responsible my current symptoms.  The only recommendation I saw that I understood was to have another MRI that would include that specific area. 

 

And now we wait – again – this time for the neurosurgeon’s opinion tomorrow.  And Chris has already declared a moratorium on “heavy lifting.”  Translated, that means, “No doing anything.”  WooHoo (That was sarcastic).

 

A bright spot in our day came, however, when Nathan called to see if Cailyn could come hang out when he left for work.  April would pick her up at her regular time to get off.  Well, of course to that one.  We went to Whataburger, hung out in the back yard for a while, and even played some card games.  It was nice.  Thanks for the brief respite from all things medical.

 

Oh, and my nighttime saga continues.  I woke at 11 the first time.  Not a good sign.  It wasn’t so late yet, so I did another crossword and turned the light back off.  I dozed until 1:30 when the “fully awake syndrome” hit again.  I eased out of bed so as not to awaken Chris and settled in again on the couch.  I finished a chapter of the novel I’ve been trying to read.  I wrote this stuff.  I did a few more crosswords.  I did finally get back to sleep.  And stayed that way until around 4:30 or so.  I am sure glad to finally be in the “weaning phase” of the prednisone. 

 

Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

 

Father, I’m getting a good dose of the “patience training” here.  Now we could use some of what’s on the other side of that coin as well – “peace training.”  Amen.