I brought my grandson Matt home with me in mid December. He is 19 and had been struggling with bloody diarrhea for about three months. He called me to buy his meds for his first colonoscopy. Of course I said yes and when I saw him asked if he wanted to come home with me, he nodded tearfully and here we are.
Matt is 5'10" and had weighed more than 146 lbs at the beginning of 2013.
After the colonoscopy he was prescribed Lialda. His weight continued to plummet. The bloody diarrhea continued. After he weighed in at 113 he didn't want to do that any more so I let him quit but still monitored his blood pressure and heart rate. I finally just told him to pay as close attention to his body as he could and choose what made him vomit. He'd been vomiting from the time I brought him home but I wasn't surprised when he thought it might be the Lialda. (We got it for $207 for one week worth. The doctor's office gave him 3 weeks of samples in addition to that and he'd been taking it for nearly three weeks.) As soon as he stopped taking it, the vomiting stopped. I continued to feed him broth and other nutritious but nonfiberous foods at two hour intervals and he started gaining weight.
He had no medical coverage, no job, and had stopped trying to do his school work. So I picked up paperwork and filled it out for him. We went to DSHS and to the Franciscan Health System. Things are looking up for him but he certainly doesn't get enough money from DSHS to pay for his eating habit. I'm not complaining. He is well worth any effort I've put out on him. He will have doctor bills for a few years to come.
After a CTE scan which was complicated because he vomited everything that went in him, Dr. Steven Larson sent a prescription for Prednisone to our pharmacy. We had been told that we probably would have our answer on Monday but we had the prescription by 2:00 PM on Friday. Thank you Dr. Larson!
The diagnosis is Ulcerative Colitis. He is ill enough to be classified as disabled--at least for one year. During this year my plan is to give him emotional and financial support to heal, explore meal preparations that can be divided and frozen for later, finish his high school education, and help him find a way to make a living while living with Ulcerative Colitis.
I would love to have him here on the farm and will continue to work toward getting a trailer or motor home to start his adult life with. If living on the farm doesn't work out for him he could move on with the least amount of stress. I dream of him healthy and strong and in control of his disease.
I am confident that he will be able to manage his condition given the time to learn and pay attention to himself. It is simply a matter of time. He has already built a very large recipe box at allrecipes.com!
He is eager in mind if not body to be my partner this year in running my farm stand. He's certain he can sit behind a counter and call me if a customer needs me, thus freeing me up to work my small farm. I'm looking forward to starting my second year of Emerald Aisle Farm stand in February. We will be open about two weeks before Valentine's Day. We haven't decided exactly when.
I think we'll make a good team.
John, my second husband, does some work around here too, but his thoughts are mostly of getting through the day at work. He is a 56 year old groundskeeper for a local school district. The job takes enough out of him that he only wants to garden as a hobby. He does most of the cooking in our household and you can see the meals he cooks for me at carmensdinner.blogspot.com. I don't post repeats if I can help it. He has opened his arms to Matt too. He does the grocery shopping and has made a personal commitment toward Matt gaining at least 15 lbs.
This morning Matt weighed 129 lbs! Yes!
We are looking forward to a successful and happy year with Emerald Aisle Farm.
