what a few days we've had...

just like outside today in kansas, it is pouring... as it is in our lives again.
but the clouds do clear and sunshine does show itself to us- eventually.

i spent the last two days at olathe medical center with james, dealing with some very intense nerve pain to his left leg. see, i was out of town for a wedding over the weekend and my sweet husband tried to do some wonderful things around the house. he knows he has hundreds of people who are wanting to help him do these things, but the man in him just wanted to do it himself. and when he does that, his sciatic nerve just gets mad at him.

recently he's been told that the tumors on his spine are also getting bigger so the combo of that with too much extension in lifting and bending all worked together to set him into some big pain.

we went to the ER on sunday night, after i got home, and they gave him 2 shots of pain medicine. these don't work, because they don't effect the nerves. we could have been admitted to the hospital and spent the night, and then seen an anesthesiologist to see if he could do anything. we opted to go home, so he could sleep in his own bed, and come back in the morning if necessary.

it was necessary, and we checked back into the ER on monday. we hoped they would just get us admitted quickly and go from there, but they had to do all the protocol checks and questions and after several hours, we did get a bed in the hospital. james was quite loopy, and on so much medication. it was wonderful to have my mom with me while we waited and kept a close eye on james.

the dr. saw him and wanted to put him on more pain medication, but i was pretty insistant that it needed to be more particular for his nerves. with a recent MRI in hand, he was able to call the pain specialist and anesthesiologist to come back to the hospital to perform a treatment.

he did a nerve block to his S1 vertebrae, which has really helped. he injected a pain medication as well as a steriod right into the base of the nerves, very similiar to an epideryl. it has really surpressed the pain and should give him general relief for quite awhile.

we are home now, and thanks to wonderful friends and family our kids were well taken care of. once again, it is such a blessing to be able to just call and hear 'whatever you need, i will do'. thank you to everyone!

we hope that this week remains calm and that we can get back into a slower, summer like type of life while still dealing with all the trouble and sadness that we have experienced in the last month.

thanks for your continued prayers for our entire family.

now, let the sunshine burst through!