Category: Uncategorized

So what, exactly, is a “nerve pain attack”? (NPA)

Of course, like anything medical, nerve pain attacks vary from person to person and event to event, depending on the origin of the injury. I’ll try to give you a visual image of my NPA’s.

Imagine a huge pair of vice grips suddenly CRUSHING your tailbone or ischium (for those of you who don’t know where that is or want to look it up, it’s the curve at the bottom of the hip), then a huge syringe full of HOT ACID being shot up your rear, then being forced to sit in a vat of HOT ACID for several minutes!

Sometimes, it’s all of the above. Sometimes, just the crushing. Sometimes, just the syringe full of acid that dissipates after about 30 seconds. Sometimes, combination of two or three of these.

Nothing helps! No Rx. Not ice or heat (tho hot showers feel GREAT!). Joy has started doing a gentle circular lower back massage when they’re so bad I’m doubled over (about half the time), and that seems to relieve some of the pain. It used to HURT for anyone or anything to bump or touch there, but apparently the clot has dissolved enough that it’s no longer tender.

Update on some comments from previous posts:

Morphine pump: My family took me to ER about a month ago cuz I was literally screaming in pain from NPA and locked up arm. TORTURE!!! SEVEN IV sticks: no success, even w/”the best” and doppler! I’m pretty tough and used to that, but twice (one in each arm), they hit the nerve that controls my thumb. Uncontrollable spasms!! BOTH THUMBS ARE NOW NUMB!!!! Hoped it would heal after a few weeks: nope! Jonathan (my EMT son) had to yell at them to STOP when I gritted out, “TAKE IT OUT NOW!!!” and they refused to give up. I will NOT be going back to ER unless I’m having a heart attack or stroke! (or maybe an open fracture!) Since I’m on blood thinners, the risk of stroke is supposed to be alleviated.

One good thing came of that night: they gave me an 8cc morphine shot to ease the pain. (When we were in a wreck in 2006, it took 10cc before the Dr could staple my scalp back onto my skull. “Normal” dose is 5cc.) Guess what that did?! NOTHING!!! Didn’t even make me sleepy!! So the “I need a morphine pump” idea is a bust, as well.

New wheelchair ordered and approved by insurance. Old one was friend’s and wheels worn out and don’t turn properly. So I get a new wheelchair for Christmas. Simple pleasures make this crazy old lady happy!

Luke 2: 1-20 JESUS IS BORN! The “lowly shepherds” were the first to know and worship Him and be evangelists! The angels sang gloriously! Mary stored up all these events in her heart, probably in complete awe!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS!

Parents grieve differently

Just thought I’d post this, since I know so many grieving the loss of a child this year:

I had a friend from politics whose teen son was killed in a house fire on Christmas eve years ago. (Spending nite w/friend: boys trapped upstairs)

He said that, although it was very hard for him to relate to his wife’s grief, he too, grieved deeply, but very differently.

As a Christian father, his main goal was to prepare his kids for ETERNITY: to make sure they had a good relationship with Jesus. He had done that, and so the “sting of death” was mitigated somewhat by the “mission accomplished” satisfaction of knowing he had succeeded in his mission. That may sound callous to some, but it’s actually not. It’s just a very different kind of grief! We grieve not as those who have no hope!

His wife, on the other hand, had carried that child in her womb. HE WAS A PART OF HER BODY, MIND, SOUL AND SPIRIT! That hole could never be filled! It is a deep, abiding wound that, even with the comfort and peace of the Holy Spirit, never fills or completely heals.

Research has shown that there are mysterious cells in a mom’s body that rush to fight every attack on her body. Those cells are from the children who have inhabited her womb, whether born or unborn. Wow! (I’ll attach link for those of you who think that’s crazy! I did at first!)

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1UQanzWjV7/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Life is SHORT! ETERNITY IS LONG! PREPARE FOR IT WELL!

