Update

My Health Update on my Family Blog...Today!

I s'pose I should give you an update on my health of late.  I am not so anxious to blab on about the status of my health, as it's not so hot.  However, so many of you have asked and thus I shall provide...I need all the prayers I can get, after all!

The week of Thanksgiving I had an endoscopy to verify that healing was actually occurring in my stomach.  I went under with confidence having had great reports from my hematologist that my blood counts were higher than they had been in two years!  The bleeding ulcer had evidently stopped with help of the Prevacid and I was on my way to health with additional iron supplements.  I was THRILLED to not be facing more blood transfusions and without explanation for the need.  I was THRILLED to not have to be poked anymore.  I was just THRILLED period.  It had been a really discouraging time for me.  Discouraging, stressful, humbling...Until that point, I had never been on the receiving end of life-giving blood before.  Truly...life-giving.  The circles my family ran to donate their blood to me were endless and for that, I am truly grateful.  So, do you write a "thank you" note for blood? :)  How does that work?  I am not sure that Emily Post has covered that one before.  I was beyond Thank you note grateful.  Words cannot express it.

When I woke up, my doctor, whom I love, said in his thick accent, "You want me to sugar coat it or speak da truth?"  I told him I could handle it, thinking it couldn't be worse than I have ever been...or not.  He said, "It's bad. Worse! Terrible!" As my heart sank, I was expecting a pat on the back, not this!  He said that even though I had stopped eating the day before around 5pm, my stomach was completely full...to the esophagus.  He didn't even get to complete the study because he feared I would aspirate my food to my lungs and that would have been terribly dangerous...life-threatening, even.  "Life-threatening" has never been used with me before.  I was stunned and broken.  I cried most of the day, knowing I had big decisions to make.

My GI understands my desire to treat myself naturally.  He believes it and he gets it.  But he also wants something to change about my stomach and fast.  He wants me to take the Humira that the GI at Mayo wanted me to take.  Bottom line...I am no where close to having a peace about that. The risks of lymphoma are 1 in 1000 and it doesn't even hope to cure my disease.  It only claims to alleviate symptoms.  I can do exactly that by controlling what I eat and I take on ZERO risk of depriving my children of a mother some day.  Morbid, yet a real thought for me. I know what I need to do.  I know it's hard.  But, I don't have a choice.  I am saying this now so everyone in the world will hold me accountable, but staring January 2nd  (after cheese grits and corn bread :)) I am going back on my major diet.  This time, it's a Live-it.  It is a life change and it is going to be my life.  My life will consist of God-made food only.  No sugars...meaning no breads, no pasta, nothing with an ounce of sugar in it.

I still believe that I have two major problems. I have Crohn's Disease, but I also have a Candida Overgrowth.  Since doctor's don't know much about Candida Overgrowth, it is very hard to differentiate between the two. I think I can.  And, I think if I can go for a year (with MUCH prayer!) eating a yeast and sugar-free diet, then I can get the Candida under control and hopefully many of my "Crohns" symptoms will disappear.  I am not convinced my issues are simply Crohns Disease.

And now...you are posted.  Love to you all.  Thank you for always asking and praying for me.  I cannot do this on my own!

My (In)testi(ne)mony

This was my post in my family blog when I started My Intestine-mony! :)


November 7, 2011


So, you know.  I don't have anything to do these days.  I spend most days laying on the couch wondering what in the world can I do?  Can I please have some laundry to fold?  Oh, please, put those dirty dishes in the sink so I can load and unload the dishwasher. Please, sweet WHS, dump another box of cereal on the ground so I can fill my time vacuuming up your messes.

Funny, I know.  So, in all my spare time, I have started another new blog.  Yes, it's true. If you are anything like my mother, you will say, "WHAT? and WHY???"  This is truly a mission from my heart, a passion and what I have recently come to believe is my calling.  As all of you who read my blog know, I have had a tough road with my health, which I have shared many times here on HOTR.  Because of my sharing it with you, I am so grateful for all of you and your friends who have contacted me for questions and help.  I never thought I had a testimony, but have recently discovered I do...it's My (In)testi(ne)-mony.  I have learned so much about my health and my disease, as well as just how to heal, no matter what your illness.  I am a living example, albeit against the odds, of the lessons I have learned in diet and healthy living.

I am certainly not to the top of the peak, yet, but I am MILES ahead of where I was even two years ago.  Doctors aren't telling people like me the things I now know.  They are trained to give you drugs and more drugs to combat the side-effects of the first drugs.  I think I have a good story.  I certainly have a story of healing that I only wish someone would have told me about years ago.  Had I known what I know now, I know I wouldn't have had to endure a lot of the things I have.  However, had I not endured those things, I wouldn't be who I am today, and I probably wouldn't be so confident to say that God has heard me and He truly has answered my prayers.  I now know in my heart that I have to share what I know, not only to help those who aren't being helped by doctors, like I was, but to share the testimony, I never thought I had.  God is healing me, but most definitely, not in the way I expected it to happen.  He is healing me on His terms and it's pretty humorous to me now to be able to see my rocky road from a new perspective. 

One thing is for certain.  I would never be bold enough to be typing here on my blog God's healing powers in my life if I hadn't been at the bottom of the pit begging for healing mercies...for now, almost twenty years.

So, the veil is lifted and I introduce to you... My (In)testi(ne)-mony

I plan to post as regularly as possible, sharing my diet, my life changes, the highs and the lows.  PLEASE use this as a resource to you or to pass on to your friends.  That is exactly what I want it to be!

Health Update

After long discussions at home about a possible ENORMOUS reconstructive surgery of my stomach, my husband and I visited Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN....


August 21, 2011


So, we have some good news!  When I had an endoscopy at the beginning of July my GI doctor said he barely touched my ulcer as it was "bleeding like crazy."  After a month of meds, there was no report of bleeding in the endoscopy I had a Mayo Clinic.  I was thrilled to hear this in my follow-up with the GI doctor there.  He was a pretty serious man.  When I said, "That is great news...isn't it?"  He stared at me and I repeated, "That's an improvement, right?"  He smiled and said, "You have lots of room for improvement, but yes, I guess that's an improvement."  He went on to tell me that he believed that if I was on the wagon train to Oregon, I would have made it without a doubt.  He told me that most people in my condition roll in to his office in a wheelchair.  He went on to tell me how bad they looked inside and out. He said I was a very sick girl, yet I looked nothing like them.

