Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Where did the last 2 months go?

Thank you Karen for sending me a gentle reminder that I desperately needed to update my blog! Yikes! 2 months since my last post?!

Where do I even begin? Well, in my last post I mentioned that I was going to go visit a doctor to address my unexplainable symptoms. Here's what's happened since then:

  • Saw my primary physician - He recommended that I get a brain MRI
  • Had my brain MRI and "they" the doctors found lesions on my brain
  • The doctors thought my symptoms + brain lesions could be suspectible of Multiple Sclerosis
  • So they sent me on my way to see a neurologist - I wasn't overly impressed with him.
  • So I went and saw an MS specialist north a good two hours - excellent doctor!
  • He ordered for me to have a spinal MRI to see if there were lesions there, and about 15 labs (bloodwork) to eliminate other problems like thryoid etc.
  • Had my spinal MRI and bloodwork done and everything came back negative, as in they found nothing
  • So for now they're saying it's not MS - I'm content with that, and willing to put everything on the back burner for a while and watch it from the sidelines. I'll re-address it if my symptoms continue to progress - I'll also have another brain MRI in about a year to see where things are concerning the lesions.
  • Then two days later I started having lower GI bleeding with incredible abdominal pain.
  • Went back to my doctor - He ordered for me to have an abdominal and pelvic CT scan
  • They test came back negative - again they found nothing
  • Went and saw a GI specialist - he ordered for me to DETOX - ate a lot of lean lean food for the week and drank two bottles of magensium citrate to flush my system out. I feel AMAZING! And all of my GI symptoms are gone.

It has been and was a very challenging semester for me - but you know what's beautiful about all of this, I look back on it and THANK GOD for it! He used this trial for my good - He used it for His glory, and he also used it to benefit me and others in the Christian realm.

Nursing school is going incredibly well - I'm excited by it every day and fall more in love with it even as things progressively get harder. On Friday I had my first OR (operating room) day. I got to observe a triple bypass (open heart surgery), a craneotomy (brain surgery where they removed a tumor from the frontal lobe) and a colon (large intestine) resection. To say the least, it was absolutely thrilling! I've always thought that i'd eventually go into LND (Labor and Delivery) but now I'm thinking I just might gravitate towards the OR. Only time will tell!

I'm going to be an aunt again in less than 2 months - Amy is due on New Years!

Nate comes out in 5 weeks! Who's nate you ask? Feel free to ask me and I'm more than willing to share!

Leaving tomorrow morning for Ohio! It's a long-standing tradition (literally since I was a little girl) - we spend Thanksgiving with mom's side of the family every year - it's our favorite holiday, yes even over Christmas!

Well - I need to get packing for tomorrow - hopefully it won't be another 2 months before I write again!

2 comments:

andrea_jennine said...

Glad you updated, Brenna. How exciting about the OR observations!

Katie said...

Thanks for updating. I just marvel at God's amazing grace in your life and the miracle of how you're feeling! Praise God!