Blessed by the Best

I just need to take a moment to brag about my awesome friends and family. First of all I have the best mom and dad in the entire world. They stayed up with me during all my "prep" and watched Harry Potter, even though they had to get up early. They also put their whole day aside to take me to the doctor together and make sure that I had the love and support I needed. My mom "fought" for me, and made sure that she was with me the entire time, until I was "out". I also must brag about my wonderful sister who sat with me in the bathroom, made me my "laxative cocktail", and even held my hand while I gagged it down. She is an amazing sister and I'm not sure that I would have made it without here there to make me laugh and to take my mind off of it. I also have some of the best friends in the world. From Liz Hummitzsch sending me flowers with a beautiful Bible message to Jenna Horgan making me a beautiful piece of encouragement to hang on my wall to Jessie Roberts and Jenna watching my little sister and making me get well cards while I had to go to the hospital today. Those cards warmed my heart more than you could ever imagine. And of course I cannot forget my amazing fiance Seth. He stayed by my side all night last night when I was sick as a dog "prepping" for my colonoscopy and came to the doctor just to ease my nerves. Then after working a full day of work he came home and made me chocolate covered strawberries (my favorite feel better treat) and made sure that I was alright. And of course I cannot forget each and everyone of you who prayed for me. I would especially like to thank my prayer warrior Tracy Mingo for lifting me up. She is one of the most faithful prayers I have met in my lifetime. So THANK-YOU to each and everyone of you. Thank-you for your prayers, your words of encouragement, encouraging texts,emails and facebook messages, your love and support. God has given me each and everyone of you, and for that I could not me more thankful. I am truly a blessed woman.

He's already there.

Great and not so great rolled into one.

I hope that you find yourself in the midst of great thanksgiving to God for all of His blessings upon us today and everyday. I just wanted to give everyone an update. I had the most dreaded colonoscopy today! As I noted before I have never really liked going to the doctor, so this procedure made me especially nervous! However through strength that only the Lord can give, I held it together much better this time than the last. However, this procedure did not go as well as the last time. For some reason the drugs they were giving me via I.V. (to "put me under") did not take as well this time. During the last part of the procedure I woke up and was feeling everything they were doing, let's just say that it was NOT pleasant at all. They were unable to give me anymore drugs, and I believe that I eventually "passed out" from the pain of it. I'm just saying, there is a reason they put you out for this! So, all in all my biggest fear of the colonoscopy came true, but I know God had a reason for it and I cannot wait to see what it is! On a much happier note, we did find out that I am almost completely in remission. Remission for Crohn's is simply when the disease is no longer active in the bowels and is being completely controlled with medication. I only have two inches that are currently infected (very minimally), and both are separated from each other. I cannot begin to tell you what an amazing blessing this is. I have been praying to God for a while that He would show me if it was the right thing to switch to a different medication. This has been an answer to prayer. The new medication I am on has virtually NO side-effects, it is not an immunosuppressant and it will no longer irritate my liver. The doctor said that in 2-3 weeks I should be feeling "as good as new". This entire experience has been so overwhelmingly hard and yet fulfilling in the same breath. I have learned that my God is truly and wholly an awesome, amazing, all powerful God that holds my entire life in the palm of His hand. God is completely in control of my life and my situation and all the worrying in the world is not going to do any good. He is great and He is good, and I believe that with my whole heart. Thank you for your prayers and for your continued prayers. I cannot being to even say how much your kind words and encouragement in the love of our Father means to me.

He's already there.

Another day.

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all having a wonderful start to your new year!

Yesterday I had to go to the opthamologist to get my eyes checked for Crohn's of the eyes or Uveitis. I have been having some problems with "goop" (for lack of a better word) in my eyes and my GI doctor thought it might be due to Uveitis. Fortunately all the doctor found was that I have "dry eye" syndrome. She sent me on my way with drops. God is so good and faithful. Then I had to go get two blood tests and one other test done. My amazing (soon-to-be) sister-in-law Jessie came to all the appointment with me. She even held my hand through all the blood work, even though "all that stuff" makes her nauseous. She was amazing making me laugh through it all, I do not like needles at all! I am so thankful God gave me not only a wonderful family and great man to marry, but also a wonderful supportive "second family" to call my own. He is so good and faithful even in the pain.

