Medical --> Off and running!

It is another beautiful day in Louisville this morning as I am nearing the end of my two weeks off from school before the start of yet another quarter of classes. It has been wonderful having a much needed break from school and I must confess, I am not at all ready to go back, however; the sooner I go back the sooner I can be done with school altogether and the faster that day approaches the better :) hear hear!

The first week off I started with a much too quick visit to my in-laws in Ohio County! I wish we could have stayed longer but even the short amount of time we were there still proved to be as eventful as always. Firstly, I got to shoot a pistol for the first time in my life! I had shot a shotgun a long time ago but I had never used a handgun and since Bryan's gun was freshly cleaned and loaded with new ammo it just had to be shot, of course. So Bryan, Steve, and I (and eventually Mamaw) all stood out in the driveway and set up our targets and the three of us took our turn shooting! I watched Steve and Bryan shoot first and got a bit nervous seeing as they are both much stronger than I and they were still having a little kick back from the shot. I was just imagining me lining up my sights and taking aim and then the gun flying back and smacking my face after I pulled the trigger... BUT it was quite the opposite! I shot several times and hit my target every time! Looks like all those days shooting coke cans with the BB gun finally paid off! (and I kept saying "aim small, miss small" to myself from the movie The Patriot. Many thanks to Mel Gibson!)

On top of all the fun shooting, I also added to the ever-growing list of new Western Kentucky words and phrases I have never heard. My latest addition is "mush melon." Apparently a "mush melon" is the exact same thing as a cantaloupe though I had never heard this term before. Either way, a melon by any other name tasted just as sweet to me!

So after stopping in Ohio County for a visit, Bryan and I set off for Birmingham, Alabama to begin the annual Bogo Firework adventure!! This was my first experience in firework sales, though Bryan had been doing it for several years now, and although I didn't get to stay for the big day on July 4th, I still learned a ton and loved getting to be behind the scenes in the world of "slingin' works" as they say. Bryan's uncle, Brian (yes, it gets confusing), is in the firework business and every summer Bryan goes and helps work for him during the busy season around the 4th but 'busy' does not even come close to describing all of the work that goes into this business!! I will tell more later and share a picture or two but man oh man, I had no idea the work it took until helping be a part of it and I have to say, I am SO proud I married a hard working man with an incredible work ethic that he obviously learned from the other men in his family. There is nothing more attractive than a man who's not afraid of full day's work!

After being in Alabama for a week, I then flew home this past Monday (which was a miracle in and of itself. It was my first time flying since my blood clots and I had nary a swelled ankle or leg! Praise God!) Then on Tuesday I had my second Remicade infusion and all went well once again! The doctors said if I was going to have any allergic reactions they would occur during the actual infusion and so far I am thankfully 0-2 :) As for the rest of my body, the medicine seems to be helping some but hasn't kicked into full gear yet. So now it is time to pray for everything to take hold and start working like it's supposed to in Jesus' name! On Earth as it is in Heaven, let it be done! Thank you still for your prayers and support, it does not fall on deaf ears. I'll have more pics and fun updates soon to come!

Medical--> Going for it

Once again, mucho has happened since my last post! These past few months have been rather eventful in the health department for me I suppose and I just can't seem to keep up with everything. Every time I post something, it's less than a week before something else strikes and I get so busy trying to fix it that I don't get to update until it's over! But here I am, nontheless, and confident that this will be the last update before they all become good news only! So last you heard I had just finished my blood transfusion and there really isn't much more to tell from that except to praise God that there were absolutely NO complications from it!! I felt great for a week or so and had my energy back and wasn't quite so pale (hallelujah! :) Having the right amount of blood in your body is just so beneficial. Go figure! I had also started the immunosuppressant, azathioprine, and we were working towards the 3 month mark which is when it is supposed to fully be at work in your system. It seemed to help a lot at first but then after only a few weeks it messed with my blood, then blood transfusion and lowering dose of azathioprine, then... it all went downhill from there. It started at first with me not being able to eat much. I would be starving and then after a few bites, bam, I was full to the brim. After that I started feeling a little nauseous every now and then it started happening every few days. I would wake up hungry but after a few bites I would be ready to throw up and then not able to eat the rest of the day. That lasted for a few days and then began the most awful week ever. I was nauseous all day every day unless I was lying down and not moving. And it was miserable. Honestly, it felt like I was waking up every morning and taking a pill just to make me feel awful all day long. Pretty discouraging, I must admit. Over the course of those two weeks, I lost about 18 lbs., became severely dehydrated, and significantly malnourished. It was safe to say that I was pretty much wasting away and so we stopped the immunosuppressant and got to the doctor. Since then, I have received a round of iron to build up my hemoglobin again and a few liters of fluid to help with the dehydration. I have also been drinking some shakes to help me gain a little weight back (I know, such a pain right :) but I really am looking forward to being back to what ever it is exactly that I call normal. I am happy to report though that I have officially eaten a meal since the whole ordeal! Granted it was significantly smaller in portion than my usual meals but I'd say it'll take some time before my stomach can handle food like it could before. But I've not been regularly nauseous and I have even put on a few pounds I think so I don't look so sickly :) So as things are now, the process for starting Remicade has started and I should be getting my first dose here in about a month. Till then, I am trying to live as healthily as possible and trusting God to continue providing in every aspect. We are going for it so, here goes! As always, thank you for you prayers and thoughts! Working through the rough stuff in life is so much easier when those you love are walking with you. (P.S. I learned the other day that the average American these days has 28 first kisses!! Outrageous huh?! But that's a whole different topic...)

Spring is Breaking!!

I have to say, this week has been one of the most fabulous weeks I've had in a while. AND it's only Wednesday! I am officially on spring break and I have had absolutely nothing to do. I have been able to wake up every morning whenever I feel like it and read, write, journal, clean, TV watch, nap, cook... to my hearts content! I must say it has been such a freeing feeling to be able to do things simply because I want to without feeling the pressure of what I really should be doing weighing down on me. I am currently in my most comfortable of beds with the window open, blinds up, Food Network on, and the sound of a coming storm rumbling in the background... Love it!

So what's been going on lately. Well, not a lot as of the immediate past but since the last post I have done/ been through quite a bit. So my birthday was the 24th of last month and I turned a whopping 21 years old! My actual birthday day and dinner was absolutely wonderful and such a blessing but I'll tell that story later. The late evening of my birthday, however, was a little unexpected and not so pleasant. Bryan and I were enjoying some birthday Godiva chocolates/ Wii Mario Kart with friends when I got a phone call from my mom. I had just had some bloodwork done earlier in the day to check all my levels and the doctors had already called her with the results. This was, at first, a pleasant surprise because they never call back the same day but then when I heard the tone of my mom's voice, I knew it wasn't just speedy service on their part.

Turns out the doctors were calling because they were, more or less, freaking out. When my results came back they saw that my iron levels were once again way too low as well as my potassium this time. Everything was so low that it was in a range where had I had a heart attack at any moment it would not have been a shock... and talk about shock. I was truly feeling so much better that I had in a long time and I was having so much energy as well! It didn't make any sense that all my levels were so low when I was feeling so good. But, the blood don't lie.

So what to do? They said I needed to have a blood transfusion immediately. Now ususally when my iron gets low I just get a few straight iron infusions and that takes care of it but in this case, there were several things that needed a boost and the best way to do that was to do a blood transfusion. I had never done this before because it was a scary thought for me considering my history with blood clots. Introducing a new blood that wasn't mine meant a slight risk of something going wrong even though the doctors are very careful to match the blood exactly with the donor. Still, I was always leary to give it a try when it was recommended before but this time I didn't really have a choice. I needed this transfusion asap or something bad was bound to happen.

Bryan and I were already going home for the weekend to celebrate my birthday with my family so it worked out well, only when mom asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, spending all day in a hospital wasn't exactly at the top of my list :) but it had to be done so off we went. Saturday morning we arrived at the infusion center at 8:30 and buckled in for the 5 hour long infusion of 2 pints of blood. The process itself is pretty much just the same as any kind of infusion so that wasn't scary but seeing a bag of this deep red blood slowly pump through the IV... it was just a little creepy :) but I really immediately started to feel better!

As we sat there, Mom and Bryan were on alert to see if I started breaking out in hives or itchy spots. Which thankfully didn't happen! But still, they were well prepared with books, snacks, and cards to stay occupied while I slipped in and out of consciousness from the benadryl :) I think at one point Bryan was teaching Mom how to play poker! As I sat in my chair, hooked up to the IV, I truly did start to feel better and better very immediately. They said my face flushed and actually had color that I hadn't had in weeks and I could almost feel my heart slowing down as the amount of blood in my system was coming back to normal.

So long and short, God took care of the whole situation and I have been feeling pretty good lately! Lots of energy, which is a HUGE change, and no racing heart rate or anything. Also, still no sickness or anything from being on immunosuppresants so praise God for that! But also not a ton of colon improvement as of now either... I'm not sure why not and if it will start soon but I'm still believing for a healing! One way or another it's going to happen :)

Thank you for your continuing prayers!

Stinkin Thinkin

When all else fails, this I know: God is good. He is always good.

As I've been beginning to walk through recurring health stuff lately, I have been holding on to this phrase more than ever. Looking from the outside, I know it may be difficult to understand my situation completely but, it really has been a bit of a rough road for years now. Most of the time I just deal with it because hey, it's my life and I'm thankful to have it but at times it does begin to wear on me. Dealing with ulcerative colitis and May-Thurner syndrome is an all day every day ordeal. It affects me as soon as I wake up, determines what I eat, when I eat, what I wear, the activities I do, when I go places, how I feel, how I talk, my energy, how I interact with people, my mood... and yeah, you get the idea. It's kind of sad really but I can tell you where at least one bathroom is any place I have ever been as well as the fastest route to each. In fact, I have become so in tune with the little girls room in general that I can even walk into a new place and usually instinctively know where the bathroom is. A true talent, I know :) but I say all this to emphasize the point that my health and things of that nature consume a LOT of my thought life.

As such, does it not make perfect sense that the enemy's first plan of attack would be to go through my mind? Of course! And that's exactly what he's been trying to do lately. To plant seeds of discouragement and weariness into the place that often goes unchallenged by those in my life who help keep me accountable. You see, it's in that isolation that satan finds compensation. The fact that we often blindly accept all thoughts to be 'our own' means that he can throw whatever ridiculous kinds of lies he wants at us and we may or may not recognize them for what they truly are. And if he can get us to accept the lies as truth in our heads. he can then cause more damage by moving their influence into our words and actions. Pretty sneaky huh? And absolutely lethal.

SO, I have learned that the best way to deal with stinkin thinkin is to call it out for what it is. I have to bring the enemy to the light (and by the way, isn't it amazing how puny and pathetic he seems when you call him out!) and immediately remind myself of what God says is truth. Now sometimes I recognize the lies of the enemy right away and sometimes it takes me a while but either way, God is always faithful to come through with a holy slap to the face when my defense is slacking :) and this past week it was through my devotion time. This is what it read and have been reminding myself of: (please note how incredibly applicable every part is!)

"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is it's own trouble.

The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God! He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might He increases strength.

My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. O my soul, march on in strength!"

Wow right?! Those were the exact words of truth I was needing to hear to come against the lies of the enemy and once again, God was faithful to remind me of who He is even in the midst of hard times.

When all else fails, this I know. God is good.

Miss You Megan

Fun in black and white photography... man oh man!

Choir times... :)

Today marks two years since my dear friends passing. Megan was 17. It was our senior year and in many ways our lives were just beginning. We were constantly talking about college, or what's coming next, how we will and won't miss high school, and who we'll become in life... We were so looking forward to our future and never imagined she was living her last days. No one was expecting the accident but it happened and just like that, she was gone.

Megan was and is dear to so many. She was full of life and certainly had her firey side :) I'm sure we will never forget where we were on this day when we got the news just as we will never forget her. I know she is in heaven with our Father now and some day we will be with her again! Love you Megs.

In the arms of the angel.

Fly away from here.

From this dark, cold hotel room.

And the endlessness that you fear.

You are pulled from the wreckage,

of your silent reverie.

You're in the arms of an angel.

May you find some comfort here.

-Sarah McLachlan

"I thank my God every time I remember you." Philippians 1:3

Medical--> WOAH!!

Man oh man, I do not know how I am going to tell this story and do it justice. I know there are not words enough to fully capture all the action, emotion, and details of our journey to Solomon Wickey but I am going to tell it as best I can, and with God's help hopefully you will be as touched by it as I was! I'm just going to go through the whole adventure, start to finish. It's going to be a lot but it will be worth it. Trust me! I already know the ending :)

So my mom, dad, and I left Tuesday morning for the four and a half hour drive to northern Indiana to see Solomon Wickey, an amish herbalist and healer. It sounded like a kind of silly thing to be doing but at the same time we had no doubts that it was the exact thing we were supposed to be doing. Needless to say, we had an odd assortment of emotions swirling through each of us and a long drive to ponder each of them. Not always the best combination! ha. We eventually came down to the rationalization that if we got there and sensed something weird then we could just leave. It wasn't going to be anything official and we weren't going to be any worse off for it so there we went!

I wasn't all that nervous for most of the drive, in fact I slept for a good portion of it :) but once we turned off the interstate and were in the middle of no where in Indiana I started to get a bit jittery. We passed corn field after corn field as we looked for a house that looked amish. I had no idea what to be looking for but I think I had in my mind something pretty much like Little House On the Praire. A log cabin with chickens in the yard and clothes hanging on the line. That was my idea of amish. Very stereotypical, I know.

Finally we turned on to a small gravel road and all my jitters disappeared. I know it should probably be common sense that an amish person would live off a gravel road but I hadn't thought about it so when I heard the tires on the gravel I was immediately at ease. That may seem funny to you but you see, the sound tires on gravel is one of my favorite sounds in the world! It makes me feel like I'm almost to my grandparents house in Monticello and that of course is associated with so many wonderful memories. Anyway, it was simple but I knew that sound was a small gift that God had given to me and suddenly my spirit was at peace.

