Bureaucracy

Hello!

So a quick update:

About a year ago, I started to get some back pain. I wasn't sure what it was but it became unbearable in Corpus, causing me to see the chiropractor. It helped a little bit, but continued until recently when I went to see a family doctor about it. He ordered x-rays (which got lost for 20 days) and the radiologist deemed my back to be normal and recommended physical therapy.

Well, I knew he was wrong because 'nothing' doesn't cause this much pain.

On my own, I found a member who is also a radiologist and got an MRI, and he found a lot more than 'nothing'.

My spine is degenerating and my disks are bulging in multiple levels, messing with the nerve and causing numbness and weakness in my legs. He recommended I do a therapy to decompress my spine so we sent a request to Salt Lake City.

Which was promptly denied. 

So now we're going BACK to the original doctor (who said I was fine) to get a referral to a back specialist and I start the process over again. I've been waiting for the referral for five days.

In the meantime, since they can't/won't treat the actual problem, they keep giving me drugs to help the pain. One makes me depressed and high, the other does nothing, and the last one prevents me from sleeping. I slept 3 hours last night.

I'm a LITTLE frustrated this is taking so long. God give me patience with these people (and my back). It hurts to sit or stand too long, so I occasionally have to lay down in the car for like 10 minutes to ease my back.

The All-New Hidalgo District

In other news, they completely moved out all my sisters and replaced them. The two on the outside are brand new, straight from the MTC! Everyone in this district is straight fire, and I'm excited for this month.

The city of Hidalgo does a lights festival every year for Christmas in which the entire main street is absolutely covered in festive lights and decorations. Our chapel which sits on the main street couldn't be left out, and lights were put on our roof! I didn't know we could decorate our churches like that, but I'm happy they did.

Overall, things are going really well. I'm excited about this week, we have a Seventy and an Apostle coming to visit us, and we don't know why. Mysterious right?

Love you all,

Elder Gray