Patience and Wisdom

Hi Friends and Family,

Tonight we are praying specifically for patience (for Michelle especially) and wisdom for the doctors.

Michelle has experienced an increase in pain this past week (as I think I mentioned before) as well as increased headaches. She contacted the immunologists late last week - one doctor recommended going back on to steroids for another 3 months as she felt this was a "flare-up". The other immunologist (in the same clinic) is recommending that we wait another week and re-assess. He said Michelle's "muscles had a big injury so he's not surprised that she hurts all over". Therefore, he increased Michelle's pain meds as he (and we) want to keep Michelle off steroids if possible as she's already been taking them for 2 months. She is still taking the methotrexate for at least another 6 months as well.

Michelle mentions that the pain she is experiencing now is a different kind of pain than before, in that "the muscles feel like they've all been pulled, not the burning pain she originally had." Also, her headache has improved somewhat, although we don't know if that was related to steroid withdrawal or if the pain meds are having some affect on that too. Regardless, it's been a rather difficult week for Michelle.

So, we try (and pray) to wait patiently on the Lord asking Him for wisdom re: the course of treatment/action we are to follow and that the doctors can effectively diagnose the cause of this new pain. We give praise too that the results of the abnormal mammography/BSGI all came back negative! Even though that wasn't the biggest concern for us, it's good to be able to close that window. More to come later this week... We thank God for each and all of you standing in the gap for us in thoughts and prayers! Thank you!

Jack (Michelle, Julia, and Jaclyn)

An update (of sorts)

Hello Dear Friends and Family,

I call this an update "of sorts" as we really do not have much to update. Several have asked about the test results of Monday's BSGI test, but we still have not heard anything back. Apparently St Paul Radiology did not properly send over the previous mammogram image for the Rads at St John's to use as a comparison (same Rad group reads both?), so as of tonight our primary care doctor did not have any results yet to share (also a reason I haven't blogged for a few days).

Michelle has not been feeling really well lately (the last few days). She has had a headache since Monday night and has had a lot of pain return. She contacted her Immunologist again who is now saying he wants to put Michelle back on more steroids. Michelle's prior steroid pill prescription has tapered off this last Monday so we were hoping that maybe Michelle was feeling some of the "withdrawal" that we were expecting? Michelle went in this evening at the Immunologist's request to get another baseline blood draw for when they start her on steroids again - so we should hear the results of that tomorrow. They will check CK levels and several other things too. An item of praise is that Michelle tested out driving again on Wednesday night and this morning was able to take the girls to Shakopee for an outing with the Boschs and Beckerings! I think she really enjoyed the freedom that comes with that!

The other news is that we're an "empty house" again. We were sad to say "Goodbye" to my brother Mark who left yesterday morning back to West Michigan. We really appreciated the time he spent taking care of the girls, walks to the park, making cookies from scratch with Julia, and two fabulous dinners for all of us! I'm attaching two pictures of one of the park times (Jaclyn and Julia still ask when "Uncle Whiskers" is coming back).

I will write again once we have some more results to share. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers on our behalf!
Love,
Jack (Michelle, Julia, and Jaclyn)

The beginning of another week...

Mom and Dad Brouwer left for home this morning and my brother Mark came late this afternoon! The girls were sad to see Mom and Dad leave but excited to see Uncle Mark who they adore. We want to thank Mom and Dad Brouwer for spending the last 11 days with us, helping take care of the girls, us, and the house. The girls had a lot of fun playing with them and spending quality time together. Dad even spent one whole day holding Jaclyn when she was so sick last week with a high fever, she just wanted to cuddle with Grandpa. We were also able to get several "projects" done around the house and we were even able to catch a Twins/Tigers game - the Twins won, sorry Mom and Dad :-)!

Scott Mellema helped with one of those projects. He sacrificed A LOT of time to help us lay tile in our bathroom (Dad pulled out the carpet). The tile looks great - thanks so much Scott!

A huge thank you to both Linda Ribbens and Marcia Pulscher for making us homemade, delicious meals. We have been so blessed by our Calvary family!

Michelle is doing really well. The combination of steroid drugs seems to be working great. She is just tired early in the evening and her arms still hurt but only at night. Her energy is back and she can't wait to start physical therapy Aug. 1st to gain back her muscle strength. Please pray for Michelle tomorrow as she has her BSGI test at St. John's hospital.

Mom and Dad Brouwer

Mom and Dad have had a lot of fun with the girls! The first pictures are of Julia and Grandma planting. They both love flowers! Check out Julia's gardening attire :-) The last picture was of an intense soccer game - Jaclyn and Grandma vs Julia (see Jaclyn sacrificing her body :-) ).

Tomorrow we'll post another update on what and how we've been doing the last few days!

Edgerton Memories

Here are some cute pictures the girls wanted to add. The first pictures are Julia and Jaclyn taking their daily ride with Grampa Gramps on the lawn tractor. The next picture is of Julia and Jaclyn helping Grandma hang wash outside - they were so proud to be able to help! The next picture is of Julia in her favorite fishing hat getting ready to leave with Grampa Gramps on one of their daily fishing excursions. The last picture is Jaclyn on one of the bike rides. The girls still ask when they can go back to Edgerton to stay with Grandma and Grampa Gramps.