Update on Jason and Musings from the Top of the Muffin (just read it)

Hi everybody,

Just wanted to update you all on Jason.  This week we had several more appointments with doctors.  We got a second opinion from another gastroenterologist but it sounded vaguely like every other doctor's visit we've been to for the last ten years.  The doctor ordered some familiar sounding blood tests and set up a follow-up appointment for two weeks from now.  This visit we did a CBC & CMP (complete blood count and complete metabolic panel, not exactly diagnostic wonders fyi) and we re-tested JJs thyroid.  We've done all of this before and after this visit we had a distinct "Groundhog Day"feeling on the trip home.  But we are still hopeful that we will find something and get to the bottom of all of Jason's health problems.

This week we have more appointments.  The first is with an endocrinologist (doctors of hormones, and one of the more perplexing specialties of medicine) to investigate Jason't pituitary gland.  This little gland is vital to your body's hormone production and there is concern that the damage done to it during Jason's treatments are part of why he's having so many problems.  We are also going to see our original gastro doctor.  We are pushing the GI for scopes (colonoscopy and an endoscopy) to actually physically look down JJs digestive track and see what's going on.  We've taken lots of shots in the dark (eating strategies, hormones, medications, etc) but ironically Jason has never been physically scoped to see if there is something mechanically wrong with his stomach.   Hopefully that will be fixed this week.

Jason's NJ tube continues to clog but we've become a lot more skilled in the unclogging department.  LeAnne also printed a chart to help track how often it's being flushed and how often it clogs:

charting like a boss

We are also once again charting his fluid and food intake & output (calories, etc.) and anything else we can think of.  Good times.

On a related side note, we are also pushing meds with our beagle Darwin.  Most of you probably know our sweet boy; a week ago he was diagnosed with a tumor in his nose that is probably bone cancer.  They can't treat it like they do in humans; we are just giving him steroids and some other medications.  We are very sad but he is still very healthy right now and we are just enjoying every minute we have with him:

A boy and his dog

Our final bad news minute is this: Mom (Mrs. Franke) is no longer employed at Cedar Ridge Elementary school.  Through a series of really unfortunate events she was told it would be best if she stepped down so someone else who could "come more consistently" could take her place.  She is so sad because as most of you know she loves the kids she works with and being at Cedar Ridge.  She wants them to know that she would have stayed if she could and she hates that she never got the chance to come back and say goodbye.  She also knows she needs to be with Jason so it's really kind of a bittersweet catch-22.

Mom made this collage

Thankfully the month of February (a really unlucky month historically for the Franke family) is behind us.  I (LeAnne) write a lot and I was looking at my writing journal and wanted to post something I wrote about.  If you'll indulge me, here goes:

I am a huge Seinfeld fan.  I've watched a lot lately to help me relax (I firmly believe laughter and a sense of humor can get you through anything!).  One of my favorite episodes is The Muffin Tops.  In this episode, Elaine (my favorite character)'s old boss notices that she only eats the tops of muffins and decides to open up a muffin shop based on this idea.  They meet up again later and he tells her that his shop is failing but can't figure out why.  It turns out that he was trying to cook only the muffin tops and they were turning out horrible.  As Elaine points out, to get a truly delicious muffin top you have to cook the WHOLE muffin then pop off the top and toss the stump.  From this point on their shop is successful (until they can't figure out what do with all the stumps).

I think that life is like a muffin.  You can't have the tops without the stumps (the name of my journal is a play on this).  In life I think that you have to hold on to the muffin tops and toss the stumps.  This is rarely easy, and sometimes it seems like life throws you more stumps than you can handle.  This month has been like that for us.  But in the end that just makes the muffin tops that much sweeter.  Anyway, this analogy has made me chuckle and helped me remember to see the positive.

Thank you all again for all the support being sent our way.  An AWESOME family in our ward is hosting this fundraiser for Jason tomorrow (Monday) night:

We are overwhelmed (in a good way) by the sheer amount of kindness and service so many wonderful friends have given us.  Thank you thank you.

We will keep you posted on Jason's progress this week.  Top of the muffin to you all!

-LeAnne




PS: Need a laugh?  Muffin tops: