A Year Ago....

The joy I feel in this milestone is good cause to celebrate by entering the blog world today. Mason has been vomit-less for a solid year now, an amazing feat considering the first 2+ years of his life were spent in a cycle of vomiting and confused family and doctors. We all adapted. doctors brushed it off, and the family always was quick to grab something to catch it all in. Isaiah even adapted well to this, many nights he would catch the results in the bowl stored by Masons bed, and then go back to sleep. Two long years of running when the retching began. He repeatedly marked Becki's house, our apartment, our house and our car. One time marking of territory honors went to Target, Maricopa city library, and our friend in Arizona who had a spotless kitchen. To my amazement, in never occurred at church, the doctors office, or the hospital (until the end). Oh how many times I just prayed it would happen at the doctors office, so the doctors could understand that I and the rest of the family weren't overreacting.
Anyhow, here is how the healing went down... quickly. For years, as I have mentioned we lived with this, ever since he was born. He would be sick for a week or two and then ok. For those years we saw doctors, ran tests, saw specialists, gave him all sorts of meds, had him in the hospital for dehydration... etc, etc. As we were getting ready to move to Arizona our wonderful Doctor at BYU, Dr. Joy Patten, had really done a lot of research and sketched out quite the plan of what she wanted tested and pretty much anything it could be. When we got to Arizona, and it hit again, I went to a new doctors office and had a physicians assistant run some of the suggested tests. One night he called with some results and told us to head to the hospital. He suggested Phoenix Children's... which really was our life saver. After a week of being there and being frustrated with the lack of answers.... again, we pretty much insisted that he be released so we could go home. As we were packing up to leave Mason finally did it and threw up in front of the staff. They had caught the gift in a bed pan, and were able to measure that the 2 1/2 cups that I had been measuring for a year now was no exaggeration. We stayed, and a wonderful resident doctor tracked down the GI specialist who requested an upper GI radiograph be taken (we had done this 2 times already, with "nothing significant" showing), I was skeptical, but they did it... and wala.. they found his lower intestine was folded over on top of itself (a volvus). Emergency surgery was done, recover was slow... but we have our little boy healthy and strong. I can't believe the change in a year, and really don't know how we got through the others (It really is so hard to see a little one sick and not be able to do anything).
So tonight I hold an extra thanks in my heart for my family who was so empathetic, Dr. Patten who kept trying, Isaiah for being so patient and helpful thru it all, Phoenix childrens who had keen Radiologists, Dr. Shub the GI specialist, who won't take anyones word for diagnosis again; the resident Dr. who tracked Dr. Shub down, Dr. Nortrica and Dr. Bryce who did the surgery; My mom who babysat during the long days and the hospital and after; Clint for getting my through the breakdowns; Mason for being so tough and brave through it all; and that sweet baby Ruby who eased my stress as I held her during those days at the hospital; and God for helping everything to fall into place. Heres to another healthy year! Good job everyone.

Mason today---