That has really stuck with me.  My previous doctor in Tulsa, whom I loved, told me he put me in the "NCS" category of patients....the "Non-Complaining Souls."  I don't say these things because I am trying to be a martyr for the cause or praised for being tough.  I do have pain...and a lot of it.  But, I certainly don't feel close to a wheelchair!  Who wants to be down and out?  I want to be a mom and a good one...and a wife and a friend.  I want to enjoy life!  So, there are probably more days than I will admit that I feel pretty bad.  But, I don't want my disease to define my life.  It didn't click with me until last week.  I have prayed for years, 15 years, for healing.  I know I have had many prayers put up on my behalf from loving family and friends and myself!  On the discouraging days, I sometimes think, "Why can't I be that miracle? God can heal me, so why isn't He?  Why do I have to go thru this?"  Last week made me realize that God IS answering my prayers and I AM a miracle.  I am a miracle in that I am not in that wheelchair Dr. Tremaine mentioned.  I am not miserable.  I am not living my life completely around my disease.  I have had THREE beautiful and healthy boys in the midst of 15 years of a tough illness.  Nobody can tell by looking at me that I am sick.  I have pain, but that can be worked around.  I have found diet as a relief for my pain.  I AM a miracle.  My prayers ARE being answered.  God has heard all those prayers.  I truly believe that those prayers are being answered today.  He is guiding me to this special diet, but I also believe while I have had incredible pain in my life, a lot of pain may have been prevented.

When I left Dr. Tremaines office, I was determined to get him to smile.  As I left him, I turned around and told him that I was, indeed, heading to Oregon and I would see him there.  I am NOT giving up!

He laughed.  Mission accomplished.

Be Positive

July 2, 2011


I have found myself so many times in the last months driving down the road in utter amazement that I can see...all by myself.  What a miracle it is that I can see after being as blind as a bat.  Lasik surgery literally changed my life.  Every day I am grateful for seeing the clock in the morning or not planning my escape in my head if my house caught on fire and I couldn't find my glasses.  I seriously thought about those things.  I planned how I would get each child with my eyes closed.  It sounds crazy...It is crazy, but it's true.  I am so grateful for the seemingly small things.  The days I feel good, the days I have no pain, or days I can see without help.  I very much value the little things.

Yesterday, the nurse at my hematologist's office called me.  Nothing is planned when you have issues with your blood, but everything becomes this massive crisis.  I went in on Thursday for my normal blood tests to make sure my iron levels were in check.  Friday at 3pm, the sweet nurse called and said I either needed to repeat the blood tests or get 2 pints of blood immediately.  I raced down to their office to repeat the test before they closed for the holiday weekend, but I knew in my heart the first test was correct.  She told me my hemoglobin was at 7, when it needed to be at least double that.  When we had our last "crises" in October, my hemoglobin was at 6, not to mention my stored iron, or Ferratin, was almost non-existant.  My tank was on empty and I was really feeling it.  This time, not so much.  But, I know it's coming.

Of course, it's the Fourth of July weekend, with Monday being a holiday.  Everyone is in panic mode and it absolutely kills me.  I feel fine, and yet one call has turned our house upside down.  According to Babe, I am on death row.  We jumped through lots of hoops since the confirmation call early this morning that I, indeed, needed the transfusion.  I zipped to the hospital to get my blood cross-typed to prepare for my transfusion.  Between the amazing on-call nurse at the hematologist's office and Babe, the un-doable was done and Babe was already allowed to give blood today (a holiday Saturday) and designate it to my cause.  I cannot stand the thought of taking stranger blood at this point.  The paper work they give you to sign your life away to possible AIDS, HIV, and Hepatitis is overwhelming.  The first time I saw it, I immediately started bawling thinking of my sweet boys and yet "agreeing" that it was OK if I contracted any of those diseases accidentally through the transfusion.  HOW could I take that risk?  So, my amazing family jumped in head first and donated blood and came to our rescue.  The fact that it is happening again, just 9 months later, tears me up inside.  That others are having to drop everything to help me makes me so sad and really, just mad.  I know everyone loves me and wants to help, but I just want to be normal. Normal!

So, with that pity, I just recently told a friend :) to choose your time to grieve.  When that time is over, you have to focus on the up side.  Today, I am grieving and feeling the anger and the sadness and the "Why?" most importantly.  Why can't my body keep up?  Why can't my blood sustain itself?  Tomorrow, my time is up.  I will choose to be positive...tomorrow.

I asked JBS if he wanted to go with me this morning to the hospital.  I am on the fence about keeping him in the dark versus including him to help him to understand that I am OK.  I know he knows more about my health problems than I give him credit for and I would rather him see that giving my blood for testing doesn't hurt me and I walk away just fine.  As we drove into the hospital parking lot, my blood type kept coming to my mind: B+.  Over and over I said it like a broken record, B+, B+. B+ to the point where it actually sunk in.  I think it was God's little way of reminding me to "Be Positive".  He can handle this and I am just along for the ride.  Wow.  As emotional as this day has been for me and the feelings of hopelessness I have felt today, the feeling of sitting back and letting God handle it is more powerful than anything I have felt in the last 8 hours.  We serve an AWESOME God.  While I know this is my trial and my lessons being learned, the feelings of hope are too strong NOT to share.

So, the questions remain, "Why the heck do I have a problem keeping my hemoglobin in check?  Why does my ferratin continue to drop and require iron transfusions? What is going on?"  With all the crazy issues I have had in the past few years, I have slowly come to terms with the fact that I don't have good health.  BUT, I certainly plan on taking back that victory soon.  My parents have continued to encourage me to seek help from a place like Mayo Clinic where all disciplines work together to achieve an answer and evaluate my body TOGETHER. I finally agreed.  That process has begun, so I would SO appreciate prayers for timing, availability, answers, healing.  There are so many things to be excited about...so much hope!

This chapter is not complete.  I will certainly keep you posted.  Is it terrible to admit that I am actually quite excited at the possibility of walking on the Mayo Clinic campus?  I always dreamed of working in a huge medical complex.  These are the things that get this nerd excited...

Penny-Care

February 16, 2011


I had what I now believe to be an unnecessary hysterectomy in January 2011.  The pain in my uterine region was blinding and I found only partial relief on Vicadin.  My OB/GYN told me my uterus was just getting old (at 36 years old).  After the surgery was over and I was recovering...the pain was still there.  I jumped back on the Candida Diet and two days later, for the first time in 4 months, I didn't have excruciating pain.

I am in my fourth week post surgery and my fourth week of "Penny-care."  There is no possible way to thank my mom and Babe's mom for all the work they have done in the past month for us.  My surgery went as smooth as possible and my recovery has been relatively easy.  The only problem is that I can't lift more than 10 pounds for 4-6 weeks.  This is a small problem when you have a 25 pound WHS wanting to be held and lifted all the time.  So, Grammy and Gambo in alternating weeks swooped in to save the day.  Slave labor, I tell you.  It is an especially exhausting job to raise three boys if you aren't used to a day in the life.  Each night we sent the grandmothers to bed completely exhausted. 

