A JOYFUL NOISE

...are felt and feared NO MORE!    Disclaimer: this has been a long thought out process for about a while, and I have eluded to these thoughts from time to time in my previous points.  I hope these words encourage you.  God has really been teaching me a lot over the years through His Word, through prayers, through support of family, and through much support from many of my church family. ----------- On Thursday, (1/2/14), I had a small invasive procedure done at Augusta Health.  My new pain management doctor, Dr Lee decided to try to do an abdominal block.  This required an ultrasound machine and an injection of a mixture of medication to see if the medication can relax some of the muscles in the abdominal muscles.  I was nicely sedated, so I didn't really feel a thing, which was a totally different experience from when the UVA residents/fellows tried this.  Again, I do know that doctors start somewhere, but I also agree with Dr. Le...

For all of you who knows me well (that is knows me since I was a child), know that I have always had health issues since I was born and have had countless surgeries since I was a year old....I think my doctor looked it up and told me I probably had at least about 55+ surgeries in my life. For those of you who keeps up with me on my blog, email, or facebook, knows that for the past 4 years, I have battled with severe health issues (technically, these issues started when I was in high school, and slowly progressed to getting worse).  I'm not going to go into details because it is all on my blog.  You can read it yourself or re-read it yourself.  I haven't been able to work since 2010, yet the Lord provides as I continue to need to see doctors and medical procedures. As you can read, re-read, remember, or whatever.....or I can quickly refresh your memory, I've been through so many doctors, tests, procedures, etc.  It gets "old".  It gets "tiring."  It...

Yesterday, for some reason, I sat down on my bed and suddenly thought of this person:                                           His name is Warren "Granddaddy" Johnson.  He passed away back in '95.  He and his wife Erma "Grandma" has been part of my life for as long as I can remember and has been to the hospital every time I had surgeries. Erma passed away last year.   Warren would carry me to the prep room, he would hold my hand whenever the nurses would have to do any kind of "thing" to me.   I remember getting surprises after I woke up from surgeries; I remember getting visits.....they both were part of my life.    Yesterday, I just had a sudden meltdown.  ME? at 34 yrs old having a meltdown!!!???!!  YES!  He's k...

These past weeks, (meaning Thanksgiving week and this week) has been filled with medical procedures and doctors visits.  Our family had a pretty laid back Thanksgiving due to my not feeling well at all.  My pain level was sky high and I was extremely worn out all day long, and actually mostly all the rest of Thanksgiving week.  Anyhow, this week, I had THREE UVA appointments.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get all of them in one trip, but I got two of them in one trip. Wednesday, I had my usual check-up with my surgeon, Dr. Gampper, to look at my facial tumors all over my head as well (he decided I needed another CAT scan to determine if the tumors are spreading around the interior part of my head, so this is scheduled on Tuesday.....so tired of medical tests!!) Thursday (Dec 4th) was the longest day of my life (felt like it). I had a 9:30 appointment with my Neurologist, Dr. Leone  It was such an incredible and encouraging visit....

It's past 2:45 AM and I'm still awake. I've been awake since 9a.m. without any naps which is unusual for me. I've been in my bed since 11pm and I can't seem to shut my mind off.  There's so much going on in my heart and my mind that I can't seem to just "turn off"  It has relatively little to do with the amount of physical pain I'm in tonight nor does it have little to do with upcoming medical procedures.  I just have a lot on my mind.  Some good things; some sad things; so praiseworthy things, some heart wrenching things, etc. Today for all you VA folks, know how blistering cold it was today; I have to be extra careful about not getting sick due to my low immunity; plus with my horrible pain scale today, I just couldn't make it to church.  I wanted to make it to either the early morning service or the Thanksgiving service my church had to night combined with the formal Installation Service of the official (should I say "dubbing??...

Today, while my Mom and I were out and about doing some quick errands, my Mom was telling me about a situation about a lady at her work who works in H.R.  She had been experiencing some pain and had went to her yearly check-up only to find out she had cancer in her uterus. When the doctors went in to remove her uterus, it had spread to both ovaries, but because they had not gotten consent to take the ovaries out, she has to go back in for surgery AGAIN.  My Mom was telling me it seems like a sad situation because she didn't have much time off work and that she probably had to go on short term disability or FMLA to cover surgery, recovery, chemo, etc; her husband had just left her a year ago and she had no one.  My heart sunk.  I can't imagine going through something like this by yourself.  I can't even imagine going through a simple surgery by myself!! My Mom then said "We never know other people's circumstances.....there are people out there wh...

Yesterday (Tuesday, November 12, 2013), I saw a new doctor for my abdominal pain.   Oddly, this doctor is not at UVA, but a doctor at Augusta Health, right near where I live.   Let me tell you, this was the first time in a long time, I felt that SOMEONE actually took time to hear what I feeling and saying. Brief Background Information: When all this abdominal pain started to get worse over the past 3-4 years, (I've actually struggled with it in college and after college but it just got worse over the past years) I underwent countless GI test over at UVA to determine the cause of the pain.  When they couldn't figure out the cause of the pain, they referred me to the Pain Clinic at UVA.   At UVA, I kept seeing different doctors/residents/fellows every time I went there.  I never really saw the attending physician (and come to think of it, I never really saw the attending physician much at the GI clinic either ).  I rarel...