Lesson's I (We) are learning - Day #37

It's now been 37 days since Liz first ruptured the disk in her back.

37 days since she has slept through the night.
37 days since she has walked to the bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, laundry room, etc. without bending over and nearly collapsing.
37 days since she was pain free.
37 days since things were last 'normal'.

Since this whole journey started we have seen 6 seperate doctors in two different cities 95 miles apart. We have seen:

The OB.
Family physician
Back Specialist
Pain Management Specialist
Osteopathic spinal manipulator
Physical Therapist
Spinal Neurosurgeon (Jack Shepherd)

Wait that's 7 doctors...

Liz has been poked, prodded, stretched and yanked in so many different ways, it seems almost comical when we go to a new doctor, because I just want to say, 'uh, excuse me, but this hasn't worked the last five times, let's try something new'.

The final diagnosis is that she has severly ruptured her L4/L5 disc in her back, causing her Sciatica Nerve to pinch which in turn atrophe's the muscles surrounding it causing spasm's of intense pain and general numbness down her right leg. Vicadin doesn't help cut the pain anymore. Tylenol is a joke, and we can't take anti-inflammatory's because of the risk to our baby in her belly. We can't do surgery either, because she is pregnant and spontaneous abortions are a serious risk for this type of surgery.

The Neurosurgeon's (Jack Shepherd) exact words to her on Monday morning were 'you are between a rock and a hard place. It's not going to be easy'. How is that for comfort? That's like saying, uh, your life is going to suck for awhile.

Our plan currently is to have a C-Section birth for baby numero dos, and 4 weeks later, Liz will go back under the knife for a Spinal Disk Fusion, where they will build a mechanical cage around her L4/L5 disc's so they can't rupture again. That is a 2-3 month recovery time. If you do the math out, it's looking like couch/bed rest for the duration of 2010. At least the fun parts of 2010.

Even in this situation, despite all the tears Liz and I have shed together, she has such a great attitude. She is still able to laugh, able to joke with me. I can't honestly say that if it was me, my attitude would be that good. Hell, my attitude sucks sometimes, and I can stand up whenever i want. Liz said to me the other day: "sometimes I hear someone complain, and i get so frustrated because they don't even understand, I would kill to have that problem. When this all goes away, and things go back to normal, I am going to remember how thankful I am for the little things"

Is that what you want to teach us God? Thankfulness? Submission to you? Reliance on you? Trust? Faith?

Can we stop learning lesson's the hard way please? It's our prayer that thru this extremely trying portion of life, we would be able to glorify God, and somehow use this experience to minister to someone down the line. We have no idea where God is taking this one, and we still can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes I wonder if the tunnel is caving in, pray for us to Trust God.