Week 56

Well it's been quite the interesting week for me to be honest and I'll try to explain what happened as best I can. First of all, Friday I went to see my stomach doctor and I was honest with him that, although my stomach has improved overall, it still has been bothering me. He was concerned that after having taken medicine for so long it still wasn't back to normal and he looked back at the studies from when I went to the hospital in December and found something that led him to suggest maybe I have gallstones (stones in the gallbladder) and wanted to run some tests and depending on what it shows maybe have my gallbladder taken out through surgery. I asked if it's something I can deal with and wait until after the mission to see into, but he explained that it could be dangerous if I do have gallstones because it can cause severe problems if the gallbladder clogs up with them. Long story short, he wanted to have me admitted to the hospital as soon as I could to run the tests. I talked with President and Sister Bird and they agreed that it would be best to have it checked out to be safe and that I should go Sunday after church ends.

Sunday evening I entered the hospital to begin preparation for a few tests. Sunday night they did an ultrasound, which didn't show any initial problems in my gallbladder, which was good to hear. Then I had to fast until Monday morning when they did an Endoscopy (fishing a camera down through the throat into the stomach) which showed that I have gastritis still, but the doctor explained to me later that it does look a lot better than the first time I had the test done in December, so that's good news:)

 

The Doctor wanted to run a "special test" out of curiosity and wanting to see clearer results in a real life situation before concluding that my gallbladder is fine. In the afternoon, they did another ultrasound as a base test, directly followed by an intake of high fat content foods, and another ultrasound an hour after eating, when the food passes the gallbladder. I felt like I was in the middle of a "House" episode because it's just the type of crazy outside of the standard procedure type schemes Dr. House would do:D They fed me 2 hamburgers full of avacado, mayonnaise, and ketchup, with a mountain of french fries and a Coke. It sure did the trick! I felt pretty inflated and had a lot of pain in my stomach for sure, but hey I did it for science! Turns out it did make a difference in the study, but the doctor told me that it would affect anyone that way. Also that my gallbladder is functioning 100 percent and I'll keep it inside me. Phew! 

After the "special test", they started prepping me for the last test on Tuesday morning, a colonoscopy. It's something they didn't do last time I was admitted and figured it would be a good idea since I was going to be there anyways. They gave me this horrible tasting medicine they mixed with Sprite to empty my stomach. It was quite the long night running to and from the bathroom to say the least...but Tuesday morning I had the study done and waited the results of everything until today in the morning when my doctor finally came by to explain everything. Basically he was wrong and there's absolutely nothing wrong with my gallbladder, I just still have gastritis, which we'll continue to treat with medicine and diet. I feel like it was a huge waste of time, but at the same time it was necessary to make sure something else wasn't causing the problems. Also he took biopsies again and I will find out the results of the tests they are going to run for bacteria and such in 2 weeks. I was released today at around 2 from the hospital and am trying to adjust back to everything now. It was a crazy experience for sure, but I'm super glad that everything is working fine in my body. I just gotta keep pushing forward with patience that the stomach problems will continue to decline.

The mission work has been great, we have found a ton of new people, but no one we feel is truly prepared for the gospel. We have a guy who we found the first week here named Lupito who has started reading the assignments and even tried to go to church but got lost! He is truly making an effort to change his life and I hope we can continue to help him do it through the gospel:) Also a young woman named Martha who is Catholic, but loves everything about the Mormon church from what we have taught her. The problem for her is her belief in the Virgin Maria. There's nothing wrong with having a high respect for her since she is the mother of Jesus and God didn't choose just anyone for that responsibility, but it's another thing to worship her and pray to her since it's against the commandments of God. We are trying to be very respectful of her beliefs, but at the same time explain to her why it's wrong. I hope she can understand and be guided by the spirit to an answer to this dilemma in her life. Anyways the time flies by, got to get back to work. Love you all and hope I didn't scare anyone too much, I'm doing fine. I'm just super happy that I'm back to serving the Lord:)

My companion and I bought "Pastor" meat and made our own Campechanas!!

All my watches have broken and I finally bought a new one. I love it!