David's Bible Blog

Backpacking!

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 19:18:00 GMT

Genesis 1:31 (NKJV)

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

I went backpacking with some wonderful friends this past weekend to the Richland Creek Wilderness area just north of Russellville AR. What a delightful trip and considering what I've been through, a miracle! God is good! Three Davids went (should have been four David D. :-) and Roxanne and Tiffany and Kyle.

The water was high and so we could not make the second stream crossing like we had planned but no matter, the campsite we stayed at for two nights was delightful and we were close to a bend in the river with a beach and within a short (although rugged) hike to Richland Creek Falls and Twin Falls. It was cold the first night and the temp was in the low twenties when we woke up Sunday morning. We day hiked to the falls that afternoon and said our goodbyes' to Dave and Kyle who had to head on back home that afternoon. It rained in the middle of the night Sunday night and it was only in the thirties Monday morning. David S. and I determined that we could cross the stream at about thigh deep to go see the twin falls before we broke camp to head on back home. After a quick breakfast and finally some warm coffee after that cold crossing, we packed it up and headed out of the woods for the two mile trek and final stream crossing. The trail was wet and muddy in places so we gingerly scrambled over the rocks and narrow ledges and arrived at our car early afternoon. Two nights in the woods and base camping does not sound all that much but I was so encouraged and filled with gratitude for my friends who spurred me on and gave me a new start in backpacking adventures.

Check out the album on bubbleshare by clicking here. Dave and David, you can download a zip file of the pictures when you go to the album. They should be a decent size, but if there are any you want the fullsize original of, let me know and I'll email them to you.

Turning a Corner

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 15:11:21 GMT

All’s been quiet on this front for a long time. I have spoken about how the Lord was healing me of a long term health problem with back pain culminating in having a tumor on my spinal cord in my neck discovered (revealed may be a better word ) and removed. This post will explain this period of quiet and the good news that came out of it but before I can explain the good news, I have to explain why I was so quiet.

Take a look in the picture on the right of my pre-Op MRI. Can you see what is not supposed to be there? Look up and down the spinal cord coming off the base of the brain. About two thrids the way down is a blob which was pinching the spinal cord.

The surgery required removing the bones of my spinal column which surround and protect the spinal cord. This would give the surgeon access to the tumor on the cord. It was quite a delicate surgery to remove this mass which had attached itself to the spinal cord itself. The tricky part was that the tumor was the same texture and color as the nerve. Furthermore, the tumor had extended down one of the nerve roots going down to my left arm. This required removal of facet joint which keeps the vertabra from coming out of alignment. Without this joint, my neck would be easily broken. The solution here was to fuse the two vertabras together requiring rods and screws to hold it all together while the fusion takes place over the next year.

This is a an x-ray (not an MRI) showing the screws. You can see the rod and screws easily but also notice the missing spineous process bones. You can see two of them at the top of my neck (that’s my jaw on the upper right). Then they dissappear for the next five vertabra. These bones are part of the structure fo bones which surround and protect the spinal cord which sits just behind the spinal column of vertabra. The vertabra are separated by discs forming a column which is the backbone of your body. The spinal cord, or main nerve, runs down just behind this backbone of vertabra and discs and is protected by the spineous process bones. As you can see, I don’t have those spineous process bones anymore. You can feel yours on your back. They are the bony things that stick out and make bumps on the skin down the middle of your back. I have a noticable flat spot on my neck now because those bones are missing. The back and neck muscles normally attach to these bones. I asked the surgeon where those muscles attach now and he said that he sewed the two sides together so that they now attach to opposing muscles groups rather than to a central bone.

The next xray on the right shows a frontal view and you can see the absence of these spineous process bones as the long oval darker shape in the middle of my neck just next to the screws. This was the cavity the surgeon made to gain wide open access to the spinal cord and the tumor.

I blogged my recovery from that surgery and how God was healing. The wonderful part was that the pain I had been dealing with in my back and my legs for three years was gone. So I have had two failed surgeries on my lower back and then a tumor which according to the doctors should have had nothing to do with my back pain. Healed! Right? Well, yes and not yet.

