"All Shook Up"

Only two hours of sleep last night.  I lay awake, mostly from the nuisance of pain and some apprehension for the procedure I am having done this morning. It's my second cervical medial branch block. A medial branch nerve block temporarily interrupts the pain signal being carried by the medial branch nerves that supply a specific facet joint. If the patient has the appropriate duration of pain relief after the medial branch nerve block, that individual may be a candidate for the next bout of treatment which will most likely be radio frequency ablation to the nerves in my neck.  Radio frequency ablation (or RFA) is a procedure used to reduce pain. An electrical current produced by a radio wave is used to heat up a small area of nerve tissue, thereby decreasing pain signals from that specific area.   Today isn’t a treatment for my neck, rather a diagnosis. (Thank you, Web MD.)
All I can think about is a drink of water. I’m so incredibly parched that I am afraid I will get a drink on accident.  No food or water for 8 hours before.  Unfortunately, my procedure isn’t until 11:00 am. Isn’t it uncanny how when you are prohibited from something, you become fixated on that “thing?”
In the middle of the night, I began to think how the unbearable pain only ignites my passion for the lost.  Meaning, how blessed I am to have been raised in a Christian home.  I came to know Jesus at the age of four.  How in the world would I make it through even one day of this challenging disease without someone to believe in that is greater than I?  He is the one I can turn to when I feel like I can’t take one more day.  How do people make it through life without knowing what I know?  When sin entered the world, death entered. Chronic pain, illness, and disease are a form of death.  We live in a broken world yet intimacy with God is often created in the midst of affliction.  This suffering refines me "…I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." This test produces growth and maturity- James 1:2-4 Best of all, this demanding ailment can transform this chic into God’s image. Romans 8:28-29

Now, how can I pray for YOU today?