So many things to look forward to!

This has GOT to be the best summer on record for us. Most importantly because Monte feels awesome, we are taking advantage of his good health by going places and doing things we never would have been able to do before! Seriously, he has not felt this good since we got married 6 and a half years ago! There are so many seasons in life, I feel like we started our marriage off in the "for worse" part of the "for better or for worse" because of his health problems - he, not able to work for 2 years because his health was so bad, he was in and out of the hospital, he didn't have insurance, me being worried sick about him, medical bills, what the future would bring, possibly not being able to have kids, etc. If I had had a blog back then, let me tell ya, it would have been one sad story. And now he feels great, he has a job that he loves, and that allows him to be home a lot, and we have our little miracle! How amazing and good God is! For sure we are in the "for better" part now!

I am looking forward to this week so much. My mom is coming out for a visit tomorrow through Friday. She, Isabella, and I are headed to the mall tomorrow. Then, my favorite part - city wide garage sales Thursday, Friday, and Saturday!!! Man, do I love garage sales! Our town is having all sorts of activities this weekend, kids games, a parade, pro rodeos, and did I mention garage sales! Oh and one more thing I'm super excited about that will be showing up at our house tomorrow evening, but that's a whole other blog post. Tonight I'm busy baking for our church bake sale, so I better get back at it.

Amazing!

Monte has been injecting himself with the new med for about 7 weeks now, the results are absolutely amazing to us!! He's off all other drugs, he just injects himself once every 2 weeks. We are constantly talking about how we can't even believe this is happening. He says he hasn't felt this good in the last SEVEN years. Even his best days in the last seven years don't even compare to how good he feels now! I can't even imagine how horrible it must have been for him, it's one thing to watch him, but another thing to actually be going through it, he was very good at hiding how he really felt many times. He said he just expected to always feel that way, and accepted a long time ago that that was how it would be. His weight is also back up into the 150's, he's gained TWENTY pounds just in the last couple of months. He looks so good, I took a picture of him when he was doing really bad a few months ago. I wish I could post a before and after picture on here, but I know there is no way he would let me. He reminds me of someone in a concentration camp in the picture from a few months ago - SO thin, face sunken in, a pale greenish complexion. And now, as you can see from our Easter family picture I posted before, he looks great. And if all that wasn't the best news EVER, there's one thing to top it all off even. He can have dairy products again!!! Once again . . . amazing! It's been about 7 or 8 years since he has tasted anything like milk, cheese, ice cream, etc. Do you know what this means for my cooking?!! I can't wait to try out all sorts of creamy, cheesy dishes! Even as I write this, the tears are flowing down my cheeks - wonderful, happy, THANKFUL tears. We've come a long way since that awful day at the Mayo Clinic about 4 and half years ago, when we were given very little hope that things would get better. We thank God every day for the gift of health he has given Monte. This Easter season truly is a time for us to celebrate the gift of new life, it's like a whole new season in our lives. We know there are ups and downs with this disease, but for right now we are celebrating! I have a healthy family, and I couldn't possibly be any happier. If we hadn't gone through everything we did, I can guarantee you I would not be as appreciative or so happy about having a "normal" life. I would have taken it all for granted, and for that I thank God for our time of suffering. Our priest talked about suffering in the Good Friday homily, how it does one of two things. Suffering can make you angry at God, and make you turn away from Him OR it can be a form of prayer, something to offer up, something that brings you closer to God than you've ever been before. For us, it was the latter.

I want my baby back, baby back, baby back . . .

Isabella has been staying with Monte's parents since yesterday, and we won't get her back until tomorrow! She's stayed with them before when we've gone somewhere, but this is really weird having her gone with us being home. Yesterday was busy with a dentist appt. for me and a dr. appt. for Monte. And today we were gone for the entire day to another dr. appt. for Monte. So we are grateful to Monte's parents for helping us out, but I sure do miss my girl!