I realize that there are many stages of healing particularly when we talk of “complete healing.” What I did not realize several months ago was that although my pain was gone, my body had become dependent on pain killing drugs. I have been taking strong narcotics on a continual basis for over 18 months. I had figured out how to cope with the intestional problems that are typcally associated with opiods. But back last March, I started experiencing severe headaches that lasted 24–48 hours at a time, several times a week. Associated with this was dizziness and loss of appitite. Although I was experiencing no back pain I was having a very difficult time being productive even with simplest of mental activities. Furthermore, I went into a state of depression that was like a vice grip on my head. I am wondering if I wouldn’t rather go back to the back pain, at least I was able to accomplish some work. The worst part was this state of mind was affecting my spiritual well being.

I have wonderful news to report however, my headaches have been gone for several weeks now. I am exercising again, and my appitite has returned. Thank you Lord and thank all of you who were praying for me. Especially you Millie!

Now for the story of how this wonderful turn came about. I had convinced myself that the pain killers were a necessary part of my life since I still suffer from pretty bad arthritis in my left hip and left knee. Although I did not need the pain medication anymore for my low back or my shoulders (from the surgery on my neck), I still felt I needed it for my arthritis since it worked so well on that malady. I kept looking for some reason why my headaches started back last March. It seemed so drastic of a change from how well I had been doing during since January.

In March, I had another MRI on my neck done and discovered that I had a seroma which is a pocket of spinal fluid that had collected at the site of the surgery. In the picture, notice the white tube-like thing just to the right of the spinal cord. You can see that the spinal cord is much more relaxed than it was but that there is still some damage from where the tumor was. The white tube-like thing is where the surgeon had to remove so much bone that there was a cavity and although he tried to tighen the muscles up around there, it was impossible to completely fill the cavity with muscle tissue. Now the body abhors a vacuum so it will fill up with something. Fluids are the easiest to fill such cavities and the nearest fluid in this case was spinal fluid. Such seromas are not uncommon and may or may not cause problems.

Some doctors I talked to, not my surgeon, thought that this seroma could cause the headaches because of the hydrolic fluid connection through the spinal column to the brain. Any pumping of this fluid due to muscle movement or whatever would directly affect the brain since it too is encased in spinal fluid. My surgeon did not seem too worried about the seroma but he did say we’ll keep an eye on it since I have to have four more MRI’s done over the next three years to make sure the tumor does not return. The only complications he mentioned are infection and he did not seem to be too concerned about that. So the headaches were somewhat of a mystery but I became fixated that the seroma was the cuprit and was convinced that was my problem. I even contemplated more surgery to repair the seroma.

Meanwhile, in March, I was asking my surgeon to renew my prescription for pain killers while telling him how I felt they were really helping my arthritis problems and that I might need to continue to take them indefinately. He frowned at that suggestion but acquiesed. But then he decided to prescribe a new synthetic opoid which had just come out in a forumulation where you only had to take one pill a day. It was an extended release type of narcotic. So whereas I used to take the pills when I felt I needed one for pain, typically three a day, now I just took one every day in the morning whether I needed it or not. No pain ever, such bliss right? Not really. I began to realize that the pain killers were complicating my life because the associated constipation was getting more and more of a problem. Twice I tried to stop taking the pills for a couple of days and immediately would have severe flu-like withdrawal symptions accompanied by diarrea, not a pleasant situation. This is a classic case of drug dependancy. It is a physical dependancy not a psychological addicition. But I must say that the psychologal element still comes into play when you know what will happen if you stop taking the pills, withdrawals and exacerbated arthritis pain. Bottom line, the pain killers were starting to show their ugly side. They were wonderful and truly a blessing for a time but now they were definately a problem to be sovled.

