In Sickness and In Health

I always joke that when Luke and I said our vows, I crossed my fingers when I said "in sickness and in health." 

And of course I was kidding, but I'm not kidding when I say, I don't like illness, I don't like doctor's offices, and I especially don't like emergency rooms. 

However, Luke and I found ourselves in all three of those scenarios last week. 

Before anyone panics, yes we are all okay.  This post is not a pity party, or a sympathy grab, and if it comes across that way, I'm definitely not meaning for it to, but there is a story I want to tell. 

I've known Luke for about 3 years now, and ever since I've known him, I've come to learn that the kid has got a very sensitive stomach. I will spare you the details. 

At the beginning of our relationship, we all began suspecting that something was up with his stomach. He constantly felt sick and bloated, he couldn't gain weight, and he was tired ALL the time. So he decided to consult his family physician. Who then got him an appointment with a gastrointestinologist (GI) who decided to do some scope work to determine if Luke had Crohn's Disease.

After a series of tests and scopes, the results came back mostly inconclusive. His blood work was consistent with someone who had Crohn's, but the biopsies came back negative.    

Flash forward to this October, nearly 2 years later and we are married instead of dating. His stomach issues only continue to get worse. In fact, Luke was so sick during parts of our honeymoon, he had me memorize the address to our condo so that way if I had to call 911 I could tell the ambulance where to go. 

As his symptoms got worse, we decided it was probably time to go get checked again. So we head back to the family physician, and during our consultation his physician says "Well, you know you have Crohn's Disease right?" We were shocked, because two years ago we were told everything was inconclusive, but right there in his file, that was his diagnosis. So they send us back to a GI specialist, but this time at a different hospital. 

It's November by the time we are able to get into this new specialist, and she asks Luke sooo many questions about his symptoms and everything that has been going on for the past two years. Based off Luke's answers, they are able to rule out Crohn's' Disease (Thank The Lord) but do want to run some tests to double check everything. 

We get a call in December that Luke's blood work is consistent with someone who has Celiac Disease, an autoimmune disease that makes a person's body intolerant to gluten, and suggest that he goes back in for another scope. 

It's January now, and Luke's scope was 2 weeks ago. Everything went according to plan until it didn't. The scope was successful, but at some point where they took the biopsies didn't heal quite right and he had minor internal bleeding, which landed us in the emergency room Sunday afternoon, and it was there that we did get to see his results confirming celiac disease. To put it in perspective, a normal person's antibodies for this disease register at 15, Luke's number was 250.  

I say all this for a few reasons.

The first reason, is that, when I married Luke, I did not anticipate any sort of health problem ever, and most certainly not in the first 6 months of marriage.

And I am not a marriage expert, not even close, but what I do know is that when Luke came to from being under anesthesia and the first words out of his mouth were "I love you so much," I knew there was no where else I would rather be, because in reality, I didn't cross my fingers when I said "in sickness and in health," and I know if it were me laying in that bed, he would have been right there by my side too. 

The second thing, is that we are incredibly lucky with where we ended up. Celiac disease is nothing compared to the Crohn's Diagnosis I thought we were facing. Or the millions of other things that could have been wrong. We are incredibly lucky, and if this is the most stressful situation we face, I would consider our lives a miracle. Celiac is entirely treatable and manageable. 

The third thing, is that, I am not a good cook, not even with spaghetti, so my kitchen has been turned upside down because we are officially a gluten free family.  SO maybe you're celiac, maybe you're allergic to gluten, maybe you just don't eat gluten, OR maybe you just want to help the newly weds out. If you have ANY recipes that you love or can't live without that are gluten free, snack ideas, supper ideas, anything, please send them our way. 

Who knows, maybe this will become a gluten free foodie blog...

But it probably wont ;) 

Anyways, for better or for worse, for rich or for poor, in sickness and in health, whatever the weather, I'm sure I'll have lots more stories where these come from.