Push Through The Pain

In the past I have had doctors on a pedestal and I rarely questioned them.  Over the years and some painful experiences  later,  I’ve come to realize that they are human and are capable of error.  In some cases, life threatening error.

We, as in our doctor and ourselves, are suppose to work together.  Meaning… listening openly to each other to find the best possible means to good health, healing AND to have mutual respect.  That doesn’t always happen.  Let me explain.

The Medical Mistake…

In August 2011, I had a simple surgery on my right index finger.   The surgeon made a mistake that resulted in gangrene, infection, blood poisoning and severe nerve damage.  In a short amount of time the muscles on the entire right side of my body were wasting away and after almost 2 years of trial and error with medical specialist, I was told that I would loose the use of the right side of my body, be in a wheelchair and on medication the rest of my life.

One of the many tests that they did on me was an EMG.  This tested the health of the muscle and the nerve cells that control them.

With the needles placed into a muscle I was then told to contract it.  When they did my right leg it flared up the pain so bad I could barely lift it off the table. Through the tears I told the technician, who was a retired neurologist, I couldn’t handle the pain anymore.  He said if I didn’t, I would have to come back and do it all over again. So I pushed through the pain.

When the test was finished I laid there with my hands over my face sobbing. When I looked at the technician, he had tears in his eyes and apologized for having to put me through that.  When he left, I sat up and noticed that the nerve pain that I had come in with, was different. When I got up and walked to the dressing room I noticed I wasn’t limping as much.

The Neurologist Response…

A few days later, I went to my physical therapy session and told the nurse what had happened.  When I showed her how the physical exercises like side planks, using the right arm and leg that I couldn’t do before the EMG, I was now able to do.  She was just as shocked as I was.  She told me to call my neurologist to tell him what happened so he could review my EMG again.

I called the neurologist nurse, told her what happened and asked her to give the message to my doctor and have him call me back. I was so excited!

When I got the call back from the nurse I was disappointed.  My doctor told her to tell me that having an EMG would not do such a thing. PERIOD. I told her to ask him again, to please think outside the box and to please call me directly.

Once again the nurse called me back instead of the doctor like I had requested.  This time he told the nurse to tell me that since I declined the medications he had offered me, there was nothing he could do for me and never bothered to even talk to me personally.  That was in January 2013.

Pushing Through The Pain…

A few months after that frustrating experience, I was driving home from church on my usual route and came across a traffic jam. It gave me time to look around and I noticed a walking trail that was on the river bluffs that I had never seen before.  Very wooded, unpaved and hilly.

At this point, because of the intense nerve pain, I couldn’t walk more than a block, where as before the surgery, my usual walk was 2-6 miles. But I remembered how pushing through the pain from the EMG had changed things, it seemed as though it unplugged, or released something. It changed something in my brain. So I drove home, changed my clothes and went back to hike the hills.

     Looking up from the bottom.

Within the first 1/8th of a mile the nerve pain was so intense I was ready to go back. Then I came to two paths…one was hilly and the other took you straight up a steep hill that you couldn’t even see the top through the trees.  Again I remembered the EMG… so I started up the hill.  I got half way up and my right leg was trembling and wobbling so bad from the nerve pain that it almost gave out a few times.  Thank God for the bench that was there.

    The halfway point with a bench.

I wobbled to the bench, sat down and tried to shake off the pain as the tears rolled down my cheeks. I struggled with… do I continue to go up… or do I give up and go back down.

I looked up… prayed… took a deep breath… and started up again. When I reached the top my whole body was trembling and I sat down and cried. I rested there for a few minutes and then… continued hiking for another 2 miles.

The next day the pain was less and the muscles felt stronger. I kept going there for months until I made it to the top without stopping.

                      The view from the top. 

Don’t Let The Medical Labels Define You Or Your Future…

One of the things the medical specialist had labeled me with was Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. It’s when your body has been through a severe trauma and it actually rewires the brain. One of the symptoms is it over reacts to pain and makes it extremely intense.

I believe that by pushing through the pain, I rewired my brain to do what I wanted it to do, what my body was designed to do without setting off some messed up nerve response.

Don’t let the medical labels for what could be just a temporary condition determine your health and predict your future.

Take responsibility for your own health.  Be proactive and support your body by living a healthy lifesyle.  Sometimes it means you have to push through the frustration and pain to get to the success.  All it takes is continuous small steps, just like when I was climbing that steep hill. Each step will strengthen the new success pathway to the brain and the old negative pathway closes down.

Essential Oil Choice…

There are three Young Living Essential-Oil-Infused Supplements that I discovered help support the nervous system and the cells of the body.  I started using them right after I hiked the bluffs to give my body the extra support it needed.  The three supplements I used and still use today are:  Sulfurzyme…OmegaGize3…Super B.  These 3 supplements are amazing and I’ll never stop taking them.  They have given my body so much support in so many areas and have allowed it to heal itself.

I am not in a wheelchair and I don’t take any perscription medication.  AND…I can make it up the hill today without stopping.  Life is so good.

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