Many of my friends and family members having been praying for me with regards to my health. Thank you all who have been praying. I appreciate it. It's been a couple of months since I made my original post asking for prayer so I thought I'd update you on what's been going on. I have to say I've seen God working in so many ways even to small details. I'm not sure how many of those details I'll be able to post but I want to be sure to acknowledge God's fingerprints all over this.
I've been to several Dr.'s now and had several different tests done. We know many things of what it's not but the Dr. still doesn't know exactly what it is. I've been cleared of anemia, thyroid problems, lung cancer, colon cancer, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, (yes, cancer was a real possibility), crohn's disease (that one was mentioned to me several times), diverticulitis and kidney problems. Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. I'm praising God for every good test result. Praising God I have none of the things in that list.
One Dr. spent a couple hours with me and was a great help. She believes I have nothing life threatening and that it's related to my intestines being inflamed. I did a colonoscopy and my large intestines look great. We are quite certain my problem is in my small intestine. I have had problems there before so this piece of the puzzle makes sense.
She also told me to count my calories. I counted calories for several days and discovered I wasn't taking in enough because it hurts to eat. With this in mind I began to be more intentional about eating but not just anything. I'm trying to make the healthiest choices with each calorie. That certainly can be challenging though. Between the busyness of keeping up with kids and having a sweet tooth that likes to call my name, it's not always easy to make great food choices. I'm working on it though. I'm happy to say that I have not lost any weight for a month now but have stabilized within a decent range. Praise God for that!
The issue of my abdominal pain has had me puzzled. This pain isn’t new. I've been dealing with it for years but just started to look into it when I realized unintentional weight loss can be a sign of a problem. My Dr.'s are ready to chalk it up to Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It's almost like that's what they say when they've ruled out life-threatening problems but don't know what else to say. Personally it's a bit frustrating. I just want to know what to do to take care of myself. I'd really love for all this Dr. stuff to be done. I would also LOVE to go though a week (or even a day) without my stomach hurting.
I had a couple of people recently mention something that made me start doing some research and I think I've found something that so far has made more sense then anything else. I've been told about how some people have problems with gluten (a substance present in grains, especially wheat). Some people are gluten sensitive, others have Celiac disease. Both groups can treat their problem by going to a gluten free diet. So I've decided to put my family and I on a gluten free diet. At first it looked overwhelming difficult but there is more out there you can eat then what you might think. Food companies are understanding people have this and are producing foods that can be eaten on a gluten free diet.
I don't know for sure that this is my issue but it makes more sense with the pieces of the puzzle I have then anything else has. I figured it couldn't hurt to try it. If you would like to know more about this disease or sensitivity there are some great resources on the internet.
This is the Celiac Disease Foundation: http://www.celiac.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=12
And this one is The Celiac Diva, a blog I found very helpful:
Thanks again for all your prayers and support.
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