Health

I think it's safe to say that you really don't appreciate your good health until you're in bad health.  Robert and I have had our share of bad health this year.  As you all know, he had back surgery in the fall.  This came after more than a year of trying so many other options: Physical therapy, chiropractor, pain management doctor, epidurals, pain medicine, an MRI, a trip to the ER, and countless home remedies (ice, heat, massage).  He found out in May that he had two herniated discs.  There's obviously no great time to have herniated discs, but May was pretty much the worst timing possible.  We were both graduating, getting married, and moving in May.  There was no time for a back surgery that would require six weeks of taking it easy.  We went the route of just treating the pain for then and got him three rounds of epidurals.  I bet there aren't many men out there who can say that they've had 3 epidurals!  I hope I never have to have an epidural during childbirth, but if I do Robert will legitimately be able to say, "I know how it feels."

When we moved to North Carolina we found a neurosurgeon for him.  He had the surgery in September, and everything was great.  It wasn't until about a month ago that he started experience great pain again.  It was similar to the pain he had experienced previously except worse.  It was so scary thinking about him possibly having another herniated disc or something like that.  As you know, he ended up going to urgent care and the emergency room while I was in Pennsylvania.  He followed it up with a visit to a primary care physician.  He had an x-ray and urine test.  Nothing abnormal popped up in the x-ray, and the urine test confirmed that it wasn't kidney stones.

Robert had an MRI yesterday.  We're supposed to find out something within a few days.  I'm not sure which would be better/worse: Finding a problem (which means we can work toward fixing the pain) or not finding anything (and wondering why he's in pain).  I'll be sure to keep the blogosphere in the loop. :)

I've also been having a headache for several days straight.  It started with a strange pain in my head three weeks ago.  I really wouldn't describe it as a headache.  It feels different.  It hasn't gone away, it just changes locations: right ear, behind left eye, left ear, top of head, behind right eye, back of head.  Then seven days ago I got a real headache along with it.  I've dealt with headaches and migraines for years, but they pretty much go away in a day after I take medicine and sleep.  That hasn't been the case with this.  I wake up and am instantly in pain.  Has anybody else ever experienced this before?  It's so frustrating.  I ended up throwing up last night.  I'm not 100% sure that it was the headache or if it was something I ate.  I'm sure that the headache didn't help though.

I'm going to the doctor on Monday.  I'm hoping it will be a positive experience where she doesn't freak out and get me super scared that it's something incredibly serious, but I also hope that she doesn't say to just wait another month and see if it goes away.  Am I the only person who experiences pain and automatically thinks of the worst case scenario?

All that to say, it's definitely made Robert and me more thankfully for the days when we do feel well.  I urge you to be thankful for those days.  God has created such interesting bodies for us.  We can feel pain, but our bodies can also heal and feel better again.  Isn't He cool?