Comfort those who mourn. Sit with them. Talk with them. Laugh with them. Check on their physical and mental and emotional health a few weeks after the “hype” of the funeral is over. Once the quiet reality sets in, they need you more than ever! They don’t need platitudes; they need to be surrounded by people who love them, even when they “want to be left alone.” There’s plenty of alone time already! Help fill that in ways that help that individual’s needs. Not intrusive, but inclusive.

May the Grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ fill your hearts and homes with Jesus Joy in the midst of the sorrow!


December update

Not much to share:
Misty and Final Flight are both at publishers moving thru the process.
Various embroidery projects complete. Will add pictures after gifts given.
No new neurosurgeon till Feb, when I start Medicare! (BCBSTX doesn’t accept my chosen one, and I refuse to deal w/JPS any longer!!! It’s taken them since Oct 25th to do something as simple as order an MRI, and they still haven’t managed to do that! DONE!! Incompetence! Why would I trust them w/my health care?!?!?!?

Such a joyous, yet sad time of year! The birth of our Savior! But so many have lost loved ones recently, including two of my favorite students from 30 yrs ago, whose 22 yr old son lost the battle with depression this week! Pray for those dealing with grief and loss this Holiday season!

For unto us a CHILD is born! Unto us a son is given! And the government shall be upon HIS SHOULDERS, and His Name shall be called WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, ALMIGHTY GOD, EVERLASTING FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE!
Isa 9:6

JOY TO THE WORLD! Luke 2:10

May your hearts and homes be filled with Jesus Joy!

Thanksgiving!

HAPPY AND GRATEFUL THANKSGIVING!

I’ve been kinda busy, so blogging hasn’t been on the radar. Working on :
1) getting Medicare ordered (yep, I’ll be 65 in Feb!);
2) getting Joy’s Medicaid reinstated! (some incompetent in that office cancelled cuz she “makes too much money!” Really?!?!? Under $600/month!?); Insanely INVASIVE docs req’d to prove otherwise!
3) embroidering various gifts for Christmas (will include pix when finished; surprised how well they are turning out!)
4) Quick trip to Austin to see Mikaylah!
5) Finished editing and resending Misty Mansion and Final Flight to 2 different publishers. Let’s see how that plays out! Hard to convince editors to LEAVE THE DIALOGUE ALONE!!!! That’s how we talk in the field (medical/EMS): no time for complete sentences and proper grammar when lives hang in the balance!

Headed to 97-yr-old G’ma’s for Loveless family T’g tmor. Almost everybody will be there (not Mikaylah; maybe oldest cousin/nephew?) Nothing fancy: just FAMILY!

Nothing else significant, except to THANK APPLEBEE’S PROFUSELY for being open Thanksgiving and having NO WAIT!!! (2 HR WAIT at Cracker Barrel!!!) Great food; great service! Unexpected need when Joy ran off to Cowboys game w/friends!!! (None of us have ever been to a Cowboys game!!! Amazing the things this kid gets to do!) No point cooking for two of us when I barely eat anything! But Bourbon Street Steak remedies that!!!

In case I forget to post again until January or February, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! KEEP JESUS CENTRAL IN YOUR CELEBRATION AND LIFE! HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR AS YOU SEEK THE LORD’S GUIDANCE!

Medical update: short, gory version: April ’23 thru Oct ’24

Sciatica and sudden onset of horrendous nerve pain attacks in my tailbone area turned out to be a “tumor” (assumed cancerous) in my L4-S1 spine. Surgery to remove in early Sept ’23: it was only a blood clot, according to Mayo (Neurosurgeon team at Baylor Scott White sent it off cuz they’d never seen anything like it before!), but nerve damage done by quickly growing clot (that’s why they thot it was cancer. Did you know that the density of normal spinal fluid, cancer, and blood are so close, you can only tell which it is by biopsy?! I did the research, being the crazy medical science girl.) and surgery rendered me numb from waist down. Couldn’t proceed w/biopsy because nerves started misfiring and had to stop before they paralyzed me! I’m not paralyzed, but feet can’t feel the ground unless something SHARP pokes them. (Nerve damage, not classic neuropathy.) Left foot BLUE and cold, but multiple tests show no blood flow issues; just nerve damage. No bowel or bladder control, but honestly, cathing is better than old ladies wetting their pants when they sneeze! Spent hour on phone trying to get prescription for caths renewed cuz urologist my PCP required me to go to has a contract w/an “out of network” provider who was gonna charge me $73 every 3 months! I’m bigger,meaner and uglier than they are! I demanded they send my RX to the company that’s in network that doesn’t cost me a dime! I think I won! Will check back w/in network cath team Monday.

