Latest and Greatest

This update isn't going to tell you much more than you don't already know. I have been having two therapy (which I think I have spelled every way but the correct way, much to my mother's dismay, since I started using the word!) sessions every day for over a week now. It has helped tremendously! I started out at a 7 out of 10 on the pain scale. Since we have been working, most days the pain never get above a 3 without pain medication or anything, which is an amazing feeling you would not believe!The therapist is very pleased with this progress and believes that I will be ready to head back to Ft Polk for my follow up appointment next week. She doesn't know how much more the headaches will decrease, but believes that over time they will go away completely.
     This is both a praise and a prayer request. A praise because the progress that has been made is incredible. If you had asked me even last Sunday if I thought I would ever get to this point, I would have said no. However, now I am able to walk around without having to hold onto anything. Mom and I have been going out to stores and around post to build up my ability to walk around people without them putting me off-balance.
     It is a prayer request because as we move forward the progress has slowed. There is nothing more that can be done, except what we are doing. Now it is just waiting to see how much more it will help. So please pray that it will continue to heal the injury and that I will be patient and not rush things too much. This sitting around is driving me nuts!

Good medicine!

They always say that laughter is good medicine. So here is yet another funny story from my little people.

My mom was talking to my niece Samantha Jo the other day on the phone. Sammy Jo is telling mom about her lunch. How she had some noodles with butter and some broccoli. "Soft broccoli. 'Cause I'm still getting used to the hard stuff!"

It was too funny. The best part was that Sammy had mom so tickled that she couldn't even respond but that didn't matter to Sam because she just kept talking and talking like nothing was wrong with mom not saying anything. Too cute. Let's hope she doesn't get too used to the "hard stuff"!

"It's a small world after all"

It still amazes me how word travels and people know other people. I had a visitor this evening. Someone I didn't know. Listen to how they found out I was down here...
My parent's have friends that are in a CMA chapter in Missouri. They put in a prayer request with the CMA and someone from Illinois heard about it. The people from Illinois had a daughter whose husband is stationed at Lackland Air Force Base which is on the other side of San Antonio. So that family came to see me and pray with me tonight.

Amazing how our God always provides people to love us when those who already do aren't able to reach us.

On the road....

My thearopy session for today is complete and I am still up and moving! :~) Progress is being made. Slowly but surely. I woke up this morning without a headache! The first time since Christmas! What a feeling! I got up and was able to take a shower standing on my own two feet, no shower chair required. This is definately one of those times in life that makes you really greatful for your health. The ablilities that we so often take for granted are so amazing!

Just wanted to let everyone know the good news as soon as possible. I am still not 100%, but at least we now know the pathway to getting there!

Out of the mouths of babes...

My 7 year old niece, Maggie, is one of the smartest kids I know. She is so mature and adult like for her age that she could put a lot of teenagers to shame with her reasoning skills. Just two nights ago during evening prayers, Maggie was taking her turn and she was praying for Aunt Erin. A fact that warms my heart every time I get a sneak peek into their lives through my sister's reports! She thanked God for starting to make me better and then in a moment of genious states to our loving Father, "And Jesus, now just help the doctors to finish her off!" Requesting that they finish making me all better, but asking for it in a way that most will find quite humorous. That same night I might have been praying the same thing for thearopy that day had warn me out and built up the pressure in my head to the MAX! Please God just finish me off now!

Thankfully God hears the intent of our prayers and not just the words. I am doing much better. Yesterday I was able to walk around without sitting in the wheelchair or pushing it for stability. I see improvements with each passing day. Though at times I get discouraged and wonder how long it will take to be back to normal, I am trying to remind myself daily (and sometimes by the minute) that God has brought me so far in only the two weeks that I have been here. He isn't going to leave me now!

THE CRAZINESS OF LOVE!

From far away, it is very hard to get a phone call saying that someone you love is hurting. But listen to what my sister did with this information! Now a little background here...my oldest sister has and forever will be made fun of for being the "mother". As a kid, I hate to hear my mother say, "Amanda stop bossing around your sisters. Now girls, do what Amanda says." Amanda was always telling me what to do and she was always right about it too. So though I hated her for it then and make fun of her for it now, this time it got someone to take notice.


