...I'm still here
...still worshiping our Savior
...still seeking the Holy Spirit's counsel
...and still exalting the name of the LORD God Almighty for His faithfulness!
I know I haven't updated everyone in a long time, but I really didn't feel that it was right to do so without first answering a very important question from one of my readers. And since I've been so ill, my mind has not been what it once used to be and I have so much "brain-fog" and trouble making sense of most things, I had been unable to respond to her, and was only able to post my response just last week.
So, here's a quick update for those of you who have asked....and just so you know, I truly covet all your prayers, your encouraging comments and emails. You are all such beautiful blessings from God to me.
The latest is that my blood is still having trouble keeping B12 in my system and no one knows why. So I still take shots (my darling husband gives them to me because I had to have them so often). My Gastroenterologist recently referred me to my 4th. Hematologist at UT Southwestern. UT Southwestern is like the Mayo Clinic of Texas and everyone there has been very good to me. I have to be honest, I've really been more impressed and received better care at UT Southwestern, than from the medical staff at the Mayo Clinic.
I get my blood checked again this Wednesday to see if I'm finally holding B12, and if my MMA (methylmalonic acid) and B12 levels are still in the normal range. If they are, then I can wait a whole FOUR weeks before I have to get my blood checked again....AND before I have to get another shot! Isn't God SO good?! I am pretty sure this is the news I will get, so I am pretty excited about my blood test on Wednesday...and this is not something I often say. If all goes well, I'll finally be cleared to have B12 shots only once a month for life. Isn't that such GREAT news?!
Both my Hematologist and Gastroenterlogist said that I needed to have a procedure done that was mentioned when I was hospitalized in June, then again at release and also at the Mayo Clinic. So, it was scheduled for last Tuesday and we should get the results back sometime this week. The procedure is called a Capsule Endoscopy. It's basically a horse pill with a camera in it. I swallow the pill and wear a computer thingy around me all day while the camera works it's way through my digestive tract, taking pictures and loading it onto the computer I'm wearing. So, that was interesting...to say the least.
While all this has been going on, I had to go see my Neurologist again and get another MRI due to constantly progressing, severe back pain, as well as pain going all the way down my left leg to my foot and also down my right leg, just to my knee. I've never really quite gotten much relief since finding out nearly two years ago (March 2008) that I had two slipped discs and one that was herniated. I went to PT (physical therapy) for 6 weeks last year, was put on steroids for the inflammation, but still had severe pain all the time, even though I continued my PT exercises.
I got an MRI just a few weeks ago and found that I now have degenerative disc disease (which really isn't a disease at all, just a condition where several of my discs are dehydrated). We also found out that I now have two herniate discs, instead of one and one of them (the same one they found last year that never healed, but got worse) has a VERY small BENIGN tumor on it. It's smaller than 2 mm. I'm not even sure how they saw that tiny little thing. The GREAT news is that it's not the kind that will ever get cancerous, so there's nothing to worry about except if it gets bigger and gets in the way of something, but if that's as bad as it gets...I think is not really a big deal.
So now I go to PT and Spinal Decompression Therapy Monday through Thursday for a couple of hours. Hopefully, I'll only need to do this for a total of 20 sessions. And who knows, God may choose to heal me sooner!
Through all this, the LORD our God continues to show me how incredibly merciful, kind and abundantly gracious and compassionate He is! He is truly faithful, even when we are faithless; for He can not deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13).
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD! And for everything God takes away, He also provides blessings elsewhere, sometimes tangible and sometimes intangible; if we don't see it, it isn't because God hasn't provided, it's because we're missing it by focusing too much on self and too little on His magnificence.
Our Father God has been so gracious to teach me the way of His precepts and counsel me with His testimonies, that this extended time of physical "illness/weakness" has been such a blessed time of spiritual healing/strengthening. God alone can do such GREAT and AWESOME things! Hallelujah to our blessed Savior, Christ Jesus our Lord! May each of God's childrens' lives bring Him the utmost glory, honor and praise! May the name of Jesus be exalted forever and ever! Hallelujah!
"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead."
~ Philippians 3:8-11
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