THANKFUL THURSDAY:THANKSGIVING EDITION

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I wanted to take a few minutes to list some things I am thankful for since today is, of course, Thanksgiving. I could list a gazillion things but for the sake of time I will keep it short!

This Thanksgiving Day I am thankful for:

• Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. I continue to be in awe at just how much He blesses my family and me every single day!
• Being home with my family for Thanksgiving instead of in the hospital again!
• My amazing, self-LESS husband who ALWAYS puts me and my needs before his. I've done things over our 19 year marriage that could have caused him to walk away. However, he not only stayed, he continues to treat me like a queen every day.
• My 3 beautiful daughters and 2 adorable grandsons. They are each a blessing from the Lord.
• My mom and dad who have stood by me through thick and thin and are there at a moment's notice when I need them.
• A warm, beautiful home that my husband and I feel so blessed to be able to call our own.
• This year, my husband and I paid off ALL of our debt with the exception of our mortgages on our home and rental property. (I♥ Dave Ramsey!)
• We are almost completely finished with our Christmas shopping and we paid cash for every last penny!

Please join Alyssa at TRUTH 4 THE JOURNEY to see what she and others are thankful for this Thanksgiving.

(Almost) WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: USMC

THEN - May '09

NOW - Nov '09

My middle daughter, Mo, and Jonathan at Paris Island, S.C.

QUICK UPDATE

After a thorough evaluation and a ton of labwork, I am extremely happy to report that it appears there is no new bacterial infection! To be safe, they did go ahead and draw new blood cultures to confirm there is nothing new growing. We should have those results in a couple of days. The doc believes I may have some kind of respiratory virus, or possibly even a sinus infection, as I have been having some of these type symptoms over the last few days. Regardless, I would truly appreciate it if you would continue to keep me in your prayers! I absolutely can not afford to have another serious infection again, especially this soon!

Thank you so much for your unwaivering support. Thank you for continuing to stop by and check on me, for leaving such kind comments and for your commitment to praying for me. It ALL means so very much to me. May the Lord bless each of you as you have blessed me.

{{HUGS}}

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

Although she is still on IV antibiotics, Teresa has developed a fever again. We are going to administer the last dose of antibiotic tonight, along with Ibuprofen/Tylenol, and then call the Infectious Disease docs in the morning to see what they want us to do. We will keep you updated. Thanks so much!

By the way, don't miss Teresa's post from earlier today - IN SICKNESS and IN HEALTH. Thanks again.

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IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH Communicating With Your Spouse About Chronic Pain

We naturally share about our aches and pains with our spouse when we are chronically ill and in pain, but how much talk is too much before our spouse grows weary of hearing about a problem he just can't fix?

"I feel like there are thumb tacks in my bed!" I tell my husband as he crawls into the other side of our bed. "I know there is nothing there, but I feel bruised all over."

“I’m sorry,” he offers with a sympathetic voice, but there is little else he can do.

“Actually, I'm really nauseated too,” I add. “It’s probably just the meds. I wonder if I should eat something or if that would make it worse. Hopefully it will pass if I can just go to sleep.” Before I finish my sentence, he is already starting to snore because he's so exhausted. *sigh*

For many of us, our spouse is our best friend. If our relationship is good, we want to share our feelings with them. Even if our relationship is hurting, we feel that by explaining our pain, our spouse may sympathize and be more loving toward us.

Although we don’t want to burden them by constantly sharing about our aches and pains, when we are hurting there is a desire to be heard and have our feelings validated. By talking out loud about what we are feeling, it somehow makes the pain real. It’s no longer “all in our head.”

Galatians 6:2 tells us “Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” At some point we must carry these burdens to the Lord, as well as a close friend, rather than just count on our spouse to carry the burden of listening about every single ache.

Although our spouse may not be suffering from a physical ailment, there are still many losses that he is grieving. For example, it is an emotional thing to watch the person you love be in pain and not be able to 'fix it', especially for men. He may be suffering as he watches you lose the ability to do things you love. He likely misses the couples outings you once took together when you could do physically active events, whether it was date night or just taking long walks together in the evening. He may be frustrated that even his hugs can cause you to wince. Counselors have found that there are three major areas where marriages suffer: money, time and physical intimacy.

