Muscles are moving!!!!!

On Tuesday, my P/T came and tried a muscle stimulator on my body. She put electrodes on certain parts of my body and then turned the machine up until she could see a muscle moving. It felt like my muscle was twitching and pulsating. Anyway, the next day I was sore-like I had worked out. I have not not felt that kind of tiredness in a long time. It was pretty cool. We bought our own machine so that we can use it every day. The machine pulses some kind of electricity through my body for 10 seconds. During this time I have to try and exercise that part of my body. For example, when she puts the electrode on my calve muscle near my ankle, my foot lifts and I have to try and hold it for 10 seconds. Then it will go off for 10 seconds. During this time, I rest. Now, obviously I am not holding my ankle up on my own yet, but that is why it is so important to use this machine. It is still exercising my muscles- I have to keep trying to work with it. The hope is that I will do it on my own. Floria said that she was happy to see muscle movement. It was very little but it was there. She keeps telling me that is not going to be an easy or a quick process. I know this...but good to be reminded. I dream of it just being easy.

Anyway, I am standing with the knee immobilizers for 20 minutes every other day with Mike and working on some core stuff everyday on my own. When Mike is gone, my mother-in-law helps me with the standing. She is always so nice about helping whenever and where ever we need her.

Well, I will keep working hard. I am not sure how much to post because it seems a little boring right now. I suppose I will figure this out as I go along. Thanks for all of your support-it means lots to us.

The long road ahead of us

On Monday, we met with a physiotherapist. She seems to be very good at what she does and we were impressed with her. She is going to work with me, Mike and I will continue the exercises we have been doing and she will give me my own exercises that I can do on my own. We have to stimulate my muscles in order for me to exercise them. I will also continue to go to acupuncture. Meeting with Floria, (that is my p/t's name) was very good but I will tell you that I was overwhelmed. I am so glad I had the procedure, but this part is not going to be easy. I think that the hardest part for me is the patience that I still have to have and the wondering of what will come of this. I have big dreams, but i have had big dreams for my body for 12 years now. I suppose that today, I am feeling like the idea of patience is so far away from me. I will work very hard on all of the exercises but I also must continue to have the heart of perseverance. Mike is overwhelmed as well. As I am preparing my mind to get ready to endure this battle with my body, I am trying so hard to keep my husband encouraged. We are hopeful and we try to encourage each other always; however, this becomes a bit of a challenge when you are feeling like all of this is just to hard. I thank God that these feelings go away. God is going to do great things. His timing is CERTAINLY not mine, but we need to wait on Him. So, first things first, we look to Him for the strength to begin this part of our journey.

Being at home

We are very happy that we live in Canada and that we are home. It is a good thing to be far, far away from what you know so that you can remember to be grateful for what you have and where you live. To be able to have fruit whenever I want, or having cold milk that smells normal with my cereal, or eating something other then chicken are wonderful things. To explain these good things a little more, we were not supposed to eat fruit because it would have been washed with their regular water which we were told not to drink either. (Funny thing though, my husband thought he would eat and drink that stuff anyway so that he could tell people that it was fine. Well, he got sick.) Poor guy! I guess he can't tell people to just eat it anyway:) And, who eats boiled milk with cereal? And the smell was not so great either. I really do like chicken, but a variety of food is nice. I am a picky eater as it is, so this was not a great part of the trip for me. However, Mike and Kevin found a Pizza Hut one night and they smuggled in a personal size pizza for Jen and I. I had a cheese pizza and it was like I had never eaten anything better in my life. We were all very happy after that supper.

On a more serious note, my leg is getting better. I had a bruise from my groin all the way down to my foot. I was sure that I was going to have to get my leg amputated. That would have sucked seeing as how this procedure is supposed to help my legs and my walking. Losing a leg would just seem wrong because of that huh? I was very concerned. My groin is torn and more then likely it will not grow back together. But, the doctor says that it won't affect me too much. the pain is so much better. Mike was so concerned for me and he felt so bad for me. He is so good to me. If you can believe it though, I can make him mad sometimes. It's hard to imagine, I know. One morning, my leg was looking so bad, he told me to stay in bed all day. He caught me rolling my eyes at him and that did not go over very well. So, I made a deal with him. I said I would stay in bed until 10 AM. He ended up thinking that was ok as long as I put my feet up all day. He was just caring about me and rolling my eyes at him just kind of came out, accidentally. It was not very nice of me. I mean he had every reason to be concerned about me when he was not there-I was getting dressed one morning to go to a movie with him and I could not fit my left leg into my pants. Once I did get them on, I looked ridiculous. One normal leg and one that looked like it was about to tear my pants open. And i could not put my shoe on either. It was either one shoe or no shoes. I went with no shoes. Sounds fun, right?

