Aches & Pains

This was a crazy week. On Monday Shelby flew back to Germany for a doctor appointment and was supposed to return Wednesday. I should have known that was too good to be true...BUT he did get some help and treatments started right away, so I guess his stay was a good thing. For years he has had back pain and numbness in his leg that he rarely complains about or mentions. He's brought it up to the doctors at Ramstein many times but it was always dismissed and they would offer him some Motrin and pain killers and send him on his way. He would usually refuse the pain killers because taking them means he would be unable to control and do his job, thereby screwing over his coworkers and making them pick up his slack when he can't go to work. We all know he's too nice a guy to do that, so he suffered and just kept bringing it up to the docs hoping someone would finally decide to investigate. At last after a failed PT test from back spasms (oh NOW all of a sudden they are concerned when he can't do PT!) the doctor did decide to order some tests and look into the problem. Ten days before we were scheduled to fly to Lajes they did an MRI and he didn't get the results into we arrived here at Lajes and he saw the doctor here. MRI showed a bulging disk and a badly pinched nerve. See doctors, he wasn't making it up! So the end of last week they booked him an appointment with a neurosurgeon back at Landstuhl in Germany and off he went.

The doc in Germany couldn't believe he wasn't in more pain and is able to function like he does. He also said he never should have been allowed to PCS to a place like Lajes with this condition. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME??? WE TRIED EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN TO STAY IN GERMANY AND HIS BACK WAS MESSED UP THE ENTIRE TIME AND COULD HAVE BEEN THE REASON WE COULD HAVE STAYED?! Deep. Breath. Deep. Breaths. Anyway.... The doctor felt Shel is a good candidate for steroid injections to see if that helps before jumping into surgery. (Whew!) He wanted to start the treatments right away though and that meant Shelby wouldn't be coming home the next day (Wednesday) as planned. Tuesday afternoon Shelby got his first injection and said it hurt like hell, made him dizzy and they had to start an IV on him. Yuck. Here is a picture of his back and him getting his injection.

Then he got two days off to run around and live it up in Germany waiting for his second injection on Friday. He ate at our favorite restaurant, hung out with our friends, went to our old house and saw the neighbors, and ate a bunch of delicious food he insisted on sending me pictures of. The food pictures about send me right over the edge into a jealous rage. Lucky for him I was just too damned tired from chasing Colin alone all week and trying to set up the house to throw all his crap out on the lawn. Friday he went back to the doctor for his second injection and was able to fly home today. His plane was due in at 8 PM but has been delayed some, so now hopefully about 10 PM he will make it in.

I took care of some school stuff and I'm almost ready and set up to start with my graduate classes on August 9th. I'm still excited, but I think that is because the classes haven't started yet. Once I remember what a pain in the butt school is and what a nit picky perfectionist I am when it comes to school work I probably will be a lot less enthused. I managed to get some things put away and worked on around the house. I totally finished our master bedroom now. I'm waiting on the slow, slow mail to bring several things I've ordered to finish up some other rooms. Then there are the rooms I just haven't touched. I took some pictures, but I am not posting them until later because I don't want Shelby to see them before he gets home. I want it to be a nice surprise when he gets home. Otherwise it was a long, boring week without him around.