Sunday, January 22, 2017

Week 46 Report

It’s Thursday already and I haven’t even thought of this blog. So far, the week has been rough. It’s a good thing work at the office hasn’t been crazy. My sciatic pain is getting worse. I started physical therapy on Monday and went again on Wednesday. I feel improved when I leave the session, but in between the pain gradually returns until sometimes it is unbearable. Sleep is hard. I know it’s early with physical therapy treatments, so I plan to carry on and be faithful with my home exercises…and my drugs – Prednisone, Tylenol, Naproxen, and Flexeril. I could open a pharmacy! I think one of the keys is to stay as pain free as possible. I tense up so much with pain and I’m sure that doesn’t help.

Devon’s jaw pain seems to be improving a little since he started back on his medication. He still needs Tylenol each day, but the pain is less. He has an appointment tomorrow with Dr. Wang. We’ll see if she has any ideas about what is causing the pain. I hope so.

It has been a real blessing that work has been quiet this week. If it was transfer week things would be impossible. A couple of our missionaries were in a car accident today – their fault. They were driving one of the new cars we got a couple of months ago. All four air bags deployed, so it will probably be totaled. The driver will be “black dotted” – lose his driving privileges. The good thing is that no one was hurt. Of course, they feel awful – we all feel awful. They are great missionaries. I told Elder Reeder, the car czar, they should have been driving our trashy little Cruz!

Devon’s doctor visit went well. She suggests trying a different medication to calm down the nerve and to try to get an appointment with an ENT here. So we’ll follow that plan. We had a lovely day at the office. I put the finishing touches on my instruction book for my replacement. I’m sure there are things I left out and every time I look through it I shuffle things around. My goal is two fold: have all the instructions written down, and be able to easily find what you’re looking for.

Friday evening we took the #2 bus to Waikiki with Elder and Sister Shurtz to have dinner at Duke’s. The bus was as packed as I’ve ever seen it. We stood the whole way down, which is fine with me. Sitting is so hard! The restaurant was packed, but we arrived early enough that we only had about a 5-minute wait to be seated. Then we had a lovely dinner and visit, and rode the bus back home. We found out that they like to play games. So do we! I hope we can find some time to do that with them. Elder and Sister Reeder didn’t join us for dinner. They have family in town.

Saturday was a lovely lazy day! We slept in, cleaned the pad, napped, and went grocery and Costco shopping. We stopped at the post office to pick up a few Flat Rate Mailing boxes. It’s time to start sending a few things home. I want to have everything organized so the end of our mission won’t be hectic. It’s so hard to get everything done at the last minute. It was one of my better days. But, I was late taking Tylenol in the evening and paid the price. Lesson learned!

I also reserved a house at Bear Lake, Utah in July for a 3-day family reunion with all our kids and their families. I’m super excited! I should have booked something sooner.  Most places are booked by now – at least the cheaper ones are. This has 16 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. It’s bigger than we need, but it was available for the dates we wanted, so I took it.

We ended our windy, rainy weekend with a nice day at church, a nap, and FaceTime with Daryn’s family. I feel rested, and incredibly blessed and grateful to be here.



2 comments:

  1. So sorry you are still suffering with pain. Hope the PT hurries up and kicks in and helps. We've had several family reunions at Bear Lake - it is so fun there! Especially if you have all the family together in one big place!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am so saddened to hear about your sciatica pain. That is the worse! When you are in pain it is hard to think of anything else and get anything done. I don't know how you can deal with that! You are being so patient.
    I'll bet your replacement will be so appreciative of all your efforts in trying to make the transition a little easier for them. When do they arrive? I'll bet you are getting a little "truncky".
    I will be praying for you. You deserve all the blessings you can get!
    PS. Just found out yesterday that a niece of mine who is thirty years old and has three children has tumors throughout her body. She had breast cancer about four years ago and had a double mastectomy and was checked a few months back and everything looked good but just last week they did another scan and found all these small tumors through out her body. Her and her father's family were studied for a cancer study through Huntsman and found she has the gene. So sad. To top it off they sold their house at Christmas time and have to be out by February 16th. They live in Springville and the house sold in one day. They haven't been able to make any arrangements as to where they will go yet.

    ReplyDelete