April was a challenging month for us. It started off well with General Conference, but shortly thereafter it took a turn for the worse. At first I noticed that my stomach was making a lot of noise. This continued for a few days; I thought it would go away and I would be fine. Then on a Friday evening after celebrating the end of one of my classes I started feeling bloated and nauseous. I went to bed but couldn’t sleep because I was so uncomfortable. I threw up at around 2 and decided to go to the ER by 2:30. That was the longest, most painful night of my life thus far. They couldn’t give me morphine for a couple of hours because they had some tests they needed to run. By 7 am they were thinking Crohn’s disease and had me admitted to the hospital. They ran several tests, including a colonoscopy and EGD (a camera down the throat) and decided that the cause was probably Crohn’s. Crohn’s is an autoimmune disease where the body attacks the digestive system. They don’t know the cause, but it has some genetic component; my brother Alex was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease a few years ago. They did a retest for celiac disease (gluten allergy) and it came back negative, so we’re thinking that I’ve had Crohn’s the whole time and not celiac disease. When they released me I was feeling pretty good and I thought I was on the way up; I thought the medication would keep my symptoms under control. That proved to be incorrect. In the month since then I have continued to have brief attacks, some worse than others. Some are exceedingly painful, others just make me feel achy. This sickness has really cut into my study time here at the end of the school year. I try to make every minute count. So far I’m keeping up, but it’s been a challenge. I’m now on 2 medications and it looks like things are improving. Through it all Becky has been a trooper. I couldn’t have made it without her. She has kept me going and has shouldered the extra burden very well. I’m lucky to have her as my wife. We look to the Lord to support us through this trial. We know that we are in His hands and that all will work out in the end.
We hope that you have had a better month than us, and we look to better days ahead. Life happens to everyone, it’s just not what you ever expect.
Stewart, Becky, and Sophie
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1 comment:
Sorry you've had to cope with that. Hopefully your schooling isn't affected too badly.
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