Jul 24, 2012

Jul 19, 2012

Migraine Update

Thank you so much to my friends D, K, & P.  Your emails and phone calls were so encouraging.  I know I sounded discouraged and down.  I was.  But their insight and prayers and friendship certainly helped me to see things with a renewed perspective.

Here is part of what K said to me, 

It certainly is hard to see the good.  Sometimes I don't think it is that helpful to wrack your brains trying to see what the good is in something that is clearly bad. I think it is enough to trust that God is good, and to know that in the end He'll make all the bad go away. Or another way of looking at it is that God will bring good OUT OF bad things, not denying that the bad thing truly is unequivocally bad.  Rom. 8:28 says God 'orders all things for the good . . .'  I don't think that means that we need to try to call bad things good or try to see that a bad thing really is good...  I just know that my thinking on this has changed over the years, and I hope in the right direction..."

What a good point.  I don't have to view a bad thing as good.  I just need to know that God is good, among all His other attributes, and that He has my best interest at heart.  EVEN IF I. CAN'T. SEE. IT.

This is part of what D said,


I understand how hard and how serious it is to have a chronic illness like you have and how awful it is to feel pain and or sickness most of the time in your days. I've had a relapse because of the move and I am struggling to get back to where I was getting to ( such a better place!) before the move.Some days and nights I have so much pain and sickness I can't function at all.Why did God let this happen? I don't know. I can talk about it with only a very few because most don't want to hear it. But it is real and I and M have to deal with it. It is no fun( understatement there) but I can trust God in it, and also when I stop trusting God I can get back to trusting Him.

He loves us. I don't know why you are going through this but I will pray for you, for relief from the headaches.
Having someone, or 2, who really understand what having a chronic illness is and the frustration that can go along with it is so helpful and encouraging.  And both D and P are in much worse shape physically than I am and P has NO familial support at all.  D and I at least have husbands who are loving, godly , caring men.  And I have 2 great kids who are old enough and mature enough to take over.  In fact that is just what my son did yesterday.  He took over dinner.  I was not up to making pizza so he just told me to go back and rest and he would take care of it.  And he did.  With very little help from me.  I think the only help I gave was how much ground beef and bacon to cook for the stuffed baked potatoes.
Finally here is what P shared with me after my last migraine post,
Hi Susan, I just left you and D a message on your answering machine but it was too long and I got cut off so I thought I'd just jot a note.  I feel so badly you are suffering in this way and I will pray.  I wish I could do more and feel frustrated that right now I am so limited in what I can do myself that days that days go by and I do nothing but the minimal to take care of myself and take my pills and make my meals.  Please know in your heart of hearts that if I was healthier right now I would do more to encourage you and even make a trip up there to help and encourage you in person.  Susan, I miss you (and your family too) so much.  For as much as that's sad, I'm aware that it's such a blessing to know and be known by people well enough to miss them.  So many people in the world don't even have anyone who loves them enough to miss them. .... 
Dear sister, just know that you are not forgotten and that I will be beseeching God for His mercy to grant a breakthrough on the Dr's understanding of these migraines.  There is hope for that.  I often doubt that myself, but it's easier to have hope for someone else's situation b/c you can see God's character more objectively for who He really is.  I know He is able, and that there's always hope in any situation with Him...
All 3 of these ladies live a minimum of 450 miles from me... so we communicate a lot via email, but to know that they get my posts and care enough to reply and to pray and to encourage me means so much.  To hear from them is the highlight of my day!
But, back to the migraines...
I am improving.  Some weeks it is 3 steps forward and 2 back but overall as I look at my headache logs, I am seeing stretches of days without headaches!
So what am I doing?
  1. No prepared foods.  No mixes, no fast food, etc
  2. No tylenol, aspirin or ibuprofen
  3. No caffeine
  4. Fresh veggies, meats, some fruit, goat cheese
  5. No bread
  6. No fast acting carbs
  7. Mainly water to drink
How is this helping?
  1. I don't get all the chemicals that can trigger migraine
  2. I don't get the so-called rebound headaches
  3. I can sleep at night
  4. Overall more healthy
  5. I don't get the blood sugar spikes
  6. Same as 5
  7. Flushes my system, less for my kidneys to process
  8. I've lost about 15 pounds
  9. I fit into a skirt yesterday that has always been tight
  10. I've got 2 skorts that need to be taken in cause they fall down!
  11. My menstrual cramps have greatly decreased, to practically nothing from going through 2 boxes of midol a month to needing 2 doses.
I'm not sure how everything ties together but I am slowly improving.

So thank you for your prayers and encouragement. 

Now I just need to get the lesson plans finished for next school year so I can take a sewing break!

Bird Roosting on Whirl-I-Gig

We have this large wooden whirl-i-gig that my mom-on-law gave us that hangs on the front porch.  Last night David was on the phone around 10pm and as he wanders when he talks he ended up on the porch and happened to notice the bird.

Here is the best  photo from last night. It is really hard to see the bird even though we shone a light on him and used the flash on the camera. I hope you can make him out.



This is a photo of the whirl-i-gig taken this morning.


I hope to go out earlier tonight and wait quietly on th eporch for the bird to arrive.  Maybe I can get a shot of him in the dusk.