Soon after we turned onto the gravel road we arrived at the Wickey residence. It was a beautiful, white, wooden house complete with real flooring and electricity...not at all like Little House :) To the left of the house was another smaller building very quaint in structure. There were several cars parked outside, some with a Florida liscense plate! We walked into a small waiting room and were immediately met by a few others who appeared to be waiting as well. It smelled like Rainbow Blossom. ha. We had been sitting down for just a few minutes when a door opened and an amish family walked out. They were dressed in simple clothing, the boys in navy pants and shirts with suspenders, a hat, and beard, while the lady wore a plain navy dress and bonnett. After they walked out, another amish woman came out and stood in the doorway. I don't think she ever actually said anything but it was obvious that it was time for the next person to go back. The people who were there before us all said we could go ahead and go in so we picked up our stuff and walked into the little room.

Now at this point I am going to stop and explain some of the dynamics of the room when we first walked in. If you know me or my family I think it's safe to say that you would agree that we are a friendly family. We love people. Love to be with people, talk to people, hang out with people. We are not a socially awkward family, however, when we walked through that doorway we became the most awkward trio you have ever seen! Ok, maybe that's exaggerating a bit but it certainly felt terribly awkward. None of us knew exactly what to do. If there was some protocol we needed to follow or anything to be said we failed that test. So apparently our moto is when all else fails, huddle! And that's exactly what we did. We probably looked so funny to them. This typical 'English' family, wide-eyed and busy tailed and huddled together not saying a word. Now it seemed like this awkward silence lasted for a long time but it was probably only a few seconds. Eventually we did say hi and began to take in exactly what was going on around us.

Mr. Wickey is your typical old amish man. He was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room wearing the same navy pants, shirt, and suspenders as the others and had white, white hair in a bowl cut and a big ol' white beard. His glasses were sitting on the end of his nose and they were so dirty that I don't know how he could see, and he had no teeth on the bottom. ha. (Secretly, I was hoping he would be the kind of old man that made you feel all warm inside and had the 'everybodys grandpa' kind of look but that is not at all what I got from Mr. Wickey. I didn't realize it in the moment but later on I identified my feelings as the same as those of Peter, Susan, and Lucy in that infamous scene in the Chronicles of Narnia. (Pastor Tim, this is for you :) I didn't feel all warm looking at him and he certainly didn't feel like he could be my grandpa. Instead, he felt like the description that the beavers gave of Aslan. 'Of course he isn't safe, but he is good.' That's the best way I can think to accurately describe him.)

Beside him was a wall of shelves holding at least a thousand pill bottle looking things. They were all labeled and were full of all kinds of different herbs, minerals, rocks, metals, pills, and who knows what else. He was sitting in a chair and there was another chair directly in front of him and several others along the wall. He asked us who he was going to see so I silently stepped forward and sat in the chair while mom and dad sat in the others. We sat there for a second until he asked, "What can I help you with?" Yeah... I immediately thought 'Well, you want me to pull out my list?' I had no idea how to begin this so I looked at mom. She smiled. ha. She didn't help me or say one word and that was very odd for my mom. She always knows what to say and what to ask in these situations but apparently she was feeling the same fluster as I was. So I turned back to Mr. Wickey and said, "Ulcerative colitis." That was all I could think of.

First he got a magnifying glass without a handle and held it up to my eyes and looked into them with a flashlight. He looked at both eyes and then began shaking his head. He looked at me and said, "No, no. You don't have ulcerative colitis. You have crohns." ... I was completely taken aback. That was exactly what we didn't want to hear! Crohns, medically speaking, is worse than UC seeing as it includes both the large and small intestines where UC only includes the large intestine. So that was certainly not an uplifting word. I looked at mom again and still got nothing :) so I just nodded my head 'ok' as he started to reach for some of the pill bottles. He told me to hold up my right arm and to resist as he pushed down on it. He did this for a little bit all the while holding different bottles to my lower left thigh/knee. He changed out the bottles and sometimes just tapped with different fingers, the whole time still pumping my right arm up and down as I resisted. He would shake is head and sometimes nod almost like he was having a conversation with himself in his head. He did this for a while and then said, "Yes, it's definitely not ulcerative colitis. It's crohns. But it's over with." Over with?, I thought. Like it's gone? I had no idea what to say so I just said ok. I felt a peace in his words so I decided to believe it. If he was believing that God had just healed me then I was going to hold on to that too, and not let go!

He then went on to explain that I need to stay away from anything with aluminum in it (only he kept saying aluminun :). That means we are changing any pots and pans with aluminum, deodorant, toothpast, aluminum foil, medicines...everything. It triggers UC and crohns so that is certainly something to stay away from.

We then asked about May-Thurner Syndrome and blood clotting issues. Mr. Wickey picked out some more bottles and did more tests. He didn't say anything about the disease but he said to take a magnesium a day and that will take care of the blood.

Lastly we asked about anemia and me dealing with losing blood through the colon. He grabbed still more bottles and did a few more tests. He began to shake his head and then said, "No no, you're not anemic. Your hemoglobin is 16."... I was temporarily stunned. How did he know my hemoglobin?! You can only know that from a blood test and yet he just told me without one! Wow, God is cool. The only other way Mr. Wickey could've known was through a word from God. How awesome is that!

So there were many more questions I would've asked him but I just couldn't think of anything else at the time. All I knew was that he said 'it's over with' and I was taking it, believing it, confessing it, and praying for it to be. I knew God could do it but usually keeping my head and doubts from getting in the way is a different story.

At this point, I just stood up and said thank you and then Mr. Wickey asked if anyone else wanted to see him. Mom, of course, nominated dad :) haha. So dad went and sat down in the chair in front of Solomon which was quite funny because their knees were literally touching! Then Mr. Wickey did some of the same tests on dad and the long and short of it is dad had kidney stones but he said, "it's done." And just like that, any problems Dad was having because of kidney stones were gone! So dad very promptly stood up and then offered the chair to mom :) Now it was her turn, and here is where things got totally crazy...

As soon as mom stood up and took one step towards the chair Mr. Wickey said, "Thyroid. I can tell that by lookin at ya." uh..... Do you know we had just stopped at the pharmacy to pick up mom's thyroid medicine right before we left to drive up to see him!!! I think dad and I sat there, jaws on the floor, for the next few minutes! We were totally blown away! At this point, if there was any doubt whatsoever that Mr. Wickey was not for real, let me tell ya, it was GONE in an instant! How cool of God to make sure there was absolutely no way we could look back on the visit with any questions in our spirits. Man oh man. So he finished doing some tests on mom and pronounced some things about her to be 'done' and then we left. We stood up, said thank you thank you, and were out the door within 20 minutes of our arrival!

As soon as we got in the car we immediately prayed and thanked God for my healing. Dad said we didn't want to be like the lepers who ran away and didn't say thank you so we thanked and thanked. But then we were like the lepers in that we just wanted to run away and tell anyone and everyone what had just happened! ha. We were lost for words and yet I knew in my spirit that God had moved through Mr. Wickey and I was healed right then and there.

So we went to eat and I took my first big step of faith... I ate biscuits and gravy before the long drive back! Normally, that would mess with my stomach so much that I wouldn't even think about it but I did it. And do you know, I made it the entire rest of the trip home and felt not one thing :) and for the most part I felt great from then on.

If God wanted to heal me at Mayo or through a little old amish man in the middle of Indiana, I was ok with that. God moves but He doesn't always do things the same way. Jesus never healed a blind person the same way twice so who was I to expect God to heal me the way I thought was 'proper.' God is God. He is good. And I am healed :)

Mayo News- Day 9 (The Last of Mayo!!)

