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FYI .. a past post from MamaB re; Jan.. /d

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Posted by MamaB to notpoliticallycorewrecked
On News/Activism 12/09/2003 12:20:54 AM EST #147 of 224

I am getting ready to go to bed and thought I would tell you some more of Jan's story. She was just a normal teen until she was about 18 or 19. She started having all kinds of GI problems. She was seeing some very good doctors here and they thought they could treat it. In Dec. 96, she was unable to keep anything down and she would vomit for no apparent reason. She went to several doctors here with no good results. On March 12, 97, she was so sick that she had lost about 60 pounds and looked like one of the people from Nazi Germany with the sunk in eyes. I was getting ready to go to church so I told her to go take a nap while I finished doing some things before I left. She came back into the den later and I took one look at her and told her that I was taking her to the ER. She said no, that she wanted to see the oncologist who was treating her for a blood problem. I called his office and talked with the receptionist who knew me. She asked me how long would it take for us to get there and I told her about 10 minutes. She then said for us to get down there. I think I ran every stop light on the way. She went on back when we got there and they were doing lab work. A few minutes later, the tech came back and said she needed more blood for lab. We finally got to a room and a few minutes later, the dr. came in. He took one look at her and said she was a very ill young lady. We knew that! He said he could not admit her to the hospital without stepping on her other dr's toes so he called around and found a GI who would admit her. Well, that was a Wed. night and on Friday, my husband was at the hospital when her usual dr. came in and told them that nothing was wrong with her except in her head. Boy, no one says anything like that to my husband. He called me and told me to start making preparations to go to the Mayo Clinic in MN. We got to St. Mary's about 4 on Monday. We met her team of drs. and they were wonderful They came back later that night and said they wanted to do a simple barium swallow the next day. When I had walked across the street from the motel to the hospital, they had already taken her down for the test. She came back hours later and said the swallow would not go through her system and they wanted her to stay in her room for a while to give it more time for it to go through.They recommended surgery to remove her colon to stop the spread of the disease. When the surgeon came in to talk with us, he said it was a miracle that she was still alive because she had been bleeding internally for years--why she needed the blood transfusions. He was not to impressed witht he doctors here! We stayed up there for 3 weeks. Hubby had brought his laptop so he could stay in touch with his business. We are trying to make arrangements to go back up there. She may have to have more surgery so if she does we want the doctors there to do it. The nurses, doctors, and staff at St. Mary's were wonderful. Thanks for staying with the rest of the story! Prayers would be wonderful. Thanks again everyone.

and another..

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Posted by MamaB to notpoliticallycorewrecked
On News/Activism 12/08/2003 11:17:36 PM EST #107 of 224

I want to thank everyone for all your help. Hubby and I, plus Jan, are at our wit's end. The doctors here do not seem to know what the answer is to her problems. She is a wonderful clarinet player--plays them all from the contra bass to the smallest one whatever that is. She has been so sick since May that she has not been able to go to orchestra practice. I told our orchestra leader that Jan was the bravest person I had ever been around. She has been ill off and on since the summer before high school graduation. She had mono which was so bad that she missed her whole senior year and was homebound. She says now that she wishes she had just taken a few classes and finished a year later so she could have been a part of senior activities. She went to Austria and Germany with her band after her sophomore year and got ill over there and has had something wrong with her ever since. Crohn's is an awful disease. My nephew's daughter who is about 15 has Crohn's and was very ill for quite some time. Hers started after her dad died. Some doctors say it is hereditary but I have only come up with one ancestor who might have had a similar problem. She was my dad's sister who was born and died before he was born. My mother says she had colitis which could have been anything back then. Think she died in 1896 or 98 when she was 2.
Again, thanks for all your help. You are the greatest! hugs and kisses!