To be honest I have really never loved going to the doctor (in fact I really dislike it a lot). But this whole experience has really shown me that I am SO fortunate to have doctors offices (no matter how "scary" I might find them) around me. I find myself thanking God for lab technicians and blood work, needles, and even the occasional colonoscopy. Some people in this world do not even have access to medical technology. That is why Seth and I are so thankful to belong to a church that has such a heart for medical missions. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to be a person inflicted with illness in a country like Nicaragua or Kenya. I am so thankful that I have access to technology and medical professionals. And I am so thankful for this new perspective on life. I also find myself thinking about how much worse it could be on a daily basis. When people ask me how I'm doing I find the words, "it could always be worse" popping out of my mouth. I truly hope that people do not find this as me trying to blow them off, I just know that it is so true.

He's already there.

First update

As many of you know(or maybe not) I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease in April of 2011. This was after years of symptoms and final weeks of testing. Crohn's disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that personally effects my ileum, a small hard to treat section of your bowels. For a while my treatment was going really well, except for a few small bumps and fatigue. Then in December of 2011 my blood tests came back and my liver enzymes were at a 187, normal for me was about a 22. So Seth and I went into the doctor to get some more information. Basically my liver was not processing things as it should and left untreated my liver could (after a while) go into acute liver failure. After that appointment they decreased my medication (6MP) from100mg to 75mg. Two weeks later I had my blood tested again, and while my liver enzymes were going down, they hadn't gone down enough. So they then took my medication down from 75mg to 50mg. And this is where we come into the story now. On New Year’s Eve I had what they call a Crohn's "episode". Basically it is a lot of uncontrollable body shakes, terrible nausea and diarrhea. My nausea pill wasn't working and this episode lasted for almost three hours(my longest to date). I called the doctor today (1/03/2012) and told them everything that had happened. They then called me back to tell me that I should stop taking all of my medication right away and go in tomorrow to get blood work and other tests done. I was also told I have to get another colonoscopy on Monday (1/09/2012), which I am really not too thrilled about. I would really appreciate prayers in all of this. It has been a very long time that I have not been well, and we all thought that this treatment plan was going to be a long term one.
However, God has really taught me a lot through this entire process. He had showed me what incredibly supportive friends and family that He has given me. He has also taught me to trust and to remember that I am not in control, and that I cannot control.
He's already there.

Why I named my blog, "He's already there"

First of all, if you
are reading this blog... Thank you so much! It means so much to me that you are interested in my life enough to read this. I thank God for each and every one of you! You are all truly a blessing to me in your own way, and I couldn't imagine my life without any of you. I am going to use this blog not only to update everyone on my health issues but also the great and abundant things that God blesses me with everyday.

On New Year's Eve my family and I attended service at our church, Fox River Christian Church. The last song they sang was a song called, "Already There" by Casting Crowns. This song really spoke to me, at one point they sing, "When I'm lost in the mystery, to you my future is a memory, Cause You're already there,You're already there. Standing at the end of my life, waiting on the other side, Cause You're already there, You're already there." And I realized that God is already standing at the end of my life watching everything that I do from now until then. That really struck me, because I cannot control this life, and God does truly deeply love me, and he does want the best for me. That everything that happens, both good and bad for for an exact purpose that I cannot and will not know until I am standing at the end of my life with my Savior looking back on the life I have lived. I just have to trust that everything that God does is perfect and just right for me. Because, only He can see how all the pieces of my life fit together, and I just have to trust. He's already there.

Listen to the song
here:
http://youtu.be/Ouj1Ai4lIeY?hd=1