Tools of the Trade

My Past Tools

My old knife

Growing up, I really liked knives. I'm not sure what it was about knives that made me like them, maybe it was the fact that if I needed something cut, I wouldn't have to go and find a knife, since I would already have one ready to go. Or maybe it's just a guy thing. I'm not sure. Anyway, when I got old enough for my parents to let my have a knife, I started caring a knife around everywhere I went. It was a really cool knife, had too blades, a long one and a short one. I would love to use that thing. Everywhere I went, that knife accompanied me, riding along in my pocket. I did a variety things with it, mostly whittling on pieces of wood to make various toys to play with. I remember carving out a sword and a knife one time, and they I would play with those self-carved weapons, much fun.

My Swiss Army knife

After a while I got a Swiss Army knife, so I carried that along with my old knife that I had. The Swiss Army knife was really good, because it had a pair of scissors, and screwdriver, and other tools that a regular pocket knife doesn't have. However, as I aged my little knife aged too. Eventually, it's blades got very loose, and dull, and sand got in its workings, so it became less and less useful. When I just didn't see a reason to keep it around anymore, I retired it to my wooden box of knifes, to make it part of my collection. After that, I just started carrying my Swiss Army knife everywhere.

Leatherman Fuse

I don't remember how old I was, but one year I got a Leatherman Fuse for Christmas. The Leatherman was amazing, I wore it on my belt everywhere I went, and then I always had a pair of pliers, a pair of scissors, a knife, and whole bunch of other tools with me. Having the Leatherman was pretty much amazing. It had a very nice knife blade, and pliers and everything. I was very glad to have it with me whenever I might need it.

My Leatherman Fuse had served me very well, for probably at least 4 or 5 years. I even had to buy a new sheath for it because the first one wore out because I had to so long. But all good things must come to an end is what I'm told (though I don't necessarily believe that). When I was going to Disney world and Epcot with my family in the beginning of May 2010, I had to take my Leatherman off (no knives allowed), and leave it at the motel. And my poor Leatherman Fuse got left in the motel room that we were staying in, I thought that I had put it in my bag, but evidently I had not. Very sad.

My Present Tools 

When I found out that I had lost my Leatherman Fuse at the motel I was rather sad, but at the same time I was also rather joyful because for a long time I had wanted to purchase a new Leatherman, the Leatherman Wave. The Leatherman Wave is a nicer design and higher up model than the Fuse. The Wave is actually Leatherman's most popular Full-size Multi-tool.

Some of the key advantages of the Wave over the Fuse are the fact that it has a couple blades which can be opened with one hand, and without having to open the pair of pliers, and it has two bit drivers, one normal size and one small, eyeglasses sized. By "bit driver" I mean that it can change out the screw driver ends so I can have all different types of screw driver sizes, and allen wrench sizes. I can carry 24 different screwdriver bits with me in my Leatherman holster at one time. I often find it very hand to have 24 various drill bits at my disposal whenever I need them, very, very handy.  =)

So, anyway I now have a Leatherman Wave which I carry around with me everywhere I go, but in addition to that I also have a flashlight which I carry around everywhere. I started off by carrying a Maglite around, but after a while I realized that that wasn't bright enough or durable enough for my needs, it kept breaking.  So I did some research for the perfect flashlight for me. I looked and looked until I finally found out about Surefire flashlights, and bought one for myself. It was perfect for my needs, bright enough to light a room, yet small enough to keep on my belt, and durable enough to keep from breaking even though I carry it around everywhere with me. (Since they are made for the Army, they make them pretty tough. =) )

My Future Tools

Well that's what I carry around with me now, a Leatherman Wave, and a Surefire 6P, but in the future, most likely I will upgrade my tools sometime before I pass away. And when I do, the next Leatherman I will probably get is the Surge. The Surge is very similar to the Wave, but at 12.5% longer, and with 4 more tools than the Wave, the Surge has a couple distinct advantages over the Wave. However, I think that I am going to hold off a little bit and just make do with what I have for the time being, because my Wave is working just fine. =) As for my flashlight, I don't even know what I would upgrade that to. I already have the best one for me needs, until they invent something new that is.

