SOLD

This is our house in Radford. We decided that we need to be closer to my mom and dad, because I can't watch Mia on my own with these headaches.... so we put our house on the market this past Sunday. We prayed to God that someone would be looking for a house exactly like our's and that it would sell quickly. We sold our house last night after only 4 days on the market. That is God working some miracles my friends. How awesome is He???

Back From Philly---Again

I had a follow up appointment today with my doctor at the Jefferson Headache Clinic in Philly. My dad and my uncle rode with me up there, which provided for an exciting trip since neither had been to a BIG city (well, maybe my uncle had, but not my dad). We drove up Monday morning, and then spent the night in the city and got up this morning for my appointment.... then drove back home. Things got especially crazy when my GPS and the directions from Mapquest to our hotel led us into, shall we say... the ghetto. Luckily the hotel wasn't there, and was located in the middle of the city, so all in all, a good stay.

As for my appointment, things haven't changed much as far as my headaches are concerned, so they changed my medicine up a bit, and gave me another round of nerve blocks.... this time it was 3 shots in the back of my head and 2 above my left eye. We also discussed 2 alternative treatments that I'm going to persue. The first is called a cervical headache facet block, which will consist of shots going deep into my neck and trying to get to the cause there. They gave me the name of a doctor in New Jersey who does them, but I'm going to see if I can find one closer to home that will do the procedure. If I'm not a candidate for that, which they determine after looking at an MRI of my neck, then the next step may be an occipital nerve stimulator. This would be a device that is planted in the back of my head, right along the occipital nerve, and gives off electric shocks..... so yeah, kind of a big deal. It's a surgery, it's expensive(if insurance doesn't cover it), and then of course there's always the chance that it wouldn't work at all.

So that's where we stand as of now.... I'm calling tomorrow to see if the pain management centers in Roanoke can do the first procedure.... if not, I may be heading to Jersey. Also, I have to go back to Philly in 3 months, so if anyone has any airline miles they'd like to donate to me, that'd be super, cause I don't wanna make that drive again.

Study

This is my beautiful wife Stephanie. I cannot express in words how much she means to me. How she's able to put up with me being sick all the time, a screaming baby half the time, and still keep it together enough to make it thru nursing school is beyond me. Without her being who she is, our family would fall apart. Love you Stephanie!

Holga Disney 9

Last one, I promise.....

Holga Disney 7 & 8

The Chiropractor

Today I went to see a chiropractor here in Radford. They also do acupuncture there, and since I had tried neither of these in the past, I figured I might as well give them a shot to see if they can help my headaches.

The doctor seems pretty confident that he can help me, and says that he's had a lot of success in the past with headache patients. They took a couple of Xrays and found out that my 2nd vertebrae (from the top) is twisted, and most likely has something to do with my headaches. He did some acupuncture type stuff with a couple of Q-tip type probes(no needles) that delivered some small electric shocks to some of my pressure points, and then did some adjusting to my neck with his hands. I have to admit that hearing your neck crack like that is a pretty scary sound when you've never heard it before. haha

Anyways, I have to go back 2 more times this week and then 3 times a week over the next couple of weeks. He said I should start to see some improvement within a few weeks, although things could get a little worse before they get better as my body adjusts to these changes.

I also go back to Philly next Tuesday for my first follow up following my hospital stay. Things haven't changed much since I've come home... the new meds don't seem to be doing much, so I'm sure they'll change them around some more and look for a new "cocktail". Continued prayers are greatly appreciated! :-)

Holga Disney 6

Holga Disney 5

Holga Disney 4

Holga Disney 3

Holga Disney 2

Holga Disney 1

The next few days will be some shots from a roll of film I shot thru my Holga 120N film camera while at Disney World last month.

Home

Well, I am home from Philly. I came home Wednesday, and have kinda been settling back into things, which is why no posts until now. I was hoping the headache free days would continue, but unfortunately they have not. Wednesday and Thursday I was down with some pretty severe headaches, Friday pain was at a moderate level... today it is as well. Yesterday was the first day on all of my new meds though, as CVS didn't have in stock everything I needed, so I'm hoping after I get everything in my system things will turn around a bit. I talked to my doctor in Philly yesterday also, about maybe getting a permanent nerve block, as the one they gave me last Sunday seemed to help. She said however they at this time they don't do permanent nerve blocks, and that they don't consider nerve blocks a success unless the patient has 2 weeks of relief..... so I guess mine wasn't successful, although over the next couple weeks if my headache intensity goes down, then maybe we can say that it helped a little. I'm supposed to go back for a follow up on the 26th of this month... I'm probably gonna fly up this time, as driving 7.5 hours really takes a lot out of me and definitely does a number on my head.