Your marriage may be having difficulties in all three, specifically because of the role chronic illness has taken on within your marriage. Is it possible to “share our burdens” with our spouse without overburdening him and making him want to run the other way every time we open our mouth to share another symptom of our ailments?

Be a team with your spouse

It’s you and your spouse “up against” the illness. Although you may feel like your spouse is merely a spectator, intentionally make him a part of your team fighting the battle of pain, in whatever way he is most comfortable.

Ask your spouse if you can share some information about your illness so he has a better idea of what you are going through, but don’t overwhelm him. If he is willing to attend a few doctors appointments with you, let him, and give him time to ask the doctor his own questions. For example, giving him a brochure may be better than handing him a 250-page book. If he listens to podcasts, find some that would be beneficial for him to listen to about your illness. Acknowledge that there may be role or responsibility shifts in the marriage due to the illness. Be open about what you are struggling with and where you need help. For example, if you can no longer scrub the bathroom, let him know well before the grime gets out of hand.

Connie Kennemer lives with Multiple Sclerosis and she candidly shares the struggle that it can be to find the right balance and word. “I am not as mobile as I used to be and I often ask more of my husband such as ‘Can you work at home this afternoon?’ or ‘Why do you have to go to another meeting?’ How much should he accommodate me because my body is changing? He doesn’t always know when to stop and encourage me to try things myself. This is a constant challenge.”

Be reasonable in your expectations

We often marry someone who has our opposite personality style. If you need to read every article about your illness, but your spouse doesn’t, it may simply be because your spouse has a more laissez faire attitude, not because he doesn’t care. His response to a crisis may appear to be nonchalant on the outside, but it doesn’t mean he is not worried and concerned about you.

On the flip side, maybe you are emotionally overwhelmed by the diagnosis and you need to just sit back and take it all in before you start doing research, while your spouse is spending hours at the computer finding out everything he can on the latest treatments, medications and signing you up for the healing service at church. He may accuse you of being in denial about it all, since you aren’t showing as much passion as he in finding out more about your illness. An excellent book recommendation in helping you understand your communication styles better is “Men are Like Waffles, Women are Like Spaghetti” by Bill and Pam Farrell.

Have information about your illness available for when he is ready

If you are having a conversation and you want to explain more about how you are feeling, or details about the illness itself, you may want to have books with sticky notes on the pages you think he’ll find most helpful. Or bookmark pages you can read together and then discuss. Connie says, “After ten years of living with MS, I am past the whiny stage, but Rex sometimes holds back; that’s when I need to ask him more questions about his feelings.”

Creatively keep him informed about the embarrassing parts of the illness

If your illness is going to cause you to be in the bathroom during eighty percent of the events you attend together, you need to let your spouse know that this is part of the disease. Health organizations have brochures on symptoms. You can say, “I’m dealing with some personal matters of this illness right now; I don’t really want to talk about them yet, but they’re in this brochure if you’re wondering.” Avoid sharing every detail if you can.

Look for other ways to vent besides always dumping on your spouse

“I realized that I held onto all of my frustrations of pain during the day and then ‘threw’ them at my husband as he came in the door,” shares Cheryl, who lives with chronic fatigue syndrome. “My actions set the tone for our entire evening and even though I felt better, he felt worse, and it lasted all night. He was beginning to dread coming home at night.”

Cheryl began to put aside the last two hours of her day to spend time writing in her journal, praying and doing something she enjoyed that calmed her. “Writing in my journal gave me the chance to express my frustrations, and then prayer really began to minimize the negativity too. My husband quickly noticed a difference and it’s made our relationship so much stronger.”

Find some ways to get involved in your community or a special hobby

What else do you have going on in your life, other than your illness? It’s easy to be overwhelmed with doctors' appointments and just maintaining our illness, but it can result in a pretty dull life. Even if you have limited energy, do something you’ve always wanted to do that doesn’t have a deadline. Put together memory albums for your grandchildren, clean out just one drawer, find a new craft or hobby, volunteer to be on a prayer chain. Soon you will find that your illness actually is the last thing you want to talk about when you have had much more interesting events in your day.

