Sunday, May 26, 2013

Eating A Crunchy Salad


This is the first salad I have eaten in over a year.  Over a year ago, I had dental work and couldn't eat on the right side of my mouth for several months.  One night, I ate a bunch of carrots and woke up at 2:00 a.m. with excruciating pain.  It was the carrots, right?

We figured I injured a cranial nerve so I lived on soft food for a year.  It didn't seem to help.  We knew that people who had neck fusions can have trouble with their TMJ.  My TMJ never hurt, however, just the throbbing pain in my right temple.

Ken was massaging my neck every night.  I iced my head and temple regularly.  I would wake up two to three times a week with my temple throbbing and have to ice it.  It felt like it was never going to get better.

In the beginning of March, my whole head started hurting.  Ice was no longer helping.  I knew something terrible was wrong but didn't want to think brain tumor.  I finally told Ken I needed an MRI for my peace of mind even though we were given only very small percentage chance that my tumor from nine years ago would ever grow back.

You know the rest of the story.  Ken told me that if I ever get a headache for longer than a week from now on, I will get an MRI.  I will have to have an MRI every year for the rest of my life. I have a diseased dura in which the tumor grows out of but it is a benign, slow-growing tumor.  I have a 50% chance of it never growing back so we will pray.

Today, May 25th, I walked the beach with Ken and Cassi.  It was the first time I have gotten out of the house in many months to do something fun.  My hormones seem to be stabilizing as well as my electrolyte balance between water and sodium.  My energy is slowly improving and life seems a bit brighter the past few days.

Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord
for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!
Psalm 106:1