Collar Therapy

It's been about three weeks since my last post and in those three weeks I've been doing a lot of resting, healing, visiting doc's and having lots of physical therapy. It seems like all I do is things for myself; very weird but necessary at this point.

I had mentioned seeing my surgeon and how wonderful the ex-rays looked in my last post; what a praise to be able to have this type of surgery----truly amazing work that only a few years ago was unheard of. Wow! I have had an overwhelming sense of gratitude lately; how blessed I am to have the luxury of such wonderful medical care when so many have nothing. It just makes me more determined to take good care of myself to show my thankfulness.

A couple more praises to offer; at the last post I was having a great deal of nerve pain in my right arm and hand, so much so I finally had to succumb to taking Neurontin, a serious nerve inhibiting drug. I had not wanted to be on any other drugs, but ended up taking it for about three weeks. It immediately stopped the intense pain but after three weeks the rest of my body just couldn't tolerate it any longer. Now that I've been off of it for six days, I feel much better and the nerve pain has gone down to a point that I can tolerate---big praise no drugs in my system.

Another praise is the fitting for an Electric Bone Cell Stimulating collar yesterday. Yep, this is cutting edge stuff that's being used on high risk patients to help stimulate bone cell transplant growth. I have to wear it for four hours each day for six months and I have to say I do look rather "Star Trekish" when I wear it :) It's not terribly uncomfortable and not painful at the time of use; I found the surgical site to be sore and inflamed today, but I'm just sure that's because all of those lovely transplant cells were just so stimulated they were dancing around and are a bit sore today. Can't you just envision the cells being zapped into growth compliance? Too funny!

I am learning to be a very quiet person---unbelievable I know, but true and so necessary for this type of healing. I'm enjoying new activities, lots of reading, Bible studies, music, and just being still. I'm really learning to listen to God more and more and I have to admit it's been pretty nice just spending lots of time with Him and learning that this new season in my life has great merit and I need to embrace it fully to receive the full measure of understanding. It's not easy every day, but it's becoming more and more of a place I'm delighting in instead of struggling in. Hmmmm, do ya think there might be a lesson in here somewhere??? :)

Next Tuesday will be the two month mark since surgery and I'll be having another ex-ray to see if there's any new growth. I'm excited to see the ex-ray, but also trying not to expect too much; I'm at that stage where I'm feeling pretty good and ready to be normal---the dangerous place when re-injury occurs-----I just need to remember that I don't heal normally in this area so I need to be patient and know that this could take up to a year to be stable enough to begin living a normal life-style. I will be happy with what we see and move forward accordingly---after all, it's not my timing, it's God's and I'm finding that His plans seem to be much better than mine in the long run :)


Our inner happiness depends not on what we experience but on the degree of our gratitude to God, whatever the experience. Albert Schweitzer