I'm not entirely sure where we stand on Monte's treatment right now. Some blood tests came back showing that his kidneys are not functioning properly, and then there's the whole issue of medications for his Crohn's. The doctor wants to put him on a medication that, after doing some research tonight, can have some pretty serious side effects. The med is something Monte would inject in himself once every two weeks. According to the info we were given "serious side effects may occur, including death". Well, isn't that just wonderful, but what is a person to do - surely he would not survive if left untreated, as serious as his disease has gotten. So it is totally in God's hands, in whom I have complete faith. Another factor is that the med can make you very susceptable to serious lung infections, so the dr. told him he should not be doing any work outside. HA HA! Seriously?! He's in crop insurance, he spends every day outside, spring through fall in fields!!! But apparently it should be okay if he wears a protective mask (which he is NOT happy about) while he is working outside. But, the major factor is the price. Are you ready for this? $14,000 a year!!! Yes, that's right. Some insurance doesn't cover it, and if it is covered by insurance, the doc tells us it could be anywhere from $900 to $4000 a year still!! Even $900 doesn't sound very good to us. So the nurse is doing some checking for us, contacting insurance, pharmacies, etc. and we will hear back in a couple of days as to what the price will be. If the price is too astronomical, we will have to go back and discuss other options. But this is the dr's first choice to treat Monte, he says he has had great results with his patients. They also sent home a huge kit on the drug (including DVD's for us to watch about it). I also asked the doc about the possibility of us being able to have a baby once Monte is better but still while on this drug (as it is a long term drug), as other drugs he has been on make it dangerous to conceive. We were told, if we were to conceive, that the baby would be fine, however the chances of us actually being able to conceive are very low, as this drug would cause a very low "little swimmer" count. I took that as good news, because that means there is still a chance, and God does and has worked so many miracles! So that's where we stand right now, once again more waiting . . .

On a bright note, the appt. only took about 45 minutes, and since we were quite a ways from home, we made a whole day out of it. We did a little shopping/browsing and we even had a Barnes and Noble date, which was definitely the highlight of my day!

Nothing can ruin this day!

Things have threatened to ruin this day, but nothing can ruin it. When Isabella and I got home from Bible Study this morning there was a message to call the Drs. office. With my heart pounding I called to see if they would give me the results since Monte wasn't home. And sure enough they had the biopsy results. I believe her words were, "It's nothing bad, nothing more than you already know, no cancer." The only thing that showed up was a confirmation of the diagnosis of Crohn's Disease. Phew! Talk about a load off of my mind (I say my mind because Monte told me later that he wasn't too worried about it . . . okay, whatever, leave the worrying to the woman :) ) Also, Monte felt GREAT today, yes great!! Day 2 of the steroids and he actually has energy, no pain, and a crazy appetite. I knew he was bad, but I guess I didn't realize just how bad he has been these last months until now that I see him feeling good! The doctor wants him off of the steroids by March, so we'll cross that road when we get to it, but for now, for today, he felt great. So that's how we'll take it, one day at a time.

So besides having a horrendous headache tonight, something really weird happened today. I was washing a load of clothes, when all of the sudden one of our toilets just randomly overflows. Then the other toilet starts bubbling and making all sorts of weird noises. THEN the bathtub and the kitchen sink started filling up with water! Our house started smelling like sewer too. Monte discovered that two vents on the roof were clogged with ice, which after calling the experts (his dad and my dad) we thought was probably the reason. So we spent two hours pouring hot water down the vents, which helped the kitchen sink but nothing else. We could not get a hold of any plumbers until about 5:00 this evening. They worked for two hours. The problem was that our pipes were clogged with tree roots, how crazy is that?! So we spent the majority of our afternoon and evening dealing with plumbing issues, but that's okay because nothing can ruin this day!

Update

Just a quick update - everything went about as we expected yesterday. The doctor came and talked to us while Monte was in recovery (he was put under for a while). He told us things do not look good, and according to the report sent home with us, the ENTIRE large intestine is "severely inflamed, scarred, ulcerated, and diseased". They also took biopsies, which is quite concerning, that could open up a whole other scary subject that I don't even want to think about right now. So Monte is now on 3 different drugs which are not good long term. One of them is high doses of steroids. The hope is that these drugs will help to get things under control for right now, then we go back two weeks from today to consult with the doctor about long term plans. We are also waiting for news on the biopsies. It's been an emotional, difficult time, your prayers are greatly appreciated.