SELF EVALUATION A YEAR OF PAIN

A year of pain

Today, here in 2013, or my 78^th year of age, started with some back pain in January which usually would last a week or a few days and then go away but it lingered the entire month..

In order to determine what might be the cause I sought the help of 2 doctors in February and March.

The 1^st Dr. Thought it might be due to an infection so gave me an antibiotic which did not help.  

The 2^nd Dr. Suggested I take physical therapy. I did so and this helped for a month or so.

After physical therapy no longer worked and that pain was getting more severe my doctor suggested I have an MRI. The MRI not only showed very little space for the nerves to get through L3 L4 in the lower back, it also showed the presence of an aneurysm (a weakness in the artery wall in my left leg which had grown to a size of 4.2 cm).  

My father-in-law had in 1972 an aneurysm near his kidney which burst on a weekend and he was not able to find a surgeon who could fix the problem, so he bled to death.

I made Surgery appointments for the elimination of the aneurysm as well as surgery on my back towards the end of this year. 

The aneurysm was taken care of this past Monday and the surgery was a success. The work was done from the inside of the artery so open surgery was avoided. I am recuperating but there is pain and I need to walk with a walker so I don’t fall.

I don’t know whether I’ll be in shape to get the back operations this year on December 2. Probably I will have to delay it.

From back pain and the aneurysm I have been in pain pretty much the whole year. But I listened to a pastor explaining on TV what we must do when we encounter sorrow, pain, losses, tending to make us feel sorry for ourselves. But he made clear what we must do when we are in these kinds of states. God is with us the whole time and we must offer to him ourselves as a living sacrifice to God who will lead us the proper way according to his plan; In doing this we follow the model of Jesus Christ Who suffered and died for each one of us to remove us from the stain of sin. This is what I wish to do and this is what I am doing so that my sacrifice might help others in need.