Balancing Ministry N' Work

I celebrated my 4 year anniversary this week with a nice buffalo burger from Fuddruckers. While life has not always been easy since my surgery or all that I had to go through 4 years ago, May 26th will continue to be a day of celebration. So here I sit 4 years post op wondering what to type. For those that have read the last couple of blog posts from a couple of months ago you know things have not been great. Last summer I was very active, riding bikes for 80 miles a week, riding roller coasters, and driving half way across the country and back. It was a great summer. When fall hit it seems my body started having issues. I had started stumbling and having minor vertigo issues. Over the last handful of months I have seen several doctors, 3 ENTs, 2 Neurologists, and help from our local GP. Sadly as of today they have no idea what is causing the issues. One Dr. gave us several wild guesses and said he has no real clue. None of the tests are telling us anything. I am sure there will be m...

The last 6 months have been a down hill trend for me and how I have been feeling. Balance and fatigue issues have been plaguing me and getting worse day by day. Last week the Surgical ENT told me he was not sure of the cause so I reached out to a Neurologist. He agreed with us that the latest test on the ENT list was not something that was needed. It would only show that I am missing a balance nerve. So today I had two vials of blood taken to check a few things and they want me to have another sleep study done. I have Sleep Apnea and the Dr. thinks that I am not getting deep enough sleep to accommodate for the damaged nerves and other issues. The increased fatigue (obviously) and the extra balance issues 'should' improve if they update the settings on my CPAP machine. I am very hopeful that the Dr. is right and either the blood work or the sleep study will find an easy solution. The alternatives would most likely be life chang...

Here is part of a note sent to the Dr. this evening. Still looking for the cause and how to recover.   Summary so far: Nov 25 th started taking Dyazide 37.5-25 cap – no improvement Jan 9 th began taking Valium 5mg 3 times per day – leaves me a little foggy but has not knocked me out Jan 24 th started taking Robinul 2mg twice per day – no improvement Since November I would say things have stayed flat to gotten worse. The eye fatigue is just as bad as it was if not worse. Blurred vision, the same eye pain, and eye fatigue were me out significantly. I regularly need to close my eyes for a moment to try to relax. Any excess movement causes the fatigue to be more extreme. I cannot watch 5 th grade basket ball games without being exhausted. I think it is safe to say that it is a visual stimulus issue and we have not had much luck figuring out what is causing it. The question I have now is what is next? Do you have another option you want to try med wise, or sho...

Since I have been spending my time writing recently on sermons for Clark Baptist Church, I have not had much time to write for my blog. I wish that were the only reason, there has been a lot going on with my recovery that I was not sure I wanted made public. Last message was Sept. 2013 and we had Amazing test results with no tumor. That has not changed! Things have been tough but no sign of tumor growth. No surgery in the future or anything like that. 2013 was a great year for my recovery. I was able to start riding a bicycle again and between indoor and outdoor riding was hitting 75 miles per week. I lost 20-25 lbs and a couple of inches off my waist. My balance was doing pretty good, but the rides caused brain fatigue. It wore me out but it was worth it. This last summer we drove over 2,000 miles to PA and KY to visit family and go to the creation museum. It was a great trip and I drove every minute of it. We also spent 3 great days at Six Flags St. Louis riding roller coaste...

It is hard to believe that it has been over 3 1/2 years since I was diagnosed with a Accoustic Neuroma brain tumor. For those who are new to my story, let me give you the abridged version. In February 2010 I went to the Dr. to figure out why I was losing my hearing in my left ear. He told me that I had an Accoustic Neuroma brain tumor and that I would need surgery. Over the next couple of months we prepared for the surgery that took place on May 26, 2010. The surgery itself went great, but due to a spinal fluid lead my 3 day hospital stay turned into 13 days. While that was trying they told me that they had successfully removed the tumor. That July I had an MRI scan and everything looked good, and I was to come back in two years for another scan. In August of 2012 I went in for an MRI and overall everything looked really good, but the Dr. saw an area that he wanted to keep an eye on. He thought it was scar tissue, but wanted to be careful. For the las...

Over the last couple of months I have been having an increasing number of conversations with people about the Bible. Might have something to do with me telling people about how I was preaching here at Clark Baptist and praying about serving here. Regardless of why the conversation started, somehow many of them turned to something the Bible tells us and how it is playing out in society. One such conversation really hit me hard and has been weighing on my mind. I was talking with this guy I know and we started talking about the controversy with denominations and churches accepting homosexuals as pastors and teachers. I pointed out that scripture, the Christian Bible, is pretty clear that living a homosexual life style is a sin. It is no different than someone using drugs, living in adultery, or being a drunk. Sin is Sin and while we are to love the person, a practicing homosexual should not be teaching or preaching at church any more than a drunk. I would not want either of them t...

As most if not all of you know, I work over at Hubbell or as some call it Chance Co. during the day. I enjoy my job and the challenges and excitement in brings each day, but I can tell you that it can also be very trying. In some ways this has been one of those trying weeks. Simply put, our July has been difficult and we have missed more than a few of our goals this week. During some scripture reading this week, I was reading in the book of Colossians and came across chapter 3, verse 17. Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” This was a timely reminder for me during a difficult work week. Each morning one of the last things I do before I get out of my car and walk into work, is to pray asking the Lord to help me be the person He wants me to be while I am at work. When I read this verse it reinforced what I need to be doing as a believer in all aspects of my life. Everyt...