The latest

Hi Everyone! So where to begin? Wellllllll.......I had the first set of injections in my lower back on June 5th. I didn't have any idea of how painful they might be, but let me tell ya, the dentist is more painful than the injections in my back were! Seriously! I was thrilled! *smile* As the medicine was going into my vein, a slow dull ache went down each leg, but it was not painful or even anything close to unbearable. Now.....did they help? Well, for the first 12 hours or so they did. I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and I was able to just get up normally and walk normally......no pain....or hardly any pain. The next morning, Ed said that he heard me get up in the night and thought there was a different woman in the room with him! *grin* But, as I said, it didn't last. *sigh* I have had a couple of people tell me that sometimes it take until the third set of injections before you experience extended pain relief. It is so different for each person. So I go for a follow-up visit on July 8. My pain level has been pretty well up there since then but I try to keep moving and doing as much as I can.

For instance......a friend at church and I volunteered to decorate for this month's ladies' meeting but in the meantime she went to Florida. Well, I didn't want to ask someone to help me on such a short notice, so I commenced to doing the decorating myself. Ed helped me gather up things here at home that I was going to use and I went shopping for a few things that I needed. The men at church had set up the tables and chairs for me already and even put tablecloths on the tables! So when I went out the evening before our meeting to decorate, it probably took me about 2 1/2 hours, which included time for shopping. Well.......I overdid it a bit and paid the price the next day and ended up not being able to even go to the ladies' meeting! *sigh* But it looked really beautiful for the ladies who were able to go! *smile* And the ladies who cleaned up and took everything down, gathered all of my things up for me and Ed brought them home a couple of night's later and then it took me a week to get everything put away, as I did a little each day. *grin* Do you know what a change this is for a person (ME!) who used to be a whirlwind at getting things done? Now everything is a process which seems to be getting slower as time passes but, ohhhhh, am I learning patience, which is a good thing.

Ed and I are still teaching a bible study to Bill and Doug on Wed. evenings before church. When we first started, they both had difficulty finding the books of the Bible and so on, but you should see them now!! It is unbelievable how much they have learned in such a short time but they are so hungry for the Word and the things of God and now Bill's two brothers have been coming to church and one of them is going to join our Bible study Wed. evening! God is so good! And there are hungry people out there!

I took the picture above yesterday morning as we were getting ready to leave for church. There is a little butterfly on the handle of the plow, that WAS on the flower when I was ready to take the picture! *smile*

Daniel and Erin are doing great. She is about 3 1/2 months along now and hasn't had any morning sickness at all. We went to their church picnic yesterday after church in the morning. Well, after some discussion, we went to the picnic, that is. Ed and I were getting in the car and he asked me if we were going to Nelsonville's church picnic and I asked him when it was and he said this evening. Well, I asked him how long he had known about it and he said about a week and I asked HIM when he had planned to tell me about it and HE said that he figured that Daniel had told me and "I" said that Daniel probably figured that HIS DAD would tell ME! LOL Anywayyyyyyy......I called Erin and she said that they were in the process of having their picnic even as we spoke. Soooooo, my DH even had the time wrong! LOL Bless his heart! *smile* Anywayyyyy.......we went down and had a wonderful time of eating scrumptious food and enjoying precious fellowship with the saints of the Nelsonville church. Now, I am not much of a dessert person, but there was this luscious looking pecan pie (my favorite) sitting there just asking to be eaten, so I had a small piece and it was heavenly and come to find out, it was a Marie Callendar pecan pie. I couldn't believe it wasn't homemade and what made it sooooo delicious was the filling! It was so caramelly and creamy! It was the best I have EVER had. Sooooo, if you are needing a wonderful dessert and don't have much time, may I recommend Marie Callendar's Pecan Pie in your grocer's frozen food section? *smile*

Well, I need to go and get a few things done but I will blog some more a little later, k? There's so much to blog about!! Have a wonderful Monday!!!

I'm Alive!!!

I apologize for the long break in blogging but my computer is on the blink. Don't you just hate when that happens? I had been on my computer this past weekend and of course, since I have dial-up, I have to disconnect when I am done surfing the web, which I did. When I returned home and attempted to log on, I got an error message saying my modem was being used by another device or something or other, error 633, making it impossible for me to log on to the internet. Sooooo, after being on the phone to tech support, it has been determined that I probably need a new modem, so we will be attempting to do that this weekend, hopefully. Which prompted me to thinking that it sure would be nice if we could replace faulty body parts as easily as we can replace computer parts, auto parts, home repair parts, etc. *grin*

Which brings me to the results of my visit to Dr. Mezaros today. He is a spinal specialist in Lancaster. Well, he checked me out pretty extensively, read my MRI, X-rays, nerve scans, etc. and said that he would like to start with injections.....next Wed. at 11am. He said there is an 80% chance that they WILL help, though it is not possible to say to what extent. And, of course, they are only a temporary solution to the pain and they will not take away the pain completely but will hopefully make it more manageable. Everyone responds differently to the injections, which has been the same information that I have received from every doctor. Soooooo, until next week......I continue on! He did say that the strength in my legs and feet is surprisingly very good. So that is a real plus, I think. I told him that I don't just sit around or lay around, though I do rest periodically throughout the day, some more than others, as needed. I do exercises when I am laying down. By that I mean, that I slide my feet back and forth, exercise my ankles and feet and do leg lifts before I get up. I believe it has been helping. And I do walk as much as I can with my walker......oh, my trusty walker. I don't know what I would do without it!

On a side note.....I am typing this from the library and I am burning up! It is soooo warm in here. I am about to faint! I am not kidding! It has always been this way, even when I worked here. They have never been able to regulate the temperature very well in this place. I've always thought that it might be because they have this huge skylight in the middle of the library which might possibly throw everything off. Who knows???

Anywayyyyy.......Ed is at the ballpark where he watching Daniel as he instructs the pitchers on the local American Legion baseball team. Daniel is so stoked. He loves to pitch and is so excited about being able to help these young, up-coming pitchers. He also pitches to them as they have batting practice. Well, last week was the first time Daniel had pitched this season, when he pitched their batting practice. The guys were saying that they couldn't even see the ball much less hit it, it was coming in so fast. Daniel has a mean fast ball and curve ball. They clocked some of his pitches at 85mph. *smile*

Mark Condon was at our church last night and ministered to us in song. It was a great service and it was so good to just talk with Bro. Condon afterwards. We see him at camp and conferences and so on but it is usually at a distance.

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the summer weather wherever you are. :-)