Tag Archives: family

Sharing Where We Are

We have so many friends and family across the US that it is impossible to share personally with all what has been going on these past few days. Literally only days. I apologize for a blog post. I wasn’t even sure I wanted it out in blog land at all, but so many are reaching out due to the questions and faith filled posts I’ve been sharing.

Many know this already, but I have been dealing with pinched nerves since January. My dear massage therapist friend, and chiropractic care have been amazing and helpful. But, over the summer I began to notice some hearing loss, frequent vertigo episodes, and facial numbness. They both had encouraged more follow up, but as I had not seen a doctor in 10 years, I had to search around for help. It is interesting a head cold that was unlike anything I’d ever had, and a full body case of hives for these past six weeks encouraged me to get into be seen and to be persistent. I did routine blood work, and Lyme test and test for autoimmune disorders, most of which I had to insist on having done myself, and all results reflecting a person of “perfect health.”
I saw the ENT less than a month ago, and it what was deemed I had a vestibular disorder but should also see a neurologist to rule out more issues. I was in vestibular therapy for about 2 weeks, and honestly thought it was helping. Dizziness was less frequent, but still occurring, but I could at least walk a little less crooked. I went to my eye doctor for a recheck due to something my Vestibular therapy questioned, and the eye doc had only recently seen me for a routine exam. She was not alarmed by any visual changes she saw, but in me and my status, and sent me asap to her favorite neurologist, I was still waiting for an appointment for the neurology appointment referred to by the ENT and it had already been 3 weeks. Within 1.5 business days, I had a neurology consult where I failed several exams, and he ordered an urgent MRI, rather than the as late as January MRI the “scheduler” at the ENT could offer.
After the MRI, I knew there was an unusual finding, but I was told just to follow up on Monday. However my neurologist called within 2 hours of us being home and instructed me to immediately go to the ER due to a 1.5 inch mass found near my brainstem, and possibly life threatening. I needed a neurosurgery consult ASAP. I have been diagnosed with a less common, but likely benign, large schwannoma acoustic neuroma. I am past “wait and watch” stage, and onto “tumor removal” stage.
For the time being, I am stable at home and on decadron to shrink inflammation in tissues. I’m not in love with ever being on any medication, and this is messing with my head (pardon the pun). I have a list of scary things to watch for, including hydrocephalus, and that I pray we don’t need to address. We’re developing lists, and ticking through them to be sure my affairs are in order, and that my home is somewhat managed and the family is cared for. I am still being told I am a picture of health, and that I am well prepared physically to handle the outcomes, that I have well taken care of myself, and did nothing to cause this, and nothing could have been done to prevent it.
I have a list of probabilities for outcome, and this makes things quite uncertain. After tumor removal surgery, I likely will be having radiation. I will likely always have vertigo and gait issues, I will likely have complete hearing loss in my right ear because a tail of the tumor is in the vestibular nerve itself, and I likely will always have facial numbness and pain. I may never drive again (I gave up my keys on October 1). I may have facial droop. But we also see God’s hand in this, and that He has been preparing us for an event like this.
My understanding is that the neurosurgeon I will be having do my surgery is a well known, best person for this job. Except he’s on vacation and we’re praying he is resting, and not scaling Mt Everest. We’re praying for his steady hands, and his own rested head. Surgery could be as soon as one week from today without complications arising before then.
Pray for my husband and children, please. We as a family are doing as well as can be expected. And while we’re a faith filled, Christ following family, this is frightening. We are appropriately crying, holding each other, laughing, joking, working, playing, praising, praying, rinse and repeat, many times throughout the day.
Thank you our church family, for rallying in a moment of desperate need and outright feelings of despair. I did wonder if I was saying good bye to them as we left for the hospital, and making last minute phone calls to family in New England as well. Thank you for staying with our children, feeding them, cleaning with them, distracting them, playing games and laughing with them. Thank you for praying with them. By their own accounts, it was what they needed.
Our normal is likely going to change, and we don’t really know what that looks like, and at this moment, and not what we expected. Our son Jonathan and daughter in law Kelsey are in New England, and Peter and I are acutely aware of how hard it is to be so far away and feel helpless as you wait for information, without the benefit of the appropriately crying, holding each other, laughing, joking, working, playing, praising, praying, rinse and repeat, many times throughout the day. We do know that they have a support system in place, and that is a comfort. But still….
As we think of ways we could use help, we may very well just put it on Facebook. We will not refuse offers. We know this is not a “quick 6 week fix” and could take as much as a year to recover from, if not longer. We welcome being put on prayer lists everywhere!
Thank you for grace when we’re not in our best moment, for sustaining us and praying with and for us. We love you.
PS: Also, please note: We believe a persistent unrelated case of six weeks of hives, a massage therapist, chiropractor, and diligent eye doctor have potentially saved my life. When is the last time you thanked God for uncontrollable itching that stays in the forefront of your mind?