Interestingly, although I had read about these drugs, I had never noticed some of the side effects mentioned in the pharmecutical litarature. I have always assumed that the endless lists of “Some patients may experience this that and the other” you see was just for those rare patient cases who were perhaps reporting these symptoms but were mistakenly assumed to be related to the drug. As far as I was concerned, such warnings were just a legal requirement for the drug companies. But then I read again where the opiods I was taking could cause headaches, dizziness and loss of appitite. All of a sudden it clicked. The headaches showed up only after I started taking the extended release pain killers in March. Now I had a huge reason to get off these pills at least long enough to determine whether they were the cause of my problems. So now the question became how to get through the withdrawals. After consulting my surgeon I got a new prescription for normal pain killers (non extended release formulation) and I began to slowly cut down on the dosage. I worked my way down from 100% to 75%, 50%, 25% then 10% of the amount I was taking previously on a daily basis. I began to notice the headaches becomeing shorter, less intense and less frequent. Last Sunday, I decided to stop taking the pills completely.

Praise God, it has been four days now and I am completely off those narcotics with no severe headaches in two weeks! And all of the other symptoms are gone too. Last week, I returned to my personal trainer whom I had not seen in three years. I am lifting weights, walking and my outlook is fantastic.

So now I ask why did God allow me to go though all of these problems with depression and headaches? In retrospect I can say I really needed those pain meds over the last three years and I can thank God for that. But God knew I would become dependent on them and He had to allow me to discover what that was all about. If I had not been prescribed those one-a-day pills for pain, I might not have ever realized how detrimental that medicine could be over the long term. The last phase of my healing was to take me through a dark time so that I could see those last remaining problems which would have become demons had I not felt the need to fight them early on.

Thank you Lord for answering my prayers.

Unshackled

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 06:32:11 GMT

Wednesday, I was set free. Doc says I can go without the neck brace. Freedom is a wonderful thing but scary too I found out. I still walk around like I had the brace on and I am scared to turn my head too much. It’s weird, almost like I want to put it back on for comfort. Delaine tells me I snored last night too and I have not been snoring. I knew immediately what it was, my chin was being held up keeping my jaw from dropping which kept my mouth shut and kept me breathing through my nose. So now do I put it back on when I go to bed just to keep from snoring?

Ahh but I got to drive today…for the first time since driving to the hospital on Dec 13. (Except for that little emergency when Delaine got locked out of her car at Walgreens, about five minutes away, and I bravely drove to rescue her). Got my hair cut (great to visit with you Marilyn!), got Toby’s bath done, and picked up my prescription. And I finally have a few new twenty dollar bills in my billfold. I found out something interesting, if you can’t drive, you don’t need any cash. I’ve had the same single five dollar bill in my billfold since my surgery. Now I’m flush with cash! (It goes fast).

Toby and I went for another long walk whilst listening to Rush. I took the twin walking poles and really tried to kick up the pace a bit. Oh, and by the way, I asked Doc about how much exercising I could do and found out all that (light)weight lifting I’ve been doing was a bad thing (because the vertebra fusion is still trying to take). So no more weight lifting for another month. But I can do all the walking I want to, so I figured I could at least get the arms in on the act with the walking poles. Besides they make you feel like an Olympic cross country skier.

The main thing is the Lord is good and his word is sweet and I am grateful to his healing hand on my body.

Proverbs 3:7-8 (NKJV)

Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.

Speaking of being free from my neck brace, I have been freed from something else too. I have identified myself with Christ who died and was raised from the dead. So I reckon I am freed from sin’s power over me and one day I will even be freed from sin’s presence.

Romans 6:7-11 (NKJV)

For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Sweating to the oldies

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 01:34:47 GMT

Listening to some old sermons that I had never heard before, I just finished my longest and heaviest workout since, well, maybe since this past summer. I got my heart rate up to 140 sustained for about 10 minutes but walked for a total 30 minutes. Ten of those minutes were outside but Toby and I had to turn around because it was too cold and windy to stay (for me anyway), so I finished my walk on the treadmill.

