Devour

Ah, how I love my sweet American Girl loving reading addict who loves to shop 40 percent off sales at Justice and stay up late. In fact, she loves staying up late so much, she fondly refers to herself as the family "night owl". If you hadn't noticed, she gets that from me. Most of my posts (although not this one) are done after midnight each night. I have noticed that I haven't been posting as much lately; it's because I'm busy doing fun activities for a change now that I am not having to spend most of time playing nurse to my son.

My beautiful night owl loves all the same things that I do and she didn't even know I loved any of them as much as I do because I haven't spent any time doing any of these things since I became a mom. Isn't that usually the way it goes? Moms, giving up all they love to do, to throw themselves head first into showering their babies with love.

Add illness and financial stresses to the plate and you'll soon notice that you're plate is overflowing.

But now that things are calm, and have been for a little while now, I have all this new time to do things I actually enjoy! I've been scrapbooking again, and thanks to this painkiller I take combined with advances in scrapbooking that make it easier than it ever was, I can actually do it without my hands getting stuck in a claw position. I can actually do it without my hands throbbing for the rest of the evening!

I also started playing piano again thanks to my almost pain-free fingers (Ultram ER 300 mg is the best if you're looking for a daily painkiller!), and I started reading fiction books again--all the things that my daughter devours whenever she has the opportunity are all the things I used to devour in my pre-mom days. It's great that I am free to devour again!

Then, I have this budding blog makeover business. It's doing well. I couldn't be more thrilled because I am doing what I love in the comfort of my own bedroom and I don't have to talk or even be dressed! I don't even have to have anything organized for anyone else and I have no time limitations. It's one of the best thing that ever happened to us financially; having this second income, albeit small in comparison to my husband, helps so much.

I also have started, little by little, volunteering in the childrens ministry at my church. It's reminded me how much I love being around large groups of children and I had forgotten that up until last Wednesday night. I thought I reeeeally wanted to be a real nurse after caring for my son for so many years, but after being in charge of the children's choir last Wednesday, I discovered that now that I don't have to be a nurse, I really don't want to be a real one or a pretend one.

It made my husband and my parents smile. (My husband loves me being a teacher and thinks I'm great at it, and my parents paid for my private Christian college education so that I could be a credentialed teacher-so using what they paid for me to have outside of my home is always a good thing).

I miss teaching a big classroom full of children although don't take that to mean that I don't love homeschooling more. I do. It just made me realize that teaching, instead of nursing, is still my thing. I am so blessed that I have my cozy classroom at home that holds two of the most precious children I could ever teach and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Homeschooling is where my heart is, and as Chelsea puts it, we're going to homeschool forever and ever because neither of my children have any desire to go to a traditional school, ever. How sweet is it that they love it this much!
So that takes lots of time of course; especially now that we're homeschooling full time on our own. I make my own lesson plans and we do our own curriculum. I love it so much that I get an adrenaline rush when it comes time to plan more!

So as you can see, I have plenty of reason to not blog as much, but thankfully this time, the reasons are fun! I still love blogging of course, because the one last thing that my daughter and I love to devour is writing. I love journaling on this beautiful blog (pats on the back are not intended : ) ) . Writing is cathartic for me because in my head, my thoughts are all jumbled--putting them to paper (or in this case a computer screen) organizes and clarifies how I feel about all kinds of things. I love it, so don't worry (incase you were worried), I'll continue to post frequently....but if days go by and I haven't popped in, know that I'm probably just having fun devouring the things that I haven't devoured for 8 years.

The only thing that makes it better now than it was before is that now I get to devour it all with my sweet but sassy night owl sitting right next to me! It doesn't get much better than this. : )

Have a great weekend!

Change and Chuckle

This picture of my scrumptiously delicious snuggle bug of a boy is one of my all time favorites. Doesn't he look healthy? This was taken a few weeks ago at the beach when we went to have family pictures taken. Upon staring it, my melted heart and I decided that we needs a new "Praying for Gavin" button.

I think it's important to keep praying even when things have improved because in chronic diseases everything can take a turn for the worse again at any time with little notice. We have frequent reminders that his diseases are still here with us; we've just been blessed to have it under control for so long now (7 weeks, but I'm not counting or anything!)

He's come a long way in the last 6 months...this is his old pray button--he has long hair, a puffy steroid face, and his 5th PICC line--it was taken this past April when he got home from the hospital:And ohhhhh, his puffy steroid face!!!