Nerve pain attacks continue: since it’s nerves, UNPREDICTABLE! Sometimes only a few a day, rather mild; lately every 15 minutes, including thruout the nite, and INTENSE!!!! No RX work (just make me dizzy! Just got over that nightmare! NO THANK YOU!!). Tried external Spinal Cord Stimulator enroute to implanted one: MADE THEM WORSE IMMEDIATELY!!!! Nope! MRI showed my scoliosis was so severe that the stenosis left NO ROOM TO INSERT THE ELECTRODE NEEDED for the SCS! Do you know how TINY an electrode is?!?!? My pain management Dr gave up on me! Nothing he can do to help! I laughingly say, “I need a MORPHINE PUMP!!” They actually do those, but insurance only covers it for end-stage cancer patients. Thank you, Jesus, that I don’t have cancer! Mom beat it 4 times and went on to terrorize the world for almost 40 years! She was a FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH! I AM HER DAUGHTER!!! Oh, and did I tell you that BOTH of my neurosurgeons have left the state?!?!?! I seem to have that effect on Drs! I am “The Problem Child”! (And yes, I know that’s a “negative confession,” but it’s funny and TRUE!!!)

My NPA’s (nerve pain attacks) have become HORRIFIC, and FREQUENT (literally 6 during dinner out for Larry’s birthday tonite!) I grab the table, breath deeply (it helps a little!) and PRAY HEALING VERSES. They only last about 30 seconds, but WOW!!! If somebody tried to torture me, I’D LAUGH AT THEM!!! The past few days, the Lord’s led me to pray for Israel during those attacks. I have, and surprisingly, they’ve become shorter! “Revival! Protection for Your people!” (Remember, I’m in PAIN, so nothing elaborate as I’m trying to BREATH!) Started expanding to Ukraine and USA!!!! We need REVIVAL MORE THAN ANYONE!!

ADD: Rambling! Back to medical

So, for safety’s sake, since the feeling in my legs requires me to literally tell my feet with each step, “PICK UP YOUR FEET,” and balance is still an issue, I’m in a wheelchair most of the time. BUT… sitting for any length of time HURTS!!! (Tailbone nerves irritated!) Sciatica pillow helps somewhat. Bamboo pillow is AWESOME! Sat on that on 4 hours ride to Sugar Land and back last week and DIDN’T HURT!!! Usually, even short jaunts in my beloved truck HURT! Only lying a certain way in my recliner (where I sleep now due to CHF and spinal issues) relieves most of that. But not last nite!!!! Israel got LOTSA PRAYERS last nite! Never slept cuz just as I dozed off, BAM! NPA! Comfort kitties who sleep on my lap didn’t appreciate it!

I’m now totally DEAF (THANKS, LASIX!) w/2 failed CI’s and HA’s that do no good (& cat knocked into trash! Even w/warranty, $750 to replace a device that was in the box and not in my ear cuz IT DIDN’T HELP!!!! No point! ) . I read lips HORRIBLY! The pitch of very few voices is partly audible. (Yes: that’s proper grammar: pitch is; voices is object of preposition!) Can’t understand my hubby at all, nor read his lips w/his beard! We’ve learned to use notes on phone and hit the microphone, although even that is iffy: picks up what it wants, and pitch issues for lower voices as bad as my ears! Carry dry erase board with me to Drs (most of whom refuse to use it! GRRRR!) Texting and email are lifesavers! Caption Call is helpful, but it, too, is iffy: requires GOOD WIFI and is slow on the uptake, so if I don’t tell the caller, “Wait ! I’m deaf and my captions are slow connecting!” they hang up on me! Frustrating when it’s a Dr office that I NEED to talk to! Quite funny what it says you said sometimes! Now I understand why my BIL carefully EDITS his text messages to customers after he dictates them! Bad words that nobody really said!!!! Really funny w/Joy, who texts in Vietnamese, then sends the translation. Some things just aren’t meant to translate!

