Sunday July 30, 2023

What a week it has been.  Colleen has had such a bad back ache ever since we got here and it has just gotten worse with time.  We bought a memory foam mattress topper back in March, and put on the bed, which is not terrible but not wonderful either, it helped but not a lot.  So her back pain which extends down her right leg and makes her feel terrible has just gotten worse the whole time we are here.  After talking with Dr. Chappell who is in Lima Peru with his wife Julie, they are serving as the Area Medical Dr. for several missions in South America, but he has been our family Dr for years, so whenever we have concerns he is always so great to help us.  So he recommended that we get an MRI and see exactly what is going on.  So we got an appointment with a Dr. in San Pedro Sula to see if he could help us with the back pain and leg pain.  We didn't tell him that this is what we wanted but after talking with him he recommended an MRI, which we got scheduled there at that same hospital.  That was on Tuesday of this week,  so then we got the MRI scheduled for Friday of this week and got another appointment with the Dr on Saturday morning to get the results. So Friday morning we drove back to San Pedro Sula to the hospital, which is a 2+ hour drive.  We got there and this picture was taken as Colleen was ready for the MRI.  This took about an hour for the MRI, then we spent the night at President and Hermana Ostler's house with them.  We went out to dinner to a very nice place and had a great dinner.  It was a very good dinner so different than any place that we have been to before.  There are restaurants here in Tela where we have gone to a time or two but this one was in a Hotel where they probably have guests from all over so it had a nice selection of great meal options.  It was nice to have options that were a little more like home.  Anyway so then on Saturday morning we went to the Dr appointment.  The following pictures are points of interest from the MRI results.  

The picture with the blue circles are disks L2 and L3, which as you can see are not exactly like all the other ones.  The Dr. asked if she had ever been in a bad accident or was injured at some point many years ago.  The only think she could think of was when she was pregnant with Meggan she was working as a nurse and had to help with a patient transfer from the hospital in Richfield taking the patient to Utah Valley Hospital in Provo.  They weren't very far outside of Richfield when they had a bad traffic accident and the ambulance was tipped over on its side and came to an abrupt stop.  Colleen was in the back of the ambulance tending to the patient when all of a sudden this happened so she was thrown around in the back as the crash took place.  Not being in a seat belt she was thrown around but not seriously injured.  They were all transported back to Richfield in another ambulance this time Colleen was in a bed in the back of the ambulance.  She was 7 months pregnant with Meggan at the time and because of the accident her body went into labor.  This being way too early to deliver, she was put on a helicopter and flown to Utah Valley Hospital in Provo where their goal was to stop the contractions so that she would not deliver the baby.  They were successful and Meggan was not born until a few weeks later.  Colleen did not suffer any major complications from the accident so life went on and we were so thankful that both Colleen and Meggan were both ok.  The Dr says that this type of issue in the disks was probably caused many years ago and is just now manifesting itself this way.  The lower picture is the nerve that runs through L2 and L3 and goes down the right leg.  As you can see in the picture the nerve is pinched and has a place where it is narrower than it should be.  This is causing her pain in her back and in her leg.  It is not super serious but nevertheless will probably continue to be an issue.  He recommended Physical Therapy and gave her a prescription for some pain meds, which so far has not helped her.  He also said that through surgery he could enlarge the area where the nerve is and alleviate the pinching and thus probably solve some of the pain.  Well needless to say surgery is not going to happen here.  We are going to try and find a Physical therapy place and see what help we can get to try and help her leg and back pain.  While the Elders were here this afternoon we gave her a Priesthood blessing and we hope and pray for blessings on her behalf as she deals with this very painful situation 

We have transfers here this week so we had our family meal before transfers, we call it "The last Supper". Always on a Sunday after church, and always with all 6 of us. Either while eating or right after, we each take a few minutes and talk about something special that we have experienced during this past transfer.   It is always so wonderful to be with the missionaries especially after they have all been here for at least one full transfer which is 6 weeks.  After that much time together everyone knows each other very well and is comfortable talking about our experiences.  In this picture next to Hermana Chappell is Hermana Ortega from Mexico, then Hermana Seb, from Guatemala, then Elder Valenzuela from Argentina, and Elder Martìnez from Mexico.  Who knows what changes will be made this week but we will find out on Tuesday night.  The one good thing is that Hermana Chappell and I will get to keep the same companion and we get to stay right here in Tela.  I am so glad we don't have to move around like the young missionaries do.  There are two here now that are from Mexico so they helped us prepare lunch.  We had tacos duros with salsa made by them and Horchata Mexican style.  It was really good.  They have horchata here but it really is a lot different than what they have in Mexico.  I prefer the Mexican horchata but am not a big fan of either one.  

We had to go downtown and print some papers this week and in so doing had to cross this bridge as we do almost every day, so we stopped this time and took some pictures.  We usually just hurry on down the road but we stopped and I am glad we did,  there are some really pretty views at times here.  We just need to slow down and smell the roses sometimes.  I have never seen roses here but they do have a lot of other pretty flowers and it is very green everywhere.  We are blessed to be here and hope so much that we can get Hermana Chappell some help with her pain so that she can continue to help the missionaries here.  We are going out to Hicáque tomorrow to visit a family out there with the Hermana's, it should be great.  It is always a blessing to be able to spend time with them. Pray for Colleen, we know that she will be ok but a little less pain would help so much!!!