Strength In Weakness

“The only person I’m trying to be better than is the person I was yesterday.”


 

Yesterday I stopped at Biggby for a coffee treat after my husband’s follow up doctor’s appointment.
This was my cup cozy message.

My husband had a serious car accident on Tuesday, requiring an ambulance ride to the hospital in a neck brace.

Praise God he is ok with no internal injuries, no broken bones, no head injury. He does have back and neck pain from whiplash. And, he has some muscle pain in his braking pedal leg.

I’m well aware and don’t need to be reminded of how thankful I need to be that this wasn’t worse.

I cleaned out our oh so likely totaled van Tuesday afternoon.

Our van debris picked up off the street by….someone. I found this when I went to gather our personal belongs and our new mailbox post out of the van later Tuesday.

Believe me.

I need no reminders.

This is the least alarming post accident photo. It says enough.

I don’t know how they got my husband safely out of the van. The driver’s side door barely opens. The windshield is bowed and is not actually in the window frame. The van body shape is no longer a rectangle shape, more like a parallelogram,trapezoid or rhombus. Not that I got the tape measure out and analyzed angles or anything. I mean, it’s not like I use geometry in my every day life, right? <insert sarcastic but healing humor here>

For the 48+ hours after the accident we’ve been in a literal brain fog, for two different reasons. His fog because of the literal accident, mine because of his accident and the realization of what worse could have looked like.

It was enough that I got called to the scene of the accident and where the fog began to crowd my peripheral vision. It’s where I began to pretend I was strong. A fireman asked me if I was ok when I climbed out of the ambulance where hubby was waiting for me with the police and EMT’s. I said “I will be. I have to be. Yes. I’m ok.” and tried to convince myself that I’d be strong.

In the ER my mother in law was talking about how strong I was, how much peace was in my countenance. Inside I was thinking “What is she talking about? I can barely think.” It was an out of body experience. A tunnel visioned fog with no peripheral vision. I could only tunnel in on one minute at a time.

Inside my head and hurting heart was turmoil, not peace.

On Tuesday we took “things” minute by minute as we ticked through the day…neck brace, ambulance ride, traffic citation, calling family, employment, and our pastor, CT scans and X-rays, and the results of those. Getting pain meds filled, coming home to comfort children, more phone calls to family, follow up doctors’ appointments made, cleaning out the van, and answering messages and offers of help.

Fog.

Tick-tock…minute by minute.

Once home, my focus was only on making sure my husband was ok, and making sure my children were ok.

None of us were ok. Yet we were.

We were home together, we were on the phone with our oldest in the Boston area.

There was some laughter. We did crack jokes.

We were <mostly> ok.


Wednesday we took it hour by hour as emotions began to flood and we left room for processing events and comforting each other, planning, insurance calls, finishing our taxes believe it or not, answering more messages, the list of things to do got long but things were being checked off in spite of the continued, but slowly dissipating fog. Hour by hour…


 

Thursday the day formed into compartmentalized sections. I could think a little more ahead and make plans. I even could begin to think about Friday and Saturday.

“Do I have a show Saturday? I wasn’t sure. I should find out. I should begin to pull stuff together if I do.”