I am talking to her and she is checking on me during this whole month long ordeal, right? She hears me saying that no one is helping me. That I can't get anyone to listen or put in request for referals. So she decides, "My sisters a soldier...thats government...I elect them and they work for me....yep let me call my officials." So she does. Congressmen. Senators. And you think it doesn't work, she still has them calling for updates on me and to make sure I am getting what I need, but oh it doesn't stop there. They didn't move quite fast enough for her. So she thinks,"hhhhhmmmmmm, the president is elected too. Let me call him up." No she did quite get that far, but she did call the white house and they gave her the number to the pentagon and she talks to the commander of the pentagon himself...he makes a few calls and boom like an hour later I have the inspector general of the post at Ft Polk calling me asking the situation. The overprotective motherly sister wins again!

Healing from the Inside OUT!

It takes it toll. When you have been sick for so long even when you start getting the help you need your body doesn't always respond right away.

When I was discharged, my theropist requested at least 10 day and got 15! She is doing vestibular theropy and multifascia release on me. This is some of the strangest theropy that I have ever heard of. Let me try to explain....

Fascia is the layer above your bones under your skin. It is a cobweb mess of tubing that basically creates a padding on your bones. When it does it's job, fascia gels at the point of impact to your body. This protects you from a worse injury. The problem is when it gels it consticts blood vessels and nerve endings and such, creating the painful headaches, and theropy is needed to allow the gel to rehydrate into the tubular shape it needs to move fluid.
Here is the other kicker...Just like your hips can get out of line...so can your face. Don't laugh it is true! So she is also having to realign the bones in my face to stop contricting my inner ear which is giving me the balance and dizziness problems.

So all together....I am just a mess! But the good new is that it is being fixed, and in such a God way too!

My theropist is allowed ot take one occupational course a year through the military. Last year in 2009, she decided to go to a vestibular theropy course. Then in August, this miltifascia release course came for the first time to San Antonio. She was granted along with only one other person special permission to take this extra course. So had I come down when I first got back from Iraq, she wouldn't have been able to help me. God knew just where I needed to be, just when I needed to be there! Why do we ever doubt with all that proof!

Charge!

There is nothing more settling or peaceful than the pressence of someone who loves you. My parents walked into a room through a door that was to my back, but it didn't matter. I knew they were there...had for some reason been able to tell for awhile that they were in the hospital.

The hours after my parent's arrival isn't really clear to me. I didn't understand how that could be at first, but now I do. It is a trust. Once there, I knew that they were going with me no matter what and that they would advocate for me without me having to ask them too. And they did. I don't know why I was transfered or who made the arangements. I don't remember the room I was in at Ft Polk, the doctors that took care of me there or the conversations with my visitors that I am told I had or even the Paramedics that drove me to BAMC. I have no memory of getting to BAMC, my room, or even my doctors the first night.

These are the facts though. I was in BAMC for seven days. I was seen by an internal medicine team who thought that cutting my headache in half was success enoguh to send me home, a pyschologist who asked me if I thought I was subconsiously making myself sick because of stress, neurologist who want to know if I was doing this to get a medical board discharge, and a TBI specialist who told me that I probably didn't have a concussion in Iraq or my car accident. This is one thing that I do know though. I am under the care of a God who is going to work His will for his people whether those around you like it or not. I was discharged. But the same TBI dr who thought nothing was wrong was the one who made the reccommendation to keep me as an outpatient. And the same neurologist who thought I just wanted a medical reason to get out of the military, was the same dr who gave me a round of steriods for the inflamation in my neck. The internal medicine team I didn't see again before I left, but that is ok. I don't need a dr to check in on my when God himself is coordinating my care.

Wait til you hear what He did for my outpatient care!

The waiting game....

I left you with me laying in bed waiting for my referal to go through...

I will take this part a little slow and do some complaining along the way. I went into the emergency room on Friday because my headache was so bad that I couldn't even stand up by myself. They gave me pain meds, which did help a little, and sent me home to wait for the referal that the computer had in it from the TBI clinic. During the next six days, I laid in bed by myself. The only person going in or out of my room was my soldier SPC Mitchell, who into eternity I will never be able to thank enough for all she did. She brought me lunch every day and checked on me every morning. These days passed in a blur for me. I got out of bed to go to my bathroom or get something to drink. That is it. I felt like I was going to die and at times the pain got so bad that I wanted to. I would lay there with all the lights in my room off so that I could bear to have my eyes open. I didn't want to talk because the noise bothered my head too bad...it was pretty bad. Some how my church family found out and got me some food and did my laundry and well, now we all know why we are supposed to belong to a body of believer's. God's away from home family care plan! I hated the fact that I couldn't do anything for myself, but at the time I didn't even think about that. On Thursday night, my commander finally stopped by my room. He said that he would go to the clinic and see if he couldn't speed things up. Unknown to him, my parent's were already on the way down to Ft Polk to help me.

This brings us to the next Friday...seven days after the emergency room. My commander calls me at 0800 and says that he has gotten me an appointment in Brook's Army Medical Center (BAMC) for the next Tuesday. To which I asked him, what I was supposed to do until then??? How was I supposed to get food? Or make it to the bathroom safely? I had started passing out at times and the pain was increasing each day. After a little back and forth and my dad...ummm...talking (oh so nicely I am sure) to several people on the phone, I got an appointment to see a doctor at Ft Polk. I was waiting in there for what felt like forever, lights and noises bringing on a pain that is too intense for words doctor after doctor would ask me the whole story from Iraq to present. Then I felt it...

the calvary had arrived!

The beginning.

One sunny day in February of 1985....well, maybe I don't need to start that far back! so let skip my birth and all my great accomplishments like walking and talking and reading and writting.
So now we are in 2007 when I deployed to Iraq.
While deployed, I sustained a head injury. Not a major one, but enough to get me into a sepcialist. Upon returning to the states, I was put under the care of the TBI (Tramatic Brain Injury) clinic. They were not too concerned. After all, with everything that they see from Iraq, a walking, talking person who has headaches and a little dizziness is next to nothing! They prescribed some medication and we all went on about our lives. Six medications to be exact and if you know me, you know that I HATE to take medicine. Before the holiday, I had thought that we had the pain and the side effects all managed. We had switched medication several times and gone up and down with doses. Finally, we had found what we thought was the right combination.

Then of course the other shoe must fall! The day of Christmas I had a car accident that gave me a concussion. The head injury that I already had plus this new concussion seem to have bonded in a way that I am not strong enough to handle. I have been to a doctor, two emergency rooms, and a neuropsychologist (whatever that is). At the moment, none of them know what is wrong. There is nothing scarier than looking into a doctor's eyes and having them say the words, "I don't know what is wrong." Now I can handle a lot of things. If they didn't know about knee pain, arm pain, or foot pain, you can live with that. I am not saying it is easy, but when the specialist looks you in the eyes and says I don't know what is wrong with your brain it is more than a little unnerving. I am currently waiting on a referal from my TBI clinic to see a neurosurgeon. Why I need a surgeon when they can't find anything wrong is beyond me!

Jumping forward to present day...now looking back this story has many aspects that are still unclear to me. I have yet to be able to process the whole of all the events that have taken place or how it got this far. I think I might be getting a little ahead of myself though. Let me catch you up in the next post... I have the dreaded theropy appointment to endure.

THANK YOU!

But before I start on this story
there are so many that I need to thank!

First being, God, whose His unwavering forgiveness continues to love me and comfort me even when I start the blaming game of, "Why me?". Jesus, you have been with me for so many of these crazy happenings that I usually look back on as wild adventures. You have never let me fall through the "cracks" even when the world has. Thank you. Continue to hold my ever wandering heart to your desired paths.

Then of course there is my family! What can I say, guys, that independant streak got me again~but ya'll were right there through phone calls, prayers, and pushing to get me where I needed to be to get the help I needed.

