Our year started out with
friends going through major health challenges -- one close gal pal; Officer’s college roommate. We focused on loving on them of course.
Trip preparations for September
resumed when airfares calmed down after the winter holidays.
In
February Daddy Barry started helping out at Moose
Leather to have something interesting to work on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
Thursdays.
Meanwhile,
UCSD Pain Management’s Dr. Chen, who installed Daddy Barry’s spine stimulator
with great pain reduction suggested his extreme leg and foot pain could be a
sacroiliac joint issue. An injection
there didn’t shift things, so we continued with the next indicated step, a
sympathetic nerve block, in April. It
did not help either. Very disheartening.
April was also when several other big things
happened. One was a HOA project to
replace some leaky French patio doors completed beautifully, our building got
tented for termites which required moving out for much of a week – and
double-bagging anything edible and all prescriptions (and, by our choice,
washing LOTS of laundry afterward), and, Daddy Barry
experienced a heart attack and survived.
Then in one of life’s wonderful coincidences, a pain doctor
Daddy Barry had seen two years ago came through Moose Leather. Daddy Barry said “I know you. You’re a pain doctor.” The man asked “Did I
help you?” “No” was his simple
answer. To which the pain doctor was
quite empathetic; apologized, and asked for Daddy Barry to make an appointment
with him personally and he would show him something new he had for intense leg
and feet pain; a dorsal root ganglion stimulator. It took a couple of months, but the trial
version was installed in August. They
said some folks take a week to notice any difference. But the pain doctor said most folks feel
something in 72 hours. When that point
passed and no pain relief had occurred, it was difficult to be optimistic. (Side note:
Functional relief was already happening: Daddy Barry was able to stand for two hours at
Cigars and Boots, something he he’d needed to sit down for the last two
years. And the next day he walked all of
ArtWalk in Liberty Station; again something he wouldn’t
have been able to do in the previous two years.). But… as a week passed some pain
relief and related – some normal-ish sensation
returning to the feet; being able to move the toes for the first time in years
-- started to be felt. They made some program
changes and extended the trial a few days over an additional weekend. Oh my.
He graded himself a 50% functional improvement and a 30% pain improvement
– something he could live with. They
called it a success and we began moving forward with installing a permanent
one.
We are thankful.
As always, may this find you happy & well.
Wes & Tom's Cool Site
The Letter Wars (aka The Homophobe
Hellhole)
Things From Wes' Nose
| Things From
Wes' Mind