A bit of news….

We’re getting married!

So I have to admit to a bit of behind the scenes planning – but we managed to keep things on the down low until Easter, when Eric and I announced our engagement to my family. My sister Megan graciously allowed us to steal the show at dinner after her wonderfully performed senior recital, and it was great to have so many family in one place for celebrating.

We’re getting married July 21 at his home church in Ashland, Ohio. We plan to move to Mississippi afterwards for Eric to begin a PhD program in Polymer Sciences at the University of Southern Mississippi.

That’s the news! We appreciate your prayers as we prepare for all the changes of starting life together.

Reading Assignment!

Dear friends,

A quick update – I’m off in a few hours to spend 12 days living in a laboratory of the University of Washington Sleep and Performance Research Center. I am participating in a paid study on Individual Differences in Response to Sleep Deprivation. This is a good chance for me to see how well I am actually doing in the recovery process. I will not have access to any outside contact (email, phone, visits) until the lab study ends on March 9. I’ll be back to give you a further update at that time.

In the meantime, there’s something I’d love for you to do. I’ve entered a fiction writing contest put on by Gather.com and Borders called First Chapters. As the name explains, there’s a lot of weight on chapter one! The story I’ve written, Skeletons, intertwines the childhood stories of a mother and daughter as family secrets are brought into light. I’ve included the information below so that you can read, rate, and comment on my work. The prize in this competition includes a publishing contract with Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, a $5,000 cash prize and promotion by Borders.

My Round 1 Unique URL: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976918887

During Round 1, the first chapter of my submission (link provided above) will remain live on the site at Firstchapters.gather.com for fourteen (14) days from the date it was published (Monday, Feb 26 – Monday, March12). At the end of that voting period the chapter will be removed from Gather and votes will be tallied.

If you would like to read and rate my submission you must:

1. Join Gather.com so you can vote on my chapter. Click here to join.
2. Click on my chapter’s unique link. Fraud detection systems will monitor rating and vote patterns as well as member account validity. Please vote fairly and vote only once. Comments are much appreciated, but please keep them free of personal notes – save those for email.

Thanks for your support and I hope you enjoy chapter one!

- Jessica

Job Hunting, Recovery, and other Painful Things.

January is almost gone and I owe you all more than one update… as the many emails and phone calls have reminded me! I have a picture hanging over my desk that, for me, sums up the prayers and thoughts in a wonderfully simple way. This picture was drawn by my good friend and fellow snowboarder, Daniel, age nine:

In the past few weeks I have been slowly gaining back energy and strength. Though I am still not at the point where I would like to be, I have come a long way, and for that I am thankful. The process of recovery is harder than I ever expected, and I still deal daily with headaches, pain, and exhaustion. My immune system is struggling to revive itself amidst all the colds and allergies of late winter, but, yes, I’m still taking my vitamins!

A few weeks ago I began the hunt for a job and have been seriously pursuing a few of my top options. I have had a few interviews and tests and continue to trust that God will provide the right job in time. I appreciate your prayers on that as well.

That’s all the news I’ve got – nothing too interesting, which, after months of doctors visits and hospital tests, seems like a very good thing!

Thank you for your continued support as I struggle through this time of recovery and growth. I’ll be in touch.

- Jess

Christmas Time Blessings

Christmas on Monday – it’s hard to believe that time has gone this fast. My year has been an incredible journey, if there’s one word for 2006 it would have to be “unexpected.” Here’s a wrap up, along with the newest report and the expectations for the new year:

2006 in Review:

January – Working at Best Buy, snowboarding and having a blast. Can’t imagine life any different.
February – I receive an email from missionaries in Papua New Guinea asking for short term tech support help.
March – Begin considering a short term tech support trip to PNG and beyond.
June – Receive an email and a photograph that reads, “my name is Eric…”
July – Leave Spokane to meet Eric and visit friends and family out East.
August – Get the OK from the doctors and finalize plans for the tech support trip.
September – Leave for Sydney, spend 5 days, given a decision: hospital care in Northern Australia or return home. I return to Spokane.
November – First diagnosis: ulcerative colitis. I begin treatment for four weeks.
December – Meds from the UC have given me signs of pancreatitis. Taken off all fats, wheat, and lactose, as well as the UC meds with the hopes of not making things worse. Scope number two to check organ functions.

It’s almost Christmas. Thanks to a strict no-fat diet (read: cream of rice and apple sauce) for ten days, I managed to skip any need for hospitalization or further treatment for pancreatitis. I’ve been pulled off all the good pain killers but have been given the go ahead to eat, eat, eat. I can’t tell you how great it is to be able to eat whatever I want whenever I want!
I am still in pain but it is very mild compared to the last few weeks, and Dr. Blake says if I can pull through four weeks of pain and regaining lost weight, we’ll be in business. The warning to all this, or perhaps the inspiration, is that any further weight loss or intense pain with eating will land me in the children’s hospital – an experience I’d really rather avoid.

