September 27, 2015

I've been having a hard time with my breathing thing.  I feel like I've been trying to read more and take out as many nonessential things from my life, but I keep holding my breath and reacting to slightly stressful situations with bigger responses than I should.  It's so frustrating because it's a problem I'm causing and I have no idea how to fix it.  Then this week my tingling hands are back and it wakes me up at night and then I find that I'm holding my breath and that combination keeps me up for hours. So this week has been hard.  Today is fast Sunday because of conference next week.  I fasted about this issue and I've been trying to brainstorm any possible ideas that can help me. Over the last two days the scripture came to my mind "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." I looked up the reference last night and thought it would be a good thing to keep in mind as I try to work on this.  Then today Rachel and I watched the Women's Conference broadcast because we couldn't last night.  They had a video on there with a woman who was talking about her trials with not having kids and things not working out how she thought they would and she shared Phillipians 4:13 and said how much comfort it gave her.  I felt so loved and watched over when I heard that.  I don't remember ever paying particular attention to that verse in the past.  But I know the Spirit whispered it to me yesterday in preparation for watching this broadcast.  I know that the Lord is aware of me and wanted to comfort me even though this trial is probably not over. What a blessing that is to know I'm loved and important enough to let me know in such a special way.

My hands have been tingling again.  They were doing so much better.  There was just a slight tingling, but not enough to wake me up. But I talked to a friend who had a similar thing and she said hers was some kind of nutritional imbalance. And since I've been changing our diets with less meat and more grains and beans I was a little worried that something new was causing the issue.  So I went to see her doctor.  But he didn't think it was anything like that.  He thought my ribs were out of alignment and the muscle tension is pinching the nerves.  It sounded kind of like my SI rotation thing so I let him adjust my ribs even though I really hate chiropractic adjustments.  He said I'd need to come back at least 4-5 times to get my ribs to stay in the correct alignment, but after going once it made my tingling come back a lot.  So I don't know if he was right and I should have stuck with it to fix it or if it caused more problems.  I didn't go back.  I'm trying to decide if I want to go talk to my home teacher who is a chiropractor and get his opinion or just wait and see if it gets better. It's so frustrating.  I think I'm going to try to swim at least once a week though. My back seems to be weak and that is good for it.

I took Seth to an allergy specialist this week.  They did the skin test on his back.  He responded to pretty much all weeds, trees and grasses and animals.  Thankfully, though, he doesn't have any food allergies.  They prescribed an extra nasal spray to help dry out his sinuses.  Hopefully that will really help his hearing.

I met with Seth's teacher.  Seth is below grade level in reading.  We talked about things we can do to help him.  He's not confident in his ability to read and doesn't like to try hard things.  So it's been really hard to get him to practice.  He's liking his class this year and has been a little more interested.  I bought him a set of really easy Ninja Turtle books and that has motivated him quite a bit.  And I've hired Rachel as his tutor.  She is going to work with him 30 minutes a day on sight words and homework and other practice.  She bought some candy to help motivate him.  I think it's going to be good for both of them.