So, that's my arsenal that I carry around with me everywhere I go. It's not that big, but it gets the job done. =)

Before I head out, let me just mention a couple of the things that I do with my tools. I most definitely use them, quite often in fact. I use my flashlight every day for sure, I use it when I get up in the morning to find my clothes and get changed without waking up my roommates. And I also use it many other times when someone dropped something when it is dark, and they need to find it, I can help them out with my flashlight, stuff like that. I use my Leatherman a great deal as well. Often there are cases when I use it, and if I hadn't had it then we would have been in trouble, like the time last week when I was on a CSC (Community Service Council) Project and we were helping set things up for a race. We were there setting things up, and we needed a knife to cut some rope to attach the signs, but no one had a knife, except for me. Then we also needed a saw to cut the PVC pipe to the right length for one of the signs. I was able to help because I had both a knife and a saw on my Leatherman. Then there are other times when I use my Leatherman, but we wouldn't have been in dire trouble if I hadn't had it with me, it would just have made things less convenient. For example, I am often tightening up screws, or bolts, or other things that I notice are loose with the tools that are on my Leatherman. Basically I am using my Leatherman all the time for things that are big and small. I can't imagine what it would be like to not carry it around anymore, it has sort of become part of me. =)

Well, that's all I have for now, hope you have a wonderful rest of your day,

Signing off,

Tim

Current Events

Well I haven't updated this since the beginning of the semester, which makes sense since I'm at college. However, yesterday I decided that even though college life is busy, and time is a greatly demanded commodity, I came to the conclusion that I can spend a couple minutes here and there and use it to update my family and friends on the current events of my life, and it wouldn't kill me. (Rather it would be good for me to be able to relieve some stress instead.)
 

My upper body workout bar

I decided this partly because I feel like I'm turning somewhat into a hermit, avoiding people, and simply spending my hours in the library leaning over textbooks about the arguments for and against Arminianism, and Calvinism, and the different between Predestination and Foreknowledge, or over my Greek New Testament trying to figure out the specific participle use of επιγνους in this particular sentence. So, to counteract that companionless tendency I will be updating this blog periodically just to keep me from completely hiding in my own little corner. =)

Well as for the current events, I haven't completely cut out enjoyable things. For example, I got my door frame total upper body workout bar the other day. My roommates and I decided that by the end of this semester we should all be "buff" so we all did some pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups. We had some good laughs cheering each other on and keeping us going. Unfortunately, the next day, my chest, arms, and stomach were yelling and screaming at me for straining them so much the night before. That whole day I was sore, especially my abs…. Ow. I was sore the rest of the week, mostly because I worked out again on Tuesday, and Thursday nights. But it was fun.

The chain and gears without the front crankset

Something else that has been going on is the bike problems that I've been having. On my way back from church last week, my bike just seemed to start falling apart. Seriously. First the handle bars got loose, so they were twisting forward and back, so I would have to hold them just right to keep my lights shining on the road in front of me, and not into the air, or my front tire. Second, the front gear shifter decided to stop working. I couldn't shift up anymore, so I was stuck on low to mid ranged gears. (Which was especially not helpful for going down hills.) Then, to top it all off, my left pedal was getting wobbly. Thankfully the Lord helped me make it back to campus, but by the time I did, my left pedal had almost completely fallen off. Praise the Lord that I was able to get back to campus without having to push my bike though. =)

On Tuesday, I drove to the Sun Shine bike shop here close to campus to see about getting a new crank set. (When I took the right pedal off, I noticed that the right crank was stripped off too.) They showed me the part that they could get for me, and said that it would be $70 for the part, plus $20 for the installation. *jaw drop* "Uh… I'll have to think about it." Sadly, I don't have 90 buck just to blow out on a single part for this bike. =(  I still had some time before I had to get back to campus, so I found The Great Escape to see if they had anything cheaper. I take my bike in, and the guy at the counter takes a look at it and takes it back and puts it up on a rack and looks at it some more. He then consults the older man who is in the back as well. Then the guy comes back up to the counter with a set of cranks in his hand which should work. He sets them on the counter and I look at them, bracing myself for the sticker-shock. He explains that these should work, and they could get them on, and have it all ready to go by tomorrow sometime if I wanted. He didn't mention the price, so I ask the alluring question, and brace myself again. "Ok, how much are these?" While pointing to the cranks. He hesitates, flips them over and reads the price tag, "Um… they are… 20 dollars. And then probably about another 15 for the installation." A huge sigh of relief escapes my mind accompanied by metal jumps for joy. "Yey! $20 compared to $70, excellent! Praise the Lord. Now my only problem is, how do I get the old cranks off?" I was planning on doing the installation myself, but my only problem is that I don't have a good way to get the old cranks off. I can do the rest myself.

