When the Plumbing Breaks

I need to start by thanking the scores of people that have helped us through this last, absolutely crazy, month!  The Watson's for taking care of the boys while we rushed to the emergency room.  Sonya for being totally rockin' awesome and staying with the boys until after midnight while I was in the hospital, when she had homework to do and a job to get to early the next morning.  Tiffny and the ENTIRE Thomas family, as always, doing anything and everything we need them to do to ensure that the boys are taken care of and loved.  Sophie for coming over to watch the boys at 6:45 in the morning on her summer break so that Kevin and I could go for lab work.  My phenomenal mother for leaving her beautiful home on a nice breezy hill in 70 degree weather to come home to Arizona, in the heat, to help take care of the boys while Kevin sits in hospitals, imaging centers, urgent cares, and doctor's offices with me.  And most importantly, my husband for holding my hand through this all.  For crying with me.  For laughing with me through the tears.  For helping me hold on to the hope that this will someday be just a bad memory.

The last 6 weeks have been nothing short of a nightmare that I can't seem to wake up from.  Doctor after doctor.  Test after test.  And still no answers.

Last week started with a CT scan of my small intestine to try to identify the "abnormality" that was found on the CT they did while I was in the hospital the beginning of June.  The results were inconclusive and so the doctor then ordered an endoscopy (a camera down my throat into my stomach) and a colonoscopy.  Those two procedures were done on Thursday morning.  I have to say, I'm mighty grateful they put me to sleep for both of those, because I wouldn't want to remember either experience.  During those procedures they took quite a few biopsies to test for any abnormal cell growth in the walls of the intestine.

I returned to see my gastrointestinal doctor this afternoon.  She said that the portions of the GI tract they were able to see during those procedures didn't get to the portion of my intestine where the "abnormality" is. She is still highly concerned about what is going on, especially with the amount of pain I'm experiencing and all of the other symptoms I am having.  After a 2 hour conversation with her, and both of us going over all of my test results and xrays from the last month, she decided that the next step is for me to do a test which will require me to swallow a "pill" that has a camera attached to both ends of it.  It will take about 900,000 pictures as it travels through my digestive tract and hopefully be able to capture pictures of whatever this 'thing' is that is causing all the problems in my tummy.  Once they are able to visualize the problem they will know better how to treat it.

Until then I'm on a very strict liquid diet to give my intestines the break that they need.  I'm not allowed to take any form of pain medication because their side effects are negative on the digestive tract, and I have to be super careful about anything I put into my body.

Anybody have any thoughts about how to turn Texas Roadhouse's pulled pork dinner into a delicious smoothie????

As always I am beyond grateful for the love, support, prayers, calls, texts, emails, knocks on my front door, hugs, and everything else I have received from my circle of friends.  The Lord has truly blessed me with wonderful people to help lighten my load every day, and I am grateful for each and every one of you!