That’s an older shot of Toby racing the cars on Walnut Grove road at Shelby Farms when we used to go for a walkabout almost every day there. That’s one of my goals by the way, is to get back in shape where I can do that again. Anyway, the snow shot is appropriate because it snowed about three inches yesterday. Toby was made for cold weather and he he does not need that little red coat that he had on but Delaine made me promise to put it on him.

Back to the workout. After the walk, I found my little dumbbells and got the little six pounders and did some hunched over raises to exercise my shoulders. Then I did three sets of inclined presses at thirty pounds.

I’m going in for my second followup visit with the surgeon this Wednesday and I should become un-shackled from this neck brace I been wearing. And I’m sure we’ll have an interesting conversation about those little white pills I’ve been taking. Actually I’m ready to get off of them and start going drug free. Hey, I’ve managed to stop coffee drinking. That's what the bouts of severe nausea did for me.

I just thought about another thing that could have been affected by the tumor in my spinal cord. Last time I went to the Doc to see about the nausea, my blood pressure was 117 over 75. My blood pressure has never been that low and even with the meds I take it’s usually around 135/90. Could it be that getting rid of that tumor cured that too? Hey, I’m a believer. I give God credit for everything, even if it turns out to be not true.

Now I am going to brave the wind and snow and cold to go get in the hot tub. Ah, just like Colorado! Oh yeah, another goal, ski again!

Thank you Lord, you have blessed me with sweetness of life again and I praise you and desire that you be glorified.

Ready for some (light)weight lifting

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 07:32:55 GMT

I felt pretty good this afternoon so I was ready for a bit of walking. It was too cold outside so I went upstairs to do the treadmill. I have nice Nautilus weight machine sitting there which has gone unused since before my lumbar fusion surgery in May of last year. I’ve told you all about my continuing pain in my neck and shoulders. So on the way past the weight machine toward the treadmill I get the bright idea to do some inclined presses to give those hurting shoulders a bit of a workout. Normally I’d put about 60 lbs on there to do three sets of ten reps. Well I smartly think I should start out easy and put it on thirty lbs. I could not budge it. So I try twenty lbs. I get eight very shaky reps in before giving up. I did eight more later. This is not just out of shape, this is major muscle damage and rehab time. But I know I need to start slow and easy. It’s now hours later and I can already feel that good feeling that comes from purposely exercising muscles.

The treadmill went great, I gradually pushed the speed up to 2.7 MPH and still could not get my heartbeat past 125 for ten minutes. I’m pleased with that. I even walked Toby out in the cold for another ten minutes later on tonight. That’s just a couple of weeks after getting on the treadmill for the first time since surgery.

I’m going to get over this thing and be good as a 54 year old man can be. Of course that is if the Lord is willing. I pray Lord that you are but only if it will glorify you.

It felt great to be back in corporate worship this morning

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 01:34:33 GMT

Believe it or not, today was the first day I have been back at a worship service since my surgery. Things went great for a while then we all stood to sing a number of wonderful hymns in a very worshipful attitude. I was singing my heart out. (Delaine my wife, wants me to “blend” a bit more”) But I was really getting into it. Then I started noticing that my diaphragm was hurting and I was running out of breath. Finally a bit of dizziness started to develop and before I knew it, I had to sit down. I got my second wind and just continued to sing from the seated position. I felt kind of wimpish but I was worshiping God and not trying to please men anyway.

After a great sermon by Pastor Steve on revival as experienced by the Jews in Exodus 33, he began to give his invitation. I told Delaine I was going to go forward to counsel those who were coming to make decisions. Deacons have that responsibility in our Church. Our schedule as Deacons is three years on, one year off. Well I am coming back on this year so I have not been deaconing yet this year. The Lord blessed me with an easy couple who had already professed Christ, already been baptized by immersion and already joined Sunday School and just wanted to join the Church. We had a sweet time of hearing testimony. About half way through I had to tell the wife I was working with (another Deacon was working with the husband) what was wrong with my neck because I know she was curious about it. She said she would pray for me, much appreciated.

Finally Delaine and I went to the Waffle House for some breakfast (you know you can eat breakfast anytime of day don’t you?) That was good but my shoulders and arms were really hurting by that time. So I was ready to get home and relax.