Friends ~ Your prayers, thoughts, meals, laundry, phone calls, plane tickets, gift cards, mail, games, books, letters.......well, I can go on but the list wouldn't stop! You all have banded together with me so much in all of this that it is overwhelming. I couldn't ask for more people to care. I thank God that He has blessed me so richly. I am truely touched by your support.

Catching up....

I started this blog right after Christmas leave and when I returned to work I found that my recent car accident took a little more out of me than I thought.


So hopefully, I will be able to catch you all up on my crazy life...to which my dad, my sisters, and several friends have shook their heads and muttered an, "only you".


So hang on...oh and make sure you tune back in to read the whole thing because if you stop on this story half way through, you might get a little depressed. I know at times I have!

My Count Down

200

That's exactly how many days are left in my contract with the Army. I am surprised though...the closer the time gets the more I realize how much I am going to miss the ways of the military. I am NOT saying that I will miss the 0400 formations, people yelling at me for doing what I was told to do in the first place, or the hours standing around for someone to come in and dismiss you. I am also VERY excited about starting again. It is like getting another chance at your life without having to go through high school again!

But at the same time, I will miss the family aspect of it. Just last night I had dinner with my soldiers. We work together, yet we can spend time together outside of work and still have things to talk and laugh about. I will miss going through any place and being able to see another soldier and automatically strike up a conversation with them like we have known each other for years. I will miss the drive that I feel when I salute the flag every morning and the pride I feel listening to Taps every night.

I am getting out of the military for many reasons, but today for some reason I can't remember any of those. All I can think of is the mission. My soldiers are getting ready to go to war in Afghanistan. I won't be there. I might have spent sometime in Iraq, but part of me feels like a deserter, leaving my "family" at the time they need me the most.

So for me today, though part of me is giddy with joy and adventure, there is a part of me that is reserved and reflective about the time spent and the people that I heave learned to care so deeply for.

The Field...with a twist.

Most of the time when we go to the field here in Louisiana, we encounter heat, rain, humidity, or all of the above. But this past field exercise, we all experienced something a little different.

Yes that is snow!

The only other time that I have had to work with snow in the Army was (if you can believe it) Iraq. I'll prove it...keep scrolling down.

So this might not prove that it is Iraq, but CPT Watkins could tell you that it was. It was the first snow for them in over 40 years. Most had never seen snow before. The snow made the country seem almost normal, but it didn't last more than an hour or two. Once melted it became a mud puddle all around. Yes, I mean one big mud puddle. Here I will show you:

This is an MRAP...an uparmored military vehicle. You would think that it being the desert water would just disappear as soon as it hit the sand, but nope, it would stay around for weeks making life miserable! Oh, the joys of deployment!

Anyway, back to the present, ummmm...where were we? Oh, yes, the field. Well, I would love to show you great pictures of all the hardwork my soldiers did, but we were so busy working that we didn't get to take any pictures. However, they deserve credit for their never wavering effort to complete the mission.

PFC Mitchell, PFC Ferrick, SPC Meyer

Thank you for all of your hardwork. Ya'll are always there to turn your back, hang your head, or pretending to work on a very important project when I finally figure out that I have messed up!

My Little People

These are my little blessings that I am blessed to call my nieces and nephews...minus one. My oldest nephew is so a boy and doesn't like to have his picture taken. These beautiful babies all call me Aunt Erin. They have been my drive through several of the harder times and they have been the source of the laughter that has renewed my strength.

I have to thank that parents of these adorable little people for sharing their children's lives so indepthly with me. You all have allowed me to be involved through photos and phone calls, emails and letters, blogs and facebook for that I am thankful.

This blog is actually the product of insipration by my sister, whose blog I follow faithfully. Her blog has been a source of encouragement and drive for me over the past two years. She started her blog while I deployed to Iraq. It helped me keep in touch with her and my nieces. Since then, I have found myself in tears several times over her posts. Sometimes the tears are prompted by the pictures, but mostly by the love that I get to see through the eyes of an adoring mother.
So I have decided to start my own blog, which will hopefully inspire and encourage others whose wonderings aren't always explainable to on-lookers.