It hardly looks like him at all!! Remember his really pale sick face when he was in the hospital last April?? He was scary anemic and scary white--the picture didn't even do it justice!So now that you've looked at those, look at him again, now.
Doesn't he look absolutely amazing? Just take it in and resist not gobbling him all up. So I turned the above picture into his new prayer button because clearly, it was time for a change!

<a href="http://www.mastomama.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2781/4096434718_4042a130b7_o.jpg" /></a>

Please grab it and paste it on your sidebar; it makes us smile to see it as we pop from blog to blog and of course it touches our heart to know that you pray for us; we appreciate all of you who leave comments to tell me so!

{Don't know how to add it to your blog? Follow these directions:}
1. Copy (right click and hit copy) the html code in the above prayer button box.
2. Go to your layout page and click on the link that says "Add a Gadget".
3. Then, click on the link that says "Add HTML".
4. Paste the code into the box provided. (Right click again and hit paste).
5. Then click on "save" and you're done, it will now be on your blog!

It's also okay to keep the one with long hair and a puffy face posted above, even though it doesn't look like him anymore but I have to say it's not my preference! : ) The first button--the black and white picture of him sitting in the bath with kinda short hair (the one that is down the sidebar on the Riggs Blog)--looks the most like he does now--and the irony in it is that picture was taken only ONE month before his condition went south again.Goes to show that it's important to keep praying.

Since we have no idea of knowing what each new day will bring, we remain focused on God and we trust that even if more challenging sick times lay ahead, He will bring us through to the other side in one piece, like He already has so many times before.

God's awesome like that, wouldn't you say?!

I have to close up with a funny story from last night; I stayed up late reading a book called "Oceans Apart" by Karen Kingsbury (SOOOOO great!). I finished it at 2 am and yes, I was crying, the book was amazing. I'm about to close my eyes and fall asleep when Gavin moans "Mooooom.", in his sleep. I stop and look at him and he does it again. "Mooooooom.", but this time he kicks his legs.

I'm feeling cautious, because I am unsure of what could be so wrong that it wakes him and causes him to moan at 2 am! In the past this only happened when he was sick. So I brace myself a little and answer, "Yes baby, what's wrong?".

He answers, "Mooooooom."

{pause}

"I want a samich."

You want what?!

"A samich. With no mayonaise!"

"A sandwich with no mayonaise????!!!"

{My boy doesn't eat sandwiches; he tried it once and liked it, but even that has mayonaise on it!}

"Yes. A samich. No mayonaise."

"Do you want turkey or peanut butter?"

"Mooooooom. Turkey. No. mayonaise."

I start chuckling and say, "okay!".

I went to the kicthen and made him a sandwich while my husband chuckled at me for falling for this--surely Gavin would be asleep by the time I came back with the sandwhich and Gavin most certainly would not even think about eating a sandwich!

So I got back and I gave him his sandwich. He ate it with his eyes closed, and asked me to hold it and feed it to him a couple bites into it. He ate the whole thing. {jaw on floor}

Then this morning, I asked him about his sandwich and he tells me he has absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. He says, "Mom, I don't eat sandwiches!".

Ha!! : ) I'm still finding crumbs in my bed to prove it; needless to say if this happens tonight, he'll be eating it in his bed!!

God Bless~

Suffering

I was going through my emails (I have hundreds in my inbox!) and found a question from a friend dating back 4 months. So if you have written me and haven't heard back, I'm so sorry. My friend asked a really important question, so I decided to answer it even though she asked it 4 months ago! I pray that God will use the timing of my response in a perfect way in her life.

The Lord put it on my heart to share it with all of you too--so I pray that the timing of this post will be used in your life in a perfect way.

The question was "Do you think that God will heal Gavin someday?"; she went on to say that she believes that it is God's will for her and him to be healed.

She didn't specify on earth or in heaven, and I took it to mean that she was asking about on earth. Now I'm not a bible scholar(!); I'm learning to navigate through His word just like all of you. My answer is based on biblical truth and I'm fairly certain that I didn't mess up that truth as I was writing it out....at least I hope I didn't. I prayed the whole time I wrote, asking the Lord to give me the right words. So here goes....

"Do you think that God will heal Gavin {on this earth}?":

It's helpful to back up a little to look at why there is suffering on this earth. It started in Genesis chapter 3! When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, they brought sin into the world. Their sin brought suffering and separation from God to everyone on earth. We inherited their sin and imperfection, making us born sinners who continue to sin.