Deaf and in a wheelchair puts quite a crimp in your social life! Conversations at the dinner table are NON-EXISTENT for me, regardless of efforts. Running errands requires assistance (I can’t load my wheelchair and very few stores have scooters, and somebody still has to retrieve it for me.) Takes 4 hrs to do what used to take 2, then I come home and CRASH!

We rented a scooter for a trip in July: minimally helpful. Had to put together and take apart; just as heavy as the wheelchair; battery not as dependable as you’d like, and slopes no easier. To justify buying one to use all the time, we’d need a tailgate (I drive a truck) lift, which isn’t cheap, sticks out in the parking lot and is a hazard! Being handicapped is a PAIN!

OH!! FUNNY STORY!!! Went to the pool at the awesome HCA Hampton Hotel in Rockport. (We’ve discovered that only Hamptons have HCA rooms w/double queens. Most only have kings, as if Handicapped folks don’t have FAMILIES they travel with!!!!) Saw the chair lift, so I fell in the water, knowing I could use it to get out. I’m a mermaid! Swam for awhile and did water exercises. There was a young man in a wheelchair who climbed up the steps on his hands and knees and made it look easily doable, so I wasn’t worried. When it was time to get out, Joy tried the lift chair: DEAD. No real surprise. I swam to the steps and tried crawling out, but my legs don’t work well! Not only that, the stair’s progression was 3″, 5″, 9″, out! Uh, NO! And the railing was RICKETY!!!! Wiggled all over the place!! I tried several times, and even w/Joy’s help, couldn’t get out. I sent her to get the manager/desk clerk to help me. (Larry was asleep and had had neck surgery, so he wasn’t allowed to lift anything!) . The clerk (smaller than my 165 lbs) tried several times to help me, and we were on the verge of calling the cute young firemen to get me out. I would have been MORTIFIED, since most of them are kids of my classmates!!! (Rockport is my hometown.) Last effort, under the armpits, LIFT as I pushed up, and WE DID IT! Moral of the story: always call ahead and have them CHECK THE POOL LIFT CHAIR before you jump in! They work when installed and get inspected for HCA certification, but no maintenance is done on them, so they don’t keep working! Just for show! If you don’t believe me, visit a few hotels and see for yourself! Broken controllers; chewed wires; missing upholstery. Not pretty! Not helpful! Certainly not HCA compliant!

They say truth is stranger than fiction. My medical saga over the past 8 years has been sci-fi worthy!! And there’s nothing really wrong with me! Just STUPID LITTLE THINGS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE!! My orthopedist said, “You need a body transplant!” Funny, but not very professional or helpful! And that was BEFORE we knew about the “tumor”!

Had bronchitis all week; stayed in bed for 2 days! Finally went to Dr cuz I couldn’t breath and have been told often it’s not the CHF. O2 Sat stays at 96, regardless! Pred shot, breathing treatment, antibiotics, and my hubby got me a nebulizer breathing treatment machine for $32 w/insurance at Sam’s!!!! Better already! Don’t wait to be so SICK you can’t function!!! Go to the Dr! (Tho mine is sick and tired of seeing me!)

It’s 0230 and I’m still up, despite NO SLEEP last nite! Writing does that to me! Hope you’ve been appropriately entertained by my scary saga. No point in going to the Dr/ER/Hospital, cuz NOBODY CAN HELP ME!!! My son’s being saying for years, “We can’t give you the kind of help you need, Mom!” Little did he know how RIGHT he was!

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME BLESS HIS HOLY NAME!! FOR HE HAS DONE GREAT AND MARVELOUS THINGS!!! (paraphrased from Ps 103)

September ’24 Update never got published?!

