Don't Speak News

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

This is the scripture that keeps coming back to me when I pray over my health issues. That’s not to say that they haven’t improved in some big ways, mainly about a 50% reduction in my GERD and acid reflux issues. That’s the power of prayer giving me relief!

That said however I’m not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot. What needs to happen is for me to find out WHY all of these issues are going on so I can then get a handle on it but so far the answers have been slow in coming. One reason is the VA medical system is always slow and not always competent, so just getting on the schedule can be a “hurry up and wait” situation. It’s not much different than my active duty days in that respect. I will say that those who work on the Spokane VA hospital have been doing their best to help and I’m grateful for that.

Since some of you have been asking here is a quick summary of what I’m currently dealing with. First up are my GERD and acid reflux issues. They started to happen about a year ago and have been getting worse ever since. Some of it I can attribute to too much coffee which contributed to the acidity but that’s not the root cause.

Basically I spend the first 3 hours of my day dealing with those issues in the bathroom. Nothing else will function properly until I get rid of a ton of gas by belching nonstop for 10-15 minutes. It is quite exhausting. I won’t go any further than that as I(‘m sure you get the picture. If I don’t really watch what I eat and drink this will keep happening throughout the day. Root causes could be from the pancreas lesion they found, diabetes side effects, complete misalignment of my spine disrupting nerve transmission and more. Next month they do a scope and take lots of pictures, like a colonoscopy the other direction lol. Maybe then we will get more answers. So far tests just show the reflux happening but not WHY it’s happening.

Then there’s my MRIs and Xrays of my neck and back. All I can say is wow I’m amazed I can walk and function as good as I still can!! I have severe multilevel degenerative disc and facet disease of the cervical spine and is most prominent at the C5/6 and C6/7 levels. That is where I have up to severe neural foraminal and mild canal stenosis. Basically this means that the canals that contain my nerves have clogged up so badly that my nerves hit the canals whenever I get any kind of inflammation. That can be too much physical activity, even just STANDING or SITTING too long in the same position can be extremely painful.

There’s also my military neck which is also 2 inches too far forward which puts extreme strain on my upper back/torso. That’s 45lbs that’s 2 inches too far forward so thats why my arms go numb at times and I can feel discs moving and pinching.

Then there’s the curve that goes to the right so now I have to exercises that will train my neck to move to the left. My back is the same way in the middle. It curves to the right so I have to do side bends to the left only.

After one day on a car lot back in 2019 I was in bed and locked up for 3 days until all of the inflammation went down. This was when the first set of MRIs were done and all of this was found. Now 3 years later it’s worse.

That was my neck and upper back. Now for my lower back which has a whole bunch of the same thing going on, stenosis or narrowing of the nerve canals plus other issues.

I have degenerative disc disease and facet disease most prominent at the L4-S1 levels. At the L4/L5 level the disc is pushed out and the subarticular zone is effaced on the right and it’s hitting the nerve root. This is what causes my sciatica and severe pain in my lower left back and down the left leg. When this sucker locks up there will be NO ACTIVITY until it decides to let loose again.

The neck and back issues continue but I don’t want to put you to sleep with medical jargon. But this is what I deal with on a daily basis and I’m not saying that to whine and moan, I‘m letting you know because so many have asked me or have misunderstood what I’ve said so now I’m spelling it out so there’s no misunderstanding.

Last but not least is what they found on the pancreas. I didn’t expect that one but after further consultation it’s probably a cyst or IPMN (intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm) which are tumors that grow within the pancreatic duct that have the potential to be cancerous but are benign in most cases. That said if the ducts in the pancreas are impaired this can definitely affect digestion in big ways! Also since I have had full blown diabetes I’m more susceptible to get those kinds of cancers.

What concerns me more is the rapid weight loss I’ve had over the past 6 months and the past week in particular. For the longest time I was stuck at around 250-260 even though I wanted to get to 225 I couldn’t seem to push past 250. Then all of a sudden this past summer it started dropping off fast! This happened as my gut issues got worse so some weight loss was expected but wow this was quick! All of a sudden I was at 228 and now down below 220. The last 8 came off during the past week. That’s what concerns me in combination with what they found in my pancreas.

There you have it, you asked and you received. This is why I’m not doing as many videos and blogs, it’s because on a lot of days I physically can’t anymore. Thank you for the prayers, they have been helping reduce the severity of the issues, that much is certain.

Don’t worry I plan on continuing to do what I can when I can but I will have to do it on my good days. Today isn’t one of them so far but I will do what I can. God bless and take care!

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