A long 3 months...

As some of you know, Brian has been pretty sick since the middle of October. We haven't known what the problem was until just this week. He has missed a lot of work and missed out on being a part of family things-instead, laying in bed feeling miserable. It was just an all-of-the-sudden kind of pain at the base of his esophagus that wasn't there one day and then was there the next. He called me from work to tell me he was feeling so bad he thought he might go to the hospital. It was the start of a very long 3 months. That night the kids and I (thankfully still pregnant and not with three kids) waited in the hospital waiting room while they took several tests. I ended up taking the kids home for dinner and going back for Brian. Several ER visits later, to not only the New Hampton hospital but also to Covenant in Waterloo, Brian finally made an appointment at Mayo clinic in Rochester, MN. That appointment was on January 5th. It was the start of us finally getting some answers. Brian's mom was able to watch Keziah so that I could go along. We met with a specialist that asked a lot of good questions about history and present-day stuff. We of course knew that wasn't going to be the last time we saw her. She scheduled him the following Monday and Tuesday to have several tests done. Monday the 11th Brian went down with his mom (I couldn't go) to have a scope done. Then early that afternoon they did a test where they had to insert a tube down his esophagus and attach it at the base. For a full 24 hour period he had to wear this tube coming out of his nose attached to a machine that he wore around his neck. This test measured the pH in two areas-his stomach and his esophagus. On Tuesday he had to go back and get the tube taken out and have an x-ray done. Then later in the afternoon he had to meet with Dr. Kelly to get the results of all his tests. Sometime in October of 2008 Brian had a surgery done that tied off a hiatal hernia. Apparently the wrap has come a little loose and is allowing acid to come back up into his esophagus. That doesn't necessarily explain the pain he is having but Dr. Kelly went ahead and referred him to a surgeon to talk about possibly re-doing the wrap on his hernia to see if maybe that would take care of the pain. Brian met with the surgeon last friday, Jan. 15th. The surgeon thinks the wrap needs to be redone and also thinks it is possible that the pain he is having could be caused by a nerve being pinched or leaned on by something. Brian goes in for surgery on February 5th to have the wrap redone. Please pray that everything goes smoothly and that the pain is fixed, that the doctors will do a good job and have a clear vision of what needs to be repaired. Recovery is much worse the second time around because they can't do it laparoscopically. He will be in Mayo for four nights and then he will have a 6-8 week recovery time after that. Also, pray for my sanity through the next three weeks until surgery while Brian is still in pain and then the months that follow surgery while he is recovering!!