This is the last of the Mayo News posts! The one that has taken the longest and the one that is the most important... and I should have posted this a long time ago but I didn't :) here it is anyway! Better late than never I suppose.

So it was the final day of doctors visits and the final meeting with Dr. Picco to discuss my results, treatment plans, where to go from here... all that sort of stuff. Up until this point no one had really told us anything about what was going to happen after I left Mayo. All the other specialists were just doing their job, running their tests and waiting to let Dr. Picco tell us all the results. So the day had finally come and I was going to learn the outcome of the whole visit!

At this point I was actually feeling ok about things. Nothing had come back from the tests that was so urgent that they had to tell us and do something about it right away so I figured I could be that bad off :) We got to the clinic and headed up to Dr. Picco's office and waited for a very short time for the very last time we hoped. Sure enough a nurse came to get us very promptly and we went back to start the consultation.

Dr. Picco came in, sat down, and then said the words I'd been waiting to hear for months. "Kailen, you're not sick. Your colon is mildly diseased but not bad enough for any drastic measures. We are going to continue on with the medicine you're already on, add a new one, and you'll get better." PRAISE GOD!!! I was sooo relieved that I think I actually teared up right then and there. I don't know what it was but Dr. Picco just had this air about him that he really and truly cared and that just got to me. ha. He said I could call him if I had any questions about anything and that he was very glad I came to see him and quite frankly, so was I! I could finally relax and know all the words from God that there was a healing for me were finally coming true :)

So we headed back to the house, sat down, just breathed, and thanked God for what He'd done. We got to spend another day at the beach the following day and then we made the long journey home. (When we walked through the doors, Jarrod had made a big 'welcome home' sign for me and I think I cried again... :)

Today I am doing better and better and loving every minute of it. Still praying for God to continue my healing through to completion but I am well on my way and couldn't be more thankful for all I have learned and am continuing to learn through all of this. So thank you everyone for your prayers! GOD IS GOOD!

Homemade biscuits...man oh man!!

Mayo News- Day 8

We're almost done with the Mayo updates!! yay.

Day 8 arrived and after the disappointmend of the previous day of rain (minus swimming in the rain) we were almost at our limit of doctors. Or at least I was anyway. I have to admit that I did bug mom more on this day than any of the other days but it was all in good fun. And it resulted in a few good rounds of snickering in the waiting rooms seeing as we were both rather slap happy :)

On the adgenda for the day were two consultations, one with the infectious disease doc and one with the cardiovascular specialist. The infectious disease doc, Dr. Brumble, was being brought in to help decide if my immune system was playing any role in the problems I was dealing with and to say whether or not I would be healthy enough to try imuran or if it would compromise my immune system too much. The cardiovascular specialist, Dr. Stewart, was going to do an overview of my veins and all that to see that we wouldn't be compromising my stent or anything by trying anything else.
The consultation with Dr. Brumble went really well. She was so upbeat and fun to talk with. Basically what we got from her was that so far, from what they'd tested, I have a healthy immune system and there's nothing wrong there that is causing any colon issues. She did do a couple more tests that we won't get results from for a few months but from all the tests so far my immune system looks pretty a-ok :)
Moving on to cardiovascular! I actually don't remember too much from this visit...ha. Other than it went well and we didn't learn too awful much that was new. Except for one thing concerning my bloodwork that I get done regularly and how to make that more accurate, and that will help a lot! So I guess that was something big that we learned. Other than that I got the ok from him to try any medicine that Dr. Picco would want to try and my stent and all that jazz shouldn't be compromised by anything! So good news overall.
That night I believe is when we brought a little Kentucky down to the Florida folk. ha. Me and mom and dad made homemade biscuits and gravy, sausage, and eggs for the family we stayed with! (I absolutely LOVE having breakfast for dinner so this was therapy for me, ha.) It was yummy but so odd because it made their house smell like my grandma's house whenever we cook a big breakfast. A very odd sensation indeed! But it was delicious as always, especially my soy gravy. haha. Surprisingly delicious!

Mayo News- Day 7

(Ok, I know this has taken forever to get all this up so we're just gonna do the reader's digest version of these last few days. Here goes!)

The weekend was certainly refreshing and the break we all needed to get our energy back up for the next few days of doctors. As far as we knew, all I had left was to get the skin test read and to meet with the infections disease doctor, cardiovascular specialist, and then the final visit with Dr. Picco. We had already been in Jacksonville for a week, had seen 3 different doctors, and still had no idea what Dr. Picco was going to say at the end of it all. Today however was Monday and we were going to just get my skin test read early in the morning and then it was off to the beach for the whole day! At least that was the plan anyway...

We went to the office and all they had to do was look at the three places where they injected stuff under my skin and see if I had reacted or not. Thank God, I am not anergic!! There was one spot that was supposed to react for sure and it definitely had. There was a bump, it was itchy, and it was larger than 10 mm. So, I was done for the day, no more doctors.

We had worn our bathing suits under our clothes and had packed up food for the day. Only problem was that it was pretty overcast. It didn't necessarily look like it was going to rain but it wasn't a beautiful sunny day either. We drove to the beach, which was only about 10 minutes from Mayo, and unpacked and set out to hang out. Unfortunately it kept getting darker and darker until it sprinkled about 4 drops and then... it began to pour!

Mom immediately packed up and ran back to the car but Dad was already in the water so I bagged up my camera bag and headed to the water with him! It was gorgeous. The waves were still really small despite the wind but the way the rain was falling was just like a scene from a movie. You could only see about 15 feet away from you and it was coming down in sheets. I couldn't get enough of it :) There is just something about being in the rain that brings out a joy from deep down and for me it just stirs and stirs until I begin to laugh uncontrollably. I love it.

We stayed in the water for about 20 minutes or so until it started to thunder and we quickly high tailed it outta there. We ran back to the car and then made the torturous drive back as Mom blasted the air conditioning on our wet bodies. Let's just say it were cold!

Game Pics

The condo on the river.

The river taxi.

Torry's black eye

David Garrard!!!!

So excited to be there...

Ebon Britton, he's only 21!!

The stadium

On the river taxi

We made a sign :)

Downtown Jacksonville

Mayo News- Day 6

If you know me you should know that I, as well as the rest of my family, LOVE LOVE LOVE football. My Sundays usually always go as follows: Church, lunch, football/nap/football... and that's pretty much it :) ha. So finally the day I had been waiting for was here, however, this Sunday routine was going to be slightly different. I was going to church and I was going to eat lunch but I wasn't going to take a nap. I was going to my very first NFL game ever!!! Jags vs. Titans baby. I was pumped!

As soon as church was over we drove downtown to our friend's parent's condo because it is on the river close to the stadium. We grabbed some food real quick and then decked out in our Jags gear! Normally we would be Titans fans I guess but since we were in Jacksonville we decided to support the city. Plus, the quarterback, David Garrard, is the athletic spokesperson for Crohns disease which is similar to ulcerative colitis. It's just cool knowing the has the disease too and look how good he's doing! ha. Anyway, we were rockin the Garrard jerseys and off we went!

We left the condo and walked out behind it onto the boardwalk that runs all the way down the river. We walked down a little ways to the dock where the river taxi runs. Yup :) we got to ride a river taxi across the river to the stadium!! I was so excited I almost felt like we were pulling up to the ball in a pumpkin carriage :) ha. It was awesome.

