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!