My poor man!

The last 24 hours have been beyond rough for my man!  His pain has been increasing the last few days, and he hardly slept a wink last night.  He got up at 8am, and I could see the pain and exhaustion from the moment I saw him, in his eyes, the way he was hunched over, his attempt to sit down...  you could just tell he was miserable!  As the day went on, things got worse... I encouraged Mr. Steady to call his DR and see what the next step should be.  The doctor was able to pull some serious strings and get Mr. Steady an appointment tomorrow morning with a spine surgeon for a consultation {getting the ball rolling}

By 2pm he was on a conference-call curled up in the fetal position, trying so hard to find a comfortable position, to no avail!  Beads of sweat on his face, and totally nauseous.  I left him to do his work and came down to email some friends from church to ask for prayer, and to call my friend who is an ER nurse to ask her at what point should I take him to the ER! 

At 2:45 H came running down stairs and stuttered over his words, and finally spit out, "Mama, Daddy really needs you upstairs."  I ran up stairs to find Mr. Steady curled up in a ball, body shaking, sweat dripping, and crying! {I have only ever seen my husband even tear up 2 other times in the last 10 years}  He asked me to find a thermometer because he thought he had a fever.  I searched for a moment then thought, what in the world good will a thermometer do?  I knew the sweating was from pain, not a fever... then I kicked into high gear, and tears...  I called our babysitter, and asked (dare I say I begged and sputtered) how far away she was and if she could come get our kids.  She said yes, but it would be about 45 minutes until she could come.  Then I ran next door and asked our neighbor if she could watch the kids until our babysitter could be here {by God's grace our neighbor was home, she is a teacher and this week is her spring break}.  We live less than 5 minutes from the hospital, but the whole ride, he was cringing, attempting to curl up in a ball on the front seat... struggling like I have never seen before.

We were able to get right in at the ER, normally a 4 hour wait!  It did take the doctor a while to get pain meds started, but by 4pm they started the first round of meds, including anti-nausea meds. 3 rounds of meds and 6 hours later he was discharged.  The ride home was almost as rough as the ride in, he kept thinking he was going to throw up.  But we made it home, to a clean house and kids all tucked in.  I was able to run back out to the pharmacy to get his meds while our awesome sitter was still here.  He got 4 meds, and the grand total was $0.  I couldn't believe it.  Though this struggle is hard, we are seeing God's blessings and provisions along the way.  Please keep my sweet man in your prayers!