My new pedals for my bike

While I was there, leaning on the counter pondering this situation, the guy said that I could do the installation myself if I wanted to. Then I replied, I'd like to, but my only problem was that I don't have a way to get the old cranks off. Then, that is when he offered to loosen them for me. Perfect! I jumped at his offer, and he pulled out a crank puller, and made quick work of those cranks. (Unfortunately I don't have a crank puller.) So, after he loosened them up, he rolled the bike back out to me, and everything was pretty much "hunky dory" (to borrow an expression from my mom). I left the bike shop very encouraged, and thanking God for not having to pay $70 for a crank set. Sure, the one that I just got, doesn't look as nice and fancy as the $70 one, but I really don't need my crank set to look like it just came from a $1499 road bike, it still looks new and very nice. I was quite pleased. I didn't get a chance to put them on until 2 days later, but I had the crank set. Now I was just waiting on the pedals to arrive in the mail from Amazon.com, the ultimate college student's mall. 

The new crankset after installation

So, Thursday comes around and I put the cranks on in the morning, and then the pedals arrive later that day and I put those on too, and then take it around for a ride back campus some, and tweak some things. I adjusted the brakes and gear shifters, and tested out the cranks and pedals to see if they are on tight enough so that they won't slip off. Now the bike is all back together, with most of the problems dealt with and running pretty nicely if I do say so myself.

Practicing "When God is Near"

So, that's mainly what I've been up to, of course I've been studying and reading my assignments until I'm red in the face, but I don't think that that makes for very interesting writing. Earlier today (Sat.) I went out and played tennis with my darling sister, and we had a lot of fun with that. I've also been practicing my guitar skills, which have been coming along quite nicely. I played my first hymn today… I guess. I don't know if you could technically called it "playing," but I played all the chords in the right order anyway, with much pausing, and referencing the chord sheet to find the correct positioning for an Amin chord, or a F#min chord, or a D7 chord, and others like those. It's going slowly, because I haven't been spending a whole lot of time on practicing, but it is coming none the less. I am certainly able to do much more with my guitar than I was during Christmas break.

Overall, things have been going ok. But to be honest things have been really rough, especially classes. I am constantly struggling to keep somewhat on top of things, and still having a hard time with that. I am making it a priority to get more sleep, so I haven't been getting up at 5:00 in the morning to study (even though I feel like I need that time), but I don't ever sleep in, even on Saturdays and Sundays. On the weekends I still get up at either 6 or 7, so that I get do my devotions and then get straight to my school work. Because if I don't get ahead over the weekends then there is no possible way that I can make it through the week and get everything done. (I've discovered that the Study hall is very quite between 6 and 9 on Sunday mornings. =) )

Some of the books I have to read for class

I guess I try not to let on, (so this will be a breach of character for me) but I've been really stressed with school these past 2 or 3 weeks. I feel like there isn't enough time to even come close to doing everything that I need to do. With Greek, there is still a huge amount of material, such as case usages, that I still don't have a grasp on. And other classes, such as Preacher Boys, we are talking about current events and swings, and we have huge amounts of reading about the church marketing movement, and other current movements like that. Which wouldn't be too bad, except that the text book, is so hard to read and get anything out of. Dr. McAllister told us to try to not get bogged down in it, and try to get the reading done in about an hour. If I read it normally, it probably would take about 3 hours, and if I read it in about an hour, then I really don't get much out of the book at all. I know that I'm not the best reader, I will freely admit that, but I still think that that book is very poorly written. (I'm planning on mentioning that I think that they should get a new textbook for next year's class, in my course evaluation at the end of the year.)

Things like that, and other classes such as Biblical Minister, with our papers and projects due every week, are just cramping in from all sides and I'm feeling more and more compressed and making it harder and harder to breath and even function. I'm going through a very difficult time right now, and I would covet your prayers greatly. I know that God is always providing for his believers. And I also know that He is using all of these things in my life for good. He has the perfect plan, and He knows how it will all come together in the end. All that knowledge is in my head. I know the truths. But if you could help by praying that I would apply those truths, and that I would believe what I already know to be true.

