Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying the summer, well its
not officially summer yet. It seems weird because Ive been out of high school for a year now, completed a year of college, and its all because of the support that Ive received over the last 7 years. I'm saying 7 years because ive had RSD for that long, about 2 1/2 years since my RSD came out of the semi-remission I was in.

Im not going to lie I miss my friends a lot. I miss our dinners, movie nights, my work-study job which I ended up working with my friend Sheila...lol a huge coincidence. I can see why people say college is one of the times of your life and its one of the times that you find yourself and grow as a person. I am definitely not the same person that I was when I moved into NDC, Im thankful for all the things that I was able to experience, God lead me to the right college for me.

Now onto the more serious stuff...lol, about a week ago I went and saw my Pain Management Doctor for a regular check on my RSD. We just made sure my medications were ok, my RSD was stable, and checked my Spinal Cord Stimulator (SCS). Im not sure if I wrote about this in another entry but in high school a few months after my implant surgery I fell and actually landed on my implant. A while after I notice how it felt weird or how I had to change position when I sat straight back in a chair or car. So we got it checked out at the doctors and they told us that the implant had pushed through the muscular pouch that was created to hold it. We were told to watch it otherwise nothing would be done. Well I lost a lot of weight in college thanks to constantly being active and not so good college food. The weight loss made the implant perturde even closer to the skin and now you can visibly see the implant if I lift up my shirt and if you look closely. It gets sour at times and simply bothers me. The pain relief I get from it is still amazing its just the implant itself that needs some adjusting. So the Doctor we saw suggested that I get the surgery over the summer since its summer and I could just get it over with.  I will also be getting my upper scars on my back cosmeticaly re-done. Since Im taking summer classes the surgery will be in mid-August between the very end of the summer session at Lakeland and going back to Notre Dame College. The recovery time is about 1-2 weeks so I will be going back to college with some post-op pain but it will be worth it. 

I think this summer is going to help me accept myself for who I am. Im starting to realize I just need to be me not anybody else. 

Prayer Requests:

1. For RSDers Everywhere
2. For Marsha as she goes through tests for the Ketamine
3. That I'll be able to concentrate this summer with my classes 


Love you All!

Erikka