Here's the "usual" morning.

Coffee maker is prepared the night before and on a timer. Cream is in the cup and in the fridge (plastic cup so the heat won't kill it)

My downstairs neighbors work 3rd shift and get home about 5 minutes before the alarm goes off (I can tell because the dogs get active) and that means I have a little bit of time to stretch and pray before I have to hit the floor. I've set the alarm to go off 30 minutes before I have to get ready for work (coffee,internet,pain time)

The alarm goes off and I swing my feet out of bed. My foot hits the floor and it starts. The place on my butt gets sore and my leg is tingly down to the knee. Before I get to the bedroom door, I'm tingly all the way down to my feet. By the time I get to the bathroom, the back of my leg feels like somebody's hitting me with a baseball bat.

Back in the kitchen: coffee in the creamer, neurantin (600 mg), ibuprofen (800 mg) and vicodine (5 mg) - at the worst of it, I was taking 5 Ibuprofen a day and 6 vicodine. I started with 300 mg. of the neurantin, working up to 6 pills (1800 mg a day, over three doses - five weeks to get there.) I have no clue if the neurantin is working, since progress comes after an injection, not after the dose increases. I'm experiencing some side effects, so I'm starting to ramp back down.

Back to the bedroom. By this time, my foot feels like it's in an industrial vise. I have a high bed, so I stand with my right (sore) leg up on the mattress (I call it the "flamingo stretch",) drinking my coffee and reading my iPad, giving the meds time to work before I get ready for work. Getting out of the shower, I sit on the edge of the tub to stretch and dress before I get my makeup on.

Last Monday, I had that cortisone shot into my piriformis muscle. They said 3-7 days before I really saw a difference. I've seen a little progress, but little enough so that I've made arrangements to get oral prednisone if I don't see wonderful progress before I have to drive up to Marquette to get Tom.

Today. No alarm 😉

I sat up and instead of asking for strength for the day, I thanked God for my healing or cure. I thanked Him for relief from the pain. And if He chose not to give me that relief, I thanked Him for whatever He might have me learn from this process.

My foot hit the floor. That "spot" was tight, but no pain.

Bedroom door...a little tingle...still no pain.

Bathroom door...still no pain, and just a little tingly.

Coffee with real milk (the cream I bought yesterday had clots in it) and...the neurantin (half dose) and nothing else.

I put on shoes around 1:00 and felt it when I pulled wrong...and ended up taking a vicodine at 2:00, no ibuprofen (I'm scheduled for another epidural injection on Tuesday, so no NSAIDS.)

that's it.

Whether it's the injections, the exercises, the diet, the pills...or the grace of God.

Something's working