Conclusion

So, the question is, how much talk is too much? Unfortunately, there is no perfect answer. It is different for each person and each marriage. Learn to look at your situation objectively. Honestly ask yourself, "How often am I bringing up my illness and pain? How do I benefit from talking about it more often than necessary? What am I seeking? Validation? Understanding? Actual physical help?" Ask yourself if talking about your illness could be a way of getting your spouse’s attention, and if this seems to be the only thing he responds to? Regardless of whether it is attention, acknowledgment or understanding, how can you get these needs met by the Lord instead? How is it negatively impacting your life, or those around you, by discussing it all the time?

And then take a moment to really ask yourself “Is there a better, more creative way I can create intimacy with my spouse, other than just complaining about each ache and pain? What activities can I still share that could help us grow closer together?”

And then when you do need to share with your spouse, send up a prayer to the Lord first!

“Heavenly Father, You know I do not want to burden anyone, especially when I know there is really nothing they can do to 'fix' me. I just really need a big hug from You right now! I know that my husband cares about me very much and truly wants to encourage me, even on those days when he doesn’t seem to know how. Please give me the wisdom to know when to ask for help/comfort from him and when I should only come to You to fulfill all of my emotional needs. Amen.”

About the Author, Lisa Copen - You will find more articles and overall support while living with a chronic illness and/or pain, please visit Rest Ministries so you don’t miss any of their great content and to be entered for their monthly giveaway! Lisa Copen is the director of Rest Ministries, author of 'Beyond Casseroles: 505 Ways to Encourage a Chronically Ill Friend' and founder of National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAYAn amazing day with ALL my daughters and grandsons!

Bek, Whit, Mo
Big Boy and Little Bit

FALL INTO COMFORT GIVEAWAY!

My beautiful new friend over at Marlie and Me is hosting a wonderful 'Fall Into Comfort Giveaway'! Teresha is an amazing new mom with an exciting blog about her adventures of first time mommyhood. You just HAVE to see the star of her blog, her sweet baby girl, Little Miss Marlie. She is simply adorable!

Teresha is currently hosting this giveaway and will not select a winner until she obtains her goal of '100 Followers' - (she's currently about halfway there!) So, PLEASE, take a minute to pop on over, become a Follower and enter to win this awesome giveaway!

Here is what you can win:

Xhilaration hat and 2 pairs of gloves, Burt's Bees lip balm 2-pack, Swiss Mocha Cafe

War Eagle!!!

ENDURING SEPSIS with Dysautonomia Part 2 of 2

(NOTE: To fully understand this post, you'll need to read 'ENDURING SEPSIS with Dysautonomia - Part 1 of 2' . You can find it HERE.)

I don't remember much of the next few days, just every few hours when the meds would start to wear off I would wake and feel really, really bad. It was very unpleasant. It took a little while of working with the different doctors to get the right cocktail of meds, the proper dosages and exact times to be administered but they finally got it all figured out. But I'm telling you, if you don't have someone with you at the hospital 24/7, you can really get into big trouble. I can't tell you how many times my husband and my mom had to go to bat for me to get things straightened out and how many times I hit the nurse call button and no one ever came to assist me! It is pretty scary stuff! I hope and pray that I'm never in the position where I'm there all alone with no one to advocate for me.

It was finally determined that I had a staph infection and the Internal Medicine Specialist (IMS) assigned to me by the hospital was insisting my port would have to be removed. However, as you know, we have already been down this road several times before and we knew that staph did not always equal removing port. The IMS doc was not listening to my family or me AT ALL as we attempted to explain my ongoing illness OR my previous experience with this same type of infection, so we finally insisted on seeing the surgeon who implanted my port before making any rash decisions. And I am SO very thankful we did!

After speaking with my surgeon, we determined together that we would hold off on making a decision about the port for a few days. He said there was really no big hurry, plus he wanted an Infectious Disease Specialist to come in as a consult to see if they could determine exactly what kind of staph it was and what we needed to do to treat it.

