Blog

Background

See Part 1.

1/3/24 Wednesday

I’m home! On New Year’s Day I said good-bye to my hospital home after the final round of steroids treatment was complete.

Status

The symptoms in my legs are not much improved but are more localized to the feet rather than traveling all the way up the legs as originally presented.

I’m grateful that the cold that hit me on Saturday is not so bad any more, but the congestion wants to pool in my chest at night, so the cough doesn’t sound good. Fortunately, I’m improving a lot on that front.

The most significant symptom at present is sheer exhaustion; just getting up to get a bottle of water or walk to another room wears me out, so let’s just say I’m not getting my normal steps. I’ll find myself stopped mid-bite  because I simply got tired while eating. I understand that the most important “work” for me to do right now is to rest and heal, but that’s hard for this Energizer Bunny. I’m grateful that despite being in the hospital and having a slight cough, I’m getting sleep. This experience has impressed on me the critical nature of rest! I underestimated how important it is to my general well being for far too many years.

Prognosis

Right now we’re waiting to see how my body reacts to the treatments and rest. Because the cause is unknown for the spinal cord inflammation, it’s hard to estimate how the healing process will play out. The best guess was that it could be anywhere from 1 to 3 months. I’ll be contacting my Primary Care Physician tomorrow to follow up, and my neurologist wants me to check in within 2 weeks.

Praises and Prayers

Praises

• I’m home and resting comfortably.
• David works from home, so he’s able to be here to help take care of me.
• I’m able to move about and sleep, although I feel like I’m moving in the slowest motion.

Prayer Requests

• Good sleep and rest.
• Healing of energy, leg symptoms, and the congestion.
• Wisdom for my medical team overseeing this process.
• Patience on my part since it’s January, and my brain keeps telling me I have a life to get back to! Right now my “job” is to rest and heal.
• Wisdom to know when to move my body more and more. Sitting in one spot all day long is not good, so I need to really listen to my body and what it can handle.
• Patience for David as he’s having to do his consulting work while his wife is impaired.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and outpouring of love.
See Part 5.