So we get to the stadium and go find our seats and low and behold our friends got us tickets in the season ticket holder section! We were 28 rows back from the field! I could barely contain myself. There stood David Garrard, Mike Sims-Walker, Chris Johnson, Torry Holt, Josh Scobee... player after player walk by, warming up right in front of me! It was going to be a beautiful day.

If it wasn't enough that we were at an NFL game, it also turned out to be an awesome game for the Jags. David Garrard had one of the best games of his career completeing 27 of 32 passes and we got to see Torry Holt make it into the top 10 in the NFl for most running yards with a single team. Jags ended up winning and I must say that I am now a Jags fan (even if that was their only good game of the season...)

So the game was over and as we were walking out of the stadium we decided to go and wait at a spot in the gates where the players sometimes come out of to walk to their cars. We wanted to get some autographs and see if we could get any pictures so we waited right outside of this gate to see if we'd see anyone. And boy did we! Soon pretty much the entire Jags team was walking out one by one and most all were giving autographs. So, with a 'little' nudge from my mother I jumped in the crowd and started getting autographs and talking with as many players as I could. Usually this would not be something I would do. I'm not exactly very outgoing in this area but after a few minutes I had the hang of it and even had a few conversations with some of the players! Torry Holt had a black eye so I told him I hope it got better and I told one guy that he smelled good?? I don't know why but he did so I guess I kist figured I'd tell him so. ha. He just kind of laughed and said thanks and I moved on to the next guy coming out.

Needless to say, that was an incredible first NFL experience. I had so much fun and was once again so thankful for yet another blessing that we recieved on the trip.

Mayo News- Day 5

Saturday had finally come!! At this point we had been to Mayo every day since Tuesday so now we were finally going to get to chill. So what do you do when you have a free day in Florida when the sun is shining??… Why you go to the beach of course!! And that is exactly what we did. We decided to sleep in just a little and then wake up and head to the ocean for the first time of the trip.
So we made our plan for the day and unfortunately, it was not the right plan. We put on shorts and t-shirts and were going to head to the beach for a few hours and then come back to watch some football, however, we got to the beach and immediately wished we had packed up for the day. It was beautiful!! It was our first time to the beach in a few years so that ‘first look at the ocean feeling’ was overwhelming. None of us talked for a while when we first stepped out on to the sand, we just walked around and stood in the water, soaking up the beauty of God’s creation. And what a welcomed break it was from the hospital walls!!
We didn’t want to leave but the longer we stayed without our bathing suits and beach chairs the more we regretted our decision. So we left to head back to watch some football. (Which I must say, not too terrible of a tradeoff : ) As we drove down Beach Front Boulevard we were in awe of the ocean side mansions and thoughts of what life would be like to live in one of them…ha. So although it would’ve been better to have stayed at the beach for the whole day it was still a good break!
So far I think I’ve kind of made it sound like all we had been doing was waking up, going to the hospital, and coming back to have dinner and go to bed, but that is not true. I just haven’t been relaying all of the non-medical details for efficiency’s sake, but I do want to give you an accurate picture of what the whole trip was like…
Most every night up till this point we had either eaten dinner with the family or been out to eat. One night we even went downtown to eat at our friend’s parent’s condo. They took us up to the 31st floor and we got to look out on to the river and all of downtown Jacksonville just as the sun was setting. It was breath taking. (And the wind was blowing just enough to make my hair flutter behind me, ha, and that always makes me feel like I’m in a movie or something. Goofy I know but it just has that effect : )
We had also been to the Town Center to shop and eat at Maggiano’s and P.F. Changs. For you Louisville Folks reading this, the Town Center is like the Summit on steroids times 10! It is beautiful and has every store you could think of and lots of restaurants as well. There is even one section that’s full of all the really fancy stores and it looks like you’re walking through Hollywood, especially at night when all the lights come on. The landscaping was also phenomenal. If you live in Florida I would imagine that palm trees don’t really have any mood altering effects on you but being from Kentucky and seeing as the only time I see palm trees is when they are a party decoration, I felt rather festive as we walked around and checked out all the beautiful stores. It was like the whole atmosphere was building up this excitement in me. Every time I stopped to look around I just couldn’t believe I was actually there! And the more I thought about it the more I was convincing myself that maybe my life really was a movie! Ha. It was all picture perfect… and it was that persistent thought that God kept using to lead me back to Him throughout the trip. He kept reminding me that He is the perfect one and He made the ‘picture perfect’ way for me to go to Mayo as well as get to hang out with my parents and amazing friends in this beautiful city. There is no other way that all this was falling into place but by the grace of God.
So if my life is a movie then this blog is like the narration I suppose, and here we approaching the climax of the story. Well it might be, or maybe we are coming to the grand finale?? I don’t know but I do know God can see the whole picture and that’s all that matters. Dr. Picco was acting as the quarterback of my team of doctors but ultimately God is the quarterback of my team and He is calling the shots. That visual became very real to me and when it truly sunk in I was overwhelmed all over again by God’s goodness. I know I’ve said it before but it is so true! GOD IS GOOD.

My view every morning...

This is the house we stayed in. It's a rennovated old carriage house.

This is the place where I blogged... simply gorgeous. I felt like I was

getting better just by staying outside in the lovely weather!