JBS and JLS are pretty easy.  They keep entertained with each other playing superheroes and in the back yard playing ball. WHS, on the other hand, is in constant motion (and digestion)!  In the first week post surgery, WHS decided to climb out of his baby bed, give up his high chair and climb on the bar stools for meals and he FINALLY started walking full-time.  (Praise the LORD!)  Oh, and the other HUGE thing is that WHS eats....constantly!  If he sees the pantry door open from across the room, immediately, you hear the pitter patter of his cute little feet walking as fast as he can to sneak in the pantry before the door closes.

Sweet WHS was a bit excited and out of routine with all the new "helpers" in our life.  On several occassions, we found him with his head down resting on his cute little hands....asleep.  This little guy is so smart.  My JBS and JLS are smart kiddos, but I will say that they were not as clever as WHS at this age.  There did, however, have much better motor skills at 18 months.  We are a house that loves the Sinu-Rinse when we are sick.  JBS, JLS, and Babe are regulars with their terrible allergies.  Maybe you can tell what WHS spends his time watching.  He will be a Sinu-rinse champ in no time!

So, the last few weeks have been lots of fun with Gambo and Grammy being here and very nice having so much help with meals and the kids.  While I refer to this time as "Penny-Care", it really has been "WHS-Care."  He is really going to miss being smothered in all the grandmother love.

I am definitely feeling great and hopefully some of my crazy health issues will be resolved s/p surgery.

Recovery

(Re-post) December 19, 2010


(continued from 12/18/10)

I was out of work and at home with my parents for six weeks.  For anyone who has had abdominal surgery, it is no easy task to recover.  I had to work hard on that awful lung machine.  It hurt to cough, sneeze, breathe...If I coughed or sneezed I had to push a pillow on my tummy to help the pain as much as possible.  I had to practice blowing on that breathing machine multiple times a day and I hated it.  I could have skipped it, but I knew if I didn't do it, I would regret it and take longer to heal.  I also had to push myself to exercise.  One certainly doesn't get better sitting on the couch.  At first, I was just walking room to room and around the house, but gradually moved to taking short walks outside as the weather permitted.

I slowly worked in to solid foods, ever so slowly.  One day I ate scrambled eggs, which was thrilling, but within a few minutes it hurt so bad.  It was almost unbearable pain as the eggs scraped past an internal incision.  For the first moment in all my life, I actually considered "What if I die?"  "What if I don't make it?"  That weighed heavy on me for awhile, as I contemplated the fact that had I lived even a few years before my time, how would they have treated me?  How would a person like me have healed?  Would I have healed?

As much as I loved my job, I knew that for my health's sake, I needed to change jobs.  My job was so physical, lifting patients and being on my feet all day.  As it was, I had to return to work with no lifting for another month.  I felt useless.  I did go to a job interview, one that I didn't get, while I was on my last week of sick leave.  I will never forget having to buy a suit that concealed the fact that I still had a feeding tube in my stomach.  Yes, I went to an interview with a feeding tube and had they known what I had been thru six weeks prior, they would think I kicked butt on that interview for sure!  It just wasn't meant to be.

What I didn't know at the time was that when my surgery was complete, my surgeon came to my parents in the waiting room shaking his head after working on me for five hours.  He said he did all he could do, but there just wasn't enough time to do everything he needed to.  More than likely, I would be back in for surgery in the next month.  Gratefully, he did enough for me to get by for another 15 months before my next surgery.  Little by little, my problems returned and worsened and I knew I was heading for another surgery.  I remember talking to my GI doctor on the phone at work and he said, "It's time" and I burst into uncontrollable tears.  Abdominal surgery was the hardest and most painful event of my life and now I had to do it all over again.  I was devastated.

So, I had surgery again to remove another 12-18 inches of my small bowel.  If I was looking for perks, I could say that I didn't have to have a feeding tube, but I had to have an NG tube...not sure which is worse.  While it was still open abdominal surgery, it wasn't as lengthy or emergent and there wasn't as much work to recover from.  And, I knew what I had to do and I knew how long the healing process took.  One thing was for sure, I promised myself I would never have surgery again.

Five Years of the Unknown

At one point, I tried to write my history in my family blog...thinking it would be good to document my health should anyone in my family ever get Crohns  (and I pray DAILY for that NOT to happen!)  It was well before I started My Intestine-mony so there is a bit of repetition. 


December 17, 2010


What I love most about my blog is that I have made a book for each boy for every year I have blogged.  The boys love reading their books and seeing their pictures in a book.  I love knowing all my stories are documented, never to be lost again!  I also really enjoy reading back over the stories of the boys myself.  Since the boys will have these forever, I thought it important to go back and pick up some old stories for them to keep.  Some good and some not so good, but all of them memorable.  Since I have been diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, unfortunately, I have also had several friends and friends of friends diagnosed with Crohn's who come to me with lots of questions.  So, I decided to chronicle my journey with Crohn's disease.  Not only do I want to help anyone that might need it, but document my history should my kids ever need it.  I pray every day that my kiddos will never have to go thru what I have gone through.  But, just in case, the history will be here for them.

The first time I ever remember having pain in my stomach, I was either a Junior or Senior in high school.  It was nothing great and nothing a little swig of Maalox couldn't cure.  Those pains were sparse, but became less sparse and more painful by the time I was a Junior in college.  The summer after my Junior year of college, I had my first endoscopy, where they found multiple ulcers.  At that point, I thought I was reliving my dad's terrible bout with ulcers.  Before I was born, Dad had an ulcer and there was no such thing as Prevacid then.  He had horrible abdominal surgery to remove the ulcer, which didn't end before he got Staph and almost died.  All for an ulcer.  I hope some day to be in awe of the surgeries I endured because a simple solution was invented like Prevacid.

I left college after my Junior year to head to graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis.  While it was a major expense for my education, my health care was covered 100%, including drugs.  This was a huge blessing at such an incredible medical complex.  Things were definitely becoming more difficult to ignore with lots of burning pain, increasing nausea and stomach upset.  I had a wonderful doctor who worked very hard to determine the root of my problems to no avail.  On top of endoscopies and colonoscopies, I had to take a test that he acknowledged was a bit outdated, but would provide him with information regarding the amount of acid in my stomach.  He thought I might be over-producing acid.  To this day, I will never forget that wretched test.  My mom was, of course, there with me.  In order to take the test, they had to put an NG tube up my nose and feed it into my stomach....while I sat on the edge of the table wide awake.  It failed terribly time after time as that poor nurse came at my nose with a tube.  I gagged and puked and cried a whole lot.  I remember telling my mom that I would rather be giving birth than enduring that.  I will still hold to that after three deliveries.  It was terrible.  Eventually, they called my doctor and he put me out in order to place the tube.  In the end, my acid levels were normal.

