Well I'm sure you won't forget the 7th June in a hurry Mark.

I don't as yesterday both my husband and I were married 30 years so it was a lovely day for us and we watched the said film with Liam Neeson, which you were trying to watch. Is that the same film? The Grey? Excellent film.

I'm sorry to hear of all that happened to you and your family and you only in the house a few weeks too. But thankfully no one was hurt and also that your SCS was still working. Phew!!!

I hope you can get your arm sorted out sooner rather than later Mark and get back on track again.

Jackie

We were indeed watching the same film and we finished it last evening. The struggle, the push, the hardship, and the indomitable spirit which drove the one remaining character to call out to God, who had lost his character's faith to know he still actually DID want to reach out for a sign. Then the final challenge. Did you watch to the final scene which followed all of the credits? An illustration of "don't be afraid." That flashback moment which urged him on through all of the story.

Congratulations on the big 30th!!! Many blessings upon you, your husband, and your family!! God is so very good and gracious!

Only day before yesterday I was speaking with a young man whom I mentor regarding marriage. He, being divorced, has a hard time understanding devotion and commitment to another, as his marriage ended badly and he has custody of the young daughter so produced. His own parents had also divorced when life resulted in twists too hard for one to bear. He was taken fully aback with the realization my wife and I soon celebrate 39 years of devotion. God gave a great opportunity that evening for us to begin exploring devotion, commitment, the meaning of love and its deepening for those who stay the course together. I recounted to him I am so wonderfully blessed to have a dear blessed lady who has remained by my side through so much strife in life, learing lesson after lesson with God's help.

We are thus mutually blessed indeed,
Arm still agony this morning, yet I know I will have enough from God to press on another day,
May your marriage be deeply blessed in this coming year Jackiey,
Mark56Praying

Been gone a few days and I come back to all this excitement!!!

I too believe Mark's thread(s) will become published one day. Mark is a gifted writer! AMEN!

Congratulations to Jackie for her 30th wedding anniversary! THAT is a BIG deal! I hope you were able to do something memorable, Jackie and that your pain levels are keeping way downnnn.

ALSO! Welcome to our new Member DEB! It's great to have you here! You will find so many wonderful, caring people here and the support is out of this world. I look forward to getting to know you!

Rae

Hi Mark

So glad that you and your family and new home are OK. I for one am terrified by lightning and thunder. So glad we don't get it much where we live.

I wish the arm was in better shape and not giving you so much pain. I hate hearing how high your pain level is. Good luck at the Dr. next week. You must be a man of steel with all you've dealt with. What a blessing that you were fully charged and that your electronics were safe.

You must have a wonderful voice to sing Ave Maria. It's a difficult song to sing but is so beautiful and inspirational to hear. I love when it's sung at our church.

Hopefully your weekend will be relaxing, inspiring and comfortable.

Sandy.

Oh, I know we have the Blessings thread for the sake of acknowledging thanksgiving for that which we experience; yet, Sandy, you bring up a point of such great importance relevant to the means to live through pain to the Glory of God, that I figured here is precisely the proper spot to add a notation.

So many over time have expressed inspirational feelings regarding my "capacity to live through pain" as a matter of their perspective from outside my skin. These are blessed individuals such as yourself from afar, or folks who see me day by day even though they may not know me at a grocer or a hardware store. I so love to meet people and share blessings with them....... a crusade, if you will, which has become infective with and among people I chance to meet, for I am known as the "oh yeah, you are the guy who always says he feels blessed."

Living, whether knowing pain, or not, as was the case for three wonderful days last week due to the nerve blocks placed at my C7 nerve root for the right arm, has become for me an every day, every moment acknowledgement of the blessings I feel. As for me, you know these blessings as manna given by God throughout my life. Blessings.

So, while there is now titanium in my structure, and whatever metals make up the components of my Boston Scientific Precision Plus SCS for the lumbar and leg pain, I am otherwise very much human, and I am stricken low by pain daily in these times; HOWEVER, the "steel" you and others may perceive is something for which I daily and ever give Glory to God as a blessing known in my life. I may sit at my work desk where I practice law, bent over the desk for a moment by moment taking tiny steps knowing the pain will abate as I use the speech recognition program to continue my tasks of dictating documents...... AND I give all of the glory to God, who strengthens me, for through Him all things are possible.

Christ gives me the means, oh, and how I so love to sing, lifting the voice with which I was blessed to give glory to God. The voice is not mine for my sake; rather, it is a gift used to glorify He who helps me through each moment by each difficult moment of every day...... and yes, I too, very much love to hear the Ave Maris, of whichever arrangement, for I know two and sing both, as the Latin delivers the entire saving grace message, especially with the ending lyrics "mortis nostrae"- who died for us- the simplest two word message of grace which could be expressed, and so beautifully expressed in that music.

I so LOVE GOD, and it is as though I am blazing fire filled with a desire to give glory every single day. Thus I live. Steel, yes and absolutely, steel of character given by grace through God who strengthens me. A simple message of Thanksgiving. Moreover, I am His that He may use me however He will to bring Joy, Hope, Peace, Love, Understanding, Encouragement, and any other means by which I may be used by He who allows me to live for His sake to show thanks I may take tiny steps throughout each day.

