My hair hurts

In 2010 I was going to body pump classes three times a week, walking 2-3 miles a day, and I completed a half marathon.  I was working in a job I loved, living in Florida, had a great life.  Then the bottom fell out...I went to Afghanistan in January 2011, came home in April, and by November of that year had a herniated disc in my back, severe major depressive disorder, excruciating abdominal pain, constipation, and migraines 3-4 times a week.  I would experience episodes of confusion and fogginess; I would get lost coming home; and I cried every day, even at work.  My migraine meds stopped working, and everything started hurting...and I mean everything.  Skin, legs, hands, feet, joints, teeth, ears...at times I would even feel like my hair hurt!  I could barely walk 100 feet let alone 3 miles, I couldn't lift anything over 5 pounds without extreme pain, and warm water on my skin felt like hot needles.  Then I began gaining weight...lots of weight.  Thirty-five pounds in three months, and my eating did not change.

Yes, I went to the doctors, mostly at the VA hospital.  My care at the VA for the past 10 years had previously been exceptional and simple...maybe it was exceptional because I was such a simple case.  But now I was complicated.  No one knew what was wrong, nothing the doctors gave me helped the pain, the depression continued, and my relationships with others, especially my family, deteriorated  Begin the long, long road to diagnosis... saving that for another post.

Through it all, I usually leaned on God and His awesome grace.  I say usually because there were times I become despondent, depressed, angry, hopeless, and selfish.  I am human, frail and a sinner.  But I noticed when I leaned back on the Lord, and gave all my troubles to the Holy Spirit, things got easier to manage.  So in November 2011 I took a six-week UNPAID leave of absence from my lucrative contractor job with the military, and went to our log home in Brevard, North Carolina, to spend some time alone with my God and my maker.  More on that next...