Recommended Blog: Encouraging Words

I really appreciate this blog by "deni." She and I are in the same boat when it comes to abilities and dependence on God. She and her husband homeschool their children, as we do. Every post, I read what she has to say because more often than not, it encourages me and reminds me of what's important. This most recent one is especially good.

Chronic Pain - Why some doctors don't understand it

I was reading an article about children in chronic pain, when this paragraph popped up. In a moment, it crystallized why the medical community often doesn't understand chronic pain. Here's what it said:

“They don’t get it because I’m not crying and screaming all the time,” she said. “They don’t understand, crying makes it worse, screaming makes it worse, and it doesn’t help anything.

The medical world is used to acute cases of pain. Something that wasn't there yesterday for a person is suddenly presenting itself today. A broken arm feels like there's an elephant standing on it, making the patient hesitant to even let you touch it. A pair of tonsils are white and swollen and making it painful to talk or swallow. A stomach cramp makes a person double over in pain, crying out when it gets worse. That is what they can work on and fix.

Then a person comes in with pain in their head and neck that doesn't respond to the usual treatments. They have come in four times in the last six months, desperate for relief. Yet they look good, just a little tired and mildly agitated. The scans and tests can't find anything wrong. Yet they rate their pain very high, higher than the last guy with the broken arm. So what gives? the doctor thinks. Is it all in their head? Are they making it up? they wonder. This is why some in the medical community write off chronic pain as untreatable and others simply don't know what else to do.

Thankfully, a branch of medicine and alternative therapies are gaining ground in dealing with chronic pain. Pain Management is an interdisciplinary branch of medicine that focuses on treating the patient's pain and maintaining quality of life. While acute pain is often resolved by treating the underlying condition, chronic pain needs to be controlled and managed by a coordinated effort among a team of doctors able to assist with longterm therapies, such as physical therapy, massage therapy, acupuncture, and so on. Some pain is still unmanageable, but the goal is to achieve some form of analgesia, While we have a long way to go, more attention and effort is being directed toward understanding pain, its causes and its effects.

As one who suffers from chronic pain, I'm encouraged by the growth of pain management. My pain is manageable some days and other days, it's not. I ache and moan, but I don't cry much anymore because, like the girl said, it doesn't help and often makes it worse. What helps is loving support from family and friends who understand. If they "get it," it makes a difference in my outlook and my disposition. A solid prayer life and a loving, supportive wife go a long way toward making my pain tolerable.

A Collection of --You Know You're a Homeschool Parent When--

You know you're a homeschooling parent when: (with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy)

• You've had to wake up your tech support 30 minutes after you tucked them into bed for the night because the network crashed before you could grade their work
• Parents compliment your kids, and not you
• The hamster died in the night but the kids already got the coffin, dug the hole and had the service before you could get that vital second cup of coffee and get to the grave side
  

Fire And Ice

I'm working on a couple of longer posts, at least, I'm trying to with pain and fatigue draining any reserves I may have had. Still, while you're waiting, take a look at this amazing footage from the Iceland volcanic eruption.



If you thought that was cool, check out these photographs!

I always liked volcanoes even as a boy in 2nd Grade when I first discovered them in a book. They're so powerful and untamed! I love studying them! Just another big, noisy thing that goes fast (well, at least the lava does at times).

What Matters Is Who He Says I Am

Jim May, whom I have a great deal of respect for, just shared a bunch of quotes in his newsletter. This one I've found it to be true. “The way to conquer rejection is to come to the God of all comfort.”

What does that mean? By coming to the God of all comfort, we exchange someone's judgment about us for Someone Else's. Not only that, but we exchange an imperfect, fallible, limited, faulty, impudent, ignorant, self-satisfied, egregious, arrogant, wretched, wicked, immoral, hateful, stupid, insufficient, imploding, bombastic, furious, putrid, evil, little, shrewish, horrid, demeaning, boring, insolent, witless judgment for a new judgment that's perfect, infallible, unlimited, faultless, prudent, knowledgeable, self-sufficient, exceptional, confident, content, good, moral, loving, wise, sufficient, structured, succinct, peaceful, pure, holy, King-sized, good-tempered, beautiful, valuable, creative, polite and witty. And don't think I didn't drag out the wiktionary on that one!

