Sister DeVictoria writing:
This week Elder DeVictoria had another appointment with his neurologist. He walked in to the room and sat down and the doctor looked at the rash on his face and said, "You have Zoster!" (Shingles) Elder DeVictoria's eye is quite swollen and red, so he sent him to an opthalmologist. That doctor said that he thinks this was NEVER a cluster headache, but was Shingles all along. I got the name of the nerve wrong last time, it is called the trigeminal nerve. It runs along the side of the head. You can see from the picture why this all started with some tooth pain.
Even our mission health advisor couldn't understand how he was diagnosed with cluster headache when his symptoms didn't fit that diagnosis. Instead of a series of headaches, it was a one week long headache with no break. Thanks to a friend of mine who had shingles, I decided that wasn't something I ever wanted to get and a couple of years ago went and got the vaccine for it. Now I'm so thankful because I don't see how two of us could have this at the same time. Elder DeVictoria has really suffered with this. He no longer has the constant headache, but some of the medication makes him tired and dizzy. Sometimes he has trouble sleeping at night. This is a slow recovery because it involves an inflamed nerve, but he is making baby steps of improvement. Update: Yesterday Elder DeVictoria had a stab of pain in his head that was far worse than any he had experienced to date. I had been preparing to go to the evening session of Stake conference, but after that ordeal I didn't dare leave him alone. Then early this morning he had two more incidents of that excruciating pain. I hope when he sees the doctor tomorrow they can give him some help. I did ask the mission president to come over and give him another blessing. That did give us hope that there will be an end to this. He is thinking that maybe he will ask one of the MLS couples to come in to the office for a week or two to help do Elder DeVictoria's responsibilities until he gets feeling better.
This week we had a 6 week followup meeting for new missionaries and a Mission Leader Council meeting. I had to arrange food for those two meetings. I just ordered Subway sandwiches and bought some fruit. I have to buy the fruit the morning of the luncheon because I don't have a place to store it all. I can't put it in the church fridge because the church here is kind of like a community center. People come almost every night to play sports in the gym and hang out. Food put in the fridge sometimes get eaten. So I just go buy it the morning of the luncheon. I asked Elder Chang and Sister Ye who are service missionaries to help me cart the paper goods and water jug over to the chapel. They have been such a big help for me and Elder Chang has also done quite a bit of translation work for the mission. Here is a picture of him and Sister Ye. We took them out to lunch one day for Elder Chang's birthday.
I also had to go to Immigration twice this week and will have to go again on Monday. This week there were fewer people in line so I didn't have to stay quite as long. We got in a group of 13 missionaries and I had to register 12 of them. I also had some missionaries who have been in Taiwan for a year so needed renewal. But I didn't get two of the items I needed so will have to go Monday.
We are going to start teaching Institute (English) again this week. We will be studying the Book of Mormon along with the Chinese Institute. I'm not sure if Elder DeVictoria will be able to attend or not, but I will go alone if needed. One of the nice things about being senior missionaries is that we don't have the same rules as the young missionaries. We can do anything a regular member can do.
Today was stake conference. I saw on the ward communication app that it started at 10:00. So I went over at ten, but it was the strangest stake conference I ever saw. There were youth conducting the meeting, and at one point the visiting general authority did a question and answer session. I don't always understand everything said in talks, so I kind of missed some of it. Near the end of the meeting I realized I was at the Pre-conference Youth fireside! The general session started at 11:00! Duh..... Elder DeVictoria was sleeping pretty soundly when I left so I felt comfortable leaving him alone. We only live about a 2 minute walk away from the chapel.
Here is a picture I borrowed that some Elders took. I really liked it so snagged it.
And here is a picture from a cool street at the night market. Not the best picture of me, but the lights are cool. lol
Well, Elder DeVictoria isn't really up to writing this week, so I will just publish this without him writing. We appreciate everyone who has prayed for him and put his name in the temple. There will be an end to this, we just don't have any idea when that will happen. But we feel we have been blessed amidst this trial. Even though it has been difficult, our faith has pulled us through.
“To exercise faith is to trust that the Lord knows what He is doing with
you and that He can accomplish it for your eternal good even though you
cannot understand how He can possibly do it. We are like infants in our
understanding of eternal matters and their impact on us here in
mortality. Yet at times we act as if we knew it all. When you pass
through trials for His purposes, as you trust Him, exercise faith in
Him, He will help you. That support will generally come step by step, a
portion at a time. While you are passing through each phase, the pain
and difficulty that comes from being enlarged will continue. If all
matters were immediately resolved at your first petition, you could not
grow” (“Trust in the Lord,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 17). Elder Richard G. Scott
No comments:
Post a Comment