A New Pediatric GI Doctor

Yesterday, I took Pace for a second opinion. Pace is still in Pain and nothing we were trying was helping. In fact one of the things was actually making it worse. The next thing our GI Doctor wanted to try just didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. Now, I freely admit that I'm not a trained Doctor and I haven't been to med school. However, I am a mom and something inside just told me that we should get a second opinion. I just can't stand seeing my boy in pain and not being able to do anything for him.

So, we made the call to another GI and we got in yesterday. Our other doctor was nice, this doctor was personable. He played games with Pace and made him feel at ease. He actually talked to Pace as well as me and that made him feel included in the process. He took his time with us and he laughed with Pace. Most of all he used words that I can understand and validated my feelings that the route we were about to take with the other Doctor wasn't necessarily the best route to take. I left very thankful for my gut feelings and mothers intuition.

Our next step is that Pace will have a upper GI done next Thursday morning. He will drink some contrast drink and they will take xrays of his intestines. This doctor thinks that his small intestine may be holding on to bacteria and that there may be an overgrowth of bacteria in his intestines. This can cause bloating, abdominal pain, excess gas (Pace's belly is FULL of gas that we could see on the ultrasound), and distension. ALL of the symptoms that Pace has. In the "meantime" he is treating Pace with an antibiotic that is meant to get rid of the overgrowth in his intestine.

So we are hopeful for answers and I finally feel a peace about the direction we are heading with him. I'm praying that this antibiotic will help him find some relief. Thank you for all your prayers for us and our little man! We are very thankful for your care and concern for all of us!

Extreme Couponing or Hoarding?

OK so I talked about this on Facebook yesterday but this is really irritating me!!! Wednesday night I watched my first episode of "Extreme Couponing" on TLC. I found myself getting ANGRY as I watched this show. Let me explain .... The ladies that are doing this - I get the desire to save your family money and for SAHM's to stretch the funds each month. I LOVE it - However, the point that these women who were on Wednesday are at, are doing more than just providing for their families ... I believe they are hoarding.

One woman on the show had $33,000 worth of stockpiled groceries taking over her basement. There's NO WAY her family will eat all that food and she continues to ADD to her stash each week. She could give away 3/4 of her stockpile to families in need around her, a local food pantry, a church, a homeless mission, a shelter for women and children, a pregnancy center, oh the list could go on and on. She actually said that if she were to lose her stockpile that it would be as bad as losing a member of her family - seriously! To lose food would be as bad as losing a living breathing family member?!? I'm not sure how she could even make this statement.

Here's what I'd love to see (TLC if you happen upon this blog for some weird reason) - Let's do a show on extreme couponers who are making a difference in their communities. Let's see them take their skill in couponing and do something with their excess for those who have less than them, those that are suffering in this economy, those who are struggling to put food on the table for their families each month. I'm all for having a stockpile and I applaud these that can do it and only spend $0.45 or something crazy small like that, but lets help others with what we don't need or won't use.

I guess it just struck a chord with me. I have friends who are struggling right now to feed their family, pay their rent, pay their bills and see a show like this and I think "Wow, look how much good they could do." And maybe they do, but with a basement full of $33,000 in groceries ... I see SO MUCH GOOD that could be done instead of dusting that food pile each week.

May 7, 2011

May 7th this year is a date that has changed our family forever, it was our original due date with the baby we lost in September and it was also my Dad's Birthday. Anyway, the day started like any other. Jeremy's parents were in town to celebrate Pace's 5th Birthday with us. They left right after breakfast. We had some errands to run so we got to it. Pace delivered some of the toiletry loot he got at his party to the school/church that he attended. They were taking up a donation for the tornado victims in Alabama.

On our way home, I asked Jeremy if he thought we should stop at the store and buy a test. I knew I was late but I was just thinking it was stress from all that we had going on with Pace and his medical stuff. The LAST thing I thought was we were pregnant. We were doing our best to prevent this from happening. So Jeremy ran in and bought a box of tests and we went home. Again, I did NOT expect it to be positive ... He didn't either.

He and the kids began washing the car. I ran in and thought I'd just get it over with. I was SHOCKED when I saw what it said ... I ran to Jeremy and gave it to him and said this HAS TO BE WRONG .... I told him I'd do it again the next morning and it would be negative :) It wasn't.

We were scared out of our minds. In the past 6 months we have had two miscarriages and the idea of facing a third was overwhelming to say the least. I think I cried for a couple hours - because I was scared, fearful, overwhelmed and wondered if this pregnancy would some how "make it".

We decided to keep it quiet for a while. We didn't want to tell people only to have to go back and tell again that we were not. We told a few close friends and asked them to pray for us, especially for me and my fears.

Well, fast forward 3 weeks and we were able to see a tiny little heartbeat on Friday. We still know that anything can happen, but we decided to share our news and trust that God was doing something and we needed to trust him. Jeremy is still freaking out - his reasons totally manly and different than mine. His fears lie with my health since Pace and Kennedy's pregnancy were so difficult on me and with our finances after the baby is here. My fears are totally just making it to the birth and having a crying/healthy baby on the other side. We are both leaning on God and trusting that he has everything under control and that He will continue to take care of us and our family.

We are beginning to get excited for this new life and starting to dream about what being a family of 6 will be like. Starting to look out for bargain deals on baby stuff as we gave away everything we had :) Dreaming is scary but I have to trust my God and no mater what the outcome, I know he holds me in the palm of his hand. So, we have decided to try our best to not live in fear and to enjoy this process just as we did before the miscarriages.

So if you think about it, you can pray that for us and pray for a healthy baby and pregnancy.