serious stuff

I usually keep my blog posts on the lighter side, but today I do feel the need to open up about some "life stuff" that has been going on in the family. As you may know, Jeff was seriously ill the end of April and ended up hospitalized and then had surgery (see blog entry from May 2 for the details). Between the week in the hospital and then recovery, he was out of work for over three weeks, then had to go in for partial days for another few weeks before he was well enough to return full time. Believe me, this was a time of thanking God for providing through good health benefits!

Of course in the weeks following this, we have had numerous follow-up doctor visits, including a referral to a GI specialist. The result of this was that due to the combination of factors, they did a colonoscopy. This was a few weeks ago and we got the initial results last week. Some of the pathology results were abnormal. That is the word they use when the polyp is not cancerous but is what they consider to be indicative of higher risk. Now before you start saying "oh no!", you must realize that we are viewing this as a huge miracle. Jeff has a family history of "bad guts" and a personal history of "weak stomach", but on their own, this was not enough to warrant further medical interest. However, once combined with his illness in April, it was enough to warrant an early baseline colonoscopy. Normally, they would not do this until age 50. Jeff is 35. We found abnormal polyps 15 years early. This is literally potentially life-saving information for us to have. We can now take definite proactive steps to improve his health. We still have a consult with the GI next week to go over details, but what a wonderful praise to God. Who would have thought that this sickness would lead to medical testing and such important information.



Now, on the downside... after his surgery, he was told he had a 75% chance of developing complications in the surgical sites. He had a follow up with the surgeon last week and found out that yes, one of the sites had not healed properly and he does need further repair. That is an outpatient surgery scheduled for this Thursday. Unfortunately, we do not know what to expect for recovery because the doctor says he won't know exactly how complicated it is until he gets in . Hurrah for the "practice" of medicine. We are of course hoping for the best outcome, whatever that may be. I think the worst part is that Jeff is finally feeling really good and has been hitting the construction really hard. He REALLY wants to be done (since we've only been working on this addition for close to three years now) by the time the baby comes. These setbacks tend to get him rather down, so I'm hoping that this particular procedure goes smoothly and he heals up quickly and correctly this time.