Return to the ER...

We came back to the ER tonight. I spoke with our general practitioner. She talked us through the symptoms and recommended we return to the ER to get checked out. They did a thorough check including a CT scan of her chest. We found out that the blood clot is gone! There seems to be no residue of it left in her lung. Praise God! She will continue to be on the coumadin for the next 4 months. At this point, the spasms seem to be reflux related, which makes me say what is making the acid inflammed like that. Anyway, we are on the way home from the ER. Please pray for restful sleep and an uneventful day tomorrow. Hopefully we will get in touch with both of the doctors to review what happened. Thank you so much for your love and support. Talk with you soon.

Announcement....

We do want to let you all know of two big and important things that have happened recently:
#1 - I finished last night all my work left from the spring semester. HALLELUJAH! I am unsure of how things will turn out grade wise, but at least everything is done.

#2 - With the status of Beth's condition, we had to make some decisions about her continuing to work full-time. At this point we have decided to have her work half-time at the Freedom School. This decision was made primarily because the Lord truly laid a full-time job in our laps. As of two weeks ago, we have accepted the call for me to be the Director of Worship and Music at Twin Oaks Presbyterian Church here in St. Louis. This will require me to slow down in school, which required me to swallow some humble pie, but we believe this is the Lord's desire for us at this point. We are excited about this new opportunity and I am extremely anxious about the challenges that lie ahead in the job, but God continues to be faithful. The church has gone through some hard times recently itself, so we look forward to see how God will work through us in the body at Twin Oaks. So, we have reason to give thanks and praise the Lord. Please continue to pray for Beth's health. Thank you so much!

Unsure what to do...

We ask that you continue to pray. Beth has been taken off of Zoloft last week due to the reoccurrence of the pain in her esophagus. There just seems to be more going on here than anxiety. She is now suffering from hoarseness when speaking to folks and has pain in her chest and corresponding pain in her back. We are trying to speak to doctors, but they are all booked. We will hopefully speak to the GI doctor today and find out what we should do. We are weak and really wanting some answers. The question at this point is should we go back to the hospital? Should we go to another one and see if they can decipher what's going on? We called the insurance company and St. Louis University is within the network, so we are wondering if we should go there. Please pray for some answers, guidance, comfort from pain, and endurance through this time. Thank you all for your love and support.

Working with new medicines

Today we saw the doctor again. She is actually the psychiatrist who has been helping us with the anxiety portion of Beth's symptoms. Earlier in the week she prescribed Zoloft for Beth. This will give some help to Beth on a more long term basis than the Xanax is doing. We went into her office this morning to take the first pill. She was gracious to meet with us and walk us through this new endeavor for Beth which makes her anxious. Needless to say, since leaving the doctor's office, it has been a rough day for us. It seems to have worked up Beth's GI tract a little bit, which we knew would be one of the side effects. The doctor did indicate that these symptoms would work their way out, but it may take a couple days to a week or so. So, we still pray that God would give us peace during this time. It feels as though we are back to the start again, which is frustrating. Please pray for patience and the stamina to battle this. Please pray also for us to have the ability to look forward in hope to that one day when we will meet our Maker and we will no longer have any pain or sorrow, our bodies will be glorified and we will live eternally with the Father in peace. May we begin to have a foretaste of the peace to come. Blessings to you on this day. Thank you so much.

Ups and Downs continue....

We wanted to give a little up date on Beth's condition for those that are still reading. Beth has continued to have up days and down days. It seems primarily now that the symptoms continue to be anxiety related. The sublingual pill (Levsin) she has been taking and it seems to have taken care of the esophagus pain almost completely. She has mentioned yesterday and a little today that the pain is somewhat there. She still complains once and a while that food will get "stuck" in her esophagus. As well, she has really struggled with some sort of sore throat due to "gunk" being in there. All the tests which we had done two weeks ago now came back negative, so there is no news there. We have been speaking to several people and are now wondering if any of what Beth has been battling with is more chemically related than anything else, especially with the feelings of anxiety. So, we are checking into some of those things. At this point we truly don't have a diagnoses which has labeled everything going on. We continue to pray for God to sustain us with strength and patience as we endure this trial. We thank you for praying and encouraging us during this time. Thank you so much! Many blessings to you!