I visited with a friend and her husband today and they asked how the diet is coming which lead to questions about how long Eric has been dealing with symptoms. As I explained how he has felt over the last five plus years, I was shocked that we thought it was normal or okay for him to feel the way he did.
It started Easter 2008, Eric got sick for four or five days with severe diarrhea. At the point we started to really worry, he got better and felt okay for about a month, then he was sick again for several days. This cycle continued for six months before Eric went to the doctor. Because the doctor had no idea what was wrong with Eric and Eric's family history of colon cancer it was decided to do a colonoscopy at the American Fork Hospital. I was rather unimpressed with the Gastrointestinal Doctor who performed the procedure. He was rude and arrogant from the beginning. He told me Eric has microscopic colitis and that nothing could be done. Live with it. So he did. For over five years Eric has "lived" with stomach craps, vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and more. It was normal for him to pass on dinner because he felt too sick to eat or for him to get so sick he would lose five to ten pounds in a week. Not sure how we thought this was okay!
Eric was miserable and constantly in pain. Now that he is not in pain he realizes how he just got use to his stomach always hurting - it became his norm.
I felt horrible. He works so hard and was suffering so much. I prayed for a miracle. I prayed that he might be healed some how. I especially prayed for a miracle when he was in school and in the bishopric getting hardly any sleep and dealing with large amounts of stress. I just wasn't sure his body could deal with it. Surely Heavenly Father could heal him, could take away some of the pain.
The miracle finally came after years of praying. In late September of this year, Eric was scheduled for another colonoscopy (because of the family history of colon cancer). Luckily, our move caused Eric to have the procedure done at IMC with Dr. Frech. Dr. Frech questioned Eric why someone so young would be getting a colonoscopy and told him there was no way he had microscopic colitis. Males his age do not get mircoscopic colitis. After the procedure Dr. Frech told Eric that he does have mircoscopic colitis but that it is curable and that he believed it was caused by advance signs of untreated Celiac disease. Noooooo Not Celiac!!!
We had a week before we knew for sure that Eric had Celiac and we feasted on gluten. Top on the list was homemade cherry pie and pizza. Eric's blood work came back higher than the doctor has ever seen. His mircoscopic colitis only requires three months of medicine and then will be gone forever if he sticks to a gluten free diet.
This lifestyle change has been harder than I imagined. A few weeks after Eric was diagnosed I was pondering and had an overwhelming feeling that this is the miracle I have prayed so fervently for. How grateful I am for answers to prayers. It is a miracle that he has not vomited in the last six weeks. His stomach does not hurt constantly and he never comes home to tell me he is skipping dinner because he just feels sick.
We are learning and adjusting. The kids are very concerned about Eric not eating things that will make him sick. They always ask what dad can and can't eat. They ask if dinner is gluten free almost every night. One day I heard the girls playing house and talking about gluten free food. This is the oven they made
The new diet is hard for Eric as it is for all of us but how worth it it is! I'm so grateful that prayers are answered and that it was Heavenly Father's will to heal Eric. He has asked me to stop praying for him however ;)
