Chiari update!

Friday is my big appointment with the surgeon. From here I am expecting that there will be a plan and date for surgery finally. It is difficult to think of much else. I have had a few weeks of feeling OK and I think I attribute it to a medicine they tried. However, the medicine took a few weeks to get to the full dose and by time I got there I had trouble with my heart rate going as high as 120. I was short of breath just walking a few steps, my muscles felt so extremely fatigued that I could barely hold my arm up to write my name on the white board in patient rooms at work. They did an EKG and said everything was fine but that I needed to come off the medicine. The medicine helped some with the pain and headaches and gave me a ton of energy. Now that I am fully off of it as I Sunday, I have crashed. I barely stayed awake for work today and I am ready to go to bed at 8pm. I am looking forward to being done with all this.

Lord, may you guide each and every step that I will find ultimate healing but most importantly Lord that I will draw closer to you. You have changed me through these circumstances and I would not trade the experience for anything, for that reason alone! Thank you for your peace that passes all understanding and fills my heart.

The crew and our Corn Maze adventure!

Last Saturday, a group of us from church decided to take a small group to a corn maze in Western NJ. The Corn maze was divided into sections by colored ribbon and in each section we had a few sketches to color, and questions to answer. Our job was to figure out how many in each color section, and then to find them. Then once all were found, we made the task of figuring out our exit. It took us over 3 hours to complete, but it was a lot of fun!

The map at the beginning of the Journey!!!!

And the crew starts out fresh, and ready for the challenge!!!!

The farm in Chester, NJ boasts a 10 acre life size maze! Chester is in Western NJ about 45min from where we live. It is a gorgeous area...I could see myself living out there on a farm.

Yeah!!!! We found our first station in the corn maze. We could have just found our way through the maze to the end but we decided to take the challenge of finding all the stations along the way. Each one either had sketch we colored in or questions we answered.

Random wood bridges raised us above the corn maze but it never really gave us much clue to where to go. Sometimes it helped thought to gain some perspective, like we are in the middle, the edge, ect)

The big debate....Which way should we go? Standing atop the bridge we attempted to decide what our best plan of action was. As a group we had to agree to move on...

Ricky who stole my camera to take a picture of himself! He is known for being a bit crazy!

My very good friend Lisa! We often hang out and have dog play dates! Love this girl!!

Ricky and Russ (Lisa's Husband). Enjoying the challenge.

Annette (Ricky's wife), Lisa, and I posing while on a break in the corn maze!

German proud of this find.
We finally found a station that had eluded us for much of the maze!

Pastor Tim boasting about our toughest challenge yet. We managed to walk right by this station (which was at the very beginning) and had to back track a good distance of the maze to find it again.

Ricky falling to his knees in relief as we found the last station! He had gone around a corner and started yelling "I Win, I win!" First off this is a team thing, haha and second off he had become known as the boy who cried wolf so at first none of us listened to him. We were all getting tired and hungry by this point and once we realized he REALLY did find the last station we were so relieved.

Stephanie, myself, and Lisa at the end of the corn maze!

(Left to Right: front row: German, Pastor Tim, Michelle, myself, Stephanie
Back Row: Lisa, Russ, Jonathon, Ricky, Annette)
The entire crew...WE MADE IT!!

Following the corn maze we ventured off to Houlighans for dinner and fellowship before ending the night at Pastor Tim and Michelle's house for coffee and desert. It was a long day but so good to spend it with friends and a definite break from the challenges of daily life. I was really glad I felt well enough to make the adventure....It was well worth the fatigue.