Sooooo, if you remember from my last post, I was waiting on the results from the Celiac Genetics test. After a long saga with the lab losing my blood work and giving me the wrong test, I finally got the results. I am “Extremely Low Risk for Celiac Disease.” So basically, this confirms that the endoscopy did not lie. I do not have Celiac. And I am so thankful! ?
I was not surprised at all by these results because even though I had been gluten-free for about two months, I was still getting sick. However, we were back at square one. What was causing my tummy troubles? 98% of the time, I was perfectly fine during the day. It was in the middle of the night when I would wake up feeling miserable. I would be extremely bloated with terrible indigestion and nausea. I had been doing some research and saw where many people with similar symptoms ended up having their gall bladder removed and all the issues went away. After going back to the doctor to discuss next steps in our quest to get to the root of the problem, I mentioned to her what I had read and asked her what she thought. She says that I didn’t meet the description or symptoms of someone with gall bladder issues, but did a physical examination anyway. She didn’t find anything from that but said that sometimes gall bladder issues can be genetic and said that it wouldn’t hurt to take a closer look through ultrasound. She left it up to me. We continued discussing my troubles and I began describing to her what my latest symptoms were and she said it sounded like something called Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). Based on how she described it, it sounded like she was on to something. She wanted to treat me for GERD and left it up to me whether to proceed with the ultrasound at the same time or wait to see how this treatment went. I decided to try the medicines for GERD for a couple of weeks first.
Well, at the one week mark, I actually felt like myself for the first time in months! And just this week, I have been sleeping without sitting up (I’d mastered sleeping while sitting up with a neck pillow). My appetite was back. I even gained two pounds (I’m down 10 pounds since this whole thing started)!! Although I am not thrilled about taking meds everyday, I thank God for the improvement and the feelings of normalcy. It has definitely been a journey that I could not have survived without Him. I still want to have a full test of everything digestive to make sure that we are not just treating the symptoms and ignoring an underlying issue. But He is good and I know that everything will be fine.
I have yet to add gluten back to my diet because I want to be able to completely eliminate that possibility, but I am pretty sure that I will be fine once I do. If you follow me on Snapchat, you know that I will be eating a chicken sandwich with cheese from Chick-fil-A real soon because I can “feel it in my spirit.”
I want to thank everyone for your positive thoughts and prayers as I have been going through this trying season. It has been one of the most difficult times of my life for sure, but it’s one where God continues to show me who He is and most importantly WHOSE I am. I have faith that I will continue to get better and that we will get to the root of the problem. Again, thank you. ?
My daily devotional has been an awesome source of reinforcement over these past few months. It has helped me to keep things in perspective and know that God’s got me no matter what. If you don’t have “Jesus Calling”, I highly recommend it. The messages are always right on time.
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