I’m so thankful to be able to smile at Christmas time, to be able to enjoy meals with family and friends, to be feeling better. Thank you for your continued prayers and support – you’ve helped to make a very long struggle fly by… thanks.

- Jess

Where the Sidewalk Ends…

The word he used was “peculiar” – as in, “you’re still in pain… peculiar.” He wrote me two prescriptions, one for a drug I’ve been off at least two weeks now, and handed me a copy of my file. If I decide to consult further with Dr. Blake, he tells me, that might come in handy. I wonder what I am supposed to do besides consult further with Dr. Blake? Write a book about how to keep your organs healthy while living off vicodin, powerade, and cream of rice?
This is my GI doc, the old school one whom I never liked in the first place. Everyone else in his office yesterday was fifty and starting to bald. I don’t think he knows what to do with me. In fact, I think he’s done with me. He tells me that according to Dr. Klaus’ scope results (the test I had on Thursday) my organs and systems are doing remarkably well for my having maintained such a meager diet for so long.
So scope two and blood test ad nauseam, and they have nothing to tell me. Unless “peculiar” is a diagnostic term, in which case, we’re in business.
Back to Dr. Blake on Tuesday. This being sick thing is wearing me thin – in a lot of ways – and I covet your prayers and notes of encouragement. They keep me going. Pray that I would be able to focus not on the “why” of this present time, but on who God is, and what plans He has for me. Thanks.

- Jess

Blood and Guts… Again.

I’m beginning to hate that look of worry on doctors’ faces. I had an appointment with Dr. Blake this morning – I’ve been doing better as far as the colon bleeding thing goes, but I’ve been in a lot of pain and I was starting to wonder if things were really getting better.

Right away Dr. Blake whipped out her cool little palm pilot like device that tells her all the side effects of medications. Asacol, the medication I’ve been on to repair the open sores in my colon, can cause hepatitis and or pancreatitis among other fun things that mostly end in -itis. These, of course, are “rare” complications. The drug companies should hire me – I’m pretty good at hitting those.

It seems my body is not processing fats, which indicates issues with the pancreas. I’m not to eat a bit of fat until they figure this out. Good thing Rob keeps stealing my supply of chocolate pudding. Dr. Blake talked to my GI doctor (the old school guy who thinks I work on circuit boards) today, and he had them take another three viles of blood. Not sure what all they’re testing for, but I think they’re trying to clone me. They have more of my blood in that lab than I have in my body anymore!

Old school GI doc recommended me to another GI doctor and set me up with an immediate appointment for another scope – this one is called an esophagogastroduodenoscopy. Yeah, that’s what I said. It’s EGD for short. Basically it means they’re sicking the expensive little camera down my throat this time, and looking at the upper GI tract. I have an appointment for the EGD on December 14th. This guy has a pretty cool website. I’m already impressed.

For now I’m off the Asacol with hopes that it has done its job, and I’ve been given some Vicodin to help with the pain, for which I’m incredibly thankful.

In the department of things to be thankful for, my parents have offered to drive my car out here over Christmas. Eric will also be flying out to visit. Although I would have liked to make it to the East Coast and done the road trip back, I realize that I’m not yet up to the task. In my last update I mentioned having some issues with my eyes. I got the thumbs up on healthy eyes from the optometrist, but my eye muscles are still not holding their weight. They gave me a new perscription with the advice that I work on building those muscles instead of relying on a prism. I decided to put some funds into a flat screen monitor in the interest of preventing further eye trouble. The fancy show-off picture is below. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement in making those decisions.

So it’s back to blood and guts once again – Vicodin and cream of rice for a week, scope number two, blood tests take three, and we’ll see what they can find out this time.

- Jess

An Overdue Update

It’s been a while, I know. I’ve been recovering from Thanksgiving. Really.

My doctor took me off one of my meds the day before Thanksgiving. The medication in question was making me extremely tired and after a day without it in my system, I was on an energy high just in time for Thanksgiving. Of course, with the new energy buzz and the growing ability to eat real food, I overdid it on the whole party and eat thing. It was worth the days of recovery to be able to eat Thanksgiving dinner after two months of eating cream of rice, pudding, and cup of soups!

Dr. Blake gave me a talking to about resting up, mostly something about promising not to do pushups for four weeks. I’m feeling considerably less dizzy and have a bit more energy, however I fade quickly if I try to do too much. Dr. Blake made me define “sit around and do nothing” and then fixed my definition. Basically, she told me that every bit of energy I have, all the calories that I consume, have to go to healing my colon. She mentioned something about snowboarding in January if I don’t over do it now, which is a goal I can appreciate.

I’m still in a lot of pain some days, and my eyes are really driving me crazy. Probably not helped by my daily routine of computer work. If only you could put “flatscreen monitor” under insurance claims. I have an eye doctors appointment next week. Apparently Ulcerative Colitis can cause or may be related to certain eye conditions as well, including the lovely blurry vision that I’ve now gotten used to ignoring.

