Gift Given

Hi friends!

I wanted to share with you another small gift I have made and given. This was sent to our friend Carol. She had sent me some pretty, pink fabrics to use in the Epic Pink Tumbler Charm Quilt.

Yes, another bookmark. I thought this a very useful gift for our librarian friend. :) I used pale blue crepe I had in my stash. Also the lace is from my stash. The Art of William Morris is my own book. I chose this blue floral motif for Carol. I stitched it one over one on antique white 32ct linen using all the called for DMC. Here is the other side.

I am so glad Carol like it and will use it too.

I have been asked if I have included pink poodles in this quilt? Come on now! What do you think?! Yup! I only have a picture from last year of two of the pink poodle fabrics that are cut into tumblers now and are going to be sewn right into that Epic Quilt. Both of these are from our friend Kim. I am using the two on the right, as my personal rule with this quilt is that the fabric is all pink or mainly pink.

I am unsure yet what to think about the cortisone shot yesterday. I am trying to remain positive here, I am. However, the shots, I felt four different needles, I never look, hurt massively. She went in from the front. Very different and very bad. The pain seemed less for a few hours, then increased and became worse. It hurts to sit with that hip now. I do know that the cortisone can take 24 to 48 hours to become completely effective.This of course does nothing for the degenerative disc disease that has begun. It runs in my family strong. I have already lost one inch in height. When I mentioned this to Dr. Wu last week, she actually told me that I am too young to have arthritis in my back. I told her I feel and hear the clicking and pain in my very low back. She told me to be sure to get lots of calcium. I feel exasperated from that. I am not sure anything can be done for that problem anyhow, but positive thinking, well, I am beyond that. I have been dealing with this for 10 years. Please! I am waiting to see the results of the shots in my hip. I had the pain managed as of late, at a 2 or 3 level daily. I can cope with that. I had told her that last week also, before we did the shots one week later. This did nothing for the pain in the right hip of course. This very rarely comes anyhow, it is mainly my left side and lower back now.

Sorry to be so glum this morning. I am trying to remain positive. It is sooooooooooo hard with this pain, my constant companion of 10 years now. I am reminded of Job. He asks his wife in Job 2:10, " Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” 

Watch for a post from me tomorrow. I am taking part in Easter Blog Hop 2015. 

Thanks for being such great friends. I truly appreciate you. I have thanked God for you today! May God richly bless you!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Jesus ♥ Me

Hi friends! This is one heck of a week so far!! Yesterday I had the surgery to remove the possible remaining cancer and all the surrounding tissue from the melanoma. The surgeon told me he would go deep and and wide. I have to say that after the surgery was done I was quite relieved. He came to me, put his hand on my shoulder, and said "Congratulations. You are cancer free." Whew. That feels very good. The nurse told me, after he had left that she truly believes just what he said. She said he took very wide margins and the pathology report will most likely show he got it all. Unfortunately we have to wait most likely a week for that pathology report, but I am not even thinking about it. I trust God.

Today I went to have the second round of cortisone shots in both my hip bursa. Yep. I may be crazy. This appointment was already scheduled before I even knew I had cancer, so I figured I was already in pain, let's just get this done. Not sure if that was the best decision, but what is done, is done. The cortisone shots I received two weeks ago helped reduce the pain. Now my hip and back pain has been high for the last 24 hours because I have to walk and rest and sleep in odd positions, due to limited knee movement. The melanoma was just barely above my left knee.

I stitched up Jesus Loves Me from My Big Toe Designs last month. This is a sweet freebie I wanted to stitch for a troubled young lady. She went to school with our Jacob from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, at our church grade school. I worked with her mother at my first job. Her mom died from cancer ( a long struggle) when this young lady was in the fourth grade. She has never been the same since. At all. She became pregnant this year, and is going to have a baby girl next  month.

I decided to made a flat fold. I stitched this on white 28ct linen, two over two. I used DMC 3687,340, 727, 799, and 341. I had the perfect match in pink, solid fabric to the 3687, so that is the fabric I used.

I had a recent Bent Creek finish (no pictures). I have what I hope is a fantastic finishing idea. I will work on that soon, but first I am making up Mandolin Santa by Mill Hill. It is a Christmas Ornament for my brother Jonathan. He plays the mandolin. I want to have it done for his birthday on the 21st. I think I can do it.

