Been a Long While

Well, it has been a long while since I last posted. As many of you know, I have dealt with crohn's for many years and have had multiple hospital stays since 1998.

In April of 2009, I began a new business that was birth through a prophetic word - little did I know what the business would be when the word was given on March 22, 2009. The message was that I had felt like I had failed God, but my heart was still towards Him and He had forgiven me and loved me. That I had served Him even in the middle of my failures. I was bawling my eyes out. I was on my face then. When I got up, the pastor called me back up and continued the message. He said that there were many times that I had nearly died, that the enemy had been and was still trying to kill/destroy me (I had nearly had a wreck the day before and 8 in one week just before that). He said that God had covered me and even now was covering me from an attack and would not allow me to die. Then he began to pray over me, and I was on my face again. When I got up this time – he came back. This next part was concerning the calling. This business is part of it. He said that God was going to birth a business idea in me that would finance ministry and bring my family out of debt. He said that God was going to take all that has happened and send me into the enemy’s camp to pull out those that are held hostage.

Well, I now know that IjahJoyCreations is that business. It wasn't long after that, that the attack did begin. By May, I was going into a crohn's flare. I kept fighting it, denying that I was in a flare. Hopeing that if I ignored it, it would happen. But by the first of June, I couldn't deny it anymore. I went on to Nashville for vacation, but I only got through it because of prayer and prednisone. On my birthday, I couldn't go any further. My son's pediatriction told me that Elijah was fine (ear infection) but I needed to be in the hospital. A few hours later, I was there. This began the nightmare.

The crohn's flare was out of control. On July 8th, I had a colonoscope and the dr was afraid to even finish. He was certian that he was going to cause my intestine to rupture. I had 4 bleeding ulcers and several places where the intestine was very thin. He decided that day that I was going to have to have surgery. It took several more days, but on the 13th I was transfered to Macon Ga and on the 15th I had surgery. The dr removed 95% of my large intestine, and placed a colostomy bag. Everything seemed to be going well then. I was finally released to eat after 19 total days without food. After 22 days in the hosptial I was sent home.

During that 22 days, I had major sugar problems. The steriods cause my blood sugars to be around 300 to 400 (even higher at times). I was placed on an insulin drip and a machine called The Glucomander. I hate this machine. It works wonderfully for true diabetics, but not those who have steriod induced diabetes. Every dose of IV steriods sent my sugar around 400, then the machine would give a huge dose of insulin. Then my sugar would bottom out around 30. Next, I would get a major push of glucose. Again the circle would repeat. This lasted for about 10 hours. Finally a nurse came in and saw me out of it - my eyes were dialated and I was sweating perfusely. She checked my sugar and it was 31. She called the dr that order the Glucomander and he wouldn't take me off it. Back and forth a hours. One nurse said that I had to eat (she broke 1 dr's orders by letting me eat, but it had to be done). Still my sugars were crazy. Actually it only made it worse - sugars higher and then even lower with the insulin.

Finally the nurse told my mom that we had the right to refuse the machine, this is the only thing that would override the dr's order. She couldn't tell us to refuse it or really even supposed to suggest this. But she knew something had to be done. We did refuse and returned to insulin shots that were on a sliding scale (based on how high the sugar was). There were some other problems during that first 15 days (before surgery) too. Mainly being overdosed on pain meds - at one point I was on 40mg of Oxycontin twice a day, with 2mg of Dilaudid every 4 hours, and then they finally slapped a 50mg Duragesic patch on my arm. The reason was I have a rare side effect to opiods - they cause muscle spasms in my neck and shoulders. This causes even more pain, but I was so out of my head that I couldn't explain it. So they kept giving me more. I could manage with Dilaudid alone when given a muscle relaxer (but I couldn't tell them and mom wasn't up there) She was at home with Elijah and also recovering from pnuemonia. Dad didn't understand what was going on with me.

When mom got there, she saw how I was acting and explained everything. While she was there, I was saying things that we were bungee jumping from the hospital roof. I told the nurse I couldn't take the medicine because the cruise ship had departed, and other strange things.

Finally, things started to improve and I had the surgery and seemed to be on the mend.

Then 1 month after surgery (Aug 16), my dad got us in a car wreck. Within days, the 7 inch incision busted open to the muscle. I spent 19 more days in the hospital and had another surgery to clean up the dead tissue and install a WoundVac (http://www.kci1.com/KCI1/vactherapy). While in that stay, I had an uncontrolled infection that couldn't be traced. I was on 2 high powered anti-biotics and also on an anti-fungal. Nothing was bringing down my white counts. Also, I was severly dehydrated. After nearly 2 weeks of IV potassium, my level had finally gotten to a 2.9. Normal is supposed to be 3.5 to 5.0 Low potassium can cause heart problems and paralysis - and eventually death (https://health.google.com/health/ref/Hypokalemia). I began to go into kidney failure. This type is called acute renal failure.

Back to the Vac system and complications. The Vac dressing had to be changed every 3 days. Since part of the wound was around the stoma (what the intestine is called when it is outside the skin) they had the vac there too - and when it was changed, they had to take the bag off. Well, it is supposed to stay on for 5 to 7 days - as it is "cemented" on. This pulling off later caused a form of gangrene. This type is called pyroderma gangrenosum - it is caused by trauma and the immune system. This was diagnosed after a month on the Vac. It was removed and I was put in the hospital again. I spent 6 days in during the first stay. Then 2 weeks later, I was back in again for 10 days. During this time, I went through the accute renal failure again. Finally this was Nov 5. I began to improve after a new medicine was given. This med is Dapsone, which was (and still is) a treatment for leperosy. It works by blocking the body from producing necrotizing antibodies.

I had a few months of mild pain and dealing with healing, but I could do somethings. I still couldn't pick up Elijah - that was the hardest part of this whole thing. By Christmas, it had been 6 months since I had been able to carry him or really be a mom.

Then came January. I had my final surgery on Jan 28. This reconnected my small intestine to the colon (I had about 6 inches left). I was good during this. 7 days in the hospital and no complications. I then had a 9 inch incision, as the dr gave me a "tummy tuck". The wound had caused a large 3 inch wide scar and depression in my skin. The dr said he didn't want to leave me like that. Then where the bag had been, he cut away the damage from the gangrene. This left a 6x4 wound that was 2 inches deep. Normally, it would have been less than 1 inch round and about 2 inched deep - anytime the intestine is outside the skin, there is the chance for infection from fecal matter, so they never close up the skin in a colostomy reversal.

I still have this open wound, but it is much better (about the size of a US quater)- though it seems to be getting ulcerated again and causing pain. On March 15, 2010 I was released to begin picking up Elijah again. He was a little cautious about this to begin with. It is now Mother's Day and he allows me to do most things for him. Even now, while writing this, he is taking some sort of lock and putting it on my arm and saying "fix momma's boo-boo."

He has been very loving and caring - asking me many times a day if I am taking care of boo-boo. He even wants to help fix boo-boo.

Lastly, as of March 26 IjahJoyCreations is now official and I have started selling my line of jewelry. I will be speaking to the district procurement manager of Walmart in the next couple of weeks.

God has brought healing in the midst of all of this. The drs will never say that someone is cured of crohn's, as it is an immune disorder. But I have had 3 drs say that I am "essentially" cured. I know that this is healing - and it has come from God alone. The enemy meant destruction, but God has brought His healing power through all this. There were days that I doubted that this was God's healing, but now I am sure of it. At first I couldn't see His Hand, but I have seen how He has brought people to me that have recieved ministry just by being in the hospital.