Trying to keep my eyes on Jesus,

-Tim

First Semester as an "Upper Classman"

Well, it's been a while since my last updated hasn't it? Even though they now allow students to go to blogspot.com while on campus, I didn't update my blog this semester, partly because I didn't feel like I had the time, and partly because I didn't realize that we could go to blogspot.com now until about half way through the semester. =P (It was blocked last semester.)

Anyway, things have been going pretty well since the end of the summer. Obviously, I was at school for most of that time, working on the first semester of my Junior year. School was quite a bit different this semester than semesters in the past, but here, let me explain from the beginning.

This is a bouquet that I gave to Abby for Artist Series. 

To start with, I had to deal with quite a few medical problems this semester, namely, seizures. I had to deal with seizures last year, but not nearly to the same extent as this semester. This semester, I was put in a room with two Freshmen. We got a long quite well and had a lot of fun as a room, but I started having seizures quite frequently and my roommates didn't know quite how to react and it was causing them to have difficulties sleeping because they would be afraid that I would have a seizure that night and they wouldn't know what to do. I didn't realize that my having seizures was causing them problems, but evidently it was; enough that they went to Mr. Wilson, the dorm supervisor and told him about it. Mr. Wilson had a talk with me about the situation and decided that it would be best if they moved me to a new room, and had someone else come in as the APC (Assistant Prayer Captain), the leader of the room.

So, I was going to be moved in to a new room, but Mr. Wilson didn't have a room picked out yet, so in the mean time I moved in with Jeremiah, in Reveal. Mr. Wilson wanted to put me in a room with guys that would be ok with me being in their room, and having seizures and being ok with it if they had to deal with it sometimes. After almost a month, he found a room that fit the bill perfectly. It had two Public Safety members in it and they both were ok with having me in their room. So, I moved in and that's where I spent the rest of the semester.

That was my excitement with moving around rooms, I also had some other excitement with my seizures. Such as, my seizures were getting pretty bad, so we wanted to try to see if we could find a doctor that could figure out what was causing them, so we got a hold of Dr. Sorg, someone Aunt Rachael knows. He is in Atlanta, Georgia, so I made an appointment with him and drove down there to see him. He looked at me and asked me some questions and didn't really decide anything definite, but thought that there is a good chance that they are caused by some scar tissue on my brain from when I hit my head ice-skating back during the summer of 2009. Dr. Sorg then prescribed me some medicine and I headed back to BJ. I don't know if the medicine helped or not; I wasn't on it long enough to tell, because soon after I started taking it I developed a bad rash over my whole body. Some people thought that it looked like measles, others thought that it looked like hives, but I didn't have any other symptoms for anything like that, other than I had red spots all over my body, and they itched ferociously. I went to Barge to see what they had to say, and the nurse there said that it looked like a reaction to medications, and that seemed like the most likely option so I went with that. Dr. Sorg said to go off the medicine, and that we'd find some other medicine to put me on. I got off of the medicine and the rash cleared up in a couple days (along with the itching).  So, I was very thankful for that.

Well that's enough about health issues. Now, on to school and things. School went "OK." Not good, not bad, just "OK." =P Meaning that I passed all my classes, but I certainly didn't raise my GPA any. The lowest grade that I got was in Greek, but praise the Lord I still passed. As far as grades go, I've had to put quite a few things aside, telling myself that it really doesn't matter what grade I get overall. As long as I pass and do decently well, then I'll be fine. God has had to work in my heart to help me realize that, but I think that He's been doing a good job. My overall GPA for the semester was about a full point under what it normally is, but as long as I am still doing my best, then I am still honoring God. =)

I had quite a few other "firsts" this semester as well, including riding my bike to Prayer Meeting at Mount Calvary on Wednesday nights. The first time I went was because I just wanted to go, and I didn't have any classes on Thursday to study for anyway so, I went. But since I couldn't find anyone to hitch a ride with, I decided that I had to ride my bike; since my brother and cousin were both using their vehicles, I wasn't able to borrow them. Prayer Meeting went really well. I really enjoyed both the preaching and the time of prayer. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, that I've been back for every Wednesday evening Prayer Meeting since. Most of the time riding my bike, because I figure that it's good exercise, and it is the only form of transportation that I really have, without borrowing someone else's vehicle that is. And besides, it's only 4.5 miles from school to the church anyway, so it only takes about 17 minutes to get there on my bike, not that long.

