How It All Started

I want to say that I have always been strong in my faith, but that’s not true until now.  To be strong in my faith I had to be face to face with God, alone in a time of darkness and know that He alone is all I had, then I really knew how strong my faith was. 
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, For we walk by faith, not by sight. 

I woke up with my stomach hurting one morning in December 2023, really wasn’t unusual for me because I have had chronic stomachaches all my life.  At the time the stomachache didn’t really seem to be any different so I didn’t say anything to anyone.  Truth be told I love to eat. It runs in my family. You can look at us and tell that most of us love to eat. I have definitely never been one to pass by a Mexican food restaurant or anything sweet. As December went on my stomachache also grew into some nausea, but still it wasn’t bad enough for me to really say anything.  As the stomachaches increased in intensity by January 2024, I was doubled over in pain and vomiting daily with constant nausea. Due to some other health issues that I have I live with my best friend, of course she had taken notice of this and asked me what was going on. I was still trying to work at this time and going back-and-forth to work like this was beginning to become difficult and I finally had to break down and tell my best friend what was going on. I explained to my best friend that there wasn’t a spot in my stomach that didn’t hurt. It wasn’t like a cramp in my stomach, it was like someone was stabbing me over and over again and ripping my insides out. Then anytime I would attempt to eat, the nausea would hit.  It didn’t matter what I ate and it was automatically going to come back up. I was simply miserable. It was the next morning that I decided I could not go to work that I needed to go to the emergency room.  We live in a pretty rural area, but we do have one hospital with a full emergency room and two standalone ERs.  We decided due to the nature of the situation to go to the hospital with the full emergency room. Now let me tell you, if you have never had any type of medical condition, you have to learn to advocate for your own health. Please hear this if you hear nothing else. No one else is going to care about your health more than you do.  If you get a diagnosis one place that doesn’t seem right or you still don’t feel well afterwards please don’t stop there because that may not be the right diagnosis.  I clearly remember as I was sitting in the ER bed and explaining to the nurse what was happening to me, she saying, the doctor will be with you shortly in a very dismissive tone. Most of the time, even if the doctors are not compassionate the nurses are, but not in this case, I told my best friend I thought we had stopped in the wrong place and she nodded her head but still we stayed. The doctor came in very nonchalantly stood across the room from me ask me what was wrong and as I explain to him the excruciating pain, my stomach was in. I started trying to throw up and he walked out of the room. I have a history of what is called sphincter of Oddi dysfunction, which happens sometimes after your gallbladder is taken out and it can be a chronic and painful condition. The doctor had the nurse come back in and put an IV in. They gave me nausea medication, pain medication, and a bag of fluids and sent me home with the diagnosis of sphincter of Oddi dysfunction.   I am very fortunate to have wonderful Primary Care.  I have been under his care for several years and he and I have become acquainted well; someone I would almost consider a friend.  I made an appointment with my primary care, Justin and explain my symptoms to him. He decided it was time to draw lab work and do a CAT scan of my abdomen. As my symptoms went on, Justin treated me for what we thought was an ulcer in my stomach. After about a week or two of treatment with no improvement, Justin decided to refer me to someone else.  I went to see a general surgeon who decided that I probably needed an upper G.I. so we scheduled that. An upper G.I. looks for many things in the upper area of the stomach and abdomen, but what they were basically looking for that day was if I had a bleeding ulcer. What they found that day was that I had pancreatitis that was not showing up on the lab work yet. Pancreatitis, is an inflammation of the pancreas.  The inflammation in the pancreas occurs when the pancreatic enzymes auto digest the gland. The general surgeon admitted me to the hospital under his care, took me off of all foods, placed me on IV fluids, and heavy pain medications. I stayed in the hospital for about four days and they thought they had the pancreatitis under control and they released me home with pain medication and a follow up appointment with the doctor.  What I thought was the beginning to the end was just the beginning of a long painful diagnosis.