There are those in my life who also provide living inspiration to me. Each of you who bless these threads with your presence, as it is your coming which demonstrates the life force by which we are all graced another moment to share for the hope of lending encouragement to another. My wife is thus also, and always at my side, or sometimes pushing my wheelchair if I cannot walk and cannot propel my wheelchair because with my right arm as it is, the pain would inhibit its use. Self use of a wheelchair with one arm causes one to make donuts [Now, that is a SMILE moment if ever I thought of one, right Eva?].

My Uncle Calvin, who, being shot down in his young adulthood in front of his family is a constant reminder of one who strove through agony each day for the rest of His long life to Work his orchards, provide for his family, AND give glory to God. My father-in-law, Grandpa Fred, who being stricken with back pain of the likes I have suffered, used both wheelchair and double crutches to live life to the full and give glory to God. My sister-in-law, an RSD patient whose legs are gone and who with morphine lives each day giving glory to God. An inspiration in Joni Eriksen-Tata suffered a fall as an athlete becoming quadraplegic, yet lives each day giving glory to God.

So, I add my daily moments being infected of the spirit in a way which causes me to "leap for joy" in a spiritual way. What a glorious blessing!

This life I live, a gift to give
that more may know the grace of Him
who with His blood of sacrifice
brought here to us grace having no price
a gift we receive to take a step
and shine so brilliantly as those who help
to bring among the waste of man
so many pools of light the plan
that life well known among us here
become lignt filled with loving cheer
as each who meets us take a smile
to share along those life lived miles.

Brief, to the point, a challenge for me everyday. May I bring the light of life to even one other in the day soon to dawn? How lovely a life we each are given. A smile is a frown turned upward in grace.

How very blessed am I, and Sandy, thank you for inspiring me to go on and on about this in the wee hours today. My day is already brilliant with light, though the dawning is a few hours away!
Blessings to you, my friend,
Praying ever and always for all who grace these pages with thoughts of need, of pain, of cries for help, the questions, some fear, others with joy and success,
Oh, how I love coming into this place where we may share,
Mark56

Mark......
So much of what you write is in the silence of my heart. No one sees or know really what is being felt inside. For whatever in my childhood, learned from parents who unknowingly taught me a lesson. Seen what unforgiving resentments could do to those who really were "beautiful" but for this terrible flaw. Rather than carry this on to my family; whether or not bad or good day with children.....never were allowed to go to bed at night without giving a "kiss" to and getting one back. Love is "unconditional". We may not like what family members did or do; but that does not mean we do not love them.

Blessed for the days as a child, sat in an empty church many evenings; but always in the Presence of God. God who has filled me with this "unconditional love" has given me the grace to pass on to my family. I watch as they pass on to others; especially those who need them. Oh yes, Blessed are we to be in the presence of one another. Strangers we are, yet not really; we are one...our "pain" has brought us here together. Together we share thoughts and feelings rarely understood by others.

Supporting, caring and sharing is what really brings us together. Pain, then takes a place after these and not our main focus because we have one another. Blessed we all are to have found one another. Of course....not by chance.


Gerry

Well, I had managed since withdrawing from pain meds to avoid them altogether since weaning off in 2010 after receiving my Boston Scientific Precision Plus SCS. It has performed beautifully and does so still for the pain it is capable of reaching. The stim did not fail me at all.

Today, feeling the agony in my right arm was too much and was North of 9 out of 10. I have worked at my desk serving clients this past week with tears streaming down my face. Pain has slowed my rapid fire pace generating fulfillment of my client needs. Today was even worse.

Knowing I had still locked in the vault certain of said formerly used pain meds, I relented and took two pills along with my Neurontin. Then I had to lie down and rest to await the coming relief of the pain meds. Only thus was the arm brought under control. Only thus.

Long months had I tried to manage with just Neurontin or the ibuprofen which might help inflammation of the nerve tissue. It does not address the arm pain. I fell prey to the pain and succumbed. Took it. Took it. I hated doing that, but realize the arm pain is far beyond managing and I must make it until Thursday and the appointment for followup to the surgery a week ago last Thursday to find some means of relief.

Arghhhhhh,
Lord hear my prayer about this arm,
help me to deal with it not using pain meds,
I so do not want to go there again,
Prayin,
Mark56

Mark,

I keep trying to come up with the right words to write to help take away any sense you may feel of defeat. I understand how difficult this choice must have been for you to make. When the pain is that bad....only the pain wins if you do nothing. Thank God for the pain meds, when not abused, they are a gift.

Praying,

Gerry

Mark, I am so grateful that you had the meds locked away for a true emergency. They happen and tend to happen when we do not have access to appropriate medical attention. There are times when all we can do is pray, get on top of the pain and wait. Many are with you.

Yikes, Mark! Glad the crazy weather didn't do any more damage than it did, and that you are all safe. Sorry to hear that your arm pain is so horrid, though. I pray that you'll very soon find a solution and some relief!