Anyway, we are going to be interviewing physio therapists; we want the right one. Now that my leg is healing, I will start excersising again. I have a tough road ahead of me but I am going to give it my all. I know there will be ups and downs-I will share them as they come. My ups and downs are my husbands as well. He is always with me every step of the way. We need your prayers for this part of our journey.

LaDawne

Jet Lag-What a Thing!

I have never flown across the world before and so I did not know what to expect to feel like. I feel pretty bad and I don't like it! But, It will get better. More importantly though, I am finally able to post some stuff. I was not allowed to leave my hospital room so I was never able to post anything. Well, I am finally home and so I will be writing about a few things. I will do it in different posts though. If I don't, it will just be one big blob of information.

The day before my procedure, the doctors had been looking at all my tests and they were very skeptical as to whether or not even had MS. This made the surgeon question whether or not he should even do the angioplasty. My tests showed that I had a number of small blockages, but nothing big. The angeography was the test that would show exactly what was going on with my veins. The doctors just needed to take my case. I will tell you that I was very upset-I tried to be strong. But, that did not work out to well. I really did believe that God brought us to India for this purpose and so I was really scared that it would not happen. Doesn't that sound horrible? Thanks God for bringing us here for this procedure that might not happen. I have a problem trusting Him, obviously. I cried a bit here and there, but I needed to remain strong and positive for my husband. I prayed that God would allow this procedure to happen and that the doctors would see what was wrong. And I really could feel all of your thoughts and prayers. Thank you. Well, they did; in fact they found more then they thought. Three veins were blocked! Incredible! Incredible that this made me happy-but I was so happy.

Before I go on, I want to try and explain the procedure to you. They get you all set up and then they give you some "sleepy medicine." This kicks in right away so I did not even feel the catheter go up my groin. I only knew it was inside of me when I began to feel this tightening all through out my body. It was as if something was being moved around in my chest area. That's when I realized that this exact thing was happening. And then, I knew the balloons were in there because I could feel them opening and I could hear the veins stretching. That was weird. It was painful, but not un-bearable. I was just so glad to be getting it done.

The doctors talked to us lots during the next few days and they were very encouraging. This has been going on in my body for years and so I need to give it time. Also, it is in my spine and so when your spine becomes damaged, it shrinks. This means that the doctors cannot tell what spot is a lesion and what spot has not been nourished by proper blood flow. We need to be patient. Deep in my heart, I knew that I could walk out of the procedure but I also knew that God doesn't always give us miracles the way we want them to happen. However, I believe this is a part of His plan for us and so now, Mike and I wait for the good things that God will reveal to us inside my body. I can't wait!

More to come,

LaDawne

Home Sweet Home

Well we made it back safe and sound. Everyone is a quite tired but very happy to have arrived home with no delays or mishaps on the trip.

For the next few days LaDawne is going to take it very easy, just to recover from all the physio she had to endure as well as the jet lag. There was an incedent on our last day at the hospital during one of LaDawne's physio treatments. It happened when one of the therapists was stretching out her muscles. He seemed to have over stretched them and caused an injury that will set LaDawne's therapy back a bit. This frustrated me more than LaDawne. You know, my wife has a such a good attitude! I'm still learning a lot from her.

Once we get a little more rest we will post again. I am really excited about what is too come. Both LaDawne and I have a lot of hope that God is going to show us all a little of what he can do.

Mike

Last Day in India

Alas the week is over and we are heading home. We are all feeling a little tired but excited to be going home. The experience we have had here has been good. We are so happy that we could be here to support Mike and LaDawne and be part of this experience with them. They have done so well. LaDawne has to have a blood thinner medication by injection everyday for the next 3 weeks. Mike and I get to inflict a little pain on her. Aren't we nice. We are hoping to hit a market on the way to the airport as LaDawne was not able to do her shopping yet. One last excursion and then we are homeward bound. Thanks again for your prayers. They were truly felt and appreciated. We are so excited to see you all soon.

Jen & Kevin

Ready for discharge

Alright tonight we fly out at 10:50pm and arrive in Calgary at 4:30pm Sunday. LaDawne has one more physio session and consult with the Doctor and we can finally leave the hospital. It really has seemed like we have been here a long time, LaDawne is excited about being able to where civilian clothes again and get out of the giant sized hospital Moo Moo she has had to endure during her stay.

We are really thankful to all of the staff here at Medanta. They have really taken a lot of care in making sure my wife is as comfortable as possible. As far as hospital stays go this would have to be our best experience. But it is still a hospital and LaDawne and I both have a distaste for them.

Having Jen and Kevin here has been a huge benefit for both LaDawne and I. Getting Jen's take on the methods of practice here in the hospital has calmed us. And as a team both Jen and Kevin are a big encouragement, keeping us optimistic and providing some comic relief when things got a little stressful. It is also very helpful being able to talk to someone that completely understands without repetition. Sometimes the language barrier gets to be a little tiring.

Well we post again when we get to an airport somewhere on the way home, if not we will be posting when we arrive at home.

With Love from India,

Mike.