The Road is Long

We're in a recession. Has anyone else noticed? Well, my family has. Throw in two years of playing "Mystery Diagnosis" with my husband’s health, one very expensive, semi-successful spinal surgery, and a new baby and we are in deep to put it lightly. 

Two and a half years ago my husband started having asthma attacks. No big deal (well, ok a big deal, but not unheard of. He's had asthma his whole life). His asthma had been under control for a long time so it was a surprise to us. For the next year we spent hundreds of dollars trying to figure out why he wasn't getting his asthma under control. He had so many asthma attacks at work that he was forced to resign, leaving me to be the sole breadwinner in our house. A teachers salary ha ha. We had been married 6 months.

See how happy we are? 

This is our honeymoon. 

He was also in a lot of back pain. Excruciating actually. Ibuprofen barely made a dent. Doctors had told him to see a general practioner to figure out why he was in pain with the hope that, since nothing else was solving his asthma, maybe pain was his "trigger;" that solving one problem would, in turn, fix the other. We went to several more doctors who had no answers for him. We finally figured out that he was allergic to NSAIDS (ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen. Basically anything over the counter except Tylenol). Still, there was no answer for why he was in so much pain. One doctor even went so far as to tell him that he could "spend tens of thousands of dollars running tests to find out what was wrong with him and we would never find anything because it was in his head." That’s a direct quote that came about a year and half into our journey. I was 3 months pregnant. I know right? Just to add a little pressure. 

He was also developing some disturbing new symptoms, including but not limited to: tingling, numbness, pins and needles in his foot and flashes of light. All of these symptoms were getting worse and fast. In November we finally got a diagnosis (after spending about two weeks thinking he had Multiple Sclerosis). The MS specialist did something not one of the twelve other doctors (yes, twelve) had thought to do. He took a contrasting MRI of his neck. Turns out he had three (yes, three) herniated disks in his neck. He was in surgery twelve days later. By the time he went into surgery he was using a wheelchair on a daily basis, I was almost 8 months pregnant and we had moved in with his parents to help shoulder some of the financial burden.

In his neck brace post-surgery, pre-baby

He improved well for a little while, but once Wiggles was born he worked way too hard taking care of her than he should and set his recovery way back. We're still searching for answers as to why he's not better than he is now. He still is in a lot of pain, but he is able to work again after more than two years. There are some jobs he can't do. No heavy lifting or standing all day, but office work he can do. But I don't know if you have noticed, there aren't many of those jobs to be had. And after a year of living with his parents I think all five of us are ready for a new living arrangement. 

See how he's bending over to love his littel girl?

 This was taken her first night home and 7 weeks post suregery. 

He'd had his brace off for only 3 weeks.

Ok, now the point. It's been a hard few years. It has been a test of our relationship and a huge test of my faith in God. I would like to take the next few posts to share with you the things that I have learned over the last few years. Stay tuned! Maybe if you can learn these through me, God won't have to teach you in your life.