I see that I have 299 followers! That is super! :) When I reach 300 I am going to celebrate you all and my cancer removal with a giveaway. It is a large chart. Stay tuned. ;)

That is about it for now my friends. I am off to check out your wonderful, inspiring blogs before the crazy, bad pain from the  hip injections kicks in tonight. It lasts for about 3 days, if it goes like last time. Then the pain decreases. I hope it stays decreased. I do believe it will!

Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. Thank you for your friendship.♥

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

A Sweet Surprise

Hi friends! A sweet surprise arrived in the mail for me yesterday. All the way from Canada. Our dear friend Anne sent me a few lovely, belated birthday gifts.

Anne crocheted me a fabulous, pink cup cozy. Madeleine actually put it on Henry for a scarf! The poor 6 pound boy! Not very macho. And yes, you read that right. He is now 6 pounds. When he came to us he was 4 pounds. The vet said he was too skinny and needed to add weight. :)

Anne also included a lovely Crescent Colours 'Clay Pot'. Her friend made that sweet bird card.:) And I am happy to announce to you that I have finally had a black tea that I like! This is from Anne also. It is called Cream Earl Grey. It has the prettiest purple bergamot petals in it too. :) Thank you again Anne.♥

Yesterday was our dear Emerson's 18th birthday! We had the family over for cake. He wanted marble cake. I made a chocolate pudding type frosting for between the two layers. I frosted it with chocolate cool whip to keep it lighter. Had to make my own chocolate cool whip. Can't find it anymore.

I finished reading A Man Called Blessed by Ted Dekker. This is the sequel to Blessed Child. Another older book by Ted. And another one I recommend. I really enjoyed it. :)

Tomorrow morning I am subjecting myself to more pain and torture. When I had an exam from the pain management PA two weeks ago, she pressed on my outer, upper thighs. I thought I might scream. YIKES! She said I should not have pain there at all, and that is unusual. She says those are my bursa. What?! They are fluid filled sacs that cover your joints in your body. So I am having cortisone injections tomorrow by the doctor in both hip bursa. I hope and pray this takes away the pain completely in my hips. She said it will do nothing for my back pain. I understand that. I am willing to try this. ONCE at least. I hate to go through the whole sedation/IV thing, so I opted not to tomorrow. However, I tend to get myself worked up ahead of time. I do not want to, I just kinda do it. So now my stomach is starting to hurt. I am second guessing that decision.

If you care to, would you please pray this goes well for me and ACTUALLY WORKS? I will take pain relief of any kind!! I would love for the pain to go away for a few months. That is a possibility. Thank you!

I am so glad you stopped by today.  Take good care of yourself! There is only one you!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Two poodles on Winky Watch(Madeleine's parakeet).

Finally Framed

Hi friends! Things have started warming up. Problem is that it rained and froze, so everything is very slick out there. Is anyone enjoying good weather? Tell me.

I finished Mary's Sampler over a month ago. I have been searching for a 5x5 frame ever since. Let me tell you, those are not readily available around here. Unless you want black. Michael's had two different wood ones. I bought one and tried it out. It wouldn't fit! I measured the frame, and guess what? It was 4 1/2 inchesx4 1/2 inches!!! C'mon! Ridiculous. I returned that and guess what? We finally made the trip to Hobby Lobby. Yay! It is not near us. I have been wanting to get back to that store FOR YEARS. Finally went. So glad I did. =) Found a frame. For only $5 too! =)

I found a sweet, little, vintage poodle pincushion with the original thimble on ebay. =)

This is the progress I have made on Theotokos this week.

I decided, why wait for one more week in this elevated pain? I have done some hunting down of this pain PA.She returned to work this last week at the main pain clinic she works out of. She returns this week to the clinic I visit. I have discovered the true problem is that I see her and the pain doctor at the location closer to me. The main clinic they work out of is far away and NOT affiliated with mine. The nurses and people don't seem to work together. So I called my place and had them fax over the message as usual. But then I called that clinic and asked if they received the fax. The receptionist assured me they did and she was delivering it to the PA herself. I called back 90 minutes after I knew she had the fax delivered to her desk and asked if she actually saw it. The receptionist told me she knew the PA saw it because she personally delivered it to her. She put me on hold for less than 2 minutes and then said she personally asked the PA. The PA said she had the fax sent back over with the directions, but you can tell Vickie to increase her meds to 4 times daily beginning now and I will see her in one week as planned. Do you know the nurse from the facility I deal with called me the next morning, 18 hours later? She said they received the message from the PA and the prescription is being called in for you to your pharmacy now. That was it. I didn't even discuss it with her. I will with the office manager at my appointment in two days.Being on the Neurontin 4 times daily has brought the pain level down lower. It has been better.

