Medical intervention

Had a pain management appointment yesterday. Yep, I was up to my eyebrows in disgust at my constant low back pain. Every day I have pain. Not debilitating pain, but constant, you never know when a simple movement is going to ruin the rest of your week, kind of pain. For those that are newbies to my life: Last summer I was notified by diagnostic testing that I have herniated lumbar discs at L4 and L5. Both discs are herniated and torn, for whatever that is worth. I've tried OTC medications, exercising, rest, lifestyle changes, prayer, and swearing. So far no change.


I met with a fantastic physician at NKCH in the Pain Management Clinic. After an in depth evaluation, the good doc gave me the different options, starting with most conservative( Physical Therapy and stronger meds like prescription Ibuprofen) then epidural steroid injections, then surgery, then heavy duty prescription medications, and finally a implanted spinal nerve blocking do-hickey. I chose option #2...the epidural steroid injection.

Reasons Why
--I am so very very tired of feeling old and crippled by my back. I can't do things with my kids that my mommy brain and heart wants to do. --If I feel this way now, what am I going to feel like in my 50s? 60s? 70s? 80s? I plan to have lots of grandkids and I need to be able to keep moving! --I went with this intervention because I don't want to be a daily pill taker. I have years to rely on pills to make me feel better and I don't want to blow through my medication choices at such a youngish age.

Sooooo, I had the injection and it hurt like heck for a hot minute when they put in the guide and needle. I then hung out while they observed me for 30 mintues and went home. I probably could have gone back to work, but the doctor told me not to, plus driving afterwards is a bad idea. My Rt leg(the side I had the injection on) felt "flimsy" for most of the afternoon and by evening both of my hips were on Fi-yah(fire). I slept like poop, but woke up with less ache and pain in my low back.


Went to work today. Sitting for too long has been the worst part and once I get up and walk around the pain is much less. Now that it is evening my hips are on Fi-yah once again and I am ready to call it a day. I need to give the medicine 72 hours to really start to feel the "good" and I have to be prepared for there to be no miracle relief. There is the option to have 3 injections in 6 months, and I have heard both positive and negative feedback from other people that have gone through the injection series. Some felt no relief at all, some felt nothing until the 3rd injection, some it only took one and they were thrilled.


I go back in two weeks, if I have not had relief, and will get the second injection. If I feel good, then I will postpone the next injection for a while to stretch out the time between them. The side effects of steroids are something I could do without....weight gain, acne, mood swings, fluid retention, blah blah blah. My adorable husband said he would take the extra pounds if it makes my back feel better. ahhhhhh....that's love.

Celebrate Good Times....C'mon!

