Megan Dec 2011
I know what you must be thinking – it’s not real….or she didn’t mean it.
Well, I did mean it and still stand by it. Here is the post that details the event. November 2009 was a year that Megan was healed, but something more important than her stomach and gastroparesis was healed.
Her Heart, Spirit and Will were healed.
She had been beaten down mentally by the doctors not believing us so much so that nothing mattered. She was physically exhausted from throwing up everything. She was broken and I watched helplessly, praying and trusting God to mend what I couldn’t. He did.
A year later, her gastroparesis has flared up again. She went back on medicine and things were going well. She still dealt with daily pain, but digested her food. Now, two years later, It’s not just sever stomach pain every time she eats, no. She is not digesting solids at all. It’s been since before Thanksgiving since her stomach just stopped working….out of the blue.
Take your worst flu and multiply the symptoms by about 100 and that is what gastroparesis patients suffer with.
We center so much around food and eating. It’s not noticeable until someone you love dearly is not able to enjoy eating.
She is 17 and has battled this in some fashion or another since she was 12. It was only late 2009 that we even knew what it was that she was battling.
Christmas 2011
As I look at her, wishing I could take her pain, wishing I could change places with her, my heart thinks of all the moms out there that watch their child fight cancer and other diseases. Their strength amazes me. Their courage amazes me.
Her strength amazes me. She deals with this daily but is also enjoying life daily. She struggles with being exhausted and sleeps more than most teens but still looks for and finds the blessings of the day. She still would rather not have milkshakes, due to the fact that we are forcing them in her as it is a liquid that will stay.
Recent conversations go something like this…
No….no food today, have liquids. It needs to be a throw up free day.
You ate yesterday, you can eat next week.
My favorite was in a restaurant when the waiter asked if she was ok because she only had a tea, she replied. I ate yesterday and get to eat on Christmas. (Christmas was a week later)
Yes, she struggles. Yes this is awful and yes – I’m afraid at times. But, I can say YES, I’m trusting the Lord with her again…just as i did back in 2009 when so many came together to pray for a little girl they didn’t know.
So, the tests begin again. If medicine doesn’t work, if they don’t find out what caused this flare up (like gallbladder or something else) then she may have to have a pacemaker put on her stomach.
I come to you asking for your prayer for my princess.
Thank you for praying, for boldly going to the throne of grace on her behalf.
Thank you for your friendship, love and care.
You bless me.
Thank you.
To peek at a little of what Megan has endured, other than the chronic daily pain of Gastroparesis, click HERE to read her story
UPDATE: March 2012
I just wanted to update you on Megan’s progress or lack thereof.
Poor choices and extreme stress has caused this episode of her stomach being paralyzed. The medicine is still not helping but we are praying that since wiser choices are being made that the stress of it being gone will enable her stomach to fully function again.
She has to start over…meaning – liquids for a week or so, and then introduce small portions of soft solids at a time. After 7 days of liquids only and no throwing up, she may try a scrambled egg. If that stays, we can keep that and slowly introduce soft solids to her diet. Should something not stay in the process, we go back a step.
I’m hoping that 3/10/12 we can take her to IHOP and let her have Green Eggs and Ham. Her favorite book as a child was Green Eggs and Ham. If they stay down (mostly the eggs) then this will be a huge positive step!
This is going to be a long journey and already HAS been as she has not been able to eat solids since 11/2011.
Everything we do is centered around food. Teen functions are centered around food as well and this makes the day to day living of a 17 year old girl hard…and makes it hard for her mom to simply watch and not be able to fix it.
I cannot thank you enough for your prayers. Your prayers, encouragements, emails and messages have not only encouraged us, but it also inspires and strengthens us.
Without your prayers, there is no way I would have had the energy, resources and ability to make Christmas Joy happen last year – as that was happening right in the middle of all of these personal issues. And we are still being strengthened by them so that we can continue to spread joy and make a difference for others even though we are walking through our own personal valley of challenges.
We are simply going to look up from this valley and enjoy the majestic view.
We are going to choose and cause joy along the way and continue to be the voice that says there can be and IS joy…even when the tears are falling.
Thank you seems so small at this point, but it comes from the heart.
Thank you for your continued prayers and for how you support Spreading Joy Corporation. You enable us to continue to shout that there is no joy like spreading joy!
© 2011 – 2012, Spreading Joy. All rights reserved.
Marie,
I will lift your daughter up in prayer for healing, strength, and a mega-dose of faith. I will lift you up in prayer for strength, wisdom, knowledge, and a mega-dose of faith as well. It’s difficult at times to figure things like this out and how all of it works in God’s grand plan… but it will work out. Keep the faith and both of you keep on praising Jesus! I pray a multiplied blessing of peace, faith and joy to both of you. Please, keep me informed of how she is doing.