Off to have lunch with family in a few hours. Hoping the ice melts a lot today. I do NOT need to slip! Who does?!

Have a stitchtatic day my friends. =)

Stitching and reading and praying,
Vickie

I've Been Quilting

Good Morning friends! Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh my, what a wonderful day
Plenty of sunshine headin' my way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

How the heck are ya?! Guess what? GUESS WHAT?!? After this last test injection in my left SI joint, I told Brian we should just look online to see what I can do with meds instead. It turns out I am on the lowest dose of Neurontin. I asked the PA if she would increase it, and she did. She doubled it. My pain is now usually a 2 on the pain scale. Friends, that is fantastic!!!

I did have a moment of bitterness. I was upset and wondered, why did I have to ask for this?! Why didn't someone do this for me YEARS ago?! I could have avoided painful procedures THAT DIDN'T WORK!! But I am letting that go. I am thankful instead I have it NOW. God is good and He is merciful and compassionate.

I broke a rib! I did this once about 10 years ago. From coughing. Yes, I broke my rib coughing. That dumb cold I got like the rest of the family a month ago. Well, I get lingering coughs with at least one cold a year it seems for years now. So on Friday I coughed and felt it kind of click/crack. Amazing how painful a broken rib can be. I am not going to the doctor with this. I did 10 years ago. They took an x-ray, said yep it's broke and then sent me home. It takes about one month to heal.

I made an applique quilt of Henry.

 I had plans to make this since we got him back in spring. But, well. I loosely used the pattern for a poodle found in Best In Show: 24 Applique Quilts for Dog Lovers by Carol Armstrong. I had to redraw many of the pattern pieces to make it look like Henry. And I decided if I ever wanted it to get done, I needed to just do fusible applique to make it easier. That is the method I used for Mabel's quilt. Remember this?

Amish Mabel In A Square

Henry's Quilt hangs in the kitchen. He needed his own quilt too. His replaced this one that was in the kitchen.

"Mac, Maggie and Mabel"

The quilt is 18"x22". The "Henry" is just about life size. =)

I just outline quilted Henry, and quilted in the ditch. I quilted 4 paw prints, one in each corner.

I really struggle when using the quilting foot on my sewing machine. That whole free motion thing is hard for me to conquer. But it is done, and I did it.

 Here's the little rascal. ;)

And here is the little lady. I just gave her a bath and haircut. Isn't she pretty?♥

Have a beautiful day in the Lord my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Autumn Delights

Hi friends! How about we do the happy stuff first, okay? I finished the Barbara Ana 'Autumn Delights' into a framed flatfold. I used a chocolate colored linen I had in my stash. I tried making a twig frame from fallen branches from our big Silver Bark Maple tree. I may still make up a twig frame to mount around the stitched piece, on the flatfold. It is not that easy to get twigs to lay straight!

I stitched this all one over one using DMC on a creamy mystery colored 27 count evenweave.

This is where it sits out on display now. On Great Aunt Ethel's treadle sewing machine with my fall pieces and Cathey's Pumpkin.♥

Here it is in the chocolate garden, amongst the chocolate colored foliage. Did any of you notice the two personalizations I made? Instead of stitching the kitty peeking out from behind the tree, I stitched Henry!! ♥ And I "carved" my initials into the tree bark. =)

Here is my updated picture on the PSS SAL, Mary's Sampler.

Now for the unhappy. I had the second test injection today. The pain relief so far from this test injection is slightly better than two weeks ago. I insisted on stronger sedation this time, so this injection went a lot better. I will have a consult with the doctor in two weeks. If he finds the relief I got this time not very impressive, he will not be doing the radiofrequency alblation in my SI joint. To be honest, our talk this morning was depressing for me. To see my pain specialist discouraged, well it made me feel low. I have tried so very many procedures and therapies over these 9 1/2 years. If he does not do the ablation, we will just manage my pain with medication and occasional cortisone shots. =(

I finished listening to  The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan on CD. It was very good. This book was written in 1678, so it was very different and interesting. I had been wanting to read this for years. I know that it is a popular book with quite a few Amish people actually. It is a Christian allegory. I am glad I found it on CD through the library system so I could finally get this book done!