Thankfully, after the Infectious Disease doc took the time to look at my history, my labs and the actual slides of the bacteria, she determined that antibiotics should be enough to get rid of the bacteria completely without having to remove the port! She said that we would have to change the particular IV antibiotic I was currently on and that I would have to stay on it for an additional 14-21 days. However, she said I would be able to go home and finish it. Hallelujah! I could have reached up and kissed that woman, I was so happy! I just had absolutely no energy to do so. *sigh*

After a 9 day hospital stay, I have been home almost a week. I am still extremely weak and still feel really yucky. I am receiving the IV antibiotics twice a day and it takes about 90 minutes for each dose. I have to have blood drawn every couple of days to make sure I'm getting enough but not too much. As long as everything goes as planned, I should be finished in about a week. I just hope and pray that ALL of the infection is gone at that time.

Thanks to everyone for your kind words of encouragement and your faithful prayers. They all mean so much to my family and me! We humbly ask that you continue to keep us in your prayers through the coming days. We surely need them.

Have a great day!

ENDURING SEPSIS with Dysautonomia Part 1 of 2

It had only been six weeks since I was last hospitalized with a very serious bacterial infection, so I was not quite prepared when I suddenly came down with those, oh, so familiar body aches and a rapidly spiking fever again 2 weeks ago. It is so amazing and quite terrifying just how fast it all comes on! It is very hard to explain how dreadful that feeling is when it all starts but I have come to know 'the feeling' very well, unfortunately. I seem to be relatively {normal} one minute and spiraling downhill very quickly the next. It happens so fast that I barely have time to let someone know and then quickly lay down, if I'm not already. Then the extreme violent shaking begins, followed by horrible nausea, vomiting and gut wrenching pain. And it lasts. And it lasts. My goodness, does it last. The pain is like nothing I've ever experienced. Childbirth was nothing compared to this!

Thankfully, this time it happened in the early evening when Bek was already home with me. Plus, D was almost home for the day. As soon as I could get settled down just a bit, we loaded up and headed to the ER. Have I mentioned just how bad I hate that place?

When we arrived, they called us back to triage. By that time, I was bawling my eyeballs out and, at times, literally screaming from the excruciating pain! In the middle of all that, the nurse was trying to get me to answer all kinds of questions. Now, after working in the medical profession for many, many years, I totally understand she was just doing her job. However, when you are in pain - you know, the kind of pain that is at least a 20 on the pain scale of 1-10 - you just can't think straight enough to answer all those questions they ask. The questions they have already asked (and usually already have the answers to in their computer) the last 15 times you were in the hospital - THIS YEAR! My chart is flagged for SEPSIS for goodness sakes!

After a quick triage, we sat in the waiting room for what seemed like an eternity to me but was actually just a few short minutes. I don't remember much about the next little while. Apparently, my blood pressure dropped to 58/34 and I lost consciousness. This was followed by a brief 'freaking out' period where all the ER personnel ran around in circles telling everyone else to find the crash cart. Of course, this is quite common for me, especially when I am SEPTIC and sitting UP in a wheelchair. However, it is NOT common for most everyone else, so it tends to send the whole ER into a bit of a frenzy, even as D stands there calmly telling them I am fine, just get give me a few minutes of laying down with my feet raised to let the blood flow back to my brain! It works every time!

When I woke, I was in a bed with a team of doctors and nurses surrounding me, poking and prodding me from every direction. It took me a few minutes to figure out where in the world I was and what was going on - again, nothing uncommon in my world these days. I was already hooked up to all the various monitors that were all beeping and buzzing because of something and it wasn't long before they had drawn all the necessary blood samples, hung IV fluids to start bringing my pressure back up to an acceptable level and had IV antibiotics flowing through my body to start attacking whatever kind of bug was after me this time. Of course, when I woke, I immediately started the awful act of dry heaving. I hadn't had anything to eat since lunch so there was nothing there to actually vomit but my body was trying its best to produce something. And it tried and tried and tried. Bless the good doctor's heart, he quickly wrote orders for meds to help with the pain and the vomiting and soon I was off to sleep for a while.

to be continued........

UPDATE ON TERESA

Teresa is finally home after a 9 day stay in the hospital. She will continue to receive IV antibiotics for at least 14 more days in hopes of completely ridding her body of the staph infection AND, hopefully, saving her port. After a thorough consultation with Infectious Disease Specialists, it was determined that the type of staph she has could most likely be eliminated without removing the port. They will be keeping a very close watch on this over the next two weeks.

She is resting now and hopes to be back online soon. We very truly appreciate your prayers and ask that you keep 'em coming. We are not out of the woods quite yet!