I had wanted to visit a Sunday School class this morning but I slept too late. Probably a good thing because I don’t think I could have made the four hours total from Sunday School to Sunday Afternoon Lunch.

Continued Progress

Sat, 04 Feb 2006 02:59:30 GMT

I feel like I have gotten a lot done this week. I had another great class Wednesday Night and folks came up afterwards and asked some great questions. The last two days, I have had some long meetings with various people and my stamina continues to improve. One thing I just realized today is not only have I not had any low-back pain since my surgery but I have not noticed any arthritis pain in my left hip which was almost as painful as the sciatica pain I was having. In fact I was even considering a hip replacement. Now I still have to qualify that I am still on drugs (less and less amounts every week though), so I can’t speak definitively but I can say that I am believing God has used this last, providential surgery to completely heal me of the things that have afflicted me so much for the last three years including my arthritis.

I did discover Wednesday Night when I forgot to take a pain pill and also several mornings this week when I would wake up after all the pain medicine had worn off that my neck and shoulders are still hurting. Understandable though, because I still just seven weeks out from the surgery.

Thank you Lord for all you have done for me and I pray that it will all be to glorify your name through my testimony for You.

This week is done, and naps are a good thing.

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 09:19:57 GMT

Thursday I had a delightful visit with Jon Box; two geeks (professional mind you) enjoying talking about all the stuff our wives have no clue about. Thanks for bringing lunch by Jon, your visit really blessed me; you are a true friend. We probably talked about four hours. (I keep saying that’s about all I’m good for these days, I took a long nap after he left)

Today (Friday), I had an early Doctor’s appointment to check out this nausea problem I have been having. I thought it was going to be a pretty easy day but that appointment kicked off a series additional trips to get some lab work done, and a CT scan done. I did not get back home until 5:00 (I did have a nice lunch with Delaine at Mamma Fu’s (highly recommended fast Thai food which I think may have cured my nausea problems !).

So, I sit in my comfy chair at about 5:30 and next thing I know it’s 9:00 and I’m by myself. Delaine comes home shortly with a nice salad and we watched a movie together. I know it’s late now but I go back to sleep for another 9 hours easy. Recovery from major surgery takes lots of sleep and rest. I did not get my walk in today or yesterday but I going to kick up the pace tomorrow and try to go longer and a little faster, Lord willing.

God has been good to me, helped me through a tough but important turning point week. I think I’ll blog another devotional tomorrow and catch up on some reading. I still intend on blogging and podcasting a series of messages on the Kingdom of God. Sort of like an Internet Sunday School.

Don’t forget to pray for Don Whitney. I have been blessed listening to a number of his messages on my iPod this week.

I made it, Thank You Lord

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 07:21:35 GMT

I’ve blogged several times about this week being the big test week for whether I was really ready to start keeping commitments, like board meetings, teaching, etc. This is Wednesday night and except for some discomfort in deciding whether to sit or stand, God was gracious and granted me the strength and stamina to teach the first night of the Creation Science course. Thanks go to Bob for helping haul my stuff around but I really want to thank my wife Delaine for dealing with a massive signup night. We had over ninety people in the class tonight. It went well; I received some good feedback afterwards and except for running out of time to finish everything, I am pleased.

Same sort of report for last Monday night when I had an executive committee meeting and then a regular board meeting for the Bellevue Foundation. When I was able to make it through both those events without calling in my backup plan (sneak out and go home early!) I knew I could make it through Wednesday night.

Just to put this in perspective, I just started using my treadmill (ten minutes) last Saturday to try to begin a little physical therapy and last week I was still so weak and nauseous that I could not have made any commitments. As a matter of fact it was not until Monday morning that the nausea finally subsided after a week of misery.

My back and neck muscles continue to strengthen (still use plenty of pain meds however), and my permanently numb fingers (from losing the sensory nerves) don’t even bug me that much anymore when typing.