Let's end with more happiness shall we? I gave Henry a haircut on Sunday.

Boy is he hard to get a decent picture of. He doesn't hold still. Here he is chewing a bone.

Here he is waiting for me to open Winky's cage door. ;)

I couldn't resist adding this one in too. He is so intent on Winky here. He is giving a little leap. Doesn't he look like he is flying or something? hahaha!

Have a stitchtastic day my friends! I am so glad you stopped by!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Blech! (⊙﹏⊙✿)

Hi friends! I hope you are well. I am still not. sigh. I mean, at least I am NOT laying around sloth-like still. My stomach was "feeling bad" so I started taking the over-the-counter acid reducer my doctor told me to take when it acts up. After a week, and sudden majorly increased pain, I called and he told me to double it and take extra strength Gaviscon at the maximum dose as well. After 4 days with no improvement I was seen by him. He gave me Nexium samples. I have been on those at the high dose of twice daily and the maximum dose of Gaviscon  for 4 days also now. I had an abdominal ultrasound done yesterday morning. This ruled out problems with any of my other organs. So my doctor believes I have one or two significant ulcers. These medications should heal my stomach  up, it is just taking a long time because of the severity? I am still a burnin' here folks.  Let me tell ya, a bland diet is not much fun at all. =(

Say! I have good great news!! The Neurontin I told you I was approved for, to take care of my chronic SI joint pain, is working!!!!!!! WaaaaaaaHooooooo! It is keeping my pain levels at a 2 or 3 all the time people. Isn't that great?! I think so. I could be angry that so many different insurance companies we had over the years refused to cover Neurontin for me. They insisted I use the generic, even though not one of the four generics I tried  brought the pain down.  Well, I won't lie. I was quite angry about that. But I do NOT want to be bitter. Soooo, I am grateful that I may be on brand name Neurontin NOW,again after 9 years.

On Wednesday night we went to Marquette University's New Student Convocation. What an experience. The keynote address was given by Chitra Divakaruni. She is the author of One Amazing Thing, the book I read along with Jacob and all of the incoming freshman this year. There are exactly 2013 freshmen this year, the year of 2013. Strange huh? They had 23,000 applications!! We are very proud of Jacob.Well, it is really happening folks. Our oldest has begun college now.Twenty-five additional nursing students were added because Milwaukee's VA Hospital has paid for the additional teachers and classrooms required to increase from 100 to 125 students. The VA prefers Marquette trained nursing staff. There are now 6 young men and 119 young ladies. Oh boy!! ;)

I did hear from our dear friend Carol over a week ago, that she received my gift right before she fell ill. Like a dummy, I forgot to take a picture of the beaded angel needle threader I made her. I made her in blue, Carol's favorite color. It was my first time making a needle threader. I also sent Carol this:

Yes, that is right. I actually gave her some of my Chocolate Swirl irises. These are the ones that smell of chocolate.♥ Carol commented on my blog over a year ago that she wished she had some. =) Now she does! And her DH even planted them while sweet Carol was ill .

I did NOT take a picture of the counting pins and two patterns I sent off to Vicki either. But she has received them and likes them. =) Here, I borrowed her picture of my gift.


And I also sent gifts to Angela P, which she has received and likes too! And you guessed it!!! I did not take a picture of pattern and counting pins either. But here is a picture Angela took and said I could show here.

I sent all three of these ladies gifts because they guessed the correct color of fuchsia for my purse.

Emerson and Madeleine have begun classes again as of Thursday. Jacob's first classes begin Monday. He has been to orientation things every day since Wednesday now.

I did not stitch one time while I was ill for the first week. Too weak and exhausted and nauseous.I am currently stitching up another freebie. I did get a lot of reading done. I finished The Last Runaway. That was good, but I felt very badly about the handful of swear words. I then read Evidence Unseen by Darlene Deibler Rose. THIS was an excellent, true story. She was a POW in WWII. She and her pastor husband were missionaries in New Guinea when WWII broke out.

That is it for today. I continue to take my "little purple pills" and hope to be all better very soon. Just wanted you to know I am still alive. ;)

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Pretty Pink Gifts For Me!!

Good Morning my friends! It has cooled here a bit. So nice. I received this wonderful, beautiful gift from Chris a few days ago. This was what she sent me for her 200th follower giveaway.

Isn't it wonderful! Look at all this great pinkness!!  A lovely patchwork pincushion, a quilted needlecase front and center,  berry pins, a quilted fan zip up purse in back and sweet pink Angel scissors.

