Hope

Kristi asked for an update on my husband, sorry it took me so long, things have been busy around here!

Many of you who read my blog know that my when I started writing this blog my husband was recovering from an injury that occurred during a deployment in 2006. It is difficult to explain his injury, but basically he suffered a bilateral infusion of his inner ears during a rapid decent on an aircraft.

The immediate results of this injury were severe ear pain, hearing loss, and headaches. This was a big deal, but because he was deployed he worked in spite of his injuries. Over time, and as his ears began to heal the real problems started. Apparently the injury caused his ears to “stop working.” Since the human body is so amazing his eyes compensated for his ears in areas such as balance, and perception. As he healed his eyes kept working overtime, even though his ears were doing their job again. The result of this was constant vertigo, balance issues, ear pain, tinnitus, and blurred vision. As time went on his ears got better and everything else got worse. It became so bad that he was unable to drive, read, and sometimes even stand up.

The doctors were baffled by his case for many months. Over time they tried many different medications as well as every test in the world to try and figure out what was wrong. The medications were very powerful and many of them left him unable to get out of bed.

We were finally referred up to Maryland to see the world’s expert in dizziness. He suggested some very simple things; ping pong, Tai Chi, badminton, and vestibular rehabilitation. The goal was to stimulate his brain to help everything work together again. To be honest we were a little skeptical at first, but we had nothing to lose. These activities with the combination of some more high powered drugs (that were supposed to reset his brain) actually worked.

Well, I should add there was a whole lot of prayer going on too. Last summer he started driving again. Thankfully we live very close to his work so he was able to ease back into driving. He was given a job in June (for the first time in over a year) and has no problem reading, driving, or doing normal activities.

To test his new dizzy free life he rode every roller coaster in the parks on our last vacation with no ill effects. He truly is better! I am thankful for everyone’s prayers, those who know us and those who do not. During this entire ordeal every doctor told us there was very little hope for him to fully recover. Thankfully my hope is not in doctors, although I do appreciate their hard work.

As for now we have resumed a normal life. I am not the only driver anymore, thank goodness, although we are preparing for our oldest to drive soon so more prayers will be needed! Our journey through this trial helped make us weaker – and more dependent on God. I thankful we were given this opportunity to show joy in all circumstances and keep our focus on Him.

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