In Sickness and Health

From our Hawaiian honeymoon....black sands beach on the Big Island

Today marks our 7th wedding anniversary. Seven years! It feels like our wedding was just a year ago. Let me tell you something, bub...Marrying Dale was the best thing I have ever done.

We went with the traditional Catholic wedding vows that day. "I, _______, take you, ________, for my lawful wife/husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part." I figured, why re-write what has already been written so well? The above words say it all. Right now, we are going through a sample of the "in sickness and health" bit. The surgery I had on my neck back in December turned out to be unsuccessful. For a while, I felt like I was getting better. I think I was just healing from the surgery (which is quite traumatic) and not the actual problem that prompted the surgery. The physical therapy HAS increased my mobility, but has not decreased the pain. The numbness and tingling in my left arm is back as is the stabbing, twisting, cramping pain in the muscles of my neck and shoulder. Very tricky. I am back to the drawing board. I am going to try Rolfing, Yoga, and Swimming this summer.

Yesterday morning, Dale took me to get some steroid injections in my neck. I got two, one in between the epidural space of C4-5 and one in the space between C5-6.


See, they wrote it on me. There is the bandaid that covers both injection sites.
And there is my birthmark that looks like a hickey. Yup...growing up with that was a real treat.

Once the steroid is injected, it sort of forms a localized ball in the area that the doctor was shooting for. This "ball" can make things worse before it makes them better as it can press on the surrounding nerves before it spreads out. Yeah, it totally made me worse. They say the pain from the injection can last about 3 days. Bad timing to have the shot done the day before your anniversary. I was in bed all day yesterday (doctor's orders) and have been taking it very easy today. Hopefully, I will feel fine like red wine tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.
In the mean time, Dale has been taking excellent care of me. He is very sweet and I sure am happy to have him. He took his vows seriously. A man of his word, that Dale.

Bonus pics:
These were taken a week ago:

Cooper can tell when my neck hurts. He always crawls up and lays his head right on or around the area that hurts. He has done this since he was a little puppy. The pressure actually makes me feel better.


Charlie does not know how to do this. Instead, he just jumps on me and tries to lick my face off.

Oh, Charlie. We love you, but you have poor social skills.