Hi Friends!
Wow, it has been a little while since my last update. A lot has happened and I will do my best to remember everything!
I have rediscovered and learned a lot about my Lord the last 3 1/2 weeks. Nothing like a really big blow such as losing all of your teeth to really get a grip on your perspective. My heart hurt so bad and I felt so very alone. I shut down - I didn’t want to talk to anyone, I found myself questioning everything, and I just wanted it all to end. I lost count of the times I cried and begged God just to take me Home. I questioned if He even cared about me anymore. In my eyes I was done. I could look back in life and see what the Lord has gotten me through but I couldn’t see ever getting through this. I couldn’t do it anymore. Truthfully, I couldn’t do it alone...but my Jesus showed Himself so strong yet again. No matter how hurt I was - no matter how much I questioned Him - no matter what I said...He never left me. He was there. Whether it was a verse in my devotions, a song, or a simple sunset - He constantly reminded me of His faithful presence...even through the time I was angry and almost didn’t want Him. I’m not at all proud of all of this. Thankfully Jesus knows I’m not perfect. I’ve just rediscovered the peace, hope, and strength that my Lord supplies. Have I accepted life without teeth?.....I’m still working on it. Does it still hurt?.....yes (physically and emotionally). Do I still struggle with anger at a recall which caused the loss of a medication which seems to have caused my sudden dental downhill spiral?.....yes! But I’m walking this with the Lord now and we’re getting through this together. I got my stitches removed on January 15th and it was discovered that my jaw was not fond of the sudden change thus the reason for the pain. It deviates when I open wide and I still cannot put my gums together unless forced with my hand (and trust me...that’s not a good idea! 😫). My dentist at Chapel Hill thinks that it’ll probably help a lot once I eventually get dentures (still hate that word! 😏).
After my home health nurse did my blood draw on the 21st, my hematologist’s nurse called to inform me that my hemoglobin had dropped a little too low (6.8) and they wanted me to come in for a blood transfusion. I ended up in the ER on the 22nd due to the NO visitor policy at the infusion center. Thankfully, the ER had no trouble at all allowing my sister and Ezra to come back with me! After they redid blood work to confirm my hemoglobin was low (it had dropped to 6.5 by then) and I would be getting a transfusion they actually admitted me and put me in a room so I would be out of the ER and away from any possible covid patients. My parent’s 50th anniversary was the next day (23rd) and we were supposed to go ice skating again, too, so I kept making sure they were going to release me when it was done! They reassured me that as long as everything went ok and my labs were good afterwards that I could go home. The nurse calculated how long it would take to get the 2 pints in me. It was going to be the wee hours of the morning and she wanted to make sure I really wanted to go home then! Needless to say...I got discharged between 1 and 1:30am on the 23rd! ;)
That afternoon, as planned, we went ice skating again. I got brave and decided I would just stay close to the wall to get my footing and I was determined that I was not going to use a skate aid!
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| Skating without a skate aid... before I fell! :) |
I wasn’t doing too terribly shabby and decided to go for it....I got about halfway across the rink and fell. Yikes! Thankfully, I wasn’t majorly injured...just some bruises on my hands and left wrist, a sore tailbone, and an injured pride! ;) lol I got up and went again, but I stayed close to the wall - I decided to get a little more practice before trying that stunt again! By God’s Grace I healed very rapidly...I only have slight soreness left. There was a day that that fall would’ve caused injuries that would’ve been debilitating for months! I’m actually scheduled to go back in a week! I love how the Lord has put this new opportunity in my life just when I really needed it most. It gives me a feeling of freedom and normalcy when I’m on that ice whether on my skates or my tailbone! ;)
Soooooo.... right around the 23rd I started having the yucky bright neon green drainage from my J tube AGAIN. I let it go for about a week, but then the pain started worsening and I started feeling rather crummy so I contacted my infectious disease doctor on Friday about maybe doing a swab culture. I decided I’d do that and then, if it was positive, I would contact my GI to see if there isn’t SOMETHING we can do about this tube. It has been less than a month since I was on my last round of high powered IV antibiotics and it’s been nearly once every 1 - 2 months J tube infections for the last while. I got a call yesterday morning to inform me that the cultures were positive for two different strains of bacteria this time and they were running susceptibility testing. They went ahead and got some antibiotics ordered for me. I started one IV antibiotic yesterday afternoon and the second this morning. Then late this morning I get a call from my infectious disease doctor herself to talk to me about this whole situation. The one strain of bacteria that has been the most common causing my J tube infections is now resistant to the antibiotic they’ve been using. So she is putting in orders to change the one antibiotic. We had contacted my GI about the situation and he has passed me off to the surgeons responsibility. SO, my infectious disease doctor is getting in the game and contacting the surgeons about this whole situation and she is in agreement that if we can’t get cooperation from the surgeons here that I may need to go to a larger hospital (UNC Chapel Hill or Duke) to see if they’ll do something. The antibiotic resistance has just leveled up on the seriousness of this whole J tube situation that we’ve been dealing with since August 2020. If this bacteria becomes resistant to this next antibiotic that’s my last option other than an antibiotic that could cause reactions and would require hospitalization.
Anyhow, I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy! Thank you so very much to those who have supported me even through the really tough times - y’all are definitely a great blessing!
Taking Life One Step (with Jesus) at a Time...
Allison
