The Stickle Family

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Matt is baptized

He came up out of the water

and the heavens were opened

and the Spirit of God descended upon him.

Matthew 3:16

Mr. and Mrs. Ben Martin

Faith, Hope & Love remain,

but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Change of Plans

Thank you for all the prayers all of you have already spoken from your hearts. I believe the Lord is listening.
That being said, a brief run down of my day yesterday:

1:25

phone call from Operating room nurse telling me my surgery was scheduled for 4pm and to come at 2pm. oh, and by the way, don't forget not to eat past midnight the night before.
1:31

enter panic mode. last surgery of the day! no eating all day!
1:32

text the key players the time of the surgery so they can enter panic mode too.
1:35

call Adam to tell him I don't feel good and can he bring me something to eat when he comes home.
1:38

text messages from Adam asking me what I want to eat...I'm not really hungry for anything, except steak sounds good.
2:00

calm down and fall alseep just thinking about the relief I will feel in my leg when it's all over!
2:30

Woken up by Adam entering house
2:31

Phone call from scheduling nurse to say that my doctor has left town on an emergency and asks me if i would like to get on the other doctors schedule or wait until Dr. El-Kadi returns (July 17th!) I agree to switch doctors...the next date he has available...July 2nd.
As she trys to give me directions I instead hand phone to Adam because I still don't feel good and now, I'm sad and mad and confused and just don't want to talk on the phone. Poor Adam nows nothing and trys to catch up!
2:41

We rush out the door to try to get to church (I had scheduled an apointment to go talk to the priest and go to reconciliation at 3pm)
2:49

Send out a new text message to key players informing them of the reschedule, thus, causing more chaos and more questions!
2:50

Dodge phone calls and text messages as I am trying to recompose myself to go into the church!
3:04

Explain to the priest that I just found out about my surgery reschedule and apologize for any inconvience and I will be happy to come on Saturday when they offer reconciliation to the public as a whole. then, instead he offers me the Annointing of the Sick. That was very nice of him and I kindly say yes! and ask Adam to come in and pray with us!
3:25

Leave the church and head home
3:40

Return home to find my birthday present still sitting on the floor...unopened! I must say I exhibited much self control! Since it was in a UPS mailing box, I say to Adam, well, (in my sweetest teasing voice) I know that it's not a Pandora charm! He looks at me with a sad look, wondering what I must have thought it was. I was struggling with the tape and he helped me, and when he opened it, and pulled out the tissue, the package got smaller. And, as I opened the tissue, it got even smaller, until I was holding a little gift bag from a boutique that sells, none other than Pandora Charms!! I opened it only to find one of the same charms Danelle gave me for being a bridesmaid in her wedding! It's called "Everlasting Love" and I was touched when Danelle gave it to me as a reminder as the never ending love she has for me...and equally touched for the same reason when Adam gave it to me!!
Well, he was so bummed out...he did not know that is the one that she gave me! And so, right then and there, he started the arrangements for an exchange, that is after he picked a new one out..."Red Hot Love"...one only Adam could get me! : )

4:00

Feelings of joy after a really really crappy afternoon!

I DEFINITLY HAVE THE BEST HUSBAND EVER!!!
7:00

Feelings of joy in my stomach after eating the steak my dad made me!!
oh yeah, and still tingling all down my left leg! I hope it makes it until July 2nd!

~

So I begin a new waiting game in need of more prayers.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Surgery

Ok, so as many of you know, I have been having back problems.
After the flair up over Memorial day weeekend, my PCP ordered an MRI.
While we were gone on vacation, the results came in.
They showed a herinated disc L5-S1 (for those of you who know what that means).
The disc is sitting on my nerve that runs down my leg to my left foot. This is where the bulk of my pain is coming from.
I shared the results with my chiropractor and my physical therapist and talked about pain management ideas before going under the knife.
Both agreed that surgery was needed since the disc is already herinated and cannot be "put back in". The best description i have been given is it is like putting shaving cream back into the can. Since it expands as it's released, you can't put it back in. and even if we could relieve the pain, the disc is still sitting on the nerve and eventually, there would be long term nerve damage.
After our meeting with the neurosurgon on Thursday, he strongly suggested surgery.
This morning I scheduled a microdiscectomy for Tuesday June 23rd. We won't have a time until the day before.

If you would pray for me and my family, especially my support system, since I will need them now more than ever. I will need to spend the night in the hospital and if all goes as planned, i will be released the next day to go home. I should be pain free when I wake from the surgery, only having aches that are normal with surgery. This will be a huge relief from what I am feeling now. I will be doing minimal activity (walking is ok) until released from the doctor (should be around 10 days). However, I will not be able to lift anything over 5 lbs for about a month after surgery. This is where prayers for the kids come in. ; )

Thanks in advance for the prayers!
I'll keep you all posted on my recovery!