Update on Spinal Injections #27 & 28

Let me start by saying a big "thank you" once again to all of my sweet friends that support Rence and myself through love, prayer, encouragement (texts, calls, cards, Facebook messages) and your help in making days like today possible while Rence cannot take off work. Most of you will never have a clue as to how much you have impacted our lives. Specifically, the sweet congregation of First Baptist Church of Oxford has been so supportive, loving, and prayerful over our situations since we first became involved with this church (only two or three months ago). It is very clear that you are the living, breathing body of Christ. After a season of discouragement recently (regarding church support & personally investing in our lives), FBC Oxford has been more than a blessing for us - you are truly a gift from God. It is a pleasure to now serve alongside you, and I can't wait to get to know more of you as we get more involved with time. You are loved and beyond appreciated.

These spinal injections may not seem like a big deal to some, but for me, these injections create a significant increase in pain levels. They also serve as a means of diagnosis, in many cases, and in others, they are part of a process to reach further treatment (due to barriers put in place by insurance companies). Therefore, your prayers are extremely important.

In today's case, this set of injections was the second of the most recent set of SI-joint injections (of the spine), which served the purpose of pain relief, diagnosis, as well as accomplishing 2 sets of injections on each SI joint before pursuing nerve ablation.

For the next visit, we will finally be able to accomplish the long-awaited nerve ablation. This is a procedure where they use Teflon-coated needles and "fry" the end of the aggravated nerve roots in each joint using electrical currents. This gives the patient longer and more effective pain relief, in most cases, lasting anywhere from 3 months to 1 year. The procedure does have to be repeated when the results begin to wear-off because the nerve roots grow back over time.

After nerve ablation comes surgery on the SI-joints. We are praying for God to show/guide us in each step as we choose the right doctor for surgery (the newer procedure is little-known to most doctors). We would love to get this issue under control without having to resort to this step. We are praying for that, but trusting in God's ultimate plan, no matter where it takes us.

Please continue to pray that I get as much pain relief as possible from this set of injections today!

Thank you once again to you all! You are precious!