What does that Someone say about me? If I go by what the Bible says, He says a lot! I am His child, His very own, bought with a price. More than that, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Christ lives in me! I don't have to accept what they say about me because I have died! I don't answer to them, because Christ takes my place. In Christ, I am already righteous, already holy.

He also says that I am the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. I have comfort no human can give me. His Spirit speaks to my spirit and bears witness to the truth. His Spirit shows me life as it can be. Reading Romans 8 in the Message paraphrase gets me all excited!

Who you are as He sees you is vastly better than the highest flattery and praise that anyone else could ever say. The love He has for you is better than a thousand romances. He pursues your heart as a suitor, no matter your race, no matter your gender. He seeks your heart. He wants it with all He has, with all He is. What will you say to Him? Will you give Him your heart? Will you give Him all of it?

That's My King

I love this speech by S.M. Lockridge and the visuals back it up well. On Easter Sunday or any other Monday, that's my King!



And I hope I get to see this painting someday...

Higher Heating Bills For Colorado Guaranteed By Ritter And HB 1365

Rarely do I cross-post between blogs because my personal blog is, well, personal. This time, the issues intersect both blogs. Colorado's Governor Bill Ritter will sign H.B. 1365. This bill  not only will cause the loss of railroad jobs, but it will cause a jump in our home utility bills.

Did the Democrats fail economics? This bill eludes common sense! If the population has less money to spend as a result of just trying to stay warm, it tends to make a recession worse, not better. What's worse, businesses considering adding jobs have to consider that their facility costs are way up, which means they might not expand in Colorado like they might elsewhere.

Ritter has indicated that he will sign this bill. I think Coloradoans need to look at who are the winners and losers on this bill and then drop Governor Ritter a line.

Unwanted: A National Standard For Human Beings

As a father of three home-educated children, I take an active interest in homeschooling and educational issues. I've come to understand that each child is a unique gift from God. Because they're unique, any classification for a child, from school grades to performance grades degrades and even removes their characteristics and abilities. While I can appreciate a need for standards and groupings, this is not something I want to subject my children to.

I believe these folks are working towards a legal way to force me to let them test and classify my children, and I don't think that's right. Here is what I told them in their survey:

A Prince Without A Mattress

There was this old Carol Burnett song from her very early days. You might recognize it if I repeat the first lines, or the chorus, (I forget). It goes,

I've always been SHYYYYY! I confess that I'm SHYYYYY

You might not recognize it because it's from an adaptation of The Princess and the Pea called Once Upon a Mattress. If Mother Goose did not completely bewilder and confuse our childhood years with Jack-Be-Nimble (pyromania is normal, kids) and Jack-and-Jill (vinegar and brown paper is first aid?!), the fairy tales should finish us off, and The Princess and the Pea is a good dose of nonsense. Its time-tested wisdom admonishes us to marry someone who can feel a pea under 20 mattresses and 20 feather beds.

Spring, Sprang, Sprung

Oh, man! Was it a tough winter or what? I can't believe how much of a problem it's been to my condition. Weather-sensitive chronic pain is for the birds!

I have been looking forward to spring like you could never imagine! Yet, even in this, I'm skeptical. Spring is volatile in Colorado. As a foretaste, last week on a day where the high was 64 degrees, the weather service issued a Winter Storm Warning! That evening, though, I could have told you it was a doozy of a storm. It just knocked me down for the ten-count! Until the storm actually arrived, I was miserable! Once it started snowing, I started feeling better.

Then the House passed the medical bill. Well, I was feeling better. Forget spring (and summer). I"m looking forward to November!