I’m back to a bit lighter diet, but I am truly thankful for the ability to eat Thanksgiving dinner. It was a blessing I’ve never appreciated so deeply.

As to the future, if these four weeks of intensive medication and healing go as hoped, I’ll be slowly getting back to normal life over the next month. I’ll have to continue on a lesser dose of the meds for six months, and then I’ll go back on them whenever things flare up again. There’s no way of knowing when or what triggers UC, but now that I know what to watch for and how to treat it, it can be managed quickly in the future. I’ll have to have colonoscopies every five years to ensure no tumors have developed and to guard against colon cancer.

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts as I work through this time of recovery. I have so much to be thankful for and your support tops the list. Thanks.

- Jess

Nothing New to Report

Called the doc today to check on biopsy results, the lady on the phone just tells me that his original diagnosis is correct, keep taking the meds, and see them in 4 weeks. Maybe, she says, they’ll turn back the dosage at that point.
It suddenly occurs to me that the massive amount of “may make you drowsy” drugs I am ingesting just might explain why I cannot stay awake more than two hours at a time. Four if I skip a dose.
I’m tired, but optimistic. I ate macaroni and cheese yesterday.

The Hospital Visit

I’ll save you the fancy reporting since I feel terrible right now, and just say that my colonoscopy went… well, it went. I only remember the nurse saying “this will start to make you a bit drowsy,” and immediately I whispered, “wow that works fast.”
I woke up to hear voices a few curtains over laughing about how “this patient” slept like a rock from the time they started the IV and still wasn’t stirring. Couldn’t have been me because I was at that very minute, “stirring.” I was half awake and in a bit of pain, which I rated a “2,” and they left me to get changed out of the super duper extra large hospital gown. I will probably never learn to rate my pain at anything over a 2 on the first asking. I ended up sitting there in a ball crying in pain and the nurses that passed by went running one by one to make sure I was supposed to be in “that much” pain.
The doctor however, whom I could hear from my curtained area, said that I had rated the pain as “nothing much” and that I’d be fine. I heard the nurses insisting that I was “not fine,” but fine or not, home I went with promises to feel fine within the hour.
Let’s just leave it at “not true.”
I called in to the doctors and was given another perscription to help ease the stomach cramping and told I should be fine by tomorrow. I feel like I haven’t eaten in three days – oh wait, I haven’t – and I’m hungry.
Anyway, on to the good stuff – colonoscopy results:
The doctor took a few biopsies which I should hear about on Friday, and they are currently treating me for Ulcerative Colitis. Basically, to quote the literature I was handed this morning, UC is “a chronic disease of the colon, marked by inflammation and ulceration of the innermost lining.”
My symptoms do not seem to match the typical symptoms for this disease, and so I am a bit skeptical, but ready to give this treatment a try. The doctor wrote on my papers that he feels my condition “should respond to treatment” and that he does not believe surgery (removal of the colon) will be necessary. I’m not using it anyway.
The plan is to spend four weeks on the meds and see what progress is made. I’m really in the mood for a steak dinner, and boy, would that be progress! For those of you with lots of initials after your names, my new diet of pills is Mesalamine (Asacol 400MG 4xdaily).
This article at Wikipedia gives a little more information on Ulcerative Colitis, if you couldn’t grasp my half cognizant description.
My thoughts right now, as I go through this next treatment trial, are for holiday plans. It’s hard to figure out what I’ll be up to and it’s also a struggle to budget in plane tickets and possible cross country drives with the medical expenses I am accruing. Eric and I are hoping to visit my parents in NJ, his family in Ohio, and my friends and family here in Spokane. Outside of trying to split the holiday vacation across three compass points, we feel it’s crucial to have some down time to spend together, and we’re looking forward to that. I don’t know yet if I can travel or how I’ll be feeling, so working out a plan is a bit tough.
I’d appreciate your prayers for that as well as for my health and patience.
Anyway, I’m in pain but in good spirits and glad that this step is done. Thank you for your prayers, you keep me smiling, and He is faithful.

- Jess

The Waiting Game

The past week or so has been tough. I’ve had more bad days than good, and though my good days seem better, it has been difficult to remain at peace with all of these unknowns. I am tired, extremely so, and yet my mind is bored and refuses to let me sleep. I also am struggling with a low body temperature, often between 94.5 – 97.6 (normal is 98.6 for most adults, 95 is considered hypothermia).
I have a hard time focusing enough to read, but thankfully this is the video game generation, and I find some distraction there. I knew that addiction would come in handy. Actually, truth be told I have a hard time even doing that for long periods of time, I just cannot concentrate enough.
I am waiting anxiously for the colonoscopy on the 14th. I check in at 6:30am and should be free to go by 9. I am praying for answers, for peace, and for continued patience. I’d appreciate your prayers as well.