Where have you been?

Man, I feel like a teenager coming home past curfew and trying to find the best words to plea my case of why I've been MIA. You should all know, that I have updated this blog in my head multiple times, but just not gotten around to ACTUALLY doing it. Some of you sweet loving friends have even emailed to check up on me, and I truly appreciate the love.

So, now do I give you all the long story or the short one? I'll try to keep it short, as I know many of you probably just scroll down looking for new pics of my cute kids anyway. I'll try to Cap lock on the key information if you want to really just scroll through for the fast update.

Basically I haven't posted in 6 months cause I've FELT CRUMMY, and if I do get a day when I don't feel crummy, I'm basically trying to play "catch up" around the house from all the days when I do feel crummy, and get NOTHING DONE. I've been having stomach pain, and cramping, Nausea, Diarhea, and rapid weight loss, which has left my weight at an unhealthy low, and I'm unable to gain any back. It doesn't help that I don't want to eat anything, out of fear it will make me feel worse. (I Really miss enjoying food.) We haven't known whats wrong, and I think to an extent, I've also put off posting until I knew what was wrong, we're still not sure, but we are finally getting closer to an answer.

It started during my pregnancy when I began having STOMACH PAIN, AND CRAMPING, I passed it off as just a pregnancy side effect that I didn't have the other times, and my OBGYN said it was probably, constipation, so I treated it as such, and let it go. AFTER DELIVERY, my stomach cramping and pain, was WORSE THAN MY AFTER PAINS. I again mentioned it to my OBGYN who, didn't really seem concerned so I let it go again. Things got worse so I mentioned it again, and he said it was probably IBS. I sought a 2ND OPINION, Dr did a little lab work and said, IBS. Watched a few IBS commercials and thought, "Hmmm, those women don't look like they feel like they are dying." Sought a 3RD OPINION. Dr #3 has been much more helpful and has really helped us dig, but it's been MONTHS of DEAD ENDS. He looked for parasites, did lab work, ordered x-rays, ultrasounds, and even a hyda scan. Still no answer. Suggested trying a CT scan, but I was worried about doing this, since I am still breastfeeding. He suggested eliminating dairy or gluten from my diet. After ELIMINATING GLUTEN, I noticed improvement, so we thought we had found the problem. Dr refered me to a Gastroenterologist, who did a stomach scope to look for ulcers and/or try to confirm celiac disease. Results from celiac biopsy test were negative, but being gluten free was still the only thing that had seemed to help, so I began transitioning to a GLUTEN FREE LIFESTYLE(end of Oct, first of NOV). I was still having problems, but thought that I was just having problems with Gluten leaking in to my diet. Then about mid January, the problems started to again get MUCH WORSE. Went back to Dr. who refered me back to the Gastroenterologist, and also an endocrinologist. Started thinking it might be my gall bladder. Endocrinologist did a bunch of labs that turned up that my b12 was low, and the Gastroentereologist, ordered a CT SCAN and then suggested looking into my GALL BLADDER a little further. Had CT, which turned up something (FINALLY....SOMETHING.) An inflamation in my bowel, which most often indicates CROHN'S DISEASE. Which all my symptoms seem to fit into, even the low levels of B12. So, the Dr ordered a Colonoscopy to get a biopsy to confirm if it is in fact Crohn's. YIPPEE! A COLONOSCOPY AT 30! LUCKY ME!!! Anyway, said colonoscopy happened Tuesday, now we wait 10 days for biopsy results.

Wow, guess that wasn't very concise. Still, I really did leave out a LOT of detail. 10 days has never seemed like such a long period of time as it does when I'm in miserable pain, and just want an answer so we can try to deal with this. So we wait, and hopefully next week we will have an answer. Crohn's Disease, would not be a fun diagnosis, but at least it's a diagnosis, and we would know whats wrong.

In happier news, my little girls are still cute, even though I've not been providing the photo evidence. Holley, is enjoying first grade, and just started taking piano lessons. Brinley is as silly as ever, and still keeps us laughing with her little antics. Daelyn is growing MUCH TOO FAST,(she'll be 10 months old tomorrow) and is such a sweet baby. She's crawling all over like crazy. She's not to far off from walking either.

Derek is the most AMAZING husband, and all these health problems have just made me SO MUCH MORE GRATEFUL, that I married him. I really don't know what other man would be able to do all he does, in the way he does. He picks up all my slack at home, and is my encouragement and "Faith Strengthener" on my lowest Days. Derek I love you so much! Thank you.

Here's a video of Daelyn, about where we left off last time. I'll be trying to post some pictures of the last 6 months now and in the days to come, (don't want to overwhelm you with all of them at once, but we'll try and catch you up.)


Holley's first day of first grade.


Playing dress-up.

My Chubby Baby.(at about 5 months.)

Brinley's 3rd Birthday.(Sept.)

Gotta go for now, I'll try and get more up soon.