Jennifer's Condition--Initial Update

For all of our friends out there, we wanted to try and catch you up on what has been happening with Jennifer. We're sorry about the spotty communication, but as you can see below, we've been running a mile a minute. We'll update the blog regularly since we've been getting so many "how are you notes" and haven't been able to respond to everyone right away. If you know some of the story, feel free to skip down until you find new info. In the future, we'll do shorter (much much much shorter), more frequent posts, but this is just the "get everyone up to date post."

The Initial Problem
A few months ago Jennifer was experiencing significant stomach/digestive pain, especially after eating. She went to her primary care doc who did very little and essentially said, "Try to watch what you eat and take over the counter Nexium." Jennifer had been doing that now for several months, with some relief, but lately with growing bouts of significant pain. Over the summer she's had a few instances where she's either vomited, or really been bent over with pain, but then it would go away, and the symptoms were never exactly the same, or seemed like they may have been associated with something else.

Last Weekend
Last weekend Jennifer was going to go to a friend's birthday, but was again overtaken with severe nausea and pain in her chest, this time with a fever. After resting for the weekend, she felt marginally better, but not well, so she again went to see her primary care doctor. This time she was referred to a GI specialist. She has been disappointed with the quality of care from her doctor (no further medication, no help with the pain; but they did do an EKG to rule out a heart issue). But she was sort of stuck, so she was set to wait until Friday to see the GI specialist. I was scheduled to be in St. Louis for the week and had left on Monday as planned.

Monday afternoon when I was checking in to my hotel, Jennifer called in tears because the pain had gotten so bad. Her mother and a nurse friend her were suggesting that she go to the ER and not wait to see the GI specialist on Friday. This was complicated since no one was home to stay with Parker (though the nurse friend offered to come spend the night with him--Thanks Kim!!) Jennifer decided to wait until Tuesday AM and take Parker to school and then go to the ER.

Tuesday in the ER
Tuesday AM Jennifer went to the ER. Through out the day they did a whole series of tests: full blood and urine work, EKG, x-ray, ultrasound of her liver, pancreas, gallbladder and kidneys, and a CAT scan. They also gave her some drugs for the pain, but alas none of my beloved Vicodin. For the most part, all of the tests simply confirmed that there was nothing "major" wrong with her: no heart attacks, infections, masses etc., all of her major organs were healthy and working well. She talked to several ER docs and a surgeon or two along the way. Their best guess was that it was a gallbladder problem.

The underlying drama was that Jennifer wouldn't be released in time to meet Parker at the bus. She had a friend who volunteered, but who then also came down with severe abdominal pain and had to go see her doctor (Thanks Ashely! Hope you are feeling better too.) So with some last minute scrambling, WHM came to the rescue sending Ginny to meet Parker and then take him over to another WHM family's house for dinner (Thanks Ginny and Jodie!!). Jennifer then picked him up later that night when she was released.

Meanwhile I was still in St. Louis, getting text message updates and talking to Jen when she had a minute here and there, while trying to attend the seminar I was at. Eventually I decided it was just too much and so changed my ticket ($211 to travel the exact same route I would be traveling 2 days later, on the same crappy little plane... thanks you frickers at US Air for being so understanding... NOT!) and flew home on Tuesday, getting home at midnight.

Wednesday in Nuclear Medicine
There was a further scan that the docs had wanted her to have on Tuesday, but unfortunately due to a mix up she couldn't have it done while admitted to the ER. So on Wednesday, I got Parker ready for school (with a last minute bloody nose, meaning he couldn't ride the bus) and got him off and then we went back to the hospital. The test injected a nuclear isotope into Jen's blood stream that was tagged with a chemical that made it adhere to her gallbladder and liver. Then a series of time lapse pictures were take to determine 1) if there was any serious blockage (there was not as far as we could tell); 2) how her gallbladder was functioning. (those are the pictures up above)


Today, Thursday, we are supposed to hear back from her primary care doctor about the next step... see a surgeon? see her GI specialist? sue for malpractice?

Jennifer is still in a good deal of pain, and though very hungry, only able to eat limited amounts of certain types of food. For the time being I'll be taking care of the man and running things at home, while trying to be in at work during the day {in addition to the St. Louis trip, I've got an new person joining our team (Welcome Jeff!), a board meeting coming up where I have a few minor responsibilities and we were supposed to host a board member (may have to wait until next time Nathan!), and... SONSHIP WEEK which takes oodles of planning and we are now in the red zone in terms of work for the week. Plus all the other day to day stuff that just needs to happen week in and week out at work.}

What You Can Do
Send large cash gifts so that I can clone myself and then take Jennifer to an experimental pain treatment center in the Caribbean where we'll need to stay for 6 months. Or... pray! Right now we have some great support from the WHM office and a few of our new friends, so we're OK in terms of basic needs.

But we desperately need prayers for:
1) Reduction of pain and healing for Jennifer.

2) A clear, correct diagnosis from the Dr's so that we can find a good medical solution.

3) Patience and grace for me as I try to hold down my work responsibilities, take care of the household stuff, and be sure that Parker and Jennifer and being taken care of. There was a meltdown of epic proportions yesterday. Somehow I don't think the AWANA creators envisioned dads slamming their hands down on the table bringing tears to their 5 year old's eyes while shouting, "You will learn this verse! It isn't that hard, you just aren't trying." (Well, OK, they're a pretty militant bunch, so yes maybe they did envision that, but still...).

Thanks for all of your calls, texts and e-mails. The are wonderful!!! Please be patient with us, we simply haven't had the time or space to call everyone back, or respond by e-mail. It's very encouraging for Jennifer to hear from everyone, though she's been too drained to respond; so if you are willing, keeping sending us the good stuff knowing that we probably won't be able to call right away.

OK, more posts when we no more. For now, thanks for praying.