Hello Blog World.  I thought I would share with y’all an e-mail I sent out to my church family tonight about my health:

Happy Sabbath Church Family–

I decided to sit down tonight and write a quick note to y’all in regards to my health. I haven’t preached for two Sabbaths in a row (I am preaching tomorrow) and several individuals have asked if my absence has been due to my health, since I made a brief comment about it a couple of Sabbaths ago.  The answer is “yes” and “no”. Yes, I didn’t preach two weeks ago due to my health. No, this last Sabbath was just a planned week off. But let me share with y’all the story as quickly as a preacher can:)

Back in February I began to get some rather severe headaches, I am not one prone to headaches so I was a little alarmed, especially when they didn’t go away and began to get worse. I spoke with the resident doctor of our family my brother-in-law Chad and he told me I needed to go see a neurologist, he gave me a number…but that was the end of that.  In mid-April the head aches began to subside some and so I thought they were just a random seasonal thing.  Then in May they came back and around the same time I also began to experience regular short bouts of dizziness.  Again my family urged me to the go to the Dr., but again I ignored them and kept on.  Christina kept telling me I needed to go, she has actually been telling me to just get a regular check-up for years!!! I asked her “when do I have the time?” and always assured her, “I am fine.” Well several Sabbaths ago I experienced a couple of those dizzy spells while preaching. A little alarming, but they are 30 seconds or less, so no big deal. Then that next week I about when down while picking something up and I thought, “that could be one of my kids I was trying to pick up.” That day I was up in Fresno and I had some time to kill, and I saw a sign for a walk-in urgent care and so I dropped in. The individual that examined me told me I probably had an inner ear infection and sent me on my way.
That night at house of prayer my head ache was just raging and so I decided to ask Dr. Eller who was there what he thought. He did the right thing, HE SCARED ME:). He told me it didn’t sound like an inner ear infection and I needed to get to a Neurologist. Well, through the suggestion of Dr. Eller, I got made an appointment with Dr. Soloniuk-Tays.  She got me in right away and in that visit we discovered a perfect storm of symptoms.

Headaches, Dizziness, right side weakness, right side reflex deficiency, forehead numbness, left ear hearing loss.

Like I said it was the perfect storm of symptoms and even as I was being checked I realized this wasn’t looking good. All the symptoms together pointed to something very bad. I was told not to drive and to rest. And for the next 24 hours Christina and I mentally prepared for the worst. Praying and praising God for whatever would come.
Dr. Bouitt and Jon Jacques got me into an MRI ASAP and at the end of that MRI we discovered that I wasn’t gonna die, at least not yet:)!  But obviously things were still wrong. So I’ve been back to see the Neurologist a couple times and to see Dr. Soloniuk again, had some labs, gone to PT, yada, yada, yada.

Here is what we know:

I have a pinched ulnar nerve in my right arm. I have mild carpal tunnel in my right wrist. I am definitely hearing deprived in my left ear, we don’t know why yet. I have muscle weakness on my right side, I have an MRI on my neck to check for a possible bulging disc after I get back from camp meeting. I have a muscle in my neck that is a difficult muscle to work with but something is wrong with it and it is what is causing my head aches, the numbness in my forehead, and possibly the vertigo since it attaches right behind the ear and has been known I was told to cause dizziness. My total cholesterol is too high, and my bad cholesterol is way to high. We also discovered I do have some extra tissue in my brain but nothing to worry about! I told one member this and they asked if it was then okay to call me fathead? 🙂 All the persons I have seen have been wonderful and I feel blessed to have had such great care.  They have all given me much wonderful insight and one common piece of advice, “You need to take better care of yourself.”

I am a naturally intense and passionate person, it is my personality, that I probably won’t be able to change much. But my diet, my sleep, my exercise, my time with my family I can control and it is in these places I seek balance and I ask you for your prayers in as well.

Some things I learned in all of this:

• That Dr. Eller, Dr. Soloniuk-Tays, Dr. Bouitt, and Jon Jacques are awesome!!!!! (I really already knew this about all of them, but it was just confirmed) I love y’all!
• I learned that folk without God and without a church family need Him and a church family desperately! I LOVED!!!!! and felt so blessed to have our prayer partners praying! To be able to call up brothers and sisters in Christ here locally and across the country that hit their knees in prayer for me. I felt the strength of those prayers! My heart literally aches for people that don’t have that.  I think of all the individuals that go through what I went through on a daily basis and in many cases their results aren’t excellent like mine. And yet they have no God that they can turn to and no family that will petition the Almighty for them! We can’t rest ’till everyone has had a chance to be a part of God’s family!
• I realized that though I would not want to go through on a regular basis, it is a good thing to have to stop and take moment or 24 hours to think about the fragility of life. To take account of ones life and where we are at with the Lord is a blessed reality!
• How awesome is the assurance of Salvation! I pray each of you know that if your last breath were tonight that you are saved by our loving Savior!

So that is my story. Thanks for listening. Please continue to pray for me, the dizziness has been a little better. Maybe that is b/c I have been trying to slow down a little. The head aches remain pretty constant but not agonizing, just the minute awareness that something is a little off on a continual basis. I pray it goes away, but I have told the Lord whatever He sees as best. I may need a thorn in my flesh.

I love y’all and let us all continue to reach people for Kingdom Growth!

Pastor Chad