Thursday Update

Today is my Bradie's 10th Birthday! Happy Birthday sweet angel. It sounded like you had a great day today when I spoke with you. Your birthday must have brought the lucky rain I heard about!

We started the morning with our follow up with gastro. We got great news. My ulcers haven't actually flared. The pain that I have is from the auto immune disease attacking my stomach and intestines. We will be able to treat this with medicine and surgery will not be required. Whoo hoo!

We did spend the next 7 hours waiting for neurology...but to no avail. They have asked that we return in the morning and give it one last try before we leave tomorrow. If we cannot get in, we will need to see a urologist in SA. They are farely confident that because of the neurological disconnect, that I am having reflux back into my kidneys. This too, we expect will be treated with medicine.

Late this afternoon, we went for our final meeting at neurology. We first met with a wonderful doctor who is an MD that specializes in auto-immune diseases. She is partnered with the main neurologist here that we have been seeing. After she reviewed the reports from all of my other specialists I saw this week, and reviewed the labs that were run, she agreed with our feelings about triggering a relapse. She agrees that the risk and the detrimental set back is too much. She stepped out of the office to council with our main neurologist before he came in, and she went-to-bat for me! He said that if I were staying in town and he was going to be implementing the plan, he would still prefer to trigger the relapse and run the other tests, but agreed to just move forward.

When we return to town, we will meet with a rheumatologist and begin the immune-suppressant therapy. It will take several months to get the dosing right, and they do expect some set backs with my immune system being so temperamental...so we will begin as soon as possible. After 3 months, we will try to take away the steroids and see how my body responds.

It will be a continuous battle, but not one that we feel we cannot handle. John and I have been blessed by the Lord, our family, church, and friends! I hope everyone knows how much we appreciate this support. I have a restored faith, strength, and will to keep fighting. Lots of love!

P.S. John and I stepped outside the hotel this evening for a fun event. They call it "Thursday on 1st". They line the patio outside our hotel with vendors and set up stage for entertainment. The white building in the background is affectionately nicknamed the "terrorist tower." It is the tallest building in Rochester. An Arab family walked up to the contractor and paid for the building in full with a roll of cash. We have been informed that there is a plan to add on to the Mayo Clinic's Gonda Building to make it surpass in height.