In the Bible it says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) but on our own strength, we are unable to stop sinning. So God sent Jesus, His One and Only Son, to pay the price for our sins--when He died on the cross, he suffered the consequence (death) for all our sins so that we wouldn't have to. But thankfully, it didn't stop there--God rose Jesus from the dead and brought Him to live with Him for eternity in heaven. (1 Cor. 15:3-4)

As a result, if we choose to believe in Jesus and if we choose to have faith that He is the true Son of God--we receive forgiveness for all our sins, we are given eternal life (John 3:16), and we are given His Holy Spirit to guide us to live in a way that is pleasing to God (Acts 2:38).

But that first sin and its inherited affects are still in the world. Since at least some of you and I believe and follow Jesus, our sins are forgiven, but we still live in a sinful world.

Generally, suffering is in the world because sin is in the world. However, our sufferings are opportunities for God's grace in our life. Suffering is a means of proving or testing our faith (Gen 22; Deut 8:2; Job); it can be meant for improvement (Heb 12:5-8), as punishment for sin (Deut 32:15-25; Jer 30:15; Jn 5:14), and as an avenue for showing God's glory (John 11:4).

My favorite example of God revealing His glory in man's suffering is written in John 9:3. Jesus and His disciples saw a man who was blind since birth, and the disciples questioned, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?". Jesus replied, "Neither he nor his parents sinned. This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.". That brings me so much comfort when I look at my sweet son.

The difference between a person with a disease who follows Jesus and a person with a disease that doesn't follow Jesus is the one who does is promised that when their life on earth is over, they will live eternally with God, they will be made perfect, and they will be completely healed of all things. The one who doesn't is promised only suffering for now, and suffering for an eternity.

The one who does follow Jesus has His Holy Spirit to guide them through the
suffering, and has God to care for them in their suffering. The one who doesn't suffers alone and has to navigate through it on his own strength.

God performed many miracles throughout the Bible to visually represent His divine power and authority over man and nature, He empowered His followers to use miracles in order to authenticate their commission as teachers and writers on His behalf, and in the Gospel accounts of the New Testament, Jesus used miracles to fulfill Old Testament prophecy and confirm His deity.

While we shouldn't expect to be given miracles in the way they were given in the Bible, healing and miracles do exist today. The difference between then and now is that instead of a disciple or Jesus in the flesh touching our leg to heal us, God works through medical intervention such as medications and surgeries. Sometimes, God will choose to heal an individual while they are still living on this earth; other times, He will allow the individual to live with/suffer through their illness no matter what they try.

While it sounds mean to say God is allowing us to suffer even though He loves us, this present day suffering only takes place for a short time in the span of eternity, and our suffering is used by God to accomplish His purposes in our lives, and in the lives of those around us. While it hurts our physical body, our soul isn't harmed--if we live by faith, we will be healed when we meet our Savior and we will live forever with Him--no matter what. Nothing can take that away.

While we are promised healing in heaven, we risk problems when we say, "He will heal me on this earth", because God doesn't promise to heal us on earth. When we believe in something that God didn't promise, we risk a disappointment that can stumble us in our faith.

However, God can heal us. He can do it no matter what, whenever He wants, if He chooses to. Because He can, we can pray to Him and ask Him to do so--and we can hope that He will. When we are ill and ask God to heal us, He may respond with a "Yes" and heal you completely right away. He may say "No" for now, but "Yes" later on. Or He may just say "No, not on this earth."

We have no way of knowing how it will turn out before it "turns out"-- but while we wait to see what God will do, we choose to hope that He will heal us, we choose to trust Him to take care of us, we choose to trust that His purpose for us in this present suffering will be accomplished, and we choose to believe that as we are refined by each fire, we will slowly become more like Jesus. And finally, when the end of our time on earth comes, we will see Jesus face to face; when we do, we'll be made complete in Him for an eternity and our suffering will come to an end.

I know the Lord put all of this on my heart to share for someone here that is reading right now....I hope whoever that someone or someoneS are, you're inspired and encouraged to press on in the trials your suffering through right now. If it isn't meant for you, I just ask you to take a moment to pray for those who suffer chronically, for those who question if they did something wrong in the face of their many hardships. Pray that they will see evidence of God's power in their life and pray that it will encourage them to keep going with faith.

God bless!

Showing the Love

(*All my links at the top of my blog work now. It took me awhile to compile the posts for those links, but I finally finished doing it...check it out if your curious!)

