Life takes Sisu

May 24, 2008

It’s been a while since my last post. Unfortunately, my time has been taken up with pain management specialists in Tucson, where I have been undergoing various injections for “severe cervical stenosis”…My last treatment was Radiofrequency Ablation. In this procedure, a needle is injected in the affected joint. A michroelectrode is then placed inside the needle. Then, radiofrequency current is sent to the nerve of the joint. The heat from this current supposedly kills the nerve, thus reducing the pain level. This procedure is repeated in other joints that are affected. During this process, the patient is awake, as it is necessary to inform the doctor when pain is felt, so they know they are injecting the correct nerve. It was a very painful ordeal, lasting about an hour, and was performed in the outpatient department of Tucson Medical Center.

The actual effects of this procedure may not be evident for a few weeks. However, to give me more immediate relief, at the end of the radiofrequency procedure, my doctor injected a analgesic/steroid combination. Hopefully all of this will give me a relatively pain free summer.

I was reminded again, during this ordeal, of a Finnish term …..SISU. Since I am of full-blooded Finnish descent, I heard this word a lot as I was growing up. It means…a quality which Finnish parents hope to see in their children….meaning determination, perseverance, ambition, a strong will to succeed, along with a bit of stubbornness! As a child I often heard my Dad say to Mother…”Maybe Elaine has a little bit too much sisu”! (Click on the picture to read about Finnish fortitude and resilience on Wikipedia.) At the time, I wondered what kind of a disease I might have…until I grew older and learned the meaning of this word!

I strongly felt that my SISU saw me through my year long battle with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 1999. It helped me through the many long hours of organizing and writing the Maverick Series….and, I could make a long list of other examples. Anyway, it’s not a bad quality to possess!

We will be leaving, perhaps tomorrow, with our 5th wheel trailer, heading east….Our first destination will be Mobridge, South Dakota. We have spent quite a bit of time here over the years, as we enjoy fishing Lake Oahu, a reservoir on the Missouri River, and staying in a lovely campground on the shores of the reservoir.

Then we will move on to Minnesota, where we have family and friends….Our roots are here. So, continue to check my posts to read about our summer travels.

Rodger & Elaine