Health Update and Fun Visiting Family :)

It’s been awhile…I keep putting an update on my to do list and it keeps getting put off for other things. Life has been crazy, but good. The amazing news that I shared very briefly in my last update from the doctor’s office was that my lung function (PFT’s) increased with the use of my new machine, the Volara. It’s a combination of the metaneb and the IPV machines that are in hospitals. I had never used a metaneb, but I used the IPV machine anytime I was hospitalized at UAB and it was much more effective for my lungs. The crazy thing was that insurance denied multiple appeals and even a second claim. The machine costs $20,000—which is a lot of money. However, when you consider how much one day in the hospital costs, it would behoove the insurance companies to pay for the home machine as it keeps us out of the hospital longer and we avoid picking up other bugs while we are there. A single hospitalization for me is well over $20,000—I think one of my most expensive stays was over $200,000 in 2016. Thankfully the company that makes the machine, Hillrom, has a financial aide program and we qualified for it so we were able to get it for a fraction of the cost, for which I’m praising God so much for! I can do a 10 minute treatment on it and I feel better than doing my 30-40 minute treatment on my old machine. I’m still using both, but if something comes up and I can’t get a full 40 minutes in, I can do 10 and still know I’m taking care of my lungs. As far as the vestibular injury goes, I have made a lot of progress, but I still have a long way to go. I’m able to drive when I’m well rested during the day as long as I’m not on busy two-way roads. I can get on the freeway because the traffic is all going in the same direction. I still use a LOT of coping skills to do this—I’m most comfortable driving our 1985 corvette that we have the top off of and so it’s a lot more open and I can focus on things far ahead if I need to. Night time driving will be a very long time—I’m still EXTREMELY light sensitive. My ENT explained the reason that fluorescent lights are so difficult right now is that they are actually a pulsating light and not a steady light. It’s not enough to where the eyes pick it up, but my brain is reacting to that. I still wear sunglasses inside a lot of public places and if I have to turn on overhead lights at home. Standing on a piece of foam with my feet in a wide stance for 30 seconds still makes my brain think I’m on a roller coaster. My brain fatigues from being inside a lot and I’m pretty sure I explained why male voices are harder for me to listen to—in case I didn’t my ENT again said that the audio wave-length of male voices is longer so it hits my nerve longer and makes me dizzy and nauseous after a bit. Father’s Day was the first time I was able to sit through an entire church service without having to walk outside and drink a lot of sparkling water and eat ginger chews. If I’m fatigued church can still be hard to sit through. I have a vestibular test scheduled for August 14th—I scheduled it in March when I first had the injury as it was the first available at UAB. I tried to get in with an office in Huntsville but the morning of my test the office called at 7:30 and canceled my 8:00am appointment because the doctor was stuck in New York due to a canceled flight. It was frustrating, but my trust is in my sovereign God who knows all things and at that point I just decided to keep the test at UAB and not try to squeeze things in. It will be a miserable test as they will do things to exacerbate your symptoms and then measure your brain’s response. My ENT at UAB really wishes they had a vestibular lab so they could have tested me right when it happened, but all in God’s timing. I figured out last night that I can listen to Jim Newheiser’s counseling training through the IBCD to continue making progress towards a certification through ACBC or the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors because his voice is familiar from a marriage conference he did at our church and the other counseling training I listened to prior to my vestibular injury, and I just need to be doing something like cooking so that my brain is not solely focused on his voice. God continues to place people in my life that are walking through very difficult valleys and He continues to redeem my pain and suffering and some sinful choices I made and the seasons of depression to be able to empathize with people that I might not otherwise be able to. Obviously, God’s Word is all-sufficient and a biblical counselor does not have to experience the same thing to counsel someone, but it’s 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 at work: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort which is effective in the patient enduring of the same suffering which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; [Paul was taken to the end of himself and thought he was going to die, but God was there!] indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.” I’m very excited to be able to continue down this path and be better equipped to help those around me that are deeply hurting. I’m gonna sign off for now…I’m actually in the Dallas airport typing this on pages to post later because I’M HEADED TO TUCSON TO VISIT MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!!!!! To say I’m excited is an understatement! :) By the time I’m able to post this I will add the welcome pictures! :) :) :) :) :) I've been here for about a week now and it's been so much fun, but there have been some challenges and I'd love your prayers for some unspoken prayer requests. Thankful God is in complete control reigning on His throne now and always and the He never changes!