Back From Camping

Ah, the great outdoors. Camping in the fresh air, smores over a campfire, the sound of a rushing river. It all adds up to a good time. I wondered how I would do, with the nerve pain and all. I wondered if I would over exert myself; mis-step on a slippery rock; lift something too heavy. But I didn't. I was careful, but not overly. It wasn't like a gave a whole lot of thought to my PVPs. It was one of those times when I actually felt normal.

The only time I was reminded of my pain was when I laid down to sleep at night. I squeezed into my "mummy" styled sleeping bag, on our Coleman air mattresses. I tried to get comfortable, but I didn't bring a pillow to place between my knees. So I slept fairly uncomfortably. Woke up a lot. Had to pee like a racehorse in the middle of the night (but it was too cold to get out of the tent). But once 6 am hit and I was able to get up, go to the bathroom and start my second roaring fire of the camping trip, I was back in normal mode. Didn't give my pain a second thought.

We had a good mix of walking, standing, and sitting. It seems like when those three activities are intermingled a lot, then my pain is substantially lessened. Too much of one though and the whole balance gets messed up. Once I get done blogging, I'm going to hit the hay and get a good night's sleep (Lord willing) to make up for last night. But I'll have my pillow all set up.

Still taking the vitamin and feeling my energy level staying high along with my mental sharpness. Praying a lot. In fact, my family and I had a great little Sunday service around the campfire this morning. It was awsome. My son gave the opening pray, my daughter led us in a song, I read about David escaping from Saul and my wife closed us in prayer. Just a neat, neat time - best part of the trip to be sure.

No pain to report today - thank you Jesus. Hoping for more of the same this week.

Vitamins and Nerve Pain and a Prayer

More of the same. The bad cycle continues to makes its prescence felt, in spades! Yesterday, the pain was so intense, it buckled my knees, literally. Every time the pain hit, it rated a 9 on the 1-10 pain scale, with 10 being the worst imaginable pain. It was coming from inside my scrotum on the right, behind the teste, where that dreaded burning sensation resides. The pain came in waves and was unbearable. I eventually took a hot bath and a tylenol before I went to bed.

The inguinal nerve pain was persistent yesterday and today. The highly rated pain hasn't hit yet today - thank you Jesus! However, the pain I am having isn't hitting me and then going away. It's sticking around. I haven't taken any pain meds today. I did walk though. I'm covering about 2 miles in thirty minutes, or 4 mph. My heartrate gets up to about 120, which is a good aerobic spot for me. I did feel some pulling down below while I was walking though. I also felt fairly winded, more so than normal.

I just finished dinner and I think I'll take another hot bath and tylenol. As my mentor told me, you got to get ahead of the pain when using medications. We'll see what happens.

I'm curious if my activity yesterday had anything to do with the severity of my pain. I threw a nerf football around the front yard with my boy for about 20 minutes. I noticed the twisting motion in my torso when I would throw the ball. I'm curious if that twisting motion contributed to the pain? I know aggressive stretching of my torso will increase my pain levels, but I didn't think this twisting would.

I read today about how vitamins may help nerve function and repair. The experts, whomever they are, say that Vitamin C, E, B6 and B12 might be beneficial for those with nerve pain. So I took a multi-vitamin today. I know a lot of guys in the support group take vitamins. I guess I'll try the vitamins for the nerve pain and see if there is any help. I'll give it a good couple of weeks and report back on the blog.

My wife stops working her 10 hours shifts this week. Yea!! Now maybe I'll see her more at night. And...maybe she'll be less tired, if you know what I mean. Perhaps I'm not having enough intimate times with her. The guys on the support group say those with reversals should be having 2 ejaculations per week. I'm averaging 1 per 3 weeks since we moved up here. I've thought a lot about just taking things into my own hands, in that area, but I'm conflicted about that. As strange as it sounds, I even prayed about that this morning. I asked God if I should masturbate to see if that helped to alleviate the pain. I didn't feel convicted to do it, so I didn't. I am hopeful that my natural relationship with my wife will begin to tic up a bit now that her hours are going to be more normal.

Sorry for the long post. But lots going on in my brain and prayer life right now. Have a lot of stuff to sort through. Lord willing, he'll guide me and help me like he has so far. It's easy to forget about God when things are going great and then demand miracles when things go bad. Like my mentor told me, I need to be more level-minded both emotionally and spiritually.

When my pain goes away for a day or so, I begin to think, "hey, I'm healed. I've got no worries because this thing is behind me now." Then I have a day or two like yesterday and I remember how sucky this syndrome is.

Lord God, continue to be with me in the good and bad times. Help me to continously rely on your word to get me through the difficult times. I know you love me and want the best for me. Please use this syndrome for your glory and may I some how shine your light in my life as I deal with this. Grant me good days, I pray and make the bad days, not so bad. Help the other guys who have this problem too. May you be sought during their desperate times and may they find you not lacking in mercy and grace. May the peace of Jesus be with us all and may you remain our King and Lord. Amen.