****Disclaimer*****I tried a bagillion times to get this stupid post to have paragraphs to separate the different days. I am sorry it is such a huge blob of words to try and read.******** This weekend was 90% full of celebrating and happiness and JOY......about 10% spent in disappointment and woe. Friday Night: Watched the Jayhawks spank the Richmond Spiders with our immediate Martens family. Love spending time with the in-laws watching basketball. Saturday: Kate, Jane and I attended a little boy-friend's birthday BOWLING party. I can't believe no toes or fingers got smashed from a wayward bowling ball. Of course, I was the parental nazi watching my kids and giving the stink eye to other parents that had mentally and physically checked out from watching their kids. Seriously. I do not expect little kids to know proper bowling etiquette, but there are some unspoken rules you just gotta follow! For instance, don't walk in front of someone in mid stride/walk getting ready to throw a heavy hard ball. Dumb. Don't walk out onto the actual bowling alley. They are crazy slick. And if you DO walk out there and fall....do not act like it is the owners fault. And for the love of Pete, if your kid doesn't know the slightest concept of bowling, maybe you should get off your arse and help your own kid....don't expect another attentive parent(ME) to do it. I have a gimpy back and two of my own kids to keep from becoming maimed by a bowling ball. I do not need the added duties. The girls had a great time, the chosen gift was a super hit(a dinosaur tent) and every one was worn slick afterwards. My kind of party. Saturday Night: Tess met with a college age girl who pitches softball in college. This is the first year Tess is old enough to play "kid pitch" softball and the coach is having all interested girls try pitching to see if they #1 like pitching and #2 are any good/have any control. Tess wore her Drake Softball T shirt (shout out to our oldest Samantha!) and the girl said her one regret was not going to Drake as they had recruited her........cool. Anyway, Tess was told she had a really good "feel" for the idea behind pitching and had a good start as far as form/concept. She worked with Jenny(Bock) for about 45 minutes and we both felt pretty good about the time being well spent. I think Tess was blown away by how much "work" it is to get each pitch to the batter. There is seriously no time to space off, and that might be a tad hard for this age! :) She was also given home work to practice on before her next lesson. The idea of Tess pitching both makes my heart soar, and makes my heart FREAK OUT at the same time. I seriously don't know if I could sit and watch a game my daughter is pitching. She says she likes it, but she is kinda scared to do it. I am pretty sure she has heard my verbage and taken on some of my anxiety about her pitching. Time to start encouraging her and stop thinking/talking out loud. I think after a few more lessons she will know if this is something she wants to proceed with. Otherwise I have no problem with her wanting to rock the outfield, which is what she really wants to do......she has a wonderful older sis that has made that position look pretty crazy fun. We shall see. Sunday: Two aunts and I got to throw my sister in law a baby shower. It is almost time for me to become an official AUNT for the first time, and it has totally snuck up on me! In a month, there is going to be a new baby on the Martens side of the family, and my girls will no longer be the only grandchildren. (Greiner side is still dominated by my girls) We did all the typical baby shower stuff except for lame A$$ games(sorry if you are a gamer) and had a good time. The Martens 5 recorded one of those Hallmark books, "Goodnight Moon" for the new cousin....even Jane had to read two pages. Her lines were "Goodnight Air. Goodnight Stars" and took a promise of a bath, a bag of M&Ms, and 14 re-takes because she either half-a$$ed the actual reading, OR she would say "Goodnight poop stars....Goodnight poopy air...." and laugh hysterically at herself. Love that girl...but want to scream inappropriate words through my clenched teeth at her sometimes. Tomorrow is my father-in-law Loren's 60th birthday. Love love love him. He is the reason for my Jane Gracen's endearing smile. It is like his trademark smile has been transposed on my daughter's beautiful face. We've been saying her whole life that she looks like her grandpa Loren,.....which is fine with us, and I'm pretty sure is one of the things that brings Loren extreme JOY. That and the fact that she will run past a line of grandmas to get her her grandpa. Tuesday is my Samantha Jean's(my oldest daughter by another mother) 20th birthday. CAN NOT BELIEVE IT. We have been blessed to have Samantha in our lives for almost 10 years and thank God for her and her family every day. As the girls get older, our days intersect less often, but that doesn't mean we don't still count on each other for "family" things. I still care very much about how the girls are doing, and totally count on them to help raise my three girls! :) Samantha is a sophomore at Drake, playing softball and learning to be a special ed teacher. We are so proud of her athletics, her academics, her personality, her values/morals, and her growing faith. She is loved by so many people, but especially by the five that live just across the street (on Bluebell Terrace, that is.....) So much to be happy about this weekend, do I really need to describe the lousy joy-less 10% of our weekend? I didn't think so. Rock Chalk Jayhawk.......now Let's Go ROYALS!!

Unlucky

Today when I dropped my girls off with my parents, I noticed that my dad didn't have any green on for St Patrick's Day. I said to the girls "Grandpa doesn't have green on! You'd better pinch him!"
Kate walked over and gave my dad a loving little pinch on the hand.
Jane walked over, looked at him slowly up and down, then kicked him in the shin.

Unlucky German.

Toliet Humor

We've been (unsuccessfully) trying to potty train Jane for about a month now. She really doesn't want much to do with this plan, so we are being pretty casual about it.