So much for writing once a month! Told you I wasn’t a blogger!
So…..
July: Marvelous trip to Rockport to see “old” friends. Deep sea fishing (no fish, but I LOVE the boat ride!). Dinner w/some of our best friends from over the years. Sunshine and beach time (limited in wheelchair!) Joy made me rent a scooter: more trouble than it was worth to unload, put together, then take apart and load back into truck bed. Not something I’d buy to have daily. Stopped in Goliad on the way down: hadn’t been there since I was a child! Totally different perspective after reading the Mexican officials’ diaries: they didn’t want to execute Fannin’s men! Following orders or killed themselves by ruthless Santa Anna! Like most wars, the powerful leaders make everyday men do their heinous dirty work in the name of their crusade!

August: Joy had rhinoplasty (nose reconstructed again so nostrils won’t collapse). Doing WELL.

September: Started process of getting one of my novels, Final Flight, published. I’ll keep you posted on that progress.
Cleaning out garage and attic next week: don’t want my kids stuck w/the MESS after we’ve gone HOME! (So I’m making them deal with it now, w/my supervision. Lol!)

Nothing else significant going on. I’ll probly update in late October/early November w/news on Final Flight, but could be after holidays! Who knows!?!

Thanks for reading. Invite your friends to this wacky posting. Marketers want thousands of blog followers and I think I have about 6! Lol! Never expected to be rich or famous!

The Lord Bless you and keep you! The Lord make His Face shine brightly upon you! The Lord be gracious unto you & grant you Shalom Peace to remind you HOW MUCH JESUS LOVES YOU!

June 2024 Update:

Wow! Has it really been 14 months that I’ve ignored this blog?!?!? We’ve had some serious medical issues in our household over the past year, so writing and publishing got pushed to not only the back burner, but a few rooms behind the stove! Things have stabilized a bit: not really better, but at least manageable. Looking forward to getting some of my novels published w/o spending the kids’ inheritance doing it! Stamina and “want to” are at a low ebb, so on the days I feel pretty good, I either go to the water park or work on the computer. The water park wins most of the time! It’s a great excuse: water therapy/exercises that insurance ran out on. If you didn’t know, WATER IS THE GREAT EQUALIZER for those of us who have mobility issues! Plus SUNSHINE ON MY SHOULDERS MAKES ME HAPPY! (Hmmm… sounds like a song! Thanks, John Denver! Sure hope you found JESUS before you crashed! You certainly appreciated our Creator God in all of His Majesty!) Not talking to the dead for those of your worried about that: just thinking out loud on paper. Soooo many that I hope found the Lord in their final moments!

Besides being a rough medical year, two of my best friends, godly ladies who taught me what it’s like to be Christ-like, went HOME in the past year. Kinda jealous! That glorified body sounds better every day! Both were editors for me. One is in a few of my books. Gotta get those published to honor Shelly Sue Smith Morales!

I think I’ll put a reminder on my Google calendar to update this blog every month. Not sure how productive that will be, but it’s worth a shot, right?!

Until my alarm dings to tell me to blog, have a blessed summer, and remember, “WHATEVER YOU DO, DO EVERYTHING FOR THE GLORY OF GOD!” (1 COR 10:31)

April 2023 Update: Final Flight

I started Final Flight a few weeks ago, after reading a Christian Romance Suspense featuring some limited medical pieces. I’m a pantser, so my novels just “happen,” but this one, I fleshed out a bit first to help get the timeline and connections right.

Predictability will kill any writing, and I’m anything but predictable!

Chief Mel Wu, the main character, is a petite female MedEvac pilot with Ninja moves and an attitude to match! She carries more emotional baggage than most commercial airplanes can handle, stuffed deep in various compartments. Her skill as a chopper pilot is renowned, honed as a MedEvac pilot in Afghanistan.

Not only is the male character, Nurse Paul Shepherd, not a super buff, Navy SEAL type guy, but his injury early on in the book renders him more of a liability than asset in fighting bad guys. Or so it seems. He carries his own hurts, with little interest in forming a relationship.