Here is a close up of the very sharp scissors. I have parked "her" in a spool of pink thread that was my Auntie Ethel's. She is in front of my big wooden bowl of smalls on Auntie Ethel's antique sewing machine.Thank you so very, very much Chris. What a wonderfully made,perfectly colored, generous gift!!

Emerson's birthday weekend was great. So was the cake! ;) He already treasures the bookmark, I can tell. I found him reading his Bible that night, with the bookmark. =)

Yesterday I had a follow up appointment for the ablation I had. Basically, it did NOT work. The PA now says to do those "test injections" and the the radio frequency for my SI joint. I told her I didn't understand why we didn't do the SI joint first, since this has been diagnosed as my pain point for years. She said based on the exam and the good test injection results for my medial branch (my lower spine, I guess) the doctor felt he had it pinpointed. So more trial and error junk. sigh. This should get started in two weeks, I think. I will now hope and pray this spot works. In the mean time she is going to try and get authorization for the brand name Neurontin for me. This drug kept me at a 2 pain level daily, years ago. I had to go off it eventually because of insurance changes. It was no longer covered. Only the generic. I tried 4 different manufacturers of this generic. None worked well. Not at all close to keeping me at a 2. So she said we should go for both the meds and the procedure, to really knock my pain down. Well, we will see won't we? sigh again!

I finished A Place Of Healing by Joni Eareckson Tada. This book was recommended to me by my friend Julie. Thank you Julie. I am very glad I read it. It was inspirational. It helped me understand some of the things that bother me in dealing with my constant pain.

Do not forget I am having a giveaway right now. It is for Plum Street Samplers  Love Notes. See  this post to still enter.

I am almost done stitching Snappy Sampler by Bent Creek. It is a small, quick little thing. Fun too. I changed one of the colors and I like it. Pictures soon. And I will be offering the chart up next time to you,if you like.

Have a fun day! Hope it includes some stitchy time.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

A Surprise In The Mail

Hi Friends!  So glad you stopped by.  A surprise came in the mail for me yesterday. Hooray! Hooray for me! That is the best,isn't it?! Guess who it was from?

Our sweet friend Annette, that's who! ;) She made me this beautiful card.♥ And take a look at what else she created for me.

A fabulous floss fob! Beautiful DMC flosses too. I love it! I now own my very first floss fob. Here is a better picture of the lovely stitching.

 

ooOoo! I just love those initials she stitched for me! They are fabulous. And the crown! I asked her if this means that I must surely be the queen of this household? And do you know what dear Annette told me? No, you don't, so I am going to tell you. She told me that when she sees a crown, she thinks of Jesus. "So it is like a subtle blessing from Him representing the crown to watch over you ( your initials)." I could just cry. That is so beautiful Annette. What a special, wonderful gift. Thank you! Oh yes, and Annette did say that me being the Queen of the household works too. ;)

 See the beautifully matched fabric on the back. As you can see my pink peonies finally opened up. =)

We took a trip this morning, Brian, Jacob and I. We took the Freeway Flyer from our home to Marquette University. What a great, convenient benefit for Jacob this bus will be. He will save money on gas and parking. Yay! We walked around the large campus in downtown Milwaukee. We found the buildings that are used for nursing. We also bought some t-shirts and a sweatshirt. ;)

Friends! I MAY have some exciting news for you all! I did not experience the severe sunburn pain sensation after my radiofrequency nerve ablation on Tuesday. The pain was very increased, but has slowly subsided. The bus trip today was a test of sorts for me, because.... I woke up this morning with very low pain. As in a "one or two" on the ten scale. Friends, this has not happened in many, many months!! It appears to be working.

Now for the dumb, dumb, dummy move. Yup! Do ya know what this is? I had one of these as a girl. Oh what fun! It is a Skip It. Madeleine has one like it in the garage, without the lemon, it's a pink thing on the end instead. Anyways, it was calling me. Mocking me. I had to give it a try. Ya know, just a few times right?

Dumb! Dumb! Dummy! Now both hips hurt and my left leg. =( I honestly just wanted to have fun. Really. Then I remembered the doctor saying not to do things that I know will cause the pain though. =( Man! So I took the percocet. =( Time will tell. For crying out loud!

You can still enter my giveaway here.

I will leave you with a few happy pictures of the pups taken just yesterday.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

In Need Of a Fun Finish. Got One?