Last week Kate got Jane to use the toliet. I came up the stairs and heard Kate saying "Jane, you gotta lay down so I can get your diaper off" then "come on, get up there" then "Mom, Jane peed!"
They both got the M&Ms they deserved.

More recently Jane has started letting us know when she wets her diaper, or poops in her diaper.....mostly because she is starting to realize it feels gross. She will start to waddle like a penguin and say "I need a new diaper pease." The good news is that she is becoming aware of her bodily functions and that is half the battle, right?

This morning I went in to wake her up and get her dressed for the day. She had been sound asleep when I went in to the room and started making noise finding clothes in her closet. She sat up, hair a mess, eyes half open.....she looked like she had been on an all night bender........when I hear "Ah, mom(said like Oh maaaaan).....I smell like my poop!" spoken with great disdain/disgust at herself for pooping in her pants while she was asleep.

Classic.
Maybe you had to be there.

Proudness Part 2

Did a little more investigating of the YouTube video competition.
Turns out there were 73 videos in the category Tess competed in.......
So, my baby was in the top 20 out of 73 entries from the United States and Canada.
I KNOW!
We are mega proud.

Color Me Proud

I have three mother moments I need to share about my eldest.

Tess was chosen as this month's example of "Trustworthiness" for Hawthorne Elementary. She, along with other kids selected for this award, gets her picture taken and displayed in the school and for the Kearney Courier. Cool.

Drama club tryouts began the middle of last month. Tess had chosen the part of Snow White to focus on, because it had a vocal solo. She did a preliminary tryout and thought she did well. The next week SHE WENT TO THE ORTHODONTIST and had second round tryouts after school. She came home upset because she couldn't "sing right" or "talk right" or control her spit......
Last week the cast roles were assigned. She got the part of "Granny" in a play called "The Granny Awards". It is a medium sized speaking part, and she is pretty excited. I was so proud that the teachers trusted her to work around the metal in her mouth in order to put on a good performance. She gets her performance genes from the Martens family, and for that I am grateful. I know she will do great. She did try to act disappointed in her new wardrobe requirements though....she went from trying out for a princess part to being a Granny. I see silver hair spray paint in our future!

The last brag is still a bit confusing to me, but I'm gonna share it anyway. Remember Tess's YouTube video competition? I received an email yesterday from the sponsors announcing the winners.
NO Tess didn't win a cash prize........I don't have to come up with any money.
But, it did say she was chosen as a semi-finalist, and her name was listed as one of the top 20.....It then went on to say that there were 228 entries from the United States and Canada. I don't know if that means there were 228 kids her age, or 228 total entries. Either way, her name was listed in an email as a SEMI-FINALIST for a singing competition and I am one proud momma.

She brings me such JOY.

It's a God thing for sure

Had three holy moments today at work.
The first one almost went by un-noticed. I had my Ipod playing softly in the background and a client asks "Is that K-Love?"
When I said it was my Ipod, the conversation quickly turned to Christian music, then Winter Jam.....cool.

Second client, a teenager, hears the Ipod playing and says "what is that song? I can barely hear it." When I said it was Casting Crowns, she said "oh I love them. I saw them in concert at Kemper."
totally cool, because I did not expect that from this young girl.

Third time was a "shame on you, Sarah" God moment. When I started this job last summer, I met a young client that I thought was a horrible, young man. I'm not kidding. I even said to my doctor after this boy left the office,"blech, that was a horrible young man." Long story short, this kid was removed from his mother's care(he had commited enough juvenile crimes) and was sent to Watkins Mill DYS facility. He has been there for several months, away from his mother, and let me tell you ...I owe that young man an apology.
He came into the office today and my goodness, what a difference a mother can make! A few months away from a bad parent and that horrible young man was pleasant, funny, respectful, smiling, and a total delight to visit with.
The first God moment almost went un-noticed, until the second God moment made me go hmmmmm, and then the third one just made me smile.
God is SO Good.