little update, prayer request, and cool new song

Wednesday, September 30
Our time since being home from our latest Boston trip has been fairly non-descript... Faith did end up with a site infection around her g-tube a day or two after we got back. I am fairly sure I know why she got it, but I'm not going to go into it here. It is pretty much better now after a round of Keflex antibiotics, and that is what matters.
We have met our nutritionist and our OT from Early Intervention. We've actually had two appointments now with the OT. It is so nice that they come to the house and I don't have to figure out what to do with Noah and drag Faith out to appointments, especially with all the H1N1 hype.
We have been incredibly busy the past couple of weeks, with appointments at least 4 days a week, and usually more than one appointment on any given day. I am looking forward to things settling down a little, and really hope we won't have so many appointments soon.
We all got our flu shots on Monday, and will get the H1N1 vaccine as soon as it's available (the kids should be able to get it right away, and because of my underlying health issues, I should be right up there on the list of who can get it right away, too...), but I still don't like taking the kids out so much when the cold and flu are going around.
I got Faith a shopping cart cover the other day... I had never let her sit in the cart before, even though I always wipe them down. I am a weirdo I guess (or maybe it's just because of being a former TPN parent), and I have actually read the Clorox wipes canister, and know that in order to actually disinfect and kill the germs the surface has to stay wet for 3 minutes or something like that, and with a 17+ lb baby to hold and a crazy active 3 year old to wrangle, there's no way I can wait in the grocery store entrance to truly disinfect the cart... She is sitting really well now though, and she really likes riding in the shopping cart. I love to wear her in all the different baby carriers I have, but I am just starting to not be able to as easily anymore... (partly because she's getting so heavy, and partly because my pain is getting worse).
This is Faith's blog, so I don't want to go into detail about my health, but I do think it pertains to some extent... If it weren't for my health issues, we would most likely never have gone in for an ultrasound, and would not have found out about Faith's gastroschisis before she was born. We would have most likely had our planned home birth, and because her cord ruptured at birth, she most likely would have died. So, as strange as it is, I actually am thankful that I have these issues. What I am not thankful for is the fact that no doctor, as yet, has been able to determine what exactly to call it.
I have now seen two rheumatologists and a neurologist, I've had lots of bloodwork, an MRI of my head, and EEG, and EMG's of all 4 extremities as well as the muscles in my legs. Other than the fact that I have a positive ANA (1:640 and speckled pattern), all the other tests are either normal or inconclusive. Which on one hand is a good thing, because it might mean I don't have anything really wrong, but on the other hand really isn't good, because it means I have all these symptoms and no one knows why.
The rheumatologist I am currently seeing did put me on a medication used to treat lupus, pretty much because he doesn't know what else to do or what exactly is wrong with me, and he is using it to try and more definitively diagnose me. Basically, if the medication makes me feel better, he'll feel more confident either saying it's lupus, or "undifferentiated connective tissue disease", which would probably lead to lupus. If the medication doesn't work, he won't know what else to do with me, and will probably tell me that he doesn't think I have lupus or UCTD, despite my symptoms. I am sort of hoping the medication works... at least then we'll have more of an idea what's going on. If it doesn't work, he'll probably be done with me, and I'll have to continue on with other types of doctors.
I am going to see another neurologist at the end of October, and I am planning to insist that this doctor do some more testing for MS. Many of my newer symptoms aren't typical lupus symptoms, but are pretty common MS symptoms (my grandma has MS and I've talked to her about it, and a LOT of my symptoms are very similar to hers when she first got it), and if I have MS, the medication the rheumatologist has me on isn't going to help or keep it from progressing. The neurologist I am currently seeing said that 80% of the time, if you have MS it will show up on an MRI, so since my MRI was normal, she is assuming I don't have it... but 20% seems like a pretty big chance to still have something and not know for sure... especially since my chances of having a baby with Faith's birth defect were 1 in 5000, which is WAY less than 20%.
Anyway, that's enough about my health. If you pray, please pray that God would just heal me... that the lack of definitive tests could be a sign that total healing is in store for me. I don't want to need medications for the rest of my life, I'm awful at taking pills and don't want to be dependent on meds forever. I want to be able to do the things a normal 25-year old should be able to do, I want to be able to make a trip to the grocery store without limping by the end, I want to not have my hands and feet go numb countless times a day for no apparent reason, I want to not have days where I have to concentrate just to speak normally or write, I want to be able to hike a 14-er with Dave and the kids someday! Please pray that God would ease my stress, bring resources into my life to help me manage everything that needs to get done, and that by having my stress relieved, I could feel better.
I heard an awesome song on the way home from Bible study last Wednesday. It was one of those "meant to happen" things... I had a passing thought that I should get off the interstate one exit before the one I normally would get off at, but didn't. It turned out that my usual exit, as well as the three after it, were blocked off for road construction (gotta love that stimulus), and I had to go 2 towns past my exit, get off the interstate, and get back on going in the opposite direction. I was a little ticked, and kicking myself for not listening to that little voice in my head that said I should have gotten off early. Then, I pulled into the driveway, and this song came on the radio, and I knew then that God had brought those obstacles into my drive home so that I could hear this song and be encouraged. I can't add the song to the blog playlist, so I am going to just post a link to it on YouTube, since that's the only place I can find it right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzV_O927Vi0
Speaking of music, if anyone local to me happens to be interested in going to the Casting Crowns/Matt Redman concert in Denver on Friday night (Oct 2) I would LOVE to go, but have no one to go with... email me if you'd want to!