On a good note, I guess, we did our taxes today. Surprisingly we're getting a little refund and don't owe, which we thought we would since taxes aren't withheld on my sick benefits. So that is a blessing from God for sure.

As for prayer concerns, I ask that you continue to pray for my headaches, that the new medications would work and hopefully get me back to a normal lifestyle. Also I would ask that you'd say a prayer for my disability application at the railroad to be handled, and hopefully approved! sometime soon.... as of now, we have no income. So we're hoping that I can get approved and start receiving that money in the near future.

Philly--- Day 9---3am Post

My heart monitor, this and my medicine machine, as I called it, I carried with me everywhere I went...

Here it is 3am on a Tuesday, and I'm wide awake. Why am I wide awake you might ask? Cause I'm leaving the hospital today! I may not make it all the way home to VA today, because I'm sure I'll have drugs running thru me up until the time I leave, but at least I'll be out of here. Don't get me wrong, the doctors and nurses have been great. I couldn't have asked for a better staff. In fact, one of my Korean(I think that's her background) nurses, Sun, definitely would have married me off to her daughter had I been the age she thought I was, and unmarried. But that's a story for a different day. The only requirement for today to allow me to come home was that I wake up with no headache..... and still no headache. Going on 24 hours without a headache. You don't even realize how long it's been since I could say that. Hopefully this is the start of something.... No more missing out on my daughter growing up, no more missing friend/family events, no more missing out on life. Wow, what a thought. God has definitely blessed me with an awesome medical team and awesome friends and family who never stopped praying. So this is a bid farewell from the hospital. When I get home, normal photo posts and etc will resume.... with one more hospital related post that will be entitled "Things I learned while in the hospital", which I'm hoping will crack you up.

Philly--- Day 8--- Afternoon Post

So I don't remember what I typed this morning, but it doesn't really matter. I went back to sleep after I posted this morning, and woke up around 8:30am.... get this.... with NO HEADACHE! YEAH BABY! And here it is now 12:30pm and still no headache. I'm ecstatic to say the least. I saw my doctor this morning, and she said they'd probably keep me another 24 hours just to keep an eye on things.... although I was pushing hard to get released today, you better believe that. So that's my update for this afternoon, if anything changes, I shall report back. Later!

Philly--- Day 8--- EARLY Morning Post

Well, it's 5am... I've been up since 4am. Part of this is because the nurse came in to change the bandaging around my PICC line (which by the way is starting to itch and be sore... is this normal Stephanie?) but mainly because the Ambien they give me to sleept at night must have a 6-8 hour time limit on it. It works GREAT to get me to sleep in about 15mins, but it just doesn't keep me asleep.

Anyways, I'm sure you're all wondering how the nerve block went. As I may have mentioned yesterday, the initial pokes of the needle HURT like crazy. I didn't notice any immediate relief, like within the first few hours that followed. But last night during the Super Bowl, I had a few hours of headache freeness and to be honest felt better than I have in a loooooong while. It was great! This morning I woke up with a bit of a headache, but nothing that I wouldn't be able to push thru if I was at home. So I'm hoping that I can talk my way out of this place today or tomorrow.... I can't express how much I miss my family, my friends, my house, my bed, my food, my freedom, but mainly my Stephanie and my Mia.

I know, you're probably thinking, "But Chris, wouldn't it be best to stay a few more days, to make sure they've got it worked out?" The answer simply is NO. If I have to stay here much longer, I will go crazy. The staff is great, the room is OK, the food.... eh. But if I don't get out of here they'll be transporting me back to Radford in a straight jacket.

So continued prayers for pain relief, but also prayers for my sanity. And remember... God is good! All the time!

Philly--- Day 7

Hello friends. There's not a whole lot to update you on today. I've still got a headache, and my doctor is going to do the nerve block later today. They've upped my lidocaine dose, but taken me off one of my other meds as I had a pretty scary experience right before lunch and blacked out while on the toilet.... so yeaaaah, they said it was probably the thorazine that was making me light headed, and when that happened my blood pressure also bottomed out. It's now probably about 2 hours after the incident, and my blood pressure is now 97/55, which is up from what it was before. Anyways, that's about all that's going on today. I'll let ya know how the nerve block works out. Enjoy the big game today!