a piece of my heart...

Today I was blessed to spend the day with Laura in Golden and we had so much fun! It's wonderful to be with her when she isn't stressed out from schoolwork. This summer she's working as a summer conference assistant, and although she works a 40 hour week, she still manages to find time for fun, too. And most weekends she gets to see Ian, so that always gives her something to look forward to. Today it was just us, though, and I'm so thankful for days like this. We got to laugh and share stories and just enjoy being together. In a couple of years she'll be off on her own adventures, and for all we know she might be halfway around the world. So for now I'll treasure each moment I get to spend with her. She's a piece of my heart.

Thanks!

Less than 24 hours after my last post Amy finally showed signs of getting acclimated to the new dosage of medicine. We still need to wait a few weeks to see if she'll eventually notice any pain relief, but at least she's back to her old self again. So thanks for your prayer support. Baby steps!

Watch out, world!

For those of you who are following Amy's progress, please continue to keep her in your prayers. We should know in a few weeks whether or not this current medication will give her any pain relief. In the meantime, some of the side effects are less than pleasant. The pharmacist said they should only last 7-10 days and we're already at day 5. Our prayer is that soon she'll be back to her normal self and that she'll (sooner rather than later) finally feel diminished pain in her feet/ankles. If this doesn't work, we're only left with one more option which we're not sure is even going to be an option at all. It's way more invasive than we're comfortable with, and even her Dr said he'd hate to see us go that route on someone her age unless we're absolutely desperate. And honestly, now that Amy is 18 she's ready to be done with it all. She's been positive thru all we've asked of her for the past two years. But she'll be off to college soon and is ready to just "suck it up" and be done with experimenting with treatments. Enough is enough! If this pain is her new normal, she's ready to accept that, and I'm not sure I blame her. She's one brave, awesome girl! And even in pain she can run circles around most of us. Watch out, culinary world!

Laurel and Hardy learn to ride...

Tonight Brian got down our bikes and put air in the tires so Amy and I could ride. You have to realize that Amy never learned to ride a bike till she was 8, and I don't think she ever rode one with a lot of gears and brakes on the handlebars. And then she had painful feet and all the issues associated with them and couldn't ride for a long time, so it had been YEARS for her. I jumped on and took off, but she was a bit wobbly. We headed up the street intending to go around the block, but Amy was struggling as we went slowly uphill. "Switch gears!" I shouted back to her. Her reply was priceless..."What's that mean? What's a gear?" I stopped and waited until she caught up and we tried again. We rounded the corner and suddenly Amy was headed downhill like the wind...and out of control! "Use the brakes!" I yelled. She did, and almost went headfirst over the handlebars! Instead, though, she kept right on flying down the hill, past our turn, and into the next neighborhood. I stopped and waited, fully expecting her to turn around and come back. Instead, she kept on flying downhill with her legs straight out to the sides. The next thing I knew she was falling sideways into some nice, soft grass. Good thing, too. We hadn't worn helmets for our quick ride around the block. She'll have some bruises on her legs tomorrow and her wrist is a bit sore, but thankfully there are no broken bones or heads split open. We walked our bikes to level ground and slowly, very slowly made our way home. We're going to try it again tomorrow. But from now on if we even think of riding, we'll put on our helmets! (That was for you, Gail!) Oh, and did I mention it was one year ago today that she had the injection that caused her open wound issues? We've come a long, long way in 12 months. God is so very good!

A difference of opinion...

Interesting week. Yesterday Amy saw her new pain management Dr for the second time. We really like this guy. Personally, I think he's brilliant and he's wonderful about talking with Amy instead of with me. She is, after all, the patient. Now that she's been on a low dose of the new pain medicine for a month and her system is used to it, he wants to double the dosage to a level that will hopefully give her relief from pain. Time will tell. But in case this doesn't work we have one more thing to try...a neurotransmitter. We can do a trial week at some point to see if it helps her at all, and if it does, one would be surgically implanted in her back near her spine. Yeah, I know...it's invasive. Think of it as a pacemaker only for her nerve endings (it's actually made by the same company that makes pacemakers!) So while it's an option, it's also a last resort. Because of the increased dosage of her medication and in order to do a trial week of the neurotransmitter, she's required to have a consultation with a psychologist before our insurance company will ok the trial. So today that's what she did. For 45 minutes she filled out a questionnaire..."do you feel like your life is worthless...does your pain/injury interfere in your relationship with your spouse or family"...etc. Stupid things which she mostly laughed about, but I guess they have their reasons. After the paperwork was completed she met with the psychologist. She was in a happy, bubbly mood when she went into his office. Fifteen minutes later when she came out she was really ticked off!!! Evidently he was saying things to provoke her...perhaps to see if he could get to her "true" feelings (as if she'd been lying about being positive and upbeat.) He told her no way could she not be depressed and irritated about what she's been thru. He insisted she come up with questions to ask him because he wasn't convinced she really had a handle on what she's gone thru for the past 2 years. He acted like she was just faking...that she had to be angry. When she insisted she just deals with things with a positive attitude he was argumentative. The one that irritated me was when he told her she has only had 3 "real" surgeries and not 8. Perhaps his definition of a surgical procedure is that she has to be cut open with a scalpel. Excuse me?!! Anytime I sign a medical release and turn over my insurance information while my daughter puts on a hospital gown, has an IV, and is wheeled into the OR and put to sleep, I consider it a surgery!!! Just think...our insurance company will have to pay this yahoo for his time today and his "expert opinion." What a rip-off. I asked Amy if she witnessed to him and explained that she has a positive attitude and hope for a bright future because of her relationship with Christ, but honestly, he would have probably argued with her about that, too. She kept her cool, and I'm proud of her. Not likely we'll be going back to this guy, thankfully. He did approve her for the neurotransmitter trial if we decide to go that route. Smart move on his part.
Posted by Patty at 5:27 PM

Hoosiers in Colorado

My brother, Joe, and some of his family were in Colorado this week. On their last full day in the Springs, they took Bethany with them to the Royal Gorge. Personally, I think they're nuts, but they were eager to do the Skycoaster out over the Gorge. Bethany and Emily loved it and said it was a blast. I'll just take their word for it. I just don't see myself doing this anytime soon. But I'm glad they had a good time and the Hoosiers will have some great memories of their time in Colorado!