The Whole Story

First I need to thank Greg for the delicate way he put things into words. He's definitely a keeper. But I'm going to swallow my pride and tell you about what's been happening (and not happening...)

It all started about five weeks ago, a week before our Seattle trip, and I was really gasping for breath in Dr. Tezcan's office. It was expained to me that if I took a pain pill every few hours it would help my airways relax and could help me not feel so frantic about breathing. They warned me that these pain pills cause constipation. So I was warned. But I thought to myself, "Well that might be a problem for some people, but not for me."

And everything was fine for several weeks! I enjoyed the way the pain pill relaxed my airways. Then last week I started to have the problems I was warned about. And Saturday morning at 4:00 a.m. I woke up with excruciating pain below my right ribcage. So I took some painpills and went back to bed. Greg called the doctor who was on call in the oncology ward and asked about controlling this pain. Unfortunately there was no discussion about what was causing the pain. And at this time, it honestly never occurred to us that this pain could be caused by constipation. It was so severe, we were thinking it was my liver being weird or something. I spent all of Saturday and Sunday in my bed with a heating pad and living for the four-hour span between doses of pain pills. And I was so loopy that I couldn't enjoy visiting with my family or anything.

Finally Monday morning we went to the ER and it seemed like they were able to diagnose my problem lickety-split. I was embarrassed and they reassured me that it was common for cancer patients to have this problem because of all the chemicals and drugs. I went home with something disgusting to drink that was guaranteed to get things going.

But thank goodness for my nurse friend, Nancy DeAustin. She's the one who really came to my rescue. She brought a wonerful dinner for us for Monday night and she gave me a recipe for an enema with molasses and whole milk that she said I could try if the guaranteed disgusting stuff I drank didn't kick in. She has been an ER nurse for years and she told me they use it in the hospital.

So here's an example of true love. Greg giving me that enema. And it worked! So I'm feeling like myself again and I won't be taking any pain pills for a long time. And my breathing has been great.

God has been teaching me about pride lately. It's amazing how He's able to use situations in our lives to bring us closer to Him. I am so grateful for your prayers. Love, Julie