What's New With Me?

Since I last wrote I have had shoulder surgery and a bad bought with Meniere's Disease. The Meniere's was much worse than the surgery. I did not have to take anything for the pain in my shoulder, but the ringing ears, nausea, spinning sensation and projectile vomiting were enough to make want to cry. I had Meniere's back when Karen was carrying our oldest son, Jesse, and I was twenty-nine years of age in a new part of the country--we had moved to Los Angeles--and I had started a new job. I was under a bit of stress at the time and my body decided to react to the stress by making sick as a dog most of the time. For the next 4 years the symptoms ( ringing ears, nausea, spinning sensations, projectile vomiting, etc) continued to get worse until I was having major episodes every two weeks. The spinning would start after a gradual worsening ear-ringing of about two weeks and I would have to crawl to the nearest bathroom (barfroom?)to be near a place where I could politely hurl up everything in me. I would keep a big water cup by my side to replenish my stomache so that I would not be continually dry heaving--and I would definitely keep that up with out relief for hours. The water helped me stand it longer until I physically passed out from exhaustion. I would then sleep for about 24 hours straight followed by a day of recouping my strength. For short day or two respite I would have none of the Meniere's symptoms and then the ringing and lethargy would begin to creep back and my Hell would start over again. I remember a very sad Christmas Eve while I was laying on my bed with head in a "puke bag" and my wife was putting together a swing set we had gotten for our little kids.

After 4 years of this and losing my job because I seemed to be absent from work one day out of five, Our local Stake President asked me to accept a call to our ward bishopric. I told him I was willing but I had this projectile vomiting issue every couple of weeks or so. He said they would handle that and gave me a priesthood blessing to handle it. For the next 22 or 23 years I had no problems with Meniere's attacks. If I started to hear a little ringing, I would make an effort to cut back on my stress level. All seemed to be well in my world.

Then, we prayed about trying to get out to Utah to be able to help care for my elderly mother-in-law and my handicapped sister-in-law--we had moved back to Kansas 10 years prior to take care of my elderly mother in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. She eventually passed away and we felt that we had done a thing, but that my wife's family's need was now great enough for us to move on. We started looking at job situations in Utah that might fit my talents--I was self-employed as a safety consultant for primarily roofing companies in Kansas/Missouri area. I eventually heard of a family in Utah that owned two large roofing companies in Utah that were searching for someone with credentials. We talked, we liked each other, and they hired me. I came out in March of 07', driving a small truck of personal belongings to start the process of working and finding a home that we could afford for us and my in-laws. Karen was to stay behind until the kids finished school and try to get the house sold. No Stress there?

The day I arrived and crawled into bed at some friends' home in Salt Lake my ears were ringing--they had been going for a couple of days--and the spinning was beginning. I thought "Oh, No!" But that was pretty much it. The next morning I showed up at my new place of work and got to know my new comrade's-in-arms. I was still feeling the effects of the day before and asked two of the active Mormon priesthood holders on the management team of the company where my office was to give me another blessing. It seemed to do the trick.

Fast forward to this moment in time and I have stressed out once again and am hopeful once again to get off these dire straights. The last week and a half have been very stressful. I left Sunday with the ringing ears to attend a safety managers' meeting of two days in Phoenix--I did not really enjoy the new scenery since I spent every free moment lying on my bed trying to keep my head still. I came back on Wednesday to work with no relief and then into surgery Thursday morning. It was down hill from there. I vomited several times from the post surgery nausea--couldn't keep anything down fro about 24 hours--and got stopped up from not going to the bathroom for a couple of days which kept from sleeping another night. Then, I had a violent Meniere's attack in the middle of the following night and spent the next day not being able to eat getting stopped again. And, although my shoulder never hurt enough to take any pain medicine for it, I was unable to sleep on my stomach, which is a real plus when you trying sink your head as low as you can into a bed. So, because of the this stuff, I'm using the moment to vent some frustration. As we know Meniere's is stress related, and if I stress out about having a Meniere's episode, it will likely happen. Please pray for me out there!

Oh yes, and Mitt seems to be doing better after a win in Nevada and improving his situation in Florida. So there is something positive to look at that could make me feel better.