When I left St Louis and my doctor at Wash U, we had very few answers, but a large amount of documentation that I had lots of ulcers in my stomach and in my small intestine.  He told me that at that time in my life, I was under a lot of stress with school and studying and things might improve when I finished school.  I didn't really buy that, as school was very hard, but I didn't tend to overstress...there was something more.

I arrived back in Oklahoma in 1998 to complete a rotation at St John Medical Center that ended in a job for me.  My health was declining rapidly.  I vomitted a lot.  I had excruciating pain when I ate anything more than a small quantity of food at  a time, especially bulky food like steak and partially cooked veggies.  I was so desperate for a good doctor having now been in my third city with no answers.  God completely guided me to the best one.  I know this because not only did I love my doctor, I also ended up selling GI drugs later and it was the consensus by everyone in town that Dr. Aran was the best.  When I found Dr. Aran I found a doctor that truly fought for me.  From the beginning he told me he thought I had Crohn's Disease, but the seemingly hundreds of scopes always turned up negative.  So, he treated me with Crohn's medications.  One after another, they didn't work.  I was growing hopeless.

Night time was the worst.  When I went to bed, my stomach hurt the most.  I remember calling my parents in tears not knowing how to make the pain go away.  I had low-grade fevers most days.  With a very physical job as an Occupational Therapist, I dragged myself to the gym every day and worked out for two hours.  Excercising was the hardest thing for me to do with no energy and with a fever, but it was the only thing that made the pain in my stomach lessen.  When I would see my doctor, he would ask how I was and I would say, "Good."  What I know now to be "normal" is nothing close to what I was feeling then.  I had been in so much pain for so long that I didn't know what "normal" was.  "Good" was certainly a relative term.  When I saw him in the day, however, I did feel good.  My food had been limited, I had excercised...it was the night time that was brutal.  I slept sitting up most nights.

With lots of drugs, hundreds of doctor's appointments, x-rays, swallow studies, CT scans, MRI's, and scopes, I was still in so much pain.  I remember discussing my finances with my dad and telling him I had no extra money to spend at the end of the month.  All spare change paid for my medical care...all of it.

In December of 1999, my mom and sister and I were on our annual Christmas shopping trip in Dallas.  I spent most of the time resting in the car while they shopped, as I had fevers and was exhausted.  The last morning there, we had breakfast and all of mine came back up.  Gratefully, I had an appointment already scheduled for that Monday for yet another endoscopy.  I was pretty used to the whole thing. All the staff knew me and took very good care of me.  My mom was in the waiting room ready to take me for my "Sympathy Shoes" post procedure.  I remember coming "to" after the scope and seeing the look of worry on Dr. Aran's face.  Then I saw my mom.  He was talking to my mom and said he couldn't even get past my stomach.  My stomach was swollen shut.  I heard the words, "surgery" and "quick" and my world started to spin.  I had to have surgery at the hospital where I worked, which was not the hospital where Dr. Aran worked.  He told me to research the best GI surgeon at St. John and he would do the same.  We would talk the next day.  We both came back with the same name, Dr. Melichar, so we proceeded with making that appointment.

Before the week was over, I found myself in Dr. Melichar's office.  My dad and my sister both showed up, which sort of made me laugh, but it ended up being extremely helpful to have three sets of ears for what we were about to hear.  Initially, Dr. Aran stated that I would have to have laproscopic surgery...surgery without cutting me open.  As I sat on the table and listened to what Dr. Melichar and Dr. Aran had decided together needed to be done, it sounded drastic.  I remember asking him, "And this will be done laproscopically?"  I love Dr. Melichar as much as I love Dr. Aran and he kindly and gently said, "No.  We have to open you up" like I was his own daughter.  By the end of the appointment, we were all reeling with what was about to take place and it was only two weeks before Christmas.  I looked at him and said, "I have to be in a wedding the week after Christmas, one of my best friends is getting married."  He scrunched his nose and said, "We'll see."

Transfusion Day(s)

October 10, 2010


After we got the boys to school Friday morning, Babe and I headed to the hospital to get my much needed 2 pints of fresh blood.  Gratefully, Babe's parents were still here and we left WHS in good hands for what we thought would be a few hours.  The hospitalist had told us, "Just call this number when you get here and we will admit you on an out-patient basis to receive your blood."  Boy, do doctor's not know what it really takes to get admitted.  Hours, my friends.  No one knew I was coming, my orders were only partial and the "admitting" doctor was not my doctor at all.  He was a hospitalist and no one could find him. While the search for this doctor begun, my stomach started hurting again, out of the blue.  The same pain that took me to the ER just a few days earlier.  Gradually, over the couple hours of waiting to be admitted, it got worse.  By the time I was admitted and taken to the out-patient infusion center, I was near tears because the pain was so great.
The nurses looked at me and said they couldn't give me blood if I was in pain, they called the ever-fleeting hospitalist and admitted me, once again.  More tears.  I am not afraid of the hospital, I worked in the hospital, but I can't stand being away from my family.  I cannot stand the thought of the boys hearing that I am in the hospital and worrying.  We had a full weekend of activities and I was being admitted to the hospital and I couldn't hold the tears back. 

This time, at least, I got to walk to my room.  I crawled in the surprisingly comfortable bed and let them admit me for the second time in the week.  I went to the hospital at 10am and finally by 4pm they had started an IV and started my drip.  First, my mother-in-laws blood ran through my veins.  Four hours later, Babe's blood began to be infused.  Gratefully, I had none of the potential side effects and the transfusions went smoothly.  My parents are convinced I will acquire Babe's chronic allergies, but other than that, no side effects.  By 2 am, the last of the 2 pints was in my body and I waited for the fabulous effects.

During the time I was getting blood, they had me drink contrast for a CT scan that was later cancelled.  Thanks for that extra barium in my body.  Babe took JBS to a baseball lesson and they dropped by to say, "Good-night."  They rushed home so they could make it to our neighborhood movie night on the cul-de-sac and I settled in for the night. 

By 8am the next morning, I hadn't heard from Babe, so I called to check on him.  His barely audible voice on the other end of the line told me it was bad news.  While he sat with me at the hospital around dinner time, he ate a hospital sandwich....the culprit.  He had been up all night with food poisoning and I could hear the desperation in his voice.  Once again, grateful that Gambo and Poppy were at my house taking care of my children, I called our doctor's office to get something to stop the throw-ups...from my hospital bed.

That day was picture day at for both boy's baseball teams.  I am team mom for JBS' team and everything the team needed was sitting on my kitchen counter...all the photo money, photo forms, banner they hold in the picture, line-up cards and time was ticking away.  The nurse wasn't particularly sympathetic to my situation and no doctor had been to see me.  When I realized I just wasn't going to make it, I managed to steer Gambo to our coach's phone number and I was gratefully able to reach him. He graciously drove across town to pick up everything and gave us a sympathetic laugh and said, "It can't get worse!" Funny.