Strange thing I noticed when out for a short walk yesterday and today (beautiful days), swinging my arms for a normal, slow gait made the muscles that do the swinging sore. Wow, that shows how many of shoulder and back muscles were affected by the surgery.

Thank you for your prayers and I am full of hope for getting back to a normal healthy lifestyle.

I have not said much about my other back problems I have suffered from in the past three years, but suffice it to say that they were still causing me much pain just prior to this last surgery on my neck. That’s after two prior surgeries (discectomy and spinal fusion on the lumbar spine) and almost three years of recovery time. In fact, it was that continued pain that had led me to the pain clinic where God intervened and caused the doctors there to look at my neck with a cervical MRI. Well some have suggested that there is a connection between my past pain and this tumor in my neck. Jury’s still out but interestingly I have not had one bit of low back pain since my most recent surgery on my neck. May be because of the additional pain meds, but I am very hopeful. The pain doc had suggested that the pain I was having was some sort of triggered pain whose cycle needed to be broken.

I am trusting the Lord and wouldn’t it be just like Him and to his glory to have answered all my prayers over the past three years in this way. The doctors could have been looking in all the wrong places but God showed them the right place to look.

Health Update

Thu, 19 Jan 2006 03:57:09 GMT

Yesterday, Bethany and I went to the Radiology department at Methodist Germantown to get some spine x-rays done .My surgeon wanted to take a look at how the fusion was progressing during this mornings appointment. He seemed to be generally pleased but not pleased enough to let me take the neck brace off for another four weeks.

But today, was the first chance Delaine and I got to see the extent of the damage (modifications) he had to do to the vertebra to remove the tumor. The most obvious thing you see when you first look at the x-ray is the screws and rod he placed on the right side of C6–C7. Those are where he is fusing the two vertebra together because he had to destroy the facet joint on the left side creating a huge hole to gain access to the part of the tumor that was growing down one of the foramen tubes through which the nerve root passes to my left hand. Without that joint, my neck would be unstable. He could have put a rod and screws on that side too, but he wanted to be able to clearly see that area with another MRI that we’ll do after three months. This is just one of those, “let’s just make sure we got it all.” moves before he pronounces me healed.

You know when you rub your fingers down the back of your neck, you can feel those bumps? Those are called spinous processes. They are rather large bony segments of your vertebra that muscles attach to to turn the individual vertebra and to protect the spinal cord. Well the surgeon had to remove four of those things (C4–C7) including the associated lamina to gain access to the biggest part of the tumor surrounding the spinal cord itself.

Now about how I feel, after looking at the x-ray, I can understand why I still have some neck, back and shoulder pain. All those muscles were involved in some way attaching to those bones he removed. (Don’t ask me what they attach to now, I don’t have a clue.) So I still take pain meds but only about half as much as I was several weeks ago. Thank You Lord.

So, now I seem to be plagued with some fairly minor problems that are kind of breaking through since the neck pain has subsided. I am having a lot of nausea and I don’t know why. I am off all the antibiotics that can cause that. Of course the narcotics can cause that but I’ve been taking those for a long time now and have not had problems with nausea before. Could be just the chronic constipation associated with narcotics but there are plenty of over-the-counter meds to take care of that. Finally I am weak and don’t feel like doing any kind of exercise. Basically the doctor says my physical therapy should be to go back to normal activity (walking etc) when I feel like it. I sure wish I felt like it.

My prayer:

Dear Lord,

Thank you for all you have done for me in this process of being afflicted, diagnosed, and repaired through a capable surgeon’s God given abilities. Thank you for the prayers of all my brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. Thank you for my dear wife Delaine and my daughter Bethany who have sacrificed to take special care of me. Thank you for the improvement I have made thus far. Now I ask, Lord, that you help me to continue to heal. I know that no healing takes place apart from your divine providence and sustaining hand. I ask you Lord for a double measure of relief in the coming days. Give me strength, stamina and remove the nausea. You know Lord, I have a teaching commitment I want to keep starting next week. You have given me the ability to teach and have allowed me to make this commitment and I know you will provide the strength and well-feeling necessary to do this.