It all started last weekend when we went to Denver to celebrate the marriage of Mr & Mrs Darnell! (Sorry no pictures as I got a new phone and all the pictures are on the old phone!) It was a great weekend being just the two of us while my parents were watching Reid. Unfortunately Nathan wasn't feeling the best but he put on his big boy pants and we made the most of our weekend away! On our way home, we were running a bit behind but still on time for our flight. As we were attempting to check our bag the lady refused to let us check it d/t needing to have them checked 45 min before departure of your flight... we still had 55 min before our flight left. So not cool. After standing in line inside we found out all the KC bound flights were booked for the remainder of the day so we had to fly stand by, BOOOO! At 1:00 we went to the gate and asked if any seats were open - only to find out that we never got on the stand by list... awesome. We were starting to get a bit upset at this point. Long story short they were able to get me on the 1:00 flight but Nathan had to stay behind already not feeling well. He had no luck getting on the 3:30 flight and it was starting to look like he might be spending the night sick in the airport - luckily he got the last seat on the 5:00 flight. So after that really, REALLY long day he got home around 9:30 Sunday.
Fast forward through the next week and he stayed home on the 5th of November as he wasn't feeling well and needed a day to rest. As the week had progressed he was having more and more problems every time he ate food. By the weekend he would eat a small meal, begin to have cramps and need a bathroom ASAP within 30 mins of eating and then continue going to the bathroom every 30 min after. On average he was going to the bathroom about 25-30 times in a 24 hour period. He was getting hardly any nourishment d/t his body being unable to digest anything as well as becoming slowly dehydrated. We ended up getting a juicer and started making juice everyday which seemed to be giving him a little pep in his step again.
Over the weekend I was in a seminar, he took Reid to his parents on Saturday so he could rest while Reid played with his Papa! (both Gma and Gpa are called Papa around here.) His mom wanted to take him to the hospital on Saturday but he insisted he just needed to sleep and he'd be fine. Sunday night was really rough, he had such bad cramps that he couldn't sleep nor go the the bathroom. Finally he was able to go to the bathroom and fell to sleep out of exhaustion. He attempted to go to school Monday morning but by the end of first hour could barely keep his head off his desk. He texted me saying he was going to the doctor and would let me know what they said.
Within about 2 min of his appointment the doctor said he needed to go to the ER NOW for an IV and further testing. He stopped by my office before heading to the ER - quite frankly he looked like a skeleton - he was white as a ghost and his eyes were sunken with dark circles around them. I'm pretty sure I gave him a double take! So he headed to the ER and I followed shortly after. By the time I got there he was hooked up to an IV with fluids and some pain meds and had already had an abdominal C/T. Immediately I noticed there was more color and life in his eyes. The C/T results came back around 1:30 and showed no cancer, tumors, blockage etc. It did however show severe inflammation/thickening of the entire colon (large intestine). Around 3:00 he was admitted to the hospital while we waited for a consult with the GI specialist. The consult was supposed to happen around 6-7 that night, we didn't see him until 9:30! He confirmed the inflammation from the C/T scan and finally gave him a dx of Ulcerative Colitis. This whole episode has been a flare up of the UC and they started him on anti-inflammatories to stop the flare up and let his body start to heal as well as steroids to jump start the whole process. He'll be on the steroids for about 2-3 months as they have to taper him off. The anti-inflammatories are more of a long term thing for a few years most likely. Of course these are the most expensive at $760/month - yes you read that right per month! Thankfully prescriptions go toward his deductible, we are finally going to get our money's worth for our monthly insurance premiums!! (trying to look at the bright side here ;)
By Tuesday noon, he was looking and acting like himself again - making jokes and smiling - so good to see that smile!!! Last night was a little rough as he finally ate again but NOTHING like the last week! Now we are looking forward to getting back to normal and getting some weight back on him - to give you perspective he is 6'5" and weighed 210 in April 2014. Monday he weighed 171lbs - that's 40lbs people - 12lbs were lost since Nov 1st. YIKES!!!
Needless to say Monday was the LONGEST DAY EVER! We are happy to have daddy home and in one piece again!
I just want to say Thank you to everyone who has helped out with Reid over the last few days and next few days to come as I'm back to work now. It means so much to know how many people in our lives are ready to drop everything to help us out if needed. Thanks and we love you all!
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