The Thursday morning doctor’s appointment brought some reassuring and good news results! Yay! I brought hubby to work to teach his class (poor guy!), stopped for coffee, did some mental health processing, and finally had a good cry alone in the Biggby parking lot. We had to reschedule pick up of rental car, and I had to be home to clean up our bedroom for a mattress delivery that was actually scheduled two weeks ago! (GOD!), take care of more things, and go to our second follow up appointment. I don’t mess around with getting those health and healing affairs in order, even in fog and fatigue.

I intended to come home, make said new bed and fall into it after that second appointment.

But our chickens had gotten naughty and created a new plan. And that was God too. It was therapy to go enjoy the fresh air and their antics, and I’m thankful for that. I also enjoyed an unplanned visit from a sweet friend who dropped off dinner, which I also didn’t know I really needed (more God!), and I enjoyed a two mile walk listening to peeper frogs and singing birds.

By Thursday night the fog was lifting. I could feel strength returning in the ending day, in spite of fatigue. And I know the fog lifting is from the prayers of others.


Friday morning I awoke on my new mattress, having slept like a rock, and finally not quite so tired. I’d dreamed about chicken antics, some of them featherless and looking rough.

Kind of like how I had been since Tuesday.

After my good cry alone in a Biggby parking lot.

Every day, I’m a bit better person than the day before.

Every day we’re a bit stronger as a family.

Every day, my sweet husband has healed a little more.

We may look rough. We may feel rough. But every day is a bit better than the day before.

And it had only been a little more than 72 hours.

We know.

This could have been so much more.


Praising God for protection, healing, and for where we are.

Praising Him for His strength in each new day.

Praising Him that I only need to be better than I was yesterday.

Blessings,

Deb

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Side Dish: Mashed Cauliflower With Cheddar & Chives

A lot of people are talking all kinds of diets, fads, “health drinks” and other such things. It’s no secret that my husband and I have been on a health quest, walking, getting more fit, and the like. We’ve been trying tons of new recipes, some within those “diet” preference kinds. We try some, just because they sound good!

We love lots of vegetables, and trying vegetable recipes.

We were once “accused” of believing that salad was dessert because we eat so much of it.

We do love our salad.


For Easter, I intended to use a Mock Mashed Potato recipe we’ve used for Thanksgiving before, but discovered at the last minute that I lacked many of the ingredients, except the cauliflower. Sometimes we like roasted cauliflower, and one of those favorite recipes was in the running for a last minute change of plans, but I decided to go rogue and create my own recipe instead.

In the interest of keeping it real and not so Pinterest worthy, because real life is messy and I can be a hot mess, I forgot to take a before photo.

You are stuck with our leftovers photos!

I’m not that sorry, honestly.

Sometimes the phone camera just needs to stay put away.

As you can see, it was heartily eaten.


Mashed Cauliflower With Cheddar and Chives~Serves about 12-16

  • 4 heads of cauliflower cut into bite sized chunks and steamed
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 1/2 cup non fat Greek yogurt
  • 1.5 cups of shredded Cheddar
  • 2 tsp garlic powder (I added more than this once I tasted it though.)
  • 2 tsp dried chives
  • 3/4 tsp chicken broth powder, low salt, no msg
  • 1/2 tsp pepper (add more or less to taste but that is where I started)

Steam cauliflower and blend in a food processor with a stick of butter. Add yogurt and seasonings and process until blended. Pour into a baking dish and stir in shredded cheese. Bake at 350° until warmed through, cheese begins to melt, and slightly brown on top. Serve hot.


We served our Mashed Cauliflower with a spiral ham, glazed, from Hickory Farms. We also had the freshest deviled eggs after our own homegrown eggs were laid by our very own chickens a day or two ahead of Easter. My youngest daughter and I did a fun activity making Resurrection Rolls.

My mother in law contributed roasted asparagus, salad, and a potato casserole. She also made an iced lemon cake for dessert.

We had a lovely Easter!

What is your favorite Easter food?

Blessings,

Deb

Don’t forget the April Customer special and Flexi of the Month!