Holding Pattern

Holding pattern is a pretty good summary of where we have been at all week.  On Wednesday we had two appointments - the first one was with Sue's doctor at the Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine office at MSU.  He has been working with her on her TMJ problem, and we told him our additional tale from the last couple of weeks.  He did some additional tests and manipulations on her, but I don't think he wanted to do too much.  He said her strength was good in her legs and feet, except for her left big toe, which is very important for balance when you are walking. 

Our second one was with the Natural Health Center.  We briefed him on what we did at OMM and he started making adjustments.  He is a licensed chiropractor, but he brings a lot of other disciplines into his practice, the application of which is just amazing.  He did an adjustment on her left toe, which got that immediately working right, and just as strong as the other side.  Her walking has definitely gotten better since that adjustment.  Also, his adjustments are not the stereotypical "twist them into a pretzel and then shove" kinds of adjustments.  All he does is tap in the right place to make the adjustment.

Next, he started working his way down the the spine, until he arrived at the coccyx (cox'-iks), which is the very last bone in your spine.  Most folks who don't have latin scholars or medical people in their house (which I do) call this the tailbone.  This bone seems to be where her back pain is coming from.  The xray showed there was no fracture here, so it may be an alignment issue, or it may be still the irritation of the nerves in the spine by the blood from her brain.  We don't know yet.  But after his adjustment there, she was walking around his office without the walker, so something in there got some relief.  Unfortunately, that level of relief wasn't permanent, but I think we're going in the right direction.  Even now, she is moving around better, and can go a little longer between pain meds, so it is progress in the right direction.

Friday was her MRI, so now we are waiting to have that read and the results sent to the family doc and the OMM doc, and we can go from there.  We also have an appointment with the hematologist this week, which we are very interested in.  We are hoping there are some answers there as to why the hemorrhage happened in the first place.

Sue is much more lively and engaged with life going on around her than she was at this time last week.  She is on the phone a lot, and she has started doing the planning and prep work for the new writing curriculum she will be teaching this coming school year.  It's book work and watching some lectures on DVD, so it's keeping her mind occupied while she is still on her back and in bed, which is very good for her and her active mind.  She doesn't deal with boredom and inactivity well!

We do appreciate the cards, letters, emails, and phone calls that have been sent.  Each one is like a little bright spot in Sue's day, and she has a gleeful tone in her voice as she tells me about them.  We also appreciate the prayers, and we believe they are working.  Nerves can be slow healers, so we are going to need a lot of patience in the coming weeks as we work with all our doctors to put all this behind us.