There was one time that I actually got lost on my way back from Prayer Meeting while I was riding my bike. (I can't say that that was my most favorite experience.) So anyway, when I got lost I had to call Michael Ritschard and have him come and pick me up, because I knew that he had a truck, so I could put my bike in the back. It was a bit of an embarrassment to have to pick up my phone and call Michael and tell him that I was lost, and ask for him to come pick me up. But I figured that being a little embarrassed was better than wandering around through the streets of Greenville all night on my bike. Michael came and picked me up and brought me back to campus, and I was very appreciative.

Another first was that I was placed as the leader of my extension (though I knew beforehand that that was going to happen). So, that added quite a few different responsibilities and worries that I had to think about. Being the leader of Agape Bible Club isn't all that difficult, but it does require thinking and organizing. There are a lot of things that Tyler, the previous leader, took care of and handled that I never even noticed, and I'm only noticing them now because he's not doing them, and they are falling on me to do. Funny how that works. =P

So, those have been some new things for me, but they have also been a blessing. God has been using many of these things in my life to help me grow. I know that He is using Extension to help me grow and develop as a leader. To help deal with problems and different things that come up during a Bible Club. He is using my heath issues to grow me in some way, if nothing else He is using them to help draw my closer to Him, and depend on His strength and not my own. Also He is using my health and difficulties with grades to bring me back to Himself, so that I would find my fulfillment in Him alone and not in grades or anything else. And there are a couple other things that God has been teaching me as well, but I think that I'll save those for another time. =)

This is Tim, signing out              

An Eventful Summer

Ah summertime… The time that families go on vacation, Kids run around all day, high schoolers sit around the house doing nothing, Moms get frustrated with their kids and send them outside, college students attempt to find jobs so that they can make money to stay in school, ah… summertime.

In the past I have always gone up to Alaska and worked as a fisherman up there in the summer time, ever since coming to the states that is. But this year I did something different. This year I worked at the Anchorage Christian Camp in North Carolina. It was a good experience. The Lord used it to teach me some things and to really help me grow.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First off, yes, I was working at the Anchorage, I was working as one of their counselors. Now at first I thought that working as a counselor was going to be all fun and games. I mean, when I was a camper I saw the counselors and they looked like that were just playing the games with us all the times and having fun. It wasn't until I actually became one that I realized just how much work and stress a counselor actually has and goes through.

First off, the work and stress of teaching two Bible lessons each day. The God and I time lesson in the morning and night devotions in the evening. The God and I time was the easier of the two because they already had a lesson mapped out for you, so you didn't have to work on preparing anything, but it still requires work to teach it and to make sure you are going through the lesson at the right pace so that you will finish on time and making sure that all of the campers are paying attention and participating and not zoning out. Many things go into both of those lessons and make them quite a handful.

Second, there is a lot of stress just making your campers be quiet when they are supposed to be quiet, and active when they are supposed to be active. Neither teen campers nor junior campers particularly cared for settling down in the evening. They wanted to continue with their joke telling and giggling (Yes, the guy campers giggled.) and laughing uncontrollably. The last thing that they wanted to do was settle down and go to sleep, you must be crazy. "We could stay up all night, we aren't tired." Is a comment one of the campers made. They were very short sighted though because the next morning when you went to get them up they were convinced that they still needed at least 10 more hours of sleep. I would even explain to them when it was time to go to bed that if they didn't settle down and go to sleep, they would be too tired to get up in the morning. Then I would tell them that if they DID just settled down and go to sleep then they wouldn't have so much trouble getting up in the morning. That didn't seem to make sense to them. Oh well, maybe they'll understand when they hit college. =P

Third, there was a lot of stress with always having to be with your campers. Now, I generally liked my campers, but I'm the kind of guy who also likes his own personal time. I like to be able to lock myself up in a room and read, or just have my own peace and quiet for a little bit. And at camp, that didn't happen during the day. If I wanted quiet time I would have to get it before everyone else got out of bed, because once they did, there was no quiet time at all.