Once that was handled, I moved on to trying to get both boys to their baseball games with Babe hugging the toilet.  Ultimately, Gambo and Poppy took all three boys to the family wedding they were ultimately here to attend.  They loaded everyone up and drove two hours to the wedding for the day. About this time, the nurse gave me Reglan.  It is a stimulant that moves food through the stomach, as the previous night's X-rays told us something was wrong.  Within minutes, I started to have an anxiety attack.  I have had this once before...after I was given Reglan.  It is now confirmed, I will not take Reglan again.  That is a very unsettling feeling with no control over my body, constant anxiety and everyone I wanted to see was somewhere else.  It was a hard couple of hours. In the midst of all this, I had an upper GI scope which revealed bigger problems:  my food wasn't leaving my stomach because it was inflamed and I had a huge ulcer at the exit.  This is my man-made exit s/p surgery ten years ago.  Really?  I thought it couldn't get worse.

The very kind GI doctor that was from my doctor's clinic, came to see me after he did my scope.  He knew I wanted out of there, albeit almost 4pm on Saturday.  He told me I had problems, he would agree to let me go home if I agreed to schedule another Upper GI scope and colonoscopy in a few weeks and take the medicine he was discharging me with.  No doubt I agreed and told him to, "Get the discharge papers started!"

Then, I realized Babe was passed out from Phenergren at home and my in-laws were with my boys two hours away.  I called Gambo and Poppy to swing by the hospital and pick me up as they passed by on their way home.  As it worked out, I was escorted to the curb as they drove up.

The end.  Over and Out.  I have been praying for TOTAL healing every since.  I believe it can happen.  I know it can.  However, for those of you with good health, never ever take it for granted.  It is truly a gift and a gift I would do anything to  have.  Good health for me so I don't have to leave my family again.

Bringing You Up To Date

October 7, 2010


More Daily Life from my family blog...
So, it's been a crazy two weeks.  I had no intention of alarming anyone last week when I posted my gratefulness for my family members who were donating blood to my cause.  I had to be crazy to think that wouldn't cause alarm and I am so sorry.  So here's the story...

Three weeks ago, Babe had a stomach ache for three days with no other symptoms.  As soon as his was over, I acquired it.  No other symptoms other than pretty excruciating pain.  Thinking it was just a virus, I tried to focus on other things.  On Day Eight of my pain (Sunday night/Monday morning), I woke up for the last time in the night with pain.  I couldn't take it anymore.  It was intense.  I told Babe I was driving to the ER, as he and the kids were in bed and I could get a doctor visit in without anyone's schedule being disrupted...ha!

When I arrived at the ER, they immediately took blood and did a CT scan of my belly.  These things I am no stranger to with my history.  If a girl walks in to the ER with a history of Crohn's disease and abdominal pain, everyone assumes the pain is Crohn's and shoo's you on.  This is not what I wanted.  After a few hours of being in and out of sleep, the doctor came in and said, "We admit you, Mrs. S".  I barely understood his accent. I shot up in bed and said, "But why?"  He looked so serious and said, "You need blood transfusion now.  It is serious."  This was not part of my plan.  On top of messing with my plans, I was at a satellite ER.  They would not let me drive to the hospital.  So, I had to take an ambulance.  It was so embarrassing.  Awake, talking and walking, but they strapped me to a bed and hauled my hiney to the ER in the main hospital via ambulance.  My boys would have been in heaven for that ride.

There were lots of tears, I will not lie.  They went from thinking that I had a GI bleed, to finding more peace that my Hemoglobin, which was a 6, had not gone from the normal 12 overnight.  When they were able to see my blood records, they were able to see a gradual drop over time, but they still had no idea how I was a functioning person.  Everyone kept asking, "Aren't you tired?"  Heck yeah, I'm tired!  I have three boys, including a baby.  I am EXHAUSTED!  But the red flags my body must have been throwing up were confused with being a busy mom.  It was pretty serious and I was scared.

They wanted me to get two pints of blood immediately.  When they put the form in front of me to agree to all the risks, I burst in to tears.  Did I tell you it was a tearful morning?  I was about to sign a paper that said it would not be the hospital's fault if I got AIDS or HIV or Hepatitis or a whole list of awful things.  I know the risk was low, but it was an unknown and the risk sounded huge to me.  Since we discovered that I had been sitting at a "6" for awhile and the need for blood was emergent, but not necessarily a need in the next few hours, we chose to wait for Babe's blood to be processed for me.  He was a match, as was his entire family.  They are all O+ should you need blood at anytime.  They have rich blood.

Babe's parents were already coming down on Friday for a family wedding, but when they spoke with Babe Monday morning, they sensed that Babe was freaking out a little and loaded up on a moments notice and swooped in for the rescue.  I was thrilled as I worried less about Babe and the boys and more about figuring out my crazy health.  As it turns out, I needed another pint of blood and both Babe's parents were O+ as well.

By the time they arrived, Babe had already donated his blood for processing.  The next morning, I took them both to the blood bank to donate blood for me.  It was a surreal feeling to be sitting in the waiting room with them behind closed doors donating blood...for me.  Very  humbling, very scary to be facing the imminent need for blood and I was very grateful for my family to donate more familiar blood with fewer risks involved.  The only red flag Babe had was that is was a little unsettling to him that his mom's blood would soon be running through my veins.  Yes, it is a strange thought.

Blood takes 3 days to be processed.  So, we enjoyed Babe's parents being here with us and the kids and waited for Friday to arrive.  Friday was blood day.

Day 40, Really? (Part 6)

February 15, 2010


I cannot believe I am on Day 40 of no yeast and no sugar.  When people hear I am on this diet, they say, "Oh, I could never make it without bread."  My friends, it is so much worse than that!  Yeast is fed by yeast and by sugar.  So, I have literally had to starve the yeast to get rid of it.  Absolutely no cheating, because any "food" the yeast gets, allows the yeast to gain control of my body again and I just am not having it!  Absolutely nothing with yeast and sugar.  No salt, pepper, caffeine, alcohol, vinegar, gluten.....I am sure there are more restrictions.  I live on chicken, certain whole wheat pastas, certain brown rices and praise the good Lord for making cream cheese without yeast or sugar.  Things taste good to me now that I would never have liked before!  I cook with garlic, onions and bell peppers constantly to add flavor to my food.

