Encouraged

“Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” {Psalm 37:4}

Hi Friends!

    I’m sorry this wasn’t written and posted sooner, but better late than never I guess.

I had an amazing appointment with the prosthodontist!  I must admit, I went in with a lot of prayer, but not much faith because I’ve been tossed about so much between dental specialties trying to get things worked out.  Anyhow, back to this appointment.  The Lord really showed me His presence, starting with what music they were playing.  It was a calm classical music.  You hardly ever get that in doctors offices anymore.  It really calmed my nerves and the Lord gave me peace.  The doctor was excellent!  They did a CT scan that normally is over $300 and he waved the charge since they don’t take my insurance.  He went into great detail about everything, discussing my different options and patiently answering all of our many questions.  My lower jaw has amazing bone and is a definite candidate for implants.  I would most likely get 4 posts implanted into my lower jaw and get the teeth 3 months later once the bone has cemented the posts in.  My upper jaw is pretty much non existent.  The only bone I have is around the two teeth that are impacted in my palet.  So I have 3 options for the upper.  I can try a denture, they can do a bone graph, or they can do implants that anchor in the cheek bones.  He thinks I still have a good ridge in my palet to grip a denture.  The bone graph is just disgusting.  This germaphobic brain of mine was totally grossing out.  They use sterilized bone powder from dead people and sprinkle it in there and then that triggers your body to build up bone.  Shivers!!!  But, anyway, that’s an option.  It takes 6 months for the bone to grow, then they put the posts in for the implants, and then you get the teeth part 3 months later.  And the 3rd option is to do posts that are extra long and actually anchor in the cheekbone instead of the jaw bone that I don’t have.  So I’m leaning toward lower implants and  trying a denture on the top since the lower denture is what people struggle with keeping in and such.  Then, if I can’t cope with the top denture or it falls out, consider doing some kind of implant on the top.  And the doctor said he would go off of pictures of my smile previously to make the teeth.  That is huge for me.  Just a really sweet God hug.  That would make it to where I don’t have to get used to a different size of teeth or a different look.  That has been a big emotional struggle for me.  Then I asked the most important question…. So, do you know of a surgeon who can do it in the OR?  He did!!  He said there is one who does their more complicated cases in the hospital OR all the time!  I was totally taken aback by his answer.  He got me a consult appointment with that surgeon while I was still in the office.  I’m supposed to have that appointment on April 21st but I’m on the cancelation list so if an earlier appointment comes available, I can go sooner.  I am just so encouraged and excited!  Now you can pray that the surgeon is good and willing to take on my complex health issues.  And please pray for reasonable pricing seeing as I’ll have to pay out of pocket!  This stuff can get very pricey, unfortunately.  But I know a God Who doesn’t have a budget and can provide what is necessary!

I had a virtual appointment with the electrophysiologist yesterday and she has set me up with physical therapy to do autonomic system friendly therapy to help build back strength and get me better conditioned to help my tachycardia without triggering more of it in the process.  So I’d appreciate your prayers about this.  I don’t have an appointment yet, but I’ll let you know when I know something.

Also, please remember Ezra’s vet appointment in your prayers (Friday at 11:20).

Thank you for your many prayers and encouragement!

Allison

Transfusion, Hemoglobin Update, & Implant Appointment

 Hi Friends!

    Thank you so much to the ones that have been praying for me!  I got 2 pints of blood on the 18th.  I did well except for that evening I started having pain at my Hickman and up the side of my neck.  I then developed some swelling in my armpit area and in my chest.  They did an ultrasound and didn’t find any deep vein clots so we are assuming it’s stemming from my mast cells maybe not appreciating the foreign blood this time.  My hemoglobin came up from 7.5 to 9.4 and the anemia headaches have ceased, thankfully!

Please remember to pray for my appointment about the possible implants at the prosthodontist at 12:00 today!

Another special prayer request… Ezra has injured his front leg.  We think it happened at the park last week when he went crazy over

My precious injured Ezra resting on the couch

seeing another dog.  He didn’t want to walk back home afterwards and the next morning I noticed a very distinct limp.  By that evening he was limping really bad and when my sister was petting him across his shoulder/chest area he screamed out in pain and whined loudly for another probably 5 seconds.  He’s been hurting ever since.  The vet gave him a medicine for the pain and that’s working well, but he’s still having pain and limping and episodes of holding his leg in an odd way.  I called the vet back this morning and Ezra is now scheduled to go in Friday at 11:20am for a detailed exam and possible X-rays to determine what exactly is going on.  I have a nagging hunch that his shoulder isn’t riding where it is supposed to be just because of the way he’ll hold his leg and such.  Hoping for some answers and, most of all, an easy fix!  It’s hard to helplessly watch him hurt and not be able to fix it.

