Mark's Fight

In 2001, Mark was diagnosed with a disease call Ulcerative Colitis. It involves inflammation in the Colon and makes your life a lot more uncomfortable. Mark did a fairly good job managing the Colitis until the spring of 2004 where the Colitis began to fight back. Luckily though the help of our family, doctors, our Ward Family and most especially our Heavenly Father we were able to get him healthy enough to come home and eventually manage the disease again.

Fast forward to 2012… Mark has been struggling with his health almost this whole year. He has had several staph infections along with Eczema that have been bothering him, but it was the flare up in his Colitis that had us concerned. He is very pale and I starting his weigh closely; then came the pain. About midway through June Mark started having a pain every time he sat down, which then escalated to hurting even when he stood. The pain grew until the only time he was free of it was when he was laying on his stomach holding perfectly still. Of course we made an appointment and got him in to see his internal medicine doctor. The prescribed some cream and send us home. There was no improvement. We were both tired, Mark of the pain and me of feeling useless.

Last Friday, July 20^th, Mark came home early from work, because the pain had reached a new height. I was in the middle of shampooing carpets in our bedroom and decided that I needed to clean under the bed. I moved the bed by scooting it to one side and was excited to see Mark, because he could help me with the moving it back. (That’s right he was in incredible pain and I asked him so help me move a heavy bed.) He of course agreed we moved the bed a few inches and a beam fell right onto his head causing him to need 7 stitches. While we were at yet another doctor’s visit I asked for new medication for Mark’s pain.

By Monday it was pretty obvious that the new medication was also not working. Mark was starting to feel left out and I was starting to feel alone. Neither of us knew what to do. Then I remembered a conversation I had had with a sister in our ward whose son had Crohn’s Disease. She had impressed me and I had thought at the time I should talk with her further, but the time had never come again. I decided to call her. She answered and the two of us talked for the next three and a half hours. Actually mostly she talked and I listened and took notes as fast as I could. It turned out not only had her son been diagnosed with Crohn’s, but another son and her husband had as well. She had made it her life mission to help her family and her hard work was paying off.

She gave me books to read, supplements to order, and doctor’s to make appointments with.. The whole time we talked I felt the hope that only the spirit can deliver. It was the first time in years I felt like there was a direction we could take. The next day I starting work on project Make Mark Better. I ordered the supplements, downloaded an e-book, called and made two doctor’s appointments. One of which was a doctor Robert Cline. I called his office sounding almost desperate. I told the office assistant on the phone that my husband was in constant pain and that I knew they were all busy, but I would do anything if they could just squeeze him in. ( I was ready to babysit, cook meals, or take pet iguanas while they vacationed. There really was very little I wouldn’t do.) She said it was funny that I had called right then. She had just hung up the phone with someone cancelling a 3:30 PM appointment that day. She was supposed to call the next person on the list, but if Mark could make it there the appointment was his. I took it and then called Mark (who was struggling through another painful day of work). He agreed to the appointment and left work a few hours later to meet with Dr. Cline. Dr. Cline immediately could see what was causing the pain and offered to perform surgery on Friday.

So here we are on Friday. They were able drain the abscess and the Doctor discovered that Mark’s Ulcerative Colitis has now become Crohn’s. (No wonder when I was talking to the sister in our ward, so much of what her family had suffered sounded just like Mark’s symptoms.) I am now excited to talk to the other doctor we meet with, in two weeks. Though we never would have chosen Crohn’s, it is what we’ve been given, so we will have to move forward. Something we are now prepared to do, because… We have a plan.