Since I last posted, I had to return to Phase One eating for 5 days to allow for more healing in my body.  A "Healing Crisis", as I mentioned once before is where you feel the pain that is being healed.  It is amazing.  I recently had a tubal ligation and on several occassions I told my mom, "My fallopian tubes hurt!"  Audra told me it was my most recent surgery and I would feel that pain again and I sure did. Now, it is completely gone.  We are 99% certain the yeast is dead in my body after eating this way so long.  I do have one symptom that is still healing, one of my original symptoms that caused me to think I had a problem.  As she pointed out, it has been medicated and treated for almost 5 years now so it is taking time to detox those cells, draw out the impurities from medicine, and the yeast and heal itself.  I thought it would never go away and this week, I can tell a huge difference.

I added a potato back again without a problem.  Today, I get to add YEAST BREAD!  Are you kidding me?  Why is it 4:45pm and I haven't made the amazing recipe for French Toast in my book?  I didn't have the right bread...100% Whole Grain.  I had 100% Whole Wheat and I don't want to make any mistakes at this point.  I am also allowed 1 TBSP of 100% pure Maple syrup.  I am so excited.  Something sweet!

Tuesday and Wednesday I will be back to veggies only preparing for my final liquid detox on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Then, this sick sister will hopefully be sick no more, thoroughly detoxed and yeast-free.  Praise the Lord.  I can't believe that after all these years of increasing pain that this has changed my life.
Amen!

So many friends and friends of friends have asked for more information on this diet.  I am going to link my previous posts below, but I also want it to be clear that I paid for supplements and a journal/recipe book and basically a personal coach.  I could not have done this without Audra guiding me every step of the way, telling me "that is normal", "it gets better", "You won't believe the difference in your body when you are done!"  I have never met Audra in person, but I love her.  I talk to her daily on the phone or via text, voice or e-mail.  She has supported me the whole way through!

Day 23 (Part 5)

January 30, 2010


I am thrilled that I have heard from so many of you asking questions about this diet. I hope I can help anyone out of any pain the way I have come out of pain so readily. It has been life-changing for me. Keep the questions coming! I love it and I love hearing from you.

Babe and I completed the liquid portion of our diet together. I actually went one day longer than him (4 days) so we could be on the same day in our journal moving forward. I was really missing food in my mouth after four days, but I wasn't hungry. We had appeasement pills to take if we needed to. I did take them simply because I have struggled so much with my stomach that hunger pains = serious pain for me. I don't think its really that bad, but my brain jumps to immediate pain if anything in my tummy rumbles...many years of lots of pain I guess. The day immediately following the liquid, we had to stick to vegetables only. Lucky me...I have stir-fried more veggies than I ever wanted. I "fried" squash in a skillet with a small tab of organic butter and onions. I use garlic out the wazoo to give everything I eat some sort of flavor.

The next day. Wait for it....we got a potato! I have never been more thrilled over a baked potato...a PLAIN baked potato. It was fabulous.. I added a little organic butter and I thought I was in Heaven! With potato's added in, I then had to wait 24 hours to make sure I had no negative effects. I made it...yahoo! The next day, we got to add back in lean protein...chicken and fish. Last night I was up late with WHS so I cheated only a bit, but added cream cheese last night (instead of this morning) as legal dairy. I have never cheated on illegal food. Its just the order that we are replacing most foods that we were already eating before the liquid detox. Unfortunately, this morning, I felt the pains of having a UTI. Oh no! She told me we needed to slow down and she didn't want me adding more food right now. It is possible it was a "Healing Crisis", where the said symptoms actually gets worse as it is really getting better. OR, it could be a sign the yeast is still alive. We have to be very careful moving forward.

I have been nursing a cold for over two weeks now. She called it detox and it may have started that way. However, all 3 boys have runny noses and coughs, so I think it has evolved to a cold. She wants the cold to be gone before I move forward. Ugh. No celebration Valentine's Dinner for me...

We are definitely getting weary of the diet. For Babe, it is so much harder to stay focused because he wasn't driven to this diet out of desperation, like me. He has had dramatic improvement and healing in his sinuses since the beginning of the diet. I have never known him to not be congested. He has zero congestion. Other than that he has lost weight, but he really didn't have anything else in his body that needed healing.

I savored that potato for the time. She might take them away from me now. How difficult can it be to kill this yeast? 23 days of no sugar or yeast...surely its all gone!!!

Really. I just want a cheeseburger. A really good one...like a Snuffer's burger. Maybe some cheese fries. Is that so much to ask? What a dream....

Insight (Part 4)

January 24, 2010


I learn something new everyday about yeast and the Candida Diet. I don't really know what to call Audra....my friend, my coach, my saving grace. I have never met her in person, but we talk on a regular basis. She prayed for me via text as I lay on the bathroom floor feeling like I was on death's doorstep as I detoxed the first few days. She is amazing and an amazing resource for all things health.

As for the yeast. Everyone has yeast in their body and we function just fine with it there. However, it is when it becomes an overgrowth situation that the problem occurs. The greater the overgrowth, which usually correlates with the length of time you have had it (like me believing I have struggled since high school), the longer and harder it is to kill it all. Babe and I are perfect examples. He has responded to the diet with headaches and congestion like anyone with a yeast issue would, but he recovered within a day or two and he was certainly never non-functioning. I, on the other hand, had extreme symptoms, extreme responses to the die-off phase and needed extra time in the die-off phase to ensure every bit of yeast is dead.

I have completed my second day of the liquid portion of the diet. I struggled a bit today. Lots of hunger pains, although quickly relieved by the "Appease" pills I was given. I am extremely exhausted. However, my trusty journal tells me that I am not really exhausted. Really? I sure feel that way. This is the deal. Eating yeast, sugar, and stimulant free are the simplest and most pure way of eating. The things I am allowed to eat are easy to digest, thus allowing all the little ATP's (energy cells) to start working on repairing my body rather than working on digesting all the processed and difficult to digest food. The energy cells are even further relieved when you go on this liquid portion of the diet. My liquid is pure maple syrup for calories/energy, lemon juice to aid in the detox and distilled water. That is my sustenance for three days...only one day to go! So, this is officially call the "Detox Phase." All efforts inside my body are in repair mode. Repair. Repair. Repair. Audra told me I could go one or two days more on the liquid if I could stand it just to allow more time for repairing. Ugh. We'll see about that.

Then, she feels pretty strongly that my yeast is dead considering the length of time I ate no yeast...now 17 days. I will put a new food (very specific order) back in to my diet each day through day 27. (Remember I am really only on Day 10 according to the journal.) My first food will be a potato and let me tell you how I am salivating over the thought of a baked potato....with a little touch of organic butter. We wait 24 hours to see if my body has any sort of negative response...headache, tummy ache, fatigue. Anything. If I am clear after 24 hours, I will get to eat baked Granny Smith apples with cinnamon...heaven, my friends, heaven! Audra has recipes to get me through and help me as I add a new food every 24 hours, assuming I have no negative responses.