Mayo News- Day 4

Finally we got to sleep in!! ha. We didn’t have to be at the doctors until 8:20! Not the usual ‘sleeping in’ time but it was better than having to wake up before 6. Of course it wasn’t helping that we were staying up till midnight or later every night but God was also working through our relationship with the family we were staying with. They were such a blessing to us. More than words could ever say.
So the skin test was the first part of the day. They injected 3 spots in my arms, one on the left and two on the right. They said to come back on Monday to get them read and they would be looking for a raised bump and itchiness from at least one of the areas. It only took about 5 minutes and then we were off to get the CT scan and CT enterography.
This was the part I was excited about. I had had a CT scan before but the CT enterography is a new kind of test and Mayo Jacksonville is one of the only hospitals in the world that has the technology for it! And I just ‘happened’ to be there where it was... God is good! The test is used to look into the small intestine because you cannot see the whole small intestine through a colonoscopy. So before this machine was invented the only other way to see it was to swallow a capsule video camera but this was only useful in seeing what the walls of the bowel looked like but you couldn’t tell if there was any inflammation or not. The new CT enterography however, takes pictures of your body in slices and then uses software to put the pictures together to create a 3-D picture or your insides. It’s pretty amazing.
Anyway, we had looked up what the test was exactly and it sounded pretty harmless. (I was just excited I didn’t have to go through another colonoscopy! Ha.) We went back to the waiting area and then the nurses called me back to start an IV for the contrast. The contrast is basically a liquid they pump into you really quickly that makes your insides kind of ‘glow in the dark’ so the machine can pick them up when it takes pictures. I was very excited when they said they were going to start an IV because that meant I didn’t have to drink the contrast!!... or so I thought. Turns out I was dead wrong. I now had an IV and the nurse said I was going to have to drink something as well :(
I mistakenly asked the nurse if it was nasty, to which she looked at me with a face that said “Are you serious?,” and then replied, “Honey, it’s awful. It’s supposed to be blueberry but it ain’t blueberry. That’s for sure.” Why she said this I do not know but I then began to fall apart. This does not usually happen to me except for when I’ve had a long round of doctor visits so I guess I was due for a good breakdown. My eyes began to water and I could feel my stomach starting to churn. It knew what was coming.
I had drunk a barium shake before and it was absolutely terrible. It took me forever to drink the 16 ounces of chalky, chunky, strawberry-banana nastiness and I fought the whole time to keep it down. I hate, loathe, and completely despise drinking anything that is not pleasant but if I had to I would do it again. So I immediately started working up the nerve to go through it all again. There aren’t too many things I can’t just suck up and get through but this was certainly one of them.
I had already changed into the hospital gown so I was freezing as I walked back out to sit with my parents again in the waiting area. The nurse then came out with a warm blanket and the dreaded blueberry concoction. To my complete horror it was not in a 16 ounce bottle but a 20 ounce cup!! I know 4 ounces might not seem like a big deal but for me it was just one more blow to my ‘do it to it’ attitude and it was about to be the final blow. She gave me the straw and I looked down into the cup. The liquid was a cloudy clear color, looked like a watered down syrup consistency, and smelled like lip smackers chap stick. I gagged.
Mom took one look at the cup and knew I was falling apart inside so she immediately started texting everyone asking for prayer :) The nurse was walking away and I was just beginning to psyche myself back up again when she turned back around and said, “I’ll bring you the second glass in 15 minutes and then the third 15 minutes after that ok honey.” She smiled and walked away and I thought I was going to die.
Luckily, I hadn’t drunk too much liquid that morning so I actually got the first glass down ok. I took my time and avoided as many taste buds as possible. Then came the second glass and my stomach had decided it had had enough. With every gulp it threatened to heave so I stared at the ceiling and tried to think about anything other than what I was doing. Suddenly the second 15 minutes were up and I hadn’t even drunk half of the glass!! I was so nauseous and scared that I would throw up and have to start over. Then a miracle happened. The nurse said I was small enough to only have to drink 2 glasses!! I was so relieved that I thought I was going to cry for real this time. Ha. She gave me a few more minutes and then took me back to begin the scan. Hallelujah that was over! So thank you to everyone who prayed for me during that time. I know I couldn’t have made it through without it!
The actual scan was the easy part. I always start to fall asleep lying on the table before I go through the tube until they inject the contrast through the IV. Everything is fine at first then you suddenly get a metallic taste in your mouth and then your whole body gets warm. That part is fine but then it hits. You get a funny sensation like you have to pee real bad and then you get really warm. It’s so embarrassing because it feels just like you’ve wet yourself all over the table! It’s the most awful feeling and even though you know it’s not real it just feels terrible. But that only lasted for a few minutes and then it was done! The test was over and I was free to go for a while.
Next was the consultation with Dr. Garland, my pulmonologist. Long and short of that visit was that he didn’t see any unusual scarring or problems with my lungs so he decided to stand by what he had originally said. If Dr. Picco decided that imuran was going to be the only medicine that would work for me then he didn’t want to keep me from that opportunity. So now we had the all clear for imuran from the pulmonologist and hematologist. Now on to infections disease doc and cardiovascular doc!!

Mayo News- Day 3

By day three the three of us were still exhausted. We were getting up to go to the clinic early every morning, staying at the hospital all day long, leaving and running errands, and getting back to the house just in time for dinner with the family we are staying with or other friends here in the city. Basically we were getting to bed super late (more so by choice) and waking up super early (not by choice at all J. At any rate, day three was the pulmonology consult (lung doctor).
We didn’t actually have an appointment with Dr. Garland, we were on stand by. That meant we had to be at the hospital by 7:30 to just wait around for a cancellation or no show. So we got there early, checked in, and fell asleep in the waiting room. Ha. We had waited for about 2 hours when a nurse came and told us that we had an 11:00 appointment!! We had been praying all morning that we would get in and God was so good to let that happen. If no one had cancelled that day then we would have had to come back every day at 7:30 to wait to get in but praise God, we got in the first day.
The purpose of seeing a pulmonologist was to check on the status of my lungs and risk of developing an infection or pneumonia. They need to know how easily I could get an infection because of the drug, imuran, they want to put me on for ulcerative colitis. It would suppress my immune system and make it easier for me to develop an infection and if my lungs already looked bad before the drug then they would rule that out as an option. Anyway, that’s why I was seeing Dr. Garland.
Our consultation with him went really well, just the same as the others. We talked about my lung history and the numerous cases of pneumonia I have had. Ha. He said my x-rays looked good. There was a bit of scarring in both lungs from an abcess and from my lung collapsing at birth but it was nothing significant. He then explained some of the risks of the imuran and what his recommendation would be as far as whether or not the risk of infection would be worth how much it would help my colon. It all boiled down to the fact that if imuran was going to be the only medicine that would work for me then he didn’t want to keep me from that opportunity as long as I wasn’t at super high risk for infection. He ordered a CT scan of my lungs to check their condition in more detail and then he would decide yay or nay on imuran.
He also then ordered a PPD skin test to see if I would react to different infections if I was exposed to them. The idea behind this is to make sure I react for sure and didn’t get a false negative on my TB skin test. When you have a TB test they inject a small amount of the infection underneath your skin and then check it in a few days to see if you reacted to it or not. If you have had your TB shots then you shouldn’t react to it so it was a good thing that I didn’t react but what we didn’t know is that you can be anergic. That means that you don’t react to anything so that’s how you could get a false negative. So to check and make sure you aren’t anergic they inject 3 more infections underneath your skin, some of which you should react to. So Friday was to be the big day of testing!!

Mayo News- Day 2

Day 2:
Day 1 was such a whirlwind and we were so exhausted that we didn’t really get to take in everything around us. Although Day 2 was still an early, early morning we had gotten a little more sleep and that certainly helped! (I don’t know how we even focused the first day but by the grace of God. He knew we needed to be paying attention and we could almost feel His energy come through us when we needed it most!)
So day 2 began with a hematology consultation (blood doctor). We waited for just a few minutes and then again a nurse called us back right on schedule :) Dr. Mathew was a young doctor, a fellow actually which means he is a doctor but he is mentoring under a specialist in order to become one himself. We did the same sort of thing with him as we did with Dr. Picco as far as just going through my history and getting all the needed information together. He was a lot more personable but that’s probably just because he was younger. Despite his age, he seemed very knowledgeable about most everything we were talking about and could effectively communicate very well. And even if he didn’t know everything he knew exactly who to talk to and how to find out whatever we wanted to know. Our consultation with him lasted for a solid hour again and then he went to get his mentor who could answer more questions for us. He said we weren’t going to be disappointed.
We waited for a while and then Dr. Mathew returned with Dr. Rivera. He started talking the moment he walked in and didn’t stop until he left another hour later. I was so impressed with him!! He knew our questions before we even asked them and answered things we didn’t think to ask. He shared with us more options of medicine and information about current information that opened up a whole new world to me. He was so thorough and covered everything. We left so encouraged and I was so pumped up! Dr. Mathew walked us out and said, “I told you, you wouldn’t be disappointed.” And we certainly weren’t.
Everything about the visit just seemed to confirm the theme of this whole blog. From the moment my doctor at home told us the bad news about my colon I heard God whisper, it’s not the end of the line, and Mayo was saying the same thing! Because of outside influences, my colon may not be as bad as what it looked like in August. With close monitoring different and better medicines may now be an option for me. Because of state of the art machinery that is nowhere else in the country they can do the best testing possible to see more than anyone else can!! No one has proclaimed a full healing for me yet (although I am still fully believing that it will happen) but the news is still good. There is hope and more yet to be done.