The antagonist is a vet who suffers from PTSD and grief over the loss of his little brother, apparently at Mel’s hands. He’s a sniper whose intent is to kill her after several attempts to harm others involved in the Afghanistan pullout debacle meet minimal success. He has a secondary motive that sucks Paul into the melee.

Paul’s brother, a detective, is not only hog-tied by the protocols he must follow, but limited by the resources he has access to. Mel’s friend, a colonel with CID, becomes a vital part of the investigation, gaining access to files only a military inquiry could afford.

Not only are there multiple attempts on both Paul and Mel’s lives, but the antagonist also kidnaps Mel’s special needs little sister in an attempt to draw Mel out of hiding. Little does he know that the place he chooses as the backdrop for his final assault will create the perfect opportunity to derail his nefarious plans.

In the midst of the chaos, Mel finds her carefully erected walls melting at Paul’s tender caring and support. She unpacks most of her baggage, feeling lighter for it because of Paul’s encouragement, but keeps the secret compartment sealed. A comment made by their antagonist threatens to rip the lock off that steel safe, laying bare Mel’s most feared past. Will Paul continue his pursuit once that dragon is loosed?

Health Update:

For those of you following my health saga, the 2nd Cochlear Implant was a BUST! The implant site abscessed, causing the device to erupt out of the skin behind my ear. The surgeon did an emergency removal, intending to try again later, after everything healed. Since the vertigo and tinnitus was worsened by the CI, and my hearing not improved with it, and my body TIRED of being assaulted by multiple surgeries, I asked him to just remove it all! The vertigo has almost completely ceased! HALLELUJAH! Tinnitus overwhelming most days!

Recovery has been slow, with my hips deciding they want attention now.

Appointment w/audiologist (a wonderful, sweet Spirit-filled Christian lady!) this week to see what we can do to address deteriorating hearing in both ears.

Cardiologist says I’m fine! (He doesn’t live in my body!)

Face planting is my new hobby. Not a good one! Tore muscles in shoulder on last fall! Getting a Rollinator soon. Hate that, but better than continued injuries from falls!

Writing is my escape, especially since Joy and Larry are both working, and I’m fighting the “useless, unproductive” feeling after 35 years as the hyper control freak mom and teacher. I can’t believe I wrote Final Flight in about ten days! Now to find an agent when most want me to have thousands of followers first!

Latest Update: December 29, 2022

Wow! It’s been almost a year since I added or updated anything to this blog! (Told you I wasn’t a blogger!)

During that gap, I’ve re-read and edited three of my four Christian romance novels, started another one (more intense, like Lynnette Eason, Dee Henderson, and Lynn Blackburn’s, all of whose I’ve read), and done scads of research on how best to capture an agent’s attention.

Misty Mansion: My first novel, written 3o years ago, about saving a historic mansion on the Gulf Coast from the nefarious schemes of a greedy developer.

Trust & Forgive: A child kidnapping with a bizarre twist, lots of good, old-fashioned police legwork, and an unexpected romance.

Pirated Plot: Trying to uncover the mystery of how her novel got published under someone else’s name, with parts of it poorly rewritten, by a publisher she’s never heard of, Bernie falls for the Editor-in-Chief of the guilty publishing company, a seemingly honorable man.

Final Flight: The MedAir chopper pilot and ER nurse find themselves the target of a vengeful family member of some patients they couldn’t save during their military careers.

Hoping to access Living Again, based on the diary I would’ve written were I a diary girl (never was!) when my son was born w/a severe cleft lip/palate 33 years ago. I wrote it as a novel when he was about five. The technology is so old, I’m having trouble retrieving it. (That’s the one that got the “medical journal” critique from an editor! See below)

That along with dealing w/various medical issues. Thanks to my cardiac meds, I’m essentially DEAF now! Hearing aids are of little to no help (especially on the phone!). My Cochlear implant, which worked GREAT the first few months (July 2021), quit working, so they’re replacing it day after tomorrow! The insane dizzyness, vertigo, and imbalance, none of which I had before the Cochlear implant, have dramatically limited my activities.