So, if all goes according to plan, February 13th will be my last day of this life-altering, yet traumatic diet. Babe's last day will be February 14th. That means Babe and I will have one more reason to celebrate on Valentine's Day. A skipped anniversary on 1/11 because I was hugging the toilet, Valentine's Day and the END OF THIS DIET with new hope for good health for this mother of three! Yahoo!

Today (Part 3)

January 23, 2010


I feel terrible not keeping up with the daily events lately, but will be sure to finish posting about Christmas and JBS' big birthday today very soon. Yes, JBS, is already six years old! Where did time go? Now he says things like, "Awesome" and "Cool." So this, of course means that little JLS uses the same lingo with a twist..."Awe-thumb" and "Pool!" Sweet toots.

As for the diet. So many people have inquired about my diet and I am thrilled. If I could help one person as much as this has helped me, I will be thrilled. Three days ago I started getting sick. Sniffling, sneezing, cough, aching...the entire Nyquil commercial. When I reported this to my "coach," she told me this was my body detoxing. She explained that when the body needs to get rid of something, it creates the mucus to expel the bad stuff. Of course, this makes perfect sense, as this is what happens when we get a virus. I was skeptical, because it sure felt like a cold. Then, I opened my journal and read "Day 13." A healing crisis will take place, often feeling like a cold or the flu. Amazing.

While I am officially on Day 16 of eating yeast and sugar free, I am now beginning "Day 9" in the book which is the first day of three of the liquid detox. I drink a concoction of 100% pure maple syrup, 100% pure lemon juice and distilled water. It tastes GREAT. The first sweet flavor I have had in 2 weeks and it tastes just like lemonade. It has been a little rough, as many of my old symptoms are rearing their ugly heads as they detox. It's like their last big chance to take me down.

Day one down of no food. While I really haven't struggled with being hungry throughout this whole diet, I have certain dreamed of the feel of a good cheeseburger in the last few days. I am certainly learning how to "eat to live" instead of "living to eat!" As Babe remarked, "Where's the fun in that?" It's not fun. But its worse to be in pain all the time...

Day NINE Complete! (Part Two)

January 15, 2010


Wow! Thank you so much for all the kind emails and phone calls of support and encouragement. They were felt so much more than you know. This has been incredibly difficult and painful, but I am on the up and up! It has also been extremely emotional for me. Only a few people knew exactly how much pain I was in because I was desperate for their prayers. I have been praying for healing for almost five years and I truly believe that that has almost been answered. You cannot fathom the relief and joy I feel, as well as my family, that I am actually about to be just another healthy person on the street. I KNEW my problems were not related to my Crohn's Disease and, in fact, the woman coaching me through this thinks it is possible that my Crohn's was precipitated BY the yeast overgrowth. What a concept!

Because I am so completely amazed by the changes in my body in a mere 9 days without yeast or sugar, I want to tell the WORLD about it. This is not something a doctor with an MD will tell you to take on. I was trained with the medical model...find the symptoms and treat them. This, my friends, is looking at the whole body and treating it. So much better than popping pain pills and taking big drugs for the rest of my life.

One of the primary causes of yeast overgrowth is related to taking any of the "Cyclines" for a long period of time. Guess what? When I was in high school, I was on Tetracycline and Doxycycline for years at a time as prescribed by my dermatologist. In hind site, it was between my junior and senior year of high school that I blew up like a blow fish. I was puffy...and for no reason at all. No diet change, always playing tennis and exercising. If you have a yeast overgrowth, it does to your body what it does to bread, it makes it rise and puff up! I think that was the beginning of it all. As explained to me, the yeast can ebb and flow based upon your diet or if you take yeast medication, such as Diflucan. However, the yeast is never fully killed by drugs and what yeast remains alive will come back stronger. Thus, the increase in all my symptoms over the years.

In order to be an open book I will list all the symptoms I had that ended up being symptoms of Candida Overgrowth. Many I didn't know were symptoms or have complaints about, but have now discovered they all contributed to the overgrowth. Hold on. The list is long...
Drowsiness, inability to concentrate, headaches, dizziness, chronic rash/itching, heartburn/indigestion, food sensitivity, dry mouth, wheezing, urinary frequency, fatigue, feeling drained all the time, poor memory, feeling spacey (yes it says that on my eval), inability to make decisions, numbness or tingling, insomnia, muscle aches, muscle weakness, pain and swelling in the joints, abdominal pains, constipation, bloating, yeast and bladder infections, attacks of anxiety, cold hands or feet, extremely dry skin, shaking or irritability when hungry, and sugar cravings. These came directly off my evaluation. Typically if you have 18 symptoms, you are a candidate for yeast overgrowth. AND, there are other possible symptoms, I just listed my own.

Most people who go through this program move from the first phase, "Die Off" to "Detox" on Day 9. I will be in the Die Off phase twice as long because my symptoms were so severe. Word on the street is that once you hit the Detox and start eliminating all the dead yeast and toxins from you body, you feel like a million bucks. I haven't even reached that stage yet and I am already singing the praises. After being in pain and sick for so long, feeling "great" has never been something I can claim. I can't imagine feeling even better than I do today.

Babe, my sweet, yet cynical hubs is completely in awe of the change in my body, my mood, my symptoms. When he did his own research, he found that it is believed that 89% of the population has some degree of yeast overgrowth. I think about those with fibromyalgia and chronic conditions that are so discouraging to work through. I want everyone to be aware that this is out there. My life has changed in 9 days! And, Babe. Babe is hopping on the bandwagon tomorrow.

The Diet (Part One)

In January 2010, I started the Candida Diet for the first time.  These are the posts I made during and after the diet in my family blog...


It is a lot easier to admit this now that I am hopefully being healed as I type. I am sure I have mentioned my crazy health, but in the past two years it has basically sucked. I continued to have weird things start happening, being diagnosed with Sjogren's Disease (probably didn't even spell it right) and Thyroid Disease last year. The stress of our move started to bring out an array of symptoms, each progressing to almost intolerable pain at times even throughout my pregnancy with WHS. As soon as I quit nursing WHS, I developed terrible joint and muscle pain to the point that I was on chronic high doses of pain killers. I was so discouraged and I certainly didn't feel like a young new mom.

When I was first pregnant withWHS, the husband of a sweet friend from high school was diagnosed with cancer. She kept an amazing blog about their experience and his healing that I kept up with regularly. His doctors put him on the Candida Diet while he was taking chemotherapy. I had never heard of it before, but as she spelled out what he wasn't allowed to eat, I discovered that most of those things were what were hurting me so terribly since I had been pregnant. (I went to the ER in my first weeks of pregnancy because the pain was so great, I thought I might be having an ectopic pregnancy.) I did a little research on the Candida Diet and with renewed hope started to really believe that I might have found an answer to all my ailments.... Candida Yeast Overgrowth. The possible causes of the overgrowth include: long-term antibiotic use (check), auto-immune disease (check), high doses of steroids (check), having a parasite (check), multiple child births (check, check and check) and use of chemotherapy. I had five out of six of the potential causes. As for the symptoms, one website quoted a possible overgrowth if you had 18 or more of the symptoms. I stopped counting at 22.