It wasn't that many weeks ago when I told you guys that I was sad that 3-4 people left my blog on one week...remember that? Well since then I noticed that I got twice as many back on my followers list. I actually tipped 140! So I want to say thank you for sticking around, and thank you for joining! I want to know more about my new "followers" (I feel so weird saying that about myself when we follow Jesus).

So if you're new to my list, tell me about yourself in the comment section of this post.

And if you're not new but have never left a comment before, please introduce yourself by leaving a comment too.

It's awesome having this huddle of on-line friends to walk through life with, and I'm thankful for all of you! You make my life more fun.
_________________
I hopefully will be getting some blood results back today; it's kinda weird because I want them to be normal, but I also want some of the results to tell me what exactly is going on with me. If the urine histamine level (which I won't get back today) is abnormal, I have to say I would be thrilled.

I know that sounds really odd; but it would confirm to me that my symptoms are indeed caused by histamine/mast cells, especially if all the blood testing comes back normal. I just want something in the way of testing and results to confirm my diagnosis of a mast cell disorder--I want it for my internal medicine doctor and for me because secret places in my heart question if I really have a mast cell disorder since the diagnosis was primarily based on assumption thus far.

Granted I clearly have a family history, I have the same symptoms, and the expected response to medication but part of me is a test oriented person; and my internal medicine doctor is too. Having some sort of confirmation however unofficial would be good. It would get rid of any secret doubts that exist in the back of my mind.

Of course a urine histamine test isn't diagnostic for a mast cell disorder, but I think it sends us in the right direction if it comes back abnormal.

As far as other conditions, I really don't have the slightest clue about what is possible.

I'm hoping for some direction today from the Lord; some confirmation of what it isn't--but more so I am hoping for confirmation of what it is.

Leaving that testing phase with Gavin was a huge relief, and I hope to be able to do the same soon!

Have a wonderful rest of your day! Don't forget to leave a comment............

About Mast Cells and Mastocytosis

Mast Cells
Mast cells are located normally in nearly all tissues in the body, and their greatest concentration is in the gastro-intestinal tract (GI tract), the skin, and the lining of the respiratory system.

Mast cells are involved in protection against infection, tissue repair and growth, control of blood flow into areas where it is needed, and communication with other cells of the immune system. Mast cells contain little packets of chemicals that can be released immediately when required. When they are released, the cell is said to “degranulate”.

Mastocytosis
Mastocytosis is the abnormal accumulation of mast cells that degranulate abnormally in response to multiple triggers.

Symptoms
Mast cell degranulation can be triggered by temperature changes, heat, cold, humidity, exercise, sunlight, emotional stress, infections, and certain drugs and foods. Sometimes the trigger is unknown. When degranulation occurs, it is known as “a reaction”. Mild reactions typically cause only a few symptoms that feel flu-like and more severe reactions cause anaphylaxis, and even shock. Common symptoms include:

*Behavior changes (extreme irritability, inconsolable crying, and lack of reasoning ability)
*Flushing (facial redness)
*Facial swelling
*Hives and other rashes
*Itching
*Abdominal pain
*Bone and muscle pain
*Headache
*Fatigue
*Diarrhea
*Vomiting, retching, or severe acid reflux
*Nausea
*Difficulty breathing
*Low blood pressure (causes dizziness, palor, lethargy, weakness)
*Shock, or cardiovascular collapse (heart stops pumping blood resulting in death)

A serious complication of mastocytosis is prolonged ulcerative bleeding in the GI tract secondary to high levels of circulating plasma histamine. Almost all the symptoms of mastocytosis are caused by an increase of mast cell chemicals, or mediators, in the system.

Treatment
Avoidance of triggers and daily medications are used to prevent the effects of the circulating chemicals:

*Histamine 1 (H1) blockers-- like Atarax, Zyrtec, and Periactin
*Histamine 2 (H2) blockers-- like Zantac and Pepcid
*Leukotrine Inhibitors-- like Singulair and Zyflo
*Mast cell stabilizers-- like Gastrocrom and Ketotifen
*Proton pump inhibitors-- like Prevacid, Nexium, and Prilosec

Additional medications are given to treat an acute reaction:
*(H1) blocker (Benadryl)
*(H2) blocker (Zantac)
*Mast cell stabilizer (Gastrocrom)
*Inhaled bronchodilator (Albuterol)
*Epinephrine injections (Epi pen Jr.)

For more information on Mastocytosis, click on any of the following links: The Mastocytosis Society (TMS), Masto Kids, and The National Institute of Health.