After we left Mayo we were so excited and super hungry so off we went in search of good food. We passed several places and weren't fully convinced that they would be sufficient for our celebration of good news and then we saw the sign. My eyes fell upon the most beautiful combination of words as the angels began to sing in chorus... P.F. Changs. Man oh man, God is good. We ate.

Mayo News- Day 1

(First, sorry this has taken so long to post! We have been without internet in our house and have been super busy outside of that so forgive me if things are a bit out of context but hopefully it will make some sense :) Also, I will post about Solomon Wickey soon too. It's just been so hectic lately I haven't had the time!!)
We have been in Florida since last Monday evening and have been to the doctor every day starting with Tuesday :) Its been early days and late nights every day but God has certainly been showing us His favor!
The blessings began even before the first doctor visit and haven’t stopped since. We are staying in the guest house of some new friends but as soon as we met they instantly felt like old friends. Don’t you love it when God places those people in your life?! Just knowing we have our own place to stay and friends to come home to each day has taken so much stress away and almost makes it feel like a vacation for a few hours each day. On top of that, Jacksonville is such a beautiful city! The weather has been high 70s and low 80s and absolutely ideal. In fact, I’m here writing while sitting on a large wooden swing hung from a gigantic old live oak that’s cloaked with Spanish moss. It’s mid morning and the suns rays are streaming through the branches in that magical way that makes you wonder why you ever stay inside. It’s a little piece of heaven and I’m soaking in every minute! Cloudless skies, sand, and Spanish moss…life is good! Ha.
So we arrived Monday evening and were beyond exhausted from the travel. It was so nice to curl up in a bed under warm blankets until I realized that I was only going to be enjoying this for about 4 hours… none the less, exhaustion soon took over and we all slept like a rock until the alarm went off. Seeing as the devil uses the same ol tricks to attack when you’re in God’s will, it was no surprise that he started by trying to make the morning as miserable as possible. I woke up with a fever, an incredibly achey body, and a stomach that was ready to heave at any moment. I got ready as quickly as I could but I honestly didn’t know if I was going to be able to make it or not. I felt terrible but after praying and asking God to remove this attack I started to feel better and better until all that remained was exhaustion. I could deal with that so off we went!
Since we had to be at the clinic so early we couldn’t really see what the campus looked like but after seeing the lit up fountain close to our building I guessed the whole place was going to be even prettier than the virtual tour! Ha. We pulled up to valet parking and then took our first steps into the Mayo Clinic. The facility looked just as we expected and there were few people there so early in the morning but when mom and I looked at one man we saw something we did not expect. This man looked so familiar, in fact we knew him…he used to go to our church!! It was the oddest feeling because here we are in Florida at a huge clinic and the first person we see is someone we know! Ha. We never actually got to speak to him but it was just a little more confirmation that we are in the right place.
Once we registered and confirmed my appointments we went up to the waiting room to see the gastro doctor first. Once we had checked in and sat down I started to realize that everything about this place was more like an airport than a hospital! The waiting rooms were huge, the check in looked like we should be checking baggage, there were ushers in uniform, and we had a ‘flight schedule’ printed out for my appointments. Only difference was everything was being followed exactly according to plan with no delays! We waited for just a few short minutes and then went back to have the first consultation of our Mayo experience.
Dr. Picco was the first doctor I saw because Ulcerative Colitis is the root reason for me being here. Most of what we talked about was my medical history so he could get to know my story and the whole consultation lasted over an hour! Ha, but it was wonderful. No rush, it was thorough in talking through everything, learning about possible new options as far as medicine…it was phenomenal! Dr. Picco is all business and he certainly knows what he’s talking about and is passionate about covering every aspect of the patient he is working with. I feel very comfortable and thankful to have him as my lead doctor.
With the way Mayo works you usually see more than one type of doctor. In my case I am primarily here to see a gastroenterologist but because of other health issues that are involved I am also now going to see a pulmonologist, hematologist, infectious disease doctor, and cardiovascular doctor. Piccco’s plan for me is to gather all the information about my health situation from the other doctors so that he can form a plan that won’t overlook any potential complications. Dr. Picco is considered to be the ‘quarterback’ of my team of doctors and we have come to see that he is greatly respected by everyone.
So, today’s orders were Dr. Picco, consultation, blood work, and chest x-ray, but now day one is finished and it’s back to the house to SLEEP!! Finally :)

Medical-->Big Day Tomorrow!!

Tomorrow is big day numero uno! Mom, Dad, and I leave in the afternoon for the drive up to Auburn, Indiana to see Solomon Wickey. I am so excited to see what he has to say! I don't know exactly what to be expecting but I am praying God uses this man to help show us more of what we can do on the natural side of treating health issues. It has been so much fun so far learning about the body and how you can use the earth to get better and this will hopefully just help us that much more!

We really have been learning a lot about the body through this whole ordeal but Mom and I were talking the other day about how hard it is to balance out the 3 approaches to treating any health issues you may have. The first that you go to is of course God and asking that He might heal you and make your body whole, but along with that there is also medicine as well as natural substances from the earth. I believe God made all 3 available to us and He wants us to use them all. I think if you go all one route then you are cutting yourself off from other sources God has provided but it is so hard to balance them out! How much do you just say, "God, I am in your hands." Or how much do you rely on medicines? And how much should you focus on what you eat and what you can get from nature? It had seemed to almost be a day by day process for us but we are learning to just listen to God day by day and follow His promptings. It's a crazy journey but I believe He is in control so I'm along for the ride! Keep us in your prayers tomorrow though. We are praying for more direction from God!

(Also pray for mine and my roommates fish, dear Elppod. He is currently swimming in circles around the top of the bowl half in and half out of the water. He has been doing this for 2 days now and I'm starting to get worried. You might think this is cruel to let him slowly die like this but seeing as 2 weeks ago he laid on the bottom of the bowl motionless for 3 days and then bounced right back to his normal self, I am slightly reluctant to end his life for fear he might just be pretending. He is a very unique fish and trickery is not beneath him. This episode is a little more convincing than the last but I still have hope that he will pull through!)

Medical--> Dos Blessings

I still haven't had any doctors visits lately but I have had bloodwork done. Despite the fact that I had to get stuck 4 times, :) I did get good news from the last work up! My hemoglobin (iron count in the blood) is 13.2!! That is right where is needs to be and where it needs to stay. I've been losing a lot of blood, and thus iron, from my colon and that has been causing my hemoglobin to keep dropping. The pattern has been low hemoglobin, anemia, get iron treatments, iron gets back up, iron goes back down, anemia, more treatments...over and over. Knowing this has been my pattern and that I've been losing blood from my colon, we've been waiting for the time when my hemoglobin stays up because that will mean I'm not losing blood. So...I had my last treatment about a month ago and my iron is still up!! Praise God! It's looking like as long as I can continue to rest and eat right then my colon might be starting to heal itself! We'll find out for sure at Mayo but it's lookin up!

