Monday, April 07, 2008

Perspective

I've had a really rough time these past couple of weeks and spent most of Saturday morning at the hospital in severe pain. I came down with severe vertigo two weeks ago and due to the severe dizziness and nausea this has caused I've not been eating and drinking enough. This lack of intake plus the multiple surgeries I've had on both ureters (the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder) caused them to go into spasm which is like having a kidney stone only without the stone. It's difficult to treat and excrutiatingly painful. When I got to the hospital my b/p was 115/102 (normal is 110-140/60-90) and this, plus the CT scan, indicated the pain was from my kidneys. I was given large amounts of diuladid which is a heavy duty IV pain medicine and some anti-nausea meds called Zofran. After about three times the usual dose of diuladid, the pain was better. Since then the pain has slowly eased off.

I'm very grateful I had a good, understanding doctor. Lots of times when doctors see how much pain medication I take on a daily basis they get concerned about giving too much when in reality I would need much more than the normal dose because of being on cancer-level doses of pain meds. The CT scan showed the mass/tumor in my kidney hasn't grown significantly larger for which I am also thankful.

Anyway, the point of this blog posting is to tell you of a blog I've been reading called Confessions of a CF Husband that has really helped me to keep my physical problems in perspective. Please read it when you get a moment. It's a wonderful story of a young couple undergoing mind-boggling adversity yet throughout it all being in complete dependance on Christ, knowing He will be with them throughout all they are going through. It's a wonderful story of overcoming and makes me long for a fraction of the grace and faith Nate & Tricia have!

3 comments:

Esmeralda said...

Hi Debbie,

I got the link to your website from a mutual friend's facebook page. Your name rang a bell and I realised I have heard it a few times in that family's company.

Well we have a few things in common, I am also an undeserving child of God. I am currently working as a doctor having graduated nearly 2 years ago. Currently I'm still doing the equivalent of my residency, over here in the UK it's 2 years. For the last 2 months, I've been on a paediatric ward, and love it. I have the next month in on the neonatal unit then 1 month back on the children's unit. We don't have a Paediatric ICU in my hospital, we have to transfer our patients out for that to the nearest teaching hospital.

I kept a blog too for some years whilst going through my share of worldly sorrows. Blogging encouraged my soul alot. I still have an active one now, but it's private.

So do you still blog?

Liz

Ragamuffin said...

Hey Liz! Thanks for your comment. No I've not bloggged for several months now due to increasing pain and disability. It's lovely to hear from you though and I am curious to know who is the friend we have in common. Could you let me know, pls?

What is it like to work in Britain? Did you grow up there? I intensely miss working as a PICU nurse and at one time thought of getting work in the UK. Guess the Lord had other plans for me...

In Christ,
Debbie

Ragamuffin said...

Thanks for the head's up, Liz. Perhaps if you were a facebook friend this might be easier. Let me know if this is a possibility as I don't want to give my email address publicly...
In Christ,
Debbie