Ken Smith recently posted..Turn or Burn?
Thank you all for your prayers for Megan. We will get the results of her ultra sound on friday. Here spirits are still good, her tolerance for pain is as high as normal and the laughter is as lively.
Praying this allows her (and me) to continue to draw closer to the Lord and our faith to increase.
I’m blessed by you, your prayers and friendships!
{{HUGS}}
@spreadingJOY
I prayed for strength and wisdom surrounding this precious child of Gods.
I prayed for strength and wisdom surrounding this precious child of God.
Heard from the nurse at the Drs office this morning. All ultra sound tests were normal. so, its use the new medicines & “business as usual” for a month and then we go back if no solids still aren’t staying down.
thank you for praying. she has huge dreams and was even invited to attend college classes this summer at Stanford in CA. Providing she is better and can get a scholarship, I’d love for her to enter her senior year of high school with Stanford classes under her belt.
you guys bless me more than you know.
{HUGS}
@spreadingJOY
Marie,
God IS able! We will press in with you, joining our faith with yours, as we believe for Megan’s healing. It’s miracle-working time, hallelujah!
Phillip
Phillip Williams recently posted..The Blessing Of Confessing
Praying Marie. May God send physicians and lab technicians with the vision of an expert, to see what is hidden, and to construct a solution to her misery. May she be comforted and healed, in Jesus precious name. Amen.
Thanks for posting this Marie. I will pray. I have forwarded your link to someone I know whose daughter is going through something similar. They have not diagnosed her. For months she was fed through a tube at 15 yrs old. Not in school, etc. Maybe your diagnosis can help diagnose her, although they’ve been to the best of hospitals. I’m praying for that girl and will add Megan! May God grace your family with healing. May you continue to be a light of joy for all to see.
Blessings and bloom. Jan
Dear Jesus, You prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies, please Lord Jesus, enable this child of Yours to eat… in your name i pray Lord Jesus Christ and in You are an ever present help in time of need…
Megan is still not digesting solids. She wants to eat (like every normal teen) but still cant.
she has to have an upper GI and an endoscopy done. the hospital will call to schedule them. they are looking at her stomach to see if something, some infection type thing is causing this flare up.
she is back on the Erythromycin which causes her stomach to contract. it had stopped working, so he pulled her off of it for 8 weeks.
Here spirit continues to be good, but here energy level continues to diminish.
thank you for your continued prayers for her, you’ll never know who much i appreciate you.
{{HUGS}} @spreadingJOY
Thanks for update Marie. Megan is often on my mind and I continue to join you and everyone else in lifting her to our Healer.
Love n hugs
Louise
Wed 7/25/2012 – almost excactly 3 years since we found out what Megan has – we are now heading up to see a new dr this morning at wake forest baptist hospital. bigger hospital and dr that is familiar with putting pacemakers on stomachs.
imagine your worst flu, (which i had last week) the pain in your stomach and the vomiting. that is what she goes through with each meal. the pain is almost always there. she has built up a tolorance for pain so much so that she once walked around on a broken foot and we didn’t know it.
i KNOW beyond a doubt that God is going to use this. I know that this is what she needs in her life right now, but I also know that this is my baby and i’d do anything to change places with her so she can enjoy being a Senior in High School this fall.
she is doing well, laughing, loving life to the fullest. just pray that she has the courage to take the next steps that God wants her to boldly take. that is hard for any of us at any age…much less a 17 yr old.
thanks for praying for my daughter. thanks for praying for us and for wisdom for Spreading Joy and how we can reach more people.
thank you
{{HUGS}} @spreadingJOY
Marie recently posted..Gift of God’s Grace
I’m praying and believing for God’s healing through this surgery! Trusting the Lord’s wisdom, grace and mercy to attend Megan as she heads into her senior year. I know God will use the experience in both of your lives for His Kingdom purposes and it will be a wonderful testimony for all to hear.
Sending big (((Hugs))) to you all.