Good Morning my friends!  I am so very glad you are here. I need an idea. I need YOUR help. Would you PLEASE share with me a finishing idea for Friends Are Like Angels? This is the most important part. It is why I need help. IT IS FOR A NON-STITCHING FRIEND. This is for my very long time friend Heather.

I actually plan on stitching this up twice. This time is how the pattern recommends stitching it, two over two on 28ct. I usually stitch smaller. Next time will probably be one over one on 28ct.This first piece may be made into a pinpillow or ..... ideas! ideas! The next one I stitch, the small one, is the one I was thinking of making up for Heather into a door knob hanger. Do non-stitchy people find these weird? Do you have a better idea for my gift for her?

I won this sweet, little LizzieKate pattern from Sally.  If you also would like to stitch it, keep watching this space. I will be having a giveaway for this pattern when I am done with it, just as Sally requested.

So, how am I doing you may wonder? Well, I can tell you right now that I could feel all of your positive thoughts and prayers Tuesday morning. The procedure went extremely smooth. I almost fell asleep during it. No pain! The doctor did not mention that the pain would be very increased for several days. He likes to hold back information on what to expect with pain. He is all about psychology. He doesn't want me to think it could be bad, because then I will expect bad things. Well after the procedure the nurse told me that my nerves will be "all crazy" for several days and to expect heightened pain. Also that my pain would be at it's usual level for 4 to 6 weeks before the pain dies down or disappears completely. My jaw almost hit the floor!! SAY WHAT NOW?!?

Um, yes, I would say for the first 24 hrs. the pain was severely increased. It has been decreasing ever since. I have been relying on narcotics and ice packs. I am hoping my "usual" pain subsides quicker than 4 weeks. I am also hoping this is all worth it. Thank you for your well wishes, thoughts and your prayers.

This is only a small portion of the sea of purple-blue columbine blooming.

The white peonies bloom first. I am still waiting for the pink to bloom. The pink roses smell just heavenly. Both of these were here at this home when we moved in. We relocated them in the yard however.

I finished reading Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story. This is a book about Joni and Ken Earekson Tada. Are you familiar with Joni? She is a Christian quadriplegic. This book was a gift from Shirlee. I really, really liked this book. The book discusses her pain and suffering. I found it helpful and encouraging.

Please remember to leave me a comment with your ideas! Have a great day in the Lord my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

I Am Nervous

Good Morning friends! Hello to new friends! I hope you all are doing well. I have not lost my desire to stitch, I just do NOT have time lately. I did just make myself this stadium cushion. I used this tutorial.

Jacob's graduation is coming up quickly and it is in the fieldhouse. We will have to sit on bleachers. I thought this might help me. I know it will for other events also. The cotton twill tape you see is the strap sewn in.

I am nervous. Well, truth be told, I am scared. I am having a Facet Joint Injection tomorrow from the pain specialist. This pain doctor actually saw me 8 years ago. He did different injections on me back then. Things have changed in the 9 years since I fell. So I am willing to try this. I will be sedated. I will lay on my stomach and there will be an xray beneath me to help guide the doctor in the correct placement. This will be in my lower back. The joint is located on the back of my spine. This will be diagnostic. He is going to inject a numbing medicine. Depending on the relief or reduction of pain I get, we will or won't do this again in two weeks. If we get good results again in two more weeks, we will do radio frequency nerve burning.

At my last appointment with him he asked me if I would like to be without pain for 3 months. I almost cried. Yes! Yes! He told me that he has had people have 3 months pain relief. He has also had patients tell him they are pain free for 2 and 3 years!! I just have NOT allowed myself to go there. I have been in constant pain for 9 years. Any pain relief without narcotics would be a gigantic blessing.

8 years ago a different doctor tried this first diagnostic test and the pain relief only lasted hours. He told me on that same day, that I am not a candidate for the nerve burning. I DID cry then. This doctor told me things change. They do things differently now also. He pretty much said I have nothing to lose by trying this.

So dear friends, would you pray for me? Please pray that if it be God's will, this first diagnostic injection will go well and we can proceed to the next injection in two weeks. I am in tears right now. I just am so worked up over the actual injection. It hurts and it scares me too. It will be worth it all if I can be "normal" again.

Thank you for your friendship. It means so much to me to have such caring friends in my life. God bless you all. He has blessed me with you!!!

I still cannot make time for stitching. I am working on Graduation Party decorations.

Praying,
Vickie