I am so thankful for doctors and medicine.  My visit to the doctor has helped, as I hoped it would.  He is very easy to talk to, listens to all my ramblings and then offers a solution.

I will be having another epidural next Wednesday at 11 AM.  In the meantime, he changed the pain medication and I can tell it has eased the pain somewhat.  Nerve and bone pain are the two worst types and I have both. So with the new meds, it is bearable...still there, but bearable.

Aryn was released from the doctor and he removed the boot from her ankle.  He said she was completely healed but suggested that she work out for a few days and not return to play in a basketball game until next Tuesday.  Of course, she was very happy with that!

I have heard the expression, "there is always someone worse off than you" all my life, and that is so true.  When I was hurting so badly yesterday, I received a phone call from one of the deacons of my church.  He told me about a couple in the church that had been in an auto accident right before Christmas.  They were both in rehab for 2 weeks, and then got to come home.  Last week, the man got very sick and had to be taken back to the hospital, where they found a tube that had been left in him from surgery, and his wife had to be rushed back yesterday.  The force of the accident had pushed her intestines up toward her lungs and she was having breathing troubles.  She had to go back to surgery too.

So, my troubles are nothing, and there is truly always someone worse off than you are.  Thank you God for the pain I am having, and nothing more.

Now is the time of the deep snows - and thrice blessed is the neighbor who will plow you out. A mug of good steaming coffee . . . will be just the thing for him when he has bucked out your drifts. A touch of neighborly kindness goes a long way - and there'll be more storms coming.
- The Old Farmer's Almanac, 1946