UPDATE ON Cheryl Eaton: Last week Cheryl attended a service during which her mom was recognized for retiring after 42 years of full time Christian service. Several people came to her and inquired as to why I had stopped updating concerned friends and family as to her status so I thought I would catch everyone up. I apologize for the length but there is a lot of catching up to do. The reason why I have not been posting regular updates is that her health has been in a holding pattern lately. After returning home in May and getting her new leg in June she suffered a series of small setbacks that has left her unable to use her leg for much more time than she has been able to wear it. It began with her spraining the ankle on the remaining leg and so she was told to stay off her feet until her ankle healed up. After her ankle healed she began experiencing severe back problems and the pain was so severe that she was admitted into the hospital for a week or so until they could control her pain well enough to send her home. The doctors are unclear if the cause was the extensive rehab that she went through with only one leg but the result was 2 bulging discs at the base of her spine resulting in a lot of sciatic pain and the doctors as well as the folks that supplied her new leg advised her not to wear it until she was free from pain. So far she has undergone a series of 3 epidurals at the pain clinic (each one 2-3 weeks apart) and, while she got limited relief from the first 2, she has not gotten much if any relief from the 3rd one which should have provided her some long term relief. She is still under a great deal of pain and doing her best to manage it with pain meds until she has another follow-up appointment with the pain clinic next week. Meanwhile she is wearing an eye patch and that, combined with her only having one leg, she only needs a parrot on her shoulder to be a great pirate. For those of you that are diabetic or know someone that is you know that infection of any sort can cause your blood sugar to be elevated. Cheryl has been experiencing the same problem for 11 months now and, even though she is taking much more insulin than normal, she is struggling to keep her blood sugar in the low 200s. Due to the length of time that her blood sugar has been elevated she began seeing double vision in each eye & experiencing some paralysis in the muscles of her right eye. She has been wearing an eye patch for about 3 weeks now and seems to be improving and is scheduled to see the eye doctor in another few days. Finally, the infectious disease doctor that has been treating her did some blood work and the results show that she does indeed have some of the infection still residing in her system - more than likely the spot that as on her collar bone. Cheryl had another CT scan a few days ago to compare it to the one taken when she was released from the hospital to see if it is spreading at all. Meanwhile Cheryl will probably begin a series of treatments (probably 40 to start off with) in the hyperbaric chamber. For those of you that are unfamiliar with them, they are used to put a patient into a high pressure chamber that is rich in oxygen to accelerate the healing process - even if the infection is internal rather than an external wound. A quick search on Wikipedia will give you a lot more info. If you know her at all than you will not be surprised that she has maintained an extremely positive attitude and remains a wonderful example for anyone going through trials and tribulations in the life. If you want to leave her a comment than I will pass it on to her. Meanwhile please keep both of us in your prayers...
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 02:24:10 +0000
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