God has given me another blessing recently too. A few weeks ago a good friend of ours asked if she could write a letter to a man named Solomon Wickey about my condition. For those of you who don't know, Solomon Wickey is an Amish herbalist and people come from around the world to see him. He is about 70 years old, lives in northern Indiana, and has had numerous accounts of people being healed from various cancers, spinal issues, IBD, IBS, and just about any other disease you can think of after they saw him. So we said it would be ok if our friend sent him a letter and God took it from there. Mr. Wickey only sees people on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it is usually a 4 to 6 month wait to get in. Our friend wrote him 3 weeks ago and about a week later she recieved a hand-written note back that said he would see me September 22nd! How perfect is that! We are trying all sorts of things and if God wants to use this avenue as the means of healing for me then we're gonna go for it. And it works out great because I will see him the week before Mayo. I am so excited to see what this brings! And who knows, maybe I will even be healed before I get to Mayo and they'll just tell me to go home :) Man oh man, God is good.

Inside Out -->

Well, as far as I go this week has been completely boring, BUT it has been a crazy week for the family as a whole. Jarrod had his surgery on Tuesday to repair his medial meniscus and to check out the severed MCL as well. The surgery went great, praise God! He had 3 stitches put in the meniscus and they left the MCL alone since it was already healing well by itself. He will be on complete bed rest until Friday and then may be able to go to school next week. He is still in pain and on pain meds but he's such a good sport. For as much energy as that boy has, he is doing awesome! I'm very proud of him. (It's been very odd through this whole process to be on the other side of the bed though! I'm so used to being the one everyone has to look after and cater to so although I wish Jarrod never had to go through this, it is nicer being on this side.)

Thank you everyone for your prayers! Keep em comin'! It really does seem like it's been just one thing after another with our family but as always this is nothing God can't handle. He has a plan and a purpose and when I remember that it makes things easier to keep in perspective!

Inside Out -->

Once again, no doctors reports to give right now. It's kind of funny though because I feel like something is missing when I don't have any appointments! ha. I know that's awful but I got used to having weekly and even daily doctors visits so this long break is just different. But don't get me wrong, it is MUCH welcomed.
Anyway, another thing I the Lord has brought to my attention through this whole process is the subject of empty prayer promises. If you are reading this as a regular church attendee then you know exactly what I mean. How many times after church have you listened to someone telling you about a particular struggle in their life and at the end of the conversation you say, "Well, hang in there, I will be praying for you,"?? And though you may have every intention of keeping that person in mind during your prayer times, you end up forgetting or just never get around to it. I don't know about you but I know this is the case for me more often than I'd like to admit.
The kicker with this whole scenario though, and the part the Lord revealed to me, is that I have now let my own empty prayer promises affect my acceptance of others prayers. My prayer life is something I am working on, to pray without ceasing, but because I know I sometimes offer empty prayer promises I now find myself in the back of my mind judging whether or not I think someone will really be praying for me! That's awful isn't it?? And yet, I do it almost without thinking.
So this really challenged me once again. First, to continue on my journey to incorporate prayer more into my daily life and second, to stop letting my own failures be the lense through which I see others. I have had many many people tell me lately that they are praying for me and I know it's true. And even more than that I know many who are praying on there knees, pleading, and standing in the gap for me and my healing even more than I am for myself. And I am thankful! Thank you, truly, to everyone who has been and is continuing to remember me in your prayers.
Another thing that is turning up through this whole process is that God is working things out almost opposite of the way I expected Him to. Like He never does that right? ha. But when I began to accept my situation, I immediately thought, 'Ok, this will be an opportunity for me to share God and really use my circumstances to reach others.' And I admit, that has been happening and I pray it will continue, but even more than I have been helping others, God has been really showing me ways that I need to improve myself. I should have figured considering His theme for me this year has been humility :) but it never ceases to amaze me how God truly does use all things intended for evil and works them for the good of those who love Him. God is good.

Inside Out -->

Not much has happened this week thus far. No doctors, except for blood work, so there's nothing to report on the health front except that I feel good :) and that's worth something I suppose!
Anyway, though the week has been seemingly uneventful, I did have something happen to me today that I cannot recall ever happening in my 19 years of life. I was driving home from the ice cream social at church when I got stopped by a red light. It was beginning to get darker out so people had their lights turned on which meant I could see the headlights of the person behind me in my mirrors. Once I came to a stop, I put on my blinker and the truck behind me did the same. I began playing this little game like I always do where I watch my blinker and watch the blinker of the person behind me or in front of me and compare the speeds of blinking. I'll usually keep the time of my blinker with one hand and the other with the other hand and see if I can concentrate enough to keep up with both but tonight was different. For the first time ever, my blinker and this trucks blinker stayed in perfect time with one another for the entire red light!! I have never in my life found two blinkers that blinked at the same rate until tonight. I couldn't believe it! I wanted to follow that truck and tell the driver this wonderful news but I figured that would end up being slightly awkward so I just drove home in amazement.
I have never understood why blinkers don't have a standard rate of blinking and that has always bothered me so tonight I finally have some peace. There are blinkers in the world that can blink together.

Inside Out -->

This morning was a splendid morning and, seeing as it is Sunday, I went to church. In my home church we are currently in a series called 'Objections Overruled!' which is addressing the 7 major objections people have against christianity. The objection we discussed today was '#6 Science Has Disproved Christianity.' Naturally, I came with the expectation that I would be learning about both sides of this argument and how best to address the conflict when faced with it. And that is exactly what happened. What is odd about that you may ask? I expected to learn about the topic for the day, I listened to the sermon on that topic, and I learned about the topic. Big whoop right? But that's just it. I came to church with the expectation that I would be learning; but, because the sermon was not about healing or miracles or divine intervention, I was not going to hear anything from God that was in any way related to what is happening in my personal life today. And that made me think. How many times do I come to church and completely miss out on what God is trying to tell me simply because the sermon title appears to be unrelated to my present struggles? Or, for that matter, how many times in my daily life do I miss God's voice simply because I'm not in the church walls and have no expectations for God to speak outside of the box I have put Him in within my own mind? Wow, that really hit me hard. I know God can speak to me whenever and wherever He pleases, but today I realized that there are many times when I just might not be listening, and I am going to change that.

On that same note, I am very thankful that today God chose to speak to me despite my low expectations. He made sure I heard His word for me through someone else. During the invitation at the end of the sermon, a man came up to me seemingly about to burst. God's word for me was weighing so heavy on his heart and mind that he could barely get it out. The presence of God was very evident and so I listened to every word. This man challenged me with the question, "Do you believe God can heal you? And not in your head, not with your logic, but in your heart. Do you believe God can heal you?" Yet again, wow! God had my number :) I started to think about my answer to this question and I realized that I couldn't fully say yes. I've been raised in a christian home and I know God's Word and since His Word says He can heal I believe it but that has nothing to do with matters of the heart. Many times I believe because I know it's the right thing but I really feel now that God is saying I need to make it personal. I need to let it sink in, not only that He can heal, but He is MY healer. Not only does He provide, but He is MY provider. Not only is He the God of peace, but He is MY peace. He is MY strength, MY comfort, and MY Father who loves me and wants to make me whole. And I am letting that sink in.

Thank you, Lord, that you are a good God who will move even when I have 'put you in a box.' I now believe in my mind AND in my heart that I will be healed. Thank you, God.