Taking Life One Day at a Time….

Allison

It’s March 17th!

 Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Just a reminder from Bella and Ezra … don’t forget to wear green! ;)

💚💛💚💛💚💛💚💛💚💛💚💛💚💛💚

Bella and Ezra sporting their St. Patrick’s Day green!
There is nothing cuter than a Shorkie in a kilt! 😍

Transfusion

 Hey!

    So, to update on my hemoglobin…. It was 7.5 (normal is 10.8 - 15.5).  Mine has been trending anywhere from 7.3 to 7.7 for about a month so it didn’t make the significant drop that I was expecting, but with me starting to have the headaches, we opted to go ahead forward with a transfusion to give it a little boost.  They’ve offered an IV iron infusion (because the cause of my anemia is severe iron deficiency), but there is big concern for reaction because average people are prone to react to it and then you add on mast cell disease and you increase your risk significantly.  My sisters are on an oral iron supplement that has helped them greatly so I plan to try that sometime soon and see if I can tolerate it and if my body will absorb it with it being put into my J tube (iron is usually absorbed in the stomach/upper bowel and the jejunum sometimes struggles to absorb it).  I’ve put it off for a long time because of fear.  I’m at a “livable” stability with my MCAS.  The supplement could bring my iron and hemoglobin up, making me feel SO much better, BUT if my body doesn’t tolerate it then I could lose so much progress for an unknown amount of time and there is always potential for the negative results to be permanent.  So that’s my struggle.  The long term goal would be to try the supplement, and if it doesn’t work, then consider trying the IV iron.  Short term plan is to get blood drawn at 3:30 tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon for a typing screening and then a transfusion at 9:00am Friday.  Please pray that all will go smoothly without any complications and will help me feel better.  These headaches are getting pretty rough.  Thankfully I’m still able to plow through the day with them and I’m not at a stage where I spend all day on the couch, but I don’t want it to reach that point again!

Please remember to keep my prosthodontist appointment (March 28th) in your prayers!

Thank you to my prayer warriors who faithfully pray for me!  I know the Lord has everything under control even when we don’t understand it!

Taking Life One Pint (of blood! LOL) at a Time… Allison

P.S…..just a PSA - don’t forget to wear green tomorrow! ;)

Life :)

 Hi Friends!

         I’m sorry (….again) for the lack of updating!  I have been busy and distracted with life which is a good thing…that means I’m not just laying on the couch miserable!  My heart rate is doing much better and I’m actually able to accomplish things without it feeling like it is going to pound out of my chest.  I got to go ice skating again on Tuesday, and while my heart was a teensy bit disturbed by that (got up to 153bpm), I had so much fun and it was SO good to get back on the ice!!

I have begun having “hemoglobin headaches” as I call them the last few days (the headaches I get when my anemia worsens).  My hematologist is going to do blood work tomorrow (Monday) to check up on my hemoglobin and then we’ll go from there to see if I’ll need another transfusion.  My hemoglobin has been running the lowest it’s been since January of 2021 anyways so I suspect it’s dropped again.  We’ll see!

Another thing you can pray about for me….  I have an appointment with a prosthodontist on March 28th to see about possibly getting dental implants.  It would have to be done in the hospital OR due to my medication allergies and complex medical conditions.  We have yet to find someone who can do that for me.  Please pray this place can!  I just really, really want implants vs plain dentures because I’m concerned that I would have a hard time keeping them in place and I can’t use anything to hold them in whereas implants would install 4 metal posts to snap them on.

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Allison

Home!

 Hi Friends!

I am SO sorry I haven’t updated sooner.  My brain is just about gone! LOL  Anyhow…. I got to come home yesterday morning!  I’m slowly but surely trying to get back to where I had been.  It’s been a bit frustrating because this knocked me so hard it’s taking me longer to get out of this flare.  So, I would definitely appreciate your prayers as I recuperate!

Allison