Fourth, goes along pretty closely with the third, but there was a lot of stress with not being able to do the things that I wanted to do, and having obligations and things that I needed to be doing  16½ hours a day 6 days a week. There are a couple things that I really like to do during a day, and try to do as often as possible. Things like reading Christian books, (Like, "The Pursuit of Holiness," "The Measure of a Man," or "Know Why You Believe.) and exercising, and reading my Bible, and praying. But at camp there really wasn't time for "luxuries" like that once the day got started, so if I wanted time to indulge in those things then I would have to do them before it was time for my campers to rise. If I wanted to read my Bible and pray then I would have to get up at 6:20, if I wanted to go running prior to my Bible reading and prayer time, I would get up at 5:50 and cut my devotion time down by about 10 minutes or so. But reading other books, like Pursuit of Holiness, and Know Why You Believe, had to wait for the weekends though, because there simply wasn't time during the week.

But those were about all of the major stressors. There were many thing that were huge blessings and very enjoyable. For example, one thing that I was expecting to be a stressor which actually wasn't, lack of sleep. I was expecting lack of sleep and tiredness to be a major problem at camp, but after college, the amount of sleep I was getting there at camp seemed perfectly adequate. Another thing that I really enjoyed was just the fellowship with the other staff members on the weekends and such. We were able to bond together both through spiritual conversations and just plain "hanging out" and having fun. Many things just jumped out and took ordinary objects and everyday activities and used them to point out and exalt the one and only Lord and Savior. It was amazing how God used so many things just to draw our attentions back to Himself and bless us through the process.

Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed running around and playing games and interacting with the kids. I'm not trying to say that I didn't. I'm just saying that counseling is not "all" fun and games like it may appear to be from the camper's perspective.

Though I may have had some stressful times, I had many, many other times that were great blessings. Every single time I was able to go back with one of my campers after a service and talk to him about salvation or just living rightly before God, I consider a wonderful blessing that can't really be fully described with words. Those times would bring an overwhelming sense of joy and fear and excitement all at the same time. I would feel inadequate and unqualified to be trying to "counsel" this kid, even though that was by job description. But at the same time I would feel overwhelmed with excitement, that God would allow me, ME, to be able to talk to this kid and help him make a decision for God that hopefully he will keep and it will guide him in the right way, so that he would not stray and fall away. The fact that God was allowing me to aid these campers in their spiritual walks, was just an overwhelming truth that I had to step back and thank Him for.

So, being able to counsel kids and share God's Word with them was definitely one of my favorite things of the summer, but one of the other things that I truly enjoyed was the free times on the weekends. Remember how I mentioned earlier that during the week we had no free time at all? Well it was pretty much the opposite of that on the weekends, after we had everything cleaned up and taken care of we really didn't have anything to do. Now some people went to the water and did stuff, or went to town and did stuff, but I typically didn't go along, and that was my own choice. We didn't have our computers to do stuff with or anything like that even. But I was very glad that there was nothing to do, because then I was finally able to do some of the things that I had been wanting to do, like read. I was able to read books like "The Pursuit of Holiness," and "The Five Love Languages," and "Be Determined." Good books. I set up my "study" in the snack shop and just read. I would read, and read, and read for hours on end. It was amazing, no distractions, no other obligations, nothing. I was able to learn so much this summer just from the books that I was able to read.

I was a great blessing to be able to hide myself away and spend so much time reading spiritually uplifting and encouraging books, but that certainly wasn't the only time that God was teaching me things, as I mentioned earlier God was teaching me many things during the weeks as well, through the kids and other staff members. All in all, it was an excellent summer. Nothing is perfect or ideal, since we live in a fallen world, but this summer was pretty close. =) I just can't thank God enough for what He did in the lives of the campers, or in my own life for that matter. 

My summer was full, and busy, but it was a blessing, I wouldn't have traded it for anything. I thank the Lord that He knows exactly what I need, when I need it, and gives it to me.

Psalm 145:1-3,8-9

    I will extol Thee, my God, O King,

         And I will bless Thy name forever and ever.

    Every day I will bless Thee,

         And I will praise Thy name forever and ever.

    Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised,

         And His greatness is unsearchable.

    The LORD is gracious and merciful;

         Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.

    The LORD is good to all,

         And His mercies are over all His works.

This is Tim, until next time.

An Unexpected Complication

If you are like most people who have never had any serious health problems in the past, you probably don't really consider the possibility of waking up one morning and finding yourself lying in a stretcher, inside of an ambulance with sirens blazing, rushing to the nearest hospital at top speed. Neither did I.

But at 10:35 a.m. on Sunday morning, March 7th, 2010 I had that very thing happen to me. I woke up, lying on my back, looking up at an EMT. He explained to me that I had had a seizure, and that they were taking me to the hospital. He said that I seemed to be ok, and would probably be fine.

