Healing, Peru and stuff

It's been a while since I have posted, so I thought it's time to catch up on recent events. Mostly, life is just moving along at it's usual rapid pace. However, there have been a few notable occurrences.

Healing...

First my clavicle is slowly healing. It's gone from being painful all the time, to numb or slightly uncomfortable. Actually, most of the discomfort is in my shoulder and not the collar bone. I just had my third check up last Wednesday, and the doctor is allowing me to go back to very light weight lifting. Also, he's sending me to physical therapy, finally. I'm posting the x-rays I just received from the clinic.

Here you can see the chain like shape of the titanium plate which is also visible through the skin.

In this one, the screws are clearly visible.

I'm not sure if this captures it, but the wavy shape of the plate protrudes through the skin. Also, you can see the nice scar I'm getting.

Since the plate is so visible the doctor said we could talk about removing it if it still bothers me in 6 months. However, this would require 3 extra months of recuperation to allow for bone to regrow where the screws had been. Otherwise, he said I could go on a Hagen Daz diet if I didn't want to see the plate anymore. Funny guy...

Perú...

Last year, upon hearing that our church, which we had just started attending, had two yearly mission trips, I suggested that they have one to Perú. Specifically, I had thrown out the idea of going to the orphanage, Hogar de Esperanza in Trujillo, where we adopted our daughters. The leader of adult ministry was up for the idea as long as I was the one who would lead it since I had all the contacts. So, I decided to step up and lead a mission team. Anyone who knows me would know that this is a little out of my comfort zone, but so far it's been a good experience. I'll be leading a team of 25 people to the orphanage on July 20th. I'm also working on having Loren go as well. Of course, the whole family would like to go, but the price for each person is $1600. And $1600 x 8 is a little too much. I've been busy having meetings and raising funds. (Thanks to all those who have donated!) The trip is beginning to take shape. We have the tickets for our flights already booked, and a hotel booked in Lima for one night on our return trip as well. There is a lot to figure out, and having 25 people go is, on one hand really cool, but it's also a little difficult to manage. I will be documenting our adventure on another blog at http://wrcc-peru2009.blogspot.com/. Stay tuned...

and stuff...

Unfortunately, I have not been immune to the down turn in the economy. My position which is funded by the NSF and other grants has been only 85% funded for 2010. Since I am not fully funded the University is required to give me what is called a T-Contract (Terminal Contract). This is, basically, a letter saying we might have to let you go in a year. I'm hopeful that the missing 15% will turn up in the next few months. But if not, I will probably slip into full panic mode come summer. Please pray for those funds to come my way, and if not that I'll find work in time before the T-Contract kicks in. I have 8 mouths riding on this...

From Shoulder Pain to a Pain in the Neck

After going to therapy for my shoulder for a week. I woke up one morning a few weeks back with what felt like a pinched nerve in my neck. Every time I went into therapy for the shoulder my therapist would ask how I was doing. I would tell him that the shoulder was the same, and I also now had a pain in my neck. The pain didn't go away for around 2 weeks. Finally, he did some test on my neck by moving my head into different positions. He decided it was best to send me back to the sports doctor this time for neck x-ray. I really thought this was going overboard, and that it would go away eventually.

Anyway, I was surprised to find out that the x-ray did indeed show I had some miss alignments in my C5 vertebrae. It was enough that the doctor thought I should get an MRI. The MRI results showed that I had what the doctor called "severe disk disease". This basically means I had 2 disks that are squeezing out of from the vertebrae, one of which is pushing into my spinal chord.

The doctor said I should see a spinal specialist. So, on Wednesday of this week, I saw the spinal doctor. She again showed me the x-rays and MRI and did some movement tests. She said that I have arthritis in the bone (little pointed spurs on the edge of the bone) and disk degeneration. Both doctors theorize that this could be causing the pain in my shoulder and arm. For now she gave me a cortisone shot in the shoulder. In two weeks, I will go back to see if that helped. If not, she will move to a shot in the neck, an epidural I think. This means a day off of work, no driving afterward, etc.. So far it still hurts. Stay tuned...