I Heart Dr. Brookoff

God is so good. And His timing is so amazing and perfect. My dad and I had the coolest thing happen yesterday. We were in Denver getting medical records from 2 places to take to a new doctor's office. After we gave them to the receptionist, I had to go to the bathroom (big surprise). While I was in there, my dad noticed a doctor talking to a patient in the waiting room. He was just finishing up and heading back when my dad caught him and introduced himself. He told him about me and that we had read a lot about him on the internet. (These are some PDFs, "IC and Pain Management" and "Practical Pain Management for IC Patients" if you're interested).

The man, Dr. Brookoff, started talking to my dad and asking him questions about me. He found out we were from Fort Collins and didn't have an appointment for another 2 weeks. When I came out of the bathroom, he talked to me about the pain I was experiencing and then said, "Well since you're from out-of-town and already here, why don't you come on back?"

My dad and I were so pumped! He let me try this electronic stimulator for about 15 minutes. He put 2 pads on my abdomen and 2 on my back. He told me how the muscles can tighten and causes spasms, which in turn causes pain. This machine can massage and relax those muscles and help to reduce the spasms. He let me take it home to try out for a couple of weeks until my appointment with him! How cool is that?!?

So I really think God is amazing. He plans out some really cool things and this totally made my day. Here's a quote from Dr. Brookoff about the stimulator:

"One of the really neat things that we've seen are the new external interferential stimulators. For patients with a very high pelvic muscle tone this can massage the pelvic floor electronically. These electronic units just use sticky pads on the front and back and require no invasive therapy. I'm really excited about this. We've cancelled surgeries and trigger point injections because of the success with these stimulators. For a lot of patients this is all that they need. We think it's duplicating some of the effects of the implanted stimulators without having to put patients through surgery. The trial just takes 15 minutes and, when it works, it really works. I had three new patients today that got significant relief with it."

I've had 2 doctors so far tell me that I won't be ready to go back in time for this fall semester. When I was talking to Dr. Brookoff, he said, "Well, let's not listen to them. I like to have a goal to work towards and I think that would be great if you were feeling better in time for school!" I know I can't absolutely count on that, but I really appreciated his encouragement and compassion for me. Thanks for everyone who has been praying on my behalf - I really does me a lot to me!

Help the Kelp

I had a dream this morning that I went back to Abilene. The first thing I did was go to the grocery store to look for food I am allowed to eat. I went to the bakery to read the labels on the breads, and I either couldn't have them, or they didn't have labels with ingredients on them. Then I thought I would at least get some tuna if they had any of the brand I can have, but of course they didn't have any tuna at all!

After that, I woke up (in my dream) and realized it was time for chapel. I ran into my mom and her quilt friends (who all happened to be in Abilene for some reason) and told them where I was going. They told me it was 11:30 and I had missed it! Then I thought I would at least try to go to band, even though my pain was bad. Then I realized they would be marching outside! There was no way I could handle that!

Then I sat down and decided that 15 hours (or whatever I was signed up for) was too heavy a load. I began to plan to drop classes to where I would only be taking 1 or 2 for the semester.

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I'm always bummed when I have dreams about IC and pain. My only true escape from the pain is usually sleep, so I don't like to be reminded!

Other than my cruddy dream-life, things have been going okay. My mom just brought me home 2 (count them - 2!) kinds of animal crackers that are IC-friendly. Mmm mmm mmm.

I ate 2 Skittles the other day (not IC-friendly of course) and they were pure bliss. Oh how I miss candy like that!

The best news of course is that I got in to see a pain management doctor who specializes in IC. Julia read up on him and found out that he just moved from Tennessee to Colorado this past January - right when I started to get sick! I know that God is taking care of me and I am so thankful to Him for this appointment. It is July 24th, so I would love for prayers that it goes well.

Who reads this blog anyways? I always run into people who say they read it and I think, "really???". So don't be shy, leave a comment if you want so I know who's out there. That way I won't accidentally say anything bad about you on here. Or maybe I will just feel more free to hassle you. We'll see.