Many thoughts were running through my head. At first I thought that he was joking with me. A seizure!? I mean, come on. I've never had a seizure before, that doesn't make sense. But I quickly realized that he was serious. Next I thought that it might be a dream. But I thought about it, and it was "too real" to be a dream. So, I just lay there, confused, not really sure what to think.

When we got to the hospital they wheeled me out of the ambulance, through the extirior doors, through several hallways, through some other doors, and finally into my room.  Then they transferred me to my hospital bed. By this time I had regained some of my strength, so I was able to help them out while they were moving me over to the other bed. Then the nurse came in and checked my vitals and some other things. Everything seemed to be normal.

After some time the doctor came in and explained that it's not uncommon for an adult to have one seizure in the course of his life, so they weren't going to prescribe any medicine this time. They let me go about 2 p.m. My brother, Jeremiah, was there with me, at the hospital as well as my dorm counselor so my dorm counselor drove us back to campus. I went back to bed and slept for a couple hours. Seizures are quite exhausting after all. After my nap I started on my homework for my classes on Monday. School doesn't slow down for anything, not even seizures.  =)

I had some doctor's appointments to get an MRI and an EEG, and some other stuff to try to find out what was causing my seizures. The MRI and EEG both didn't show anything, which I suppose is a good thing, it meant that I didn't have any tumors or unusual brain activity. 

I went along fine until April 11th when I had my second seizure. I woke up as they were transferring me from my bed to the stretcher, then I don't remember anything else until we arrived at the hospital. I think that I actually got the same room as the time before, room 9. They did the same things that they did last time, only this time they prescribed me some medicine, 1000mg of Keppra daily.

Everything seemed to be going pretty well after that for a while. My memory verses were taking a whole lot more effort to memorize, but I didn't really think about it at the time, I just figured that they were harder verses. I would also sometimes not remember things that I said, or did. People would tell me an inside joke that I was supposed to get, but I couldn't remember it. Once they explained it to me, I would remember though.

My grades in all of my classes took a noticeable dive. For example, Biblical Church Leadership, I was getting a 98% in the class up until I was put on medication. The class is basically rouge memory work. If you can learn the notes and be able to spit them back out then you'll be fine on the test. On my first test I got about a 94%, and the first verse test I got 97%. That test was before the medication, but after my first seizure. I studied a little bit more for the next test and got a 61%, and I studied 2 and a half times for more for the second verse test, and I got 50%. Since I had been doing well on the homework and the verse quizzes I managed to not absolutely kill my grade and keep my "A." But those two tests alone brought my grade down from a 98% to a 90.7%, but it was still an "A" so I didn't complain, just thanked God that he kept it at an "A."

I still hadn't figured out that it was the medicine that was causing these problem. I just figured that for some strange reason things weren't "sticking." I didn't even consider the fact that it might be the medicine causing these problems until my mom informed me that those are all possible side effects of Keppra.  It was at this point that I put 2 and 2 together and ended up with 4. I realized that it was the medicine that was causing my memory problems and all that. I still continued to take it because that's what I was supposed to do, but I was glad to have found the source of the problems.

I had another seizure on the Tuesday of Finals week, that wasn't much fun. Same routine, went to the hospital, they decided that nothing was that wrong and let me go. So, I've had 3 trips to the hospital, but I've actually had more seizures than that. At the time I didn't realize that they were seizures it just felt like I had had a load of bricks dropped on me while I was sleeping. But I had the exact same symptoms: feeling like my legs were half-way paralyzed, small red spots on my face, exhaustion, and grogginess. All in all, I've probably had 7 or 8 seizures starting back in November.

So that's my seizure story. My most recent was this past Saturday morning. I woke up lying on the floor, and by the time I made to the bathroom I had figured out that I had had a seizure that morning. I've only had seizures while asleep so it isn't really that bad. The day of the seizure I don't feel so great, but by the next day I'm feeling basically back to normal.

I dislike pills. I won't take a pain pill if I have a headache unless it's really, really, really bad. I don't really have a good reason, I just dislike medicine, it's one of my few completely irrational behaviors. But I have been "learning to get over it" I guess, now that I have become a pill popper. =)

This is Tim, signing out.

(None of the pictures in this post are mine, credit goes to Google images.)