I’m bionic, for those who are interested:

Titanium hip installed due to arthritis (and kneeling to catch for my kids who were pitchers! Don’t laugh at those coaches sitting on buckets! Smart!) I walk like a drunk crippled penguin! (thanks to vestibular issues mentioned above)

Scoliosis aggravates sciatica. Best exercises: lie flat on floor, feet on chair, do various knee bending exercises to stretch nerve. Great! Only problem: can’t lie flat on floor cuz of scoliosis (pillow required); can’t lie flat on floor cuz of CHF (can’t breathe!); can’t get UP off the floor!!! Solution: do the exercises on the floor w/a pillow, then take a nap there and hope I can breath! (Can I take this show on the road? Comic strip live, here I come!)

Pacemaker (AFIB for 5 years: 13 cardioversions; 4 ablations; no RX helped; they finally gave up and put in a pacemaker “to make it all better”! As I told the cardiologist, “You put a very small bandaid on an arterial bleed!” He didn’t appreciate that. He’s convinced he solved the problem and said I’d live another 20 years! (I’m 63.)

Cochlear implant: magnet in skull; implant computer in “pocket” of skin above right ear. Lotsa cool toys go with it, but none work when the device itself doesn’t work! They’re replacing w/a longer, stronger electrode Friday. Nobody will admit “catastrophic failure,” but what else do you call it when it just QUITS WORKING!!!?

Explanation of the vestibular issues (which none of the exercises to retrain the brain seem to help!). Testing showed that NONE of the brain’s normal balance functions are working! That’s hard to believe, since that would basically render me a JELLYFISH!! My EENT did show me my brain CT: at the base of the cerebellum are two pockets of Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) that control balance. One of my pockets is EMPTY!!! No wonder I walk like a DRUNK CRIPPLED PENGUIN!!! I’ve asked if they can refill it. Waiting on response, but probly not. No clue when that happened. I’ve never been the most coordinated person on the planet, but the SEVERE IMBALANCE only started w/Cochlear. Wonder if previous CT’s (pre-Cochlear) show the same problem. Hmmmm. Time to investigate! So this explains why I am, officially, an “empty-headed, dizzy blonde”!

I’ve been accused of including too much medical information in my writing, and even advised to write for a medical journal/magazine (laughed hysterically over that one!). When you have 3 kids with craniofacial issues (mostly cleft lip/palate) and their surgeon is world-renowned craniofacial surgeon who separated the Egyptian twins 20 years ago (Dr. Ken Salyer), and you’ve been a Paramedic for 10 years, your world naturally includes lots of medical info! Kinda funny, since the only science I’m NOT certified to teach is Biology!

Starting the New Year with a new Cochlear. Hoping for some SERIOUS IMPROVEMENT! I’ll keep you posted!

Blog Update

I’m not a blogger, so this will be SHORT. It’s been a busy past few months, and I’m on the verge of submitting my second Christian romance medical novel to various publishers. Trust and Forgive is finished in my head, but I haven’t had time to get it on paper yet. Tying up some loose ends and making some reasonable connections is harder than I thought!

I’ve spent the past year reading almost all of Lisa Tawn Bergren’s books, and greatly enjoying each one. Recently, I’ve segwayed (a word we never used to use, but now use for EVERYTHING! Yes, I know I “spelled it wrong,” since it’s actually a NOUN, “segue,” which means you can’t make it past tense, but hey: This is English, where we break all the rules and create a new word!) into Dee Henderson’s law enforcement novels. Honestly, they make my head hurt! There are so many twists and turns that I have a hard time keeping up! Like a few of the Love Inspired Suspense novels, the intensity is not what I consider enjoyable. Mine are far more laid back, but I was accused of “gore” by one critic for describing the scene at a rollover crash. There are those who consider the word “blood” offensive! Wow! Guess they don’t appreciate THE BLOOD OF JESUS THAT WASHES ME CLEAN!

I’m rambling, so it’s time to wrap this up. Can you tell how ADD I get when I’m tired?! Just needed to have something new posted. Until next time, BE A DOER OF THE WORD! (James 1:22)