Mark came out of surgery just fine! He is now pretty much pain free as far as his chronic (RSD related) pain he has dealt with for so long. He feels no pain in his right knee or right hip at all, and even has experience some relief in his left knee which in the past year began to cause problems for him, not nearly as much as the pain in his right knee, but just the same this Spinal Cord Stimulator is an amazing piece of equipment....and thank the Lord for insurance because the neurostimulator alone (not including hospital, anesthesia, and other doctors fees) costs about $30,000. Mark is not sure of how the lower back pain has responded to the neurostimulator, because as expected he is experiencing some post surgery pain from the two incisions in his lower back, but we should know how much relief he is getting in a few days at the least...he has explicit instructions to do very little for the next 6 weeks so the stimulator leads develop scar tissue and 'set' in place in the epidural space...I pray that he does do just that and not get impatient to do more then he ought to do, which could cause the leads to move causing more pain and possibly a trip back in to UMC to reset the whole thing. We are now on the road to tapering him off of all the meds he has been on for so long, we will be seeing the PCP for direction on that next Tuesday. We have felt all along with both of Marks therapists (Physical and Speech) that once he gets some pain relief with the stimulator, and off the meds his therapy may very well progress much better...the meds seem to just cause progress with therapy to be like 1 step forward and 2 steps backwards. This has been a long journey, and while I never want to go through this or anything like it again, I am so very thankful to God for all we have learned through this, I am certain there is so much more to learn, but I have grown in my faith and love for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through all of this and I am beginning to understand the depth of Gods love so much more as a result of this trial that shook my faith and tore me apart in the beginning. I should add that my faith has not been strengthened only because Mark has gotten the stimulator, that is only part of it...God has used so many situations, so many friends, and so many unknown people to us as well as my church family to show me how much He loves each one of...His love is beyond my understanding...God is so very good! I could go on and on about all the ways God has shown His love to us, but I would be here writing for days about it all and you would not want to sit here and read all of it I am certain. Ephesians 3:14-21 14For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. We are finally coming to the end of this part of our journey and we are feeling the peace of God even more now then ever before! Thanks to each one of you for all of your prayers and for all that you have done for us!!! Because of Christ I live and love every moment of every day!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am off to go enjoy a piece of pineapple upside down cake made for me today for my birthday (the past couple of days were too crazy to get it done so I told the girls it was fine they could do it another day, so they made it tonight). The recipe for my birthday cake came from my birthday present from my oldest daughter Stephanie. 
Goodnight all! | 
True
Premium