I visited my nutritionist and shared what I had learned and he agreed. He said my blood work supported this and it was likely I could have Candida Overgrowth. He also told me something huge. My very first small symptoms began just after JBS was born and I decided at that point, through trial and error, that I was fructose intolerant. Every time I ate anything with fructose in it, I got sick. He told me that I was most definitely NOT fructose intolerant, as he did that specific blood test. With new perspective, anything with sugar was actually feeding the yeast and making me sick! Since I was pregnant with WHS, I couldn't begin to remove the Candida completely, so I was waiting until I had him and had finished nursing.

In the meantime, I grew more and more confident and excited that this was what I had. I was talking to a sweet friend here who is a health guru and told her about my issues. She said, "OH! Penny, I have done the Candida diet and you need to talk to my friend Audra." And so it all began. Audra sells products thru Trinity Wellness and one line of products is made specifically for Candida Yeast Overgrowth. I called her as soon as I could, took a few tests, studied up and on January 7th, I started the diet. No yeast, no sugar, no stimulants (salt, pepper, caffeine, alcohol). The only way to fully get rid of the yeast is to starve it...and me. :) It is rough.

By day two, I was nauseated and throwing up. I couldn't function and I was miserable. My body was literally detoxing. She said my score on my test was so high and this might take longer for me than most (lucky me). The yeast was revolting and demanding the sugars it needed to live. It somehow made vomiting feel better knowing I was throwing up loads of impurities. The supplements I am taking include supplements that are going to my organs and detoxing all the chemicals out of my body fromanesthesia's past, epidurals, medicines. The crazy thing is that she told me that our bodies heal in reverse. So, she told me I will feel the pain of child birth again from WHS first, and I will feel the pain from my abdominal surgeries as those toxins are removed and pulled in to my bloodstream. I FELT IT ALL! I was amazed.

Babe, who was almost as skeptical about all this as I was is now a complete believer as he has watched me and helped me through this miserable time. He wants to do the diet himself...when I recover, of course. I should mention that it was no small effort on my mom's part as she flew down here to rescue us on Sunday. She cooked for me, found new "legal" recipes" and forced me to eat. That is the hardest part for me. I don't eat enough. Who would when I have to eat cardboard and vegetables all the time? (I am not a big veggie eater...)

Grammy had to leave today and I was devastated, but she can't stay with me forever, unfortunately. She did say that she made her bed and not to wash the sheets because she will probably be back (yeah!). So, I will struggle through finding tolerable things to eat this week to try and keep myself fed. Four pm becomes my witching hour as I start to get weak and nauseated and the cycle begins for the evening. It is not fun. However, I had to quit my pain meds to be on the diet. Would you believe that every day my joints feel better and better without any medication? For the last couple years my mom has told me something is wrong with me...my brain! I am always in a fog and can't make decisions. As it turns out that is a symptom of the yeast. My head is clearer today than it has been in years. Every day I notice an improvement in my symptoms and even in things I didn't know were symptoms! For me and for my family, who was starting to be more and more affected by my poor health, this is a complete miracle.

The doctors told me over and over again that all these symptoms were a part of having an auto-immune disease like Crohn's and basically I would have to live with it. They helped me by covering up the pain with medicine and pain pills and I just refused to live like that. I want to be healthy, I want to be able to exercise again and play with my kids without fighting back pain and I don't want to take a hundred pills every day.

So, that is where I have been...struggling to keep my head above water, relishing in the presence of Grammy to take care of us all and hopefully healing ever so slowly each minute of the day. Today is Day 7 for me. Most people move to detox on Day 8. Not me. Lucky me, I get to stay in the "Die Off" phase for another week making sure to kill every last little speck of yeast. I was miserable before the diet and miserable doing the diet. However, the misery of doing the diet with the hope of total healing on the backside really takes the cake. Praise the Lord!!

An Unlikely Window...

Before I started My Intestine-mony, I occasionally posted on my family blog about my health.  It's interesting to look back and see how much I have learned in just a few short years!  Here is a post from almost 4 years ago...


February 27, 2008


...into my heart.

I don't like to talk much about my health, but I know lots of my friends are struggling with health issues, too. It helps sometimes for us "sickies" to lean on each other. I am sure I have mentioned before that I have Crohn's Disease. That has been a long journey, but I have prevailed through lots of ups and downs. God has given me something to talk about. My illness has shaped who I am, how I handle hard times and how I use those times to help me grow in my faith and as a person. The opportunities I have had to help others have been endless and I know God will give me plenty more chances to use my illness to relate to others in His time. I look forward to that. When you are really sick, you get a new and very mature perspective on life. I consider myself very lucky to have received this perspective at such a young age.

On that beautiful and courageous-sounding note, I got a double whammie in the last two days. I have not been feeling well since Christmas, so while I was home last week, I got to see my favorite doctor. I love him because he knows when I complain I am at my wits end and he knows if I am complaining to him that I need help. So, he ran some tests, drained me of my blood and determined that not only do I have issues with my thyroid (easily solved, I think), he thinks he has discovered that I am beginning to have Gluten Sensitivity (easy to solve if you don't like food!) This, of course, is on top of Crohn's Disease and a recently acquired fructose intolerance.

Hmmphf. Well, at least this provides an explanation to my complete and utter exhaustion. So, I should be grateful for this discovery and chance to improve my quality of life. I am. I know these things might seem small, but all added up, it is just frustrating for a girl who LOVES food. Our lives revolve around food...dinner with friends, making cookies with the kids, Christmas, Valentine's, and Easter candy. Fourth of July cookouts, Girl Scout Cookies, big thick succulent steaks...can you tell what I miss? I will deal with these cards as I have before...prayerfully and with faith that God can heal me. I can't remember exactly how she said it, but my dear friend, Casey, said something like this about another friend of hers. God provides healing for us when we ask...it can be earthly healing or heavenly healing. God heals on His terms...for His purposes.

These days, I find myself praying to make it thru a day. One day at a time...and I am still here! I worry when it starts to affect me and how I deal with the boys or when I am just too tired to lift another finger and its only 3pm. Unfortunately, of late, those days have been far too prevalent. So, like a recession. You don't know it was recession, until you are out of it. I am hoping I am trudging up the backside of that little graph as I write.

I have life. I have a beautiful and healthy family. God has given me and my children the ability to talk, walk, see and hear. We all have so much to be grateful for. Don't take for granted even one day of your life. We all have our roads to hoe, but we are only here on Earth for a very short time. Make the most of every opportunity.