Praying for Megan, hoping huge in God. It is so hard to wrap our finite minds around an Infinite and Sovereign Will of God. It is hard to understand suffering and it hurts so much to see those we love suffer and grow through things in which we would love to take their place, because we love them so. Kind of like the Father God must have felt when He sent His Son Jesus to die for us. My finite mind can’t wrap around that one either. I pray God’s healing for Megan and I hope His peace wraps around your soul Mari! I do know this and I can wrap my mind around this: Jesus loves you and Megan, He is with you and even though His Sovereign Will is hard to swallow at times, His Infinite Love is a part of that package. The Sovereign Will of God is never without His Infinite love and if His Will seems hard to adapt to, His Infinite love is right there and we can cling to it, we can dig our roots deeply in it. The Sovereign Will of God is active in our now, it is what we live, breathe and have our being in right now, yet the Infinite Love of Jesus, it adds another dimension of HOPE and points us to our great future and helps us settle our souls in the now with the hope of our future in God’s Kingdom. Hoping HUGE in AWE-GOD. Asking for the most, expecting it and respecting His Sovereignty! Love ya!
visit was good today. the dr. office will get insurance approval of 4 different tests. we’ll get them scheduled and depending on the results, we’ll go from there.
thank you soo much for praying for my princess.
{{HUGS}} yall
Next test is 9/11/2012. he things something is preventing her food from even making it to her stomach. thank you for praying for her, for lifting us up and for how you shine in the darkness for others.
There is no way I could ever be spreading joy, working full time, taking care of a family, missing my son who is in college and all the other things I do, without your prayers.
i’m honored and truly blessed by YOU.
you matter
you make such a huge difference
YOU bless me.
thank you
Marie recently posted..Shine for HIM
She had a 4 hour test today. she only made it through 2.5 hours of it. I’m super proud of her. she amazes me.
imagine your worst flu symptoms and “needing to vomit” and then someone there for 2.5 hours saying, “you can do it, hold it in…don’t puke. you are doing a great job, come on – one more hour”
that is what she endured today. i just pray that the dr will take the results and quickly figure a way to help her digest solids again. november 2012 will be year that her stomach has been paralyzed.
your prayers, words of encouragement and support amaze me. thank you from the bottom of my heart!
{{HUGS}}
@spreadingJOY
Marie recently posted..2012 Back To School Event
More tests for my daughter next week. frustrated with dr office today as they told me to call @ end of oct 2 make follow up appt. crazy!
he said digestive test was “normal up to the point she vomited” whatever that means.
i’m at a loss
i don’t understand
i’m trusting God with her, but man…i do wish He would hurry up.
thank you for praying.
{{HUGS}}
@spreadingJOY
Marie recently posted..Prayer for Today
the dr. office finally called today – her test was over 2 weeks ago and they still haven’t read the results yet.
i called last friday, last monday and yesterday. and they wait this long to call. first the lady insists on speaking with megan. the 3rd time, i tell her meg is a minor and i’m her mother and she WILL speak to me. then she tells me that the dr hasn’t read the tests yet. seriously??????
i’m super frustrated. i’m trying really hard to be kind, i really am but its getting difficult. i was doing some research into the tests that they put her through and it looks like what she has (if i’m correct) will take a simple surgery to correct it. if only they will see her.
thats a big if right now.
i don’t know. i truly just don’t know right now.
i’ve been thinking about when she’ll be better, thinking about my blessings, but the tears of frustrations just won’t stop right now.
i don’t know.
thank you for praying, reading and caring. your heart for my princess amazes me.
you bless me
@spreadingJOY
Marie recently posted..Becoming
after NOT being able to get her a follow up appointment from tests that were done in Sept 2012 – i had her tests sent over to her local dr at Levines Childrens Center here in Charlotte.
Her appointment is today. i’m hoping he can tell us what is going on. it looks like Achalasia may be what the issue is. if so, a simple procedure will end this nightmare she has endured for over a year now and will be able to eat.
she isn’t just “refluxing some” of her food, ZERO of it goes down.
please pray that the dr’s eyes are open and a solution can be provided.
I know GOD has her
i know GOD will use this
I trust HIM with HER
thank you for praying
marie recently posted..No Posts Were Found!
This weeks dr. appt didnt go so well. i finally got a follow up appointment for her tests – Jan 30th 2013 – crazy right?? but received a phone call there was a last minute cancellation this MONDAY at 11 am.
please pray for the dr to have wisdom, for something to be said or done or seen that will allow him to truly direct us on the right path of healing.
please pray that the GREAT Physician has the opportunity to step in and lead the way, so my baby can go off to Bible college in january healthy and more energized to Serve the Lord”
thank you for praying, thank you for caring.
thank you
Marie
more testing on 12/10 for Megan. Over a year now and not able to keep solids down.
would you wrap this 18 year old girl in prayer? Would you ask God to show the doctors what is wrong with her and heal her?
one dr things her stomach has “learned” to reject food. another is just doing test after test to rule out anything that works.
praise the Lord that her stomach seems to be working, but nothing is getting through it – all but yogurt and applesauce comes back.
thank you for your prayers…for your love and for how you are spreading the JOY of the Lord by praying with us for her.
{{HUGS}}
Marie
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