Posted by Jim P. on April 12, 1999 at 12:44:57:
It's 2:30 a.m. Monday 4/12, and I feal great! If you've ever doubted the power of prayer, you need to read this.
In my last post on 4/9, I mentioned I was almost embarrassed to call my current CH cycle a bad one. Well, things changed in a hurry. I guess I'd forgotten over my 5 year remission that the first two weeks fo the cycle are just the "preliminaries" for the "main event" that follows.
My wife and I had made plans to meet some friends from CO in the western part of NE on Fri. and Sat. Since my HAs hadn't been too bad, we decided to go. Normally, I don't like to leave home during a cycle, but like I said, the HA's hand't been too bad. I'd just gotten set up on the O2 on Thurs. and was one day into the water treatment plan so I felt confident I wouldn't have any major problems. WRONG!
The trip out went pretty well on Friday. Had a shadow, but got on the pain pill and O2 and was able to abort it. We met our friends for dinner Fri. evening and had a great time. Everything changed when we got back to the motel Friday evening.
During these cycles when I'm at home, I have to sleep in a recliner. I can't lay flat in bed, so it's just easier to try and find a comfortable position in the recliner where I can keep my head up. Well, the motel didn't have such a thing, only hard chairs. I tried propping myself up with pillows in bed and putting the two chairs together to somehow sleep sitting up. Nothing worked. I fell asleep, but woke up in 2 hrs. with a killer HA. If my head "rolls" to the side when I'm sitting up sleeping, I wake up with a monster HA. Well, that's what happened every time I went to sleep the rest of the night. By Sat. morning, I was out of O2 and had slept about 2 hrs. Bad night!!!
Sat. morning went fine, but we decided we'd better head home Sat. afternoon. My wife was driving and I was laid back in the passenger seat trying to catch up on some sleep. Same thing happened. Fell asleep, but my head rolled to one side. Woke up with the right side of my head on fire! So we're rolling down the interstate with NO O2 and no hot packs and I'm ready to die. I'm taking pain pills, but when the attack gets that bad, nothing works. We made it the final 100 miles home and I felt shot.
Got rid of that HA, but about 8:30 Sat. night, all hell broke loose. Guess I'd forgotten just how bad these CH's were. From 8:30 Sat. night to 10:30 Sun. morning was a nightmare. All night long I'd get attacks which lasted for anywhere from 45 min. to 2 hrs. The last one nearly 5 hrs. In between, maybe 45 min. of rest with the HA never really leaving. Then it would start all over again. I said in the earlier post that God wouldn't ask us to endure more than we could handle. Well, I think He brought me right to the edge on this one. But even during those worst attacks, when I'd look at my wife and ask her "what am I going to do?"- and "Help me"- I was still praying that God wouldn't give me more than I could handle, but also that He would please stop this pain.
By the time the attack had subsided Sunday morning, I was physically and emotionally wasted. I'd slept about four hours total the last two nights, taken WAY more meds. than I was supposed to, and still had the "hangover" feeling from all the pain Sat. night. Looked like I was locked into a real bad cycle.
My son that found this site called Sunday morning asking how I was doing. I told him about the horrors of the last tow days and that it looked like it was going to be another long night ahead. He put me, and all of us here on their prayer list at his church. That amounts to about 300 people. Sunday afternoon, I had a "shadow" and was gearing up for a long night. I had the purified water in the fridge, two big bottles of O2 delivered, with 25' of hose that would reach from the recliner to the kitchen for hot packs. My wife cut a pillow ouf of a foam pad that went over my head and down each side of my shoulders to try and keep my head from rolling to one side during sleep. So we were ready for the worst. It's about 3:45 a.m. now and I'm past my dreaded 2:00 a.m. and I still feel good. Am confident again that we'll get through this present cycle. I've slept twice as long right now as I did the previous two nights.
I'm religious, though it may not always show on the outside. I like to have a cold beer as well as the next guy.
But don't ever try to tell me that the relief I'm feeling right now came from anywhere but up above.
The power of prayer really does work. I know we have this demon outnumbered at least 300 to 1 just with the people from my end praying.
Thanks for letting me vent, and I pray for pain-free days for all of you!