Please Pray

I'm pasting in a recent e-mail from my sister-in-law and asking all of you to please join me in praying for my dear niece, Amanda, who has been suffering for so long.

"For Amanda things are not looking as encouraging. In the last two years she has undergone so much!!! So many C.A.T. scans and M.R.I.’s, an M.R.V., an E.C.G., numerous x-rays, months of physical therapy, hundreds of Dr. visits to here p.c.p., back surgeons, neurologists, pain specialists, oral facial pain specialists, chiropractors, a deep tissue message therapist, an acupuncturist, optometrists, an opthamologist, as well as dentists and endodontist’s. She has had several root canals done to try to alleviate the intense pain, unfortunately only making matters worse, causing severe T.M.D., which makes here jaw lock so that it can only be closed manually,as well as adding to the pain she already was dealing with. She has had back surgery that has left her unable to walk on her own, although, for the last 3-4 weeks she has been able to use only a cain and she is able to walk with support, but without full control of the legs, sadly, she has not made any progress in P.T. since June. Oddly, one of the back surgeons asked her prior to surgery, when she had quit smoking because her bones are dried up like someone who has smoked all their life. Of course, she has never smoked, neither has she been around it. Her shoulders for no reason known just pop out of joint. She has to take inhalers on a daily basis for asthma she developed almost two years ago now. She has lost more than half of her eyesight, and sometimes her eyes blur altogether, making it impossible to see. This has been a help though, as it sent her to the opthamologist, who, suspecting intra-cranial hypertension, sent her to a new neurologist, who ordered a lumbar tap to measure the opening pressure of her spinal fluid, (it is supposed to top at 150, hers is 300 and something,) which gave another specialist another piece to the puzzle enabling him to give a tentative diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia. Below is a description I pasted from websight.

DESCRIPTIONTrigeminal Neuralgia (TN), also known as Tic Douloureux, is considered by many to be the "most terrible pain known to man." The electric shock-like pain generally is on one side of the face and is spasmodic, coming in short bursts lasting a few seconds. Several attacks can follow each other within minutes. There are often trigger points, places on the face which, if touched, trigger an attack.. Eating, shaving, applying makeup and talking can be triggers. There can be periods of remission when pain is completely absent. These periods of remission, which can last days, weeks, months, even years, are unpredictable and without medical treatment, the pain usually returns.1. TN is a very rare condition. Statistics vary, but TN occurs in approximately 150 per million people per year. Medical literature notes this condition is rare for anyone under age 50.

For over two years Amanda has not had remission, with the exception of a very light let up in August of ‘04.Other concerns are that since Amanda had the spinal tap done about five weeks ago she has only been able to stomach rice milk and a couple of times some gelatin snacks. She attempts to eat every few days, but is unable to keep it down. Plus, since her back surgery, April 5, she has had a headache of migraine proportions, only it can’t be a migraine because migraines don’t continue for so long. ( This headache is beside the spinal headache she had after the tap.)

So we continue on. Amanda, taking to heart very much the words of her boss from the Courier Herald, tries really hard not to let her pain affect others. This is a huge load for her to carry. Thank you for keeping her (and us,) in your prayers."

Yesterday, Amanda, had another lumbar tap and is experiencing excruciating pain. Will you remember her before our Great Physician?