Look What I Got!

Real mail! Not bills, not junk, not a flyer ... real mail from my friend! 

Her blog is on my list and it's called "A Surcee Life." You should check it out ... she's super artistically talented. (As you can see from my paper flowers below!)

Anyway, she does these Friday Freebies & I won this time. Currently they are sitting on my lamp shade (just kinda propped up) until I decide what to do with them . I might make some more myself from the awesome tutorial she showed me and just leave them there! We'll see. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Thanks again Mrs. Cathy! 

I LOVE THEM!

Sphincter of Oddi

Just take a look at this picture . . .

Yes, that is an actual medical term and it's the answer to my mystery medical ailments previously misdiagnosed in older post "Gallbladder Woes." Here's what Wikipedia has to say about
Sphincter of Oddi dysfunction.

Now that you have studied the picture, reminded yourself of my past troubles, and researched with me on Wikipedia I can assure you that you aren't alone in thinking . . . "What?" That's exactly what I said, so here's the story in some "plain English."

I've been having these attack-like symptoms since Oct. 2010. I've been to multiple doctors and had a wide range of tests done all so say . . . "We believe you have pain, we don't see on the tests where it's coming from, let's try to take your gallbladder out because that will might work." So, trusting a doctor and no longer being able to tolerate daily stomach pain, I said yes! You can imagine my cry-baby response when the pain came back (seemingly worse while I was on pain meds for surgery).  Back to the doctor I go . . . a different one this time because the other one just treated me like an account number that he'll get a paycheck from, but that's another story . . . in hopes of a real answer! After lots of questions, some mashing on my tummy, and some blood work, the doctor says, "You are probably suffering from Sphincter of Oddi disorder." 

Now it was my turn, now I had questions for him:


1) What is that? It's a sphincter (round muscle - similar to the one you're probably thinking of in a funny/gross way) that basically controls the bile that your liver, pancreas and gallbladder emits into the first part of your intestines to help with digestion.


2) Why does it hurt SO BAD? When you have this disorder or dysfunction, the muscle spasms out and/or contracts so tightly that the bile cannot get through, thus causing a 'back up' if you will in the pancreatic duct. Once the muscle relaxes, the bile flows, the food is digested, and the pain is relieved.


3)So I had my gallbladder removed for nothing? NO - a lot of people do not find out they are suffering from this disorder until after they have their gallbladder out because the symptoms are almost identical and the pain is localized in the same place.


4)So what are you suggesting I do about this? First you need to know that there are three types and we will be treating you as if you have type 1 (the less intense). I am putting you on an anti-depressant medication that is used to treat chronic pain called Elavil. I'll see you back in 6 weeks and if the pain still persists we can move forward. (treatment for type three involves possibly cutting the muscle during a 4-5 day hospital say ... yuck!)


5)Are you sure you aren't giving me an anti-depressant "crazy" medicine to treat my "chronic pain" since all tests came back clear? Here the doctor laughed out loud, but I had to make sure he wasn't just thinking I was crazy! He said no, not at all. In fact this medicine has shown to really help Oddi patients no have to undergo surgery.

So there you have it; questions and answers about this crazy diagnosis. I'm so thankful that I finally have a real answer and not a lot of maybe this, maybe that's.  I'm so thankful that this doctor talked with me for a while and didn't rush me through my questions. I'm so thankful that a year of pain might be all I have to endure before this is all over with. Please pray that I keep getting guided in the right direction with this "thorn in my side." I know that there is power in prayer because our Lord is a great healer!

ps - My doctor said that MUSC is a leading researcher for this crazily named disorder . . . go figure! If they can save my sister's life, my daddy's life, and my husband's papa's life, I'll trust them with my belly too . . . only if it gets that far!

It's Not About You

June 23, 2011


I have a couple questions for you that I'm going to attempt to answer.


What do you expect from a teacher when the students do not learn?
What do you expect from a doctor when the patient is not healed?
Why is The Church here?


I'm a teacher, have been for 5 years going on 6. It's been my experience that when my students do not learn something, I have the responsibility to re-teach the skill. My student's parents expect me to alter my lessons to meet the differing learning styles of their children in order to educate them. My principal expects me to be able to present the content in multiple ways so that no child slips through the cracks without learning. I don't continue to teach the way I was teaching hoping that it will sink in this time. Out of pure desire to accomplish my job, I do those things ... I change because I have the best interest of the child at heart.


I've been very sick this year with some stomach issues. I've been to the doctor almost weekly since October 2010. It's been my experience that when I'm sick, the doctor has the responsibility to discover the illness, treat and/or cure it. When I go back to the doctor he does not give me the same medicine in hopes that it will kick in this time. He does not treat me just like he did before because that's the only thing he knows. The doctor alters his thinking about my situation and tries multiple diagnoses & treatments. I'm so glad that he did because he's finally figured out what's wrong and I'm feeling better. He changed from his initial plan so that I could be well ... he had the best interest of the patient in mind.


"The Church" is a body (or group) of believers. These people believe that God is most high. They believe that because a man named Adam messed up, we all mess up. They believe that because this sin (all the mess-ups) is in all men we have no way to God. They believe that God sent his son in human form to Earth to live a perfect life (no sin, no mess-ups) in order to die, take our punishment for us, and recreate a way to God. As a result all who believe can be reunited with God.  It's been my experience that the church building is a tool that the church body can use in order to tell the world about this wonderful story. If the church body inside the church building is not growing then it must be because un-churched people are not being drawn inside. I would propose that it just makes sense to change what is going on inside the church building in order to draw people into the church body for the sake of spreading the wonderful story - The Gospel of Jesus Christ.


Just like the teacher changes with her students' best interest at heart; and the doctor changes with the patients' best interest at heart, so should the activities provided by the church body in the church building change with the best interest of those who do not know the saving grace of the Lord at heart.

School's Out for Summer!

We just celebrated a long weekend and it was the perfect "taste" of what was to come ... SUMMER BREAK! 

Last weekend we spent time in Marion, SC with one of the greatest hostesses ever ... Ansley's mother! The boys played golf Saturday & the girls sat by the pool. After dinner we discovered a new game for the Wii - Michael Jackson; The Experience! SUCH a fun dance game - embarrassing videos may or may not be posted soon! We spent some time in the pool Sunday morning, and then headed back. 

David and I went out on the boat with my family for Memorial day & had a blast! At one point during the day we cut a watermelon & couldn't eat it all. Daddy was trying to give it away to kids walking down the Capers island beach and they were all doing as their mothers & teachers told them - don't take food from strangers. Well, as daddy was complaining about not being able to just "be nice" these days, a man walked by and noticed our left overs. We offered one more time & he said he had 5 little 'monsters' that would like some. They were so cute & so happy when they got a piece of watermelon ... it was just sweet. Well, a family that was sitting on the beach, then sent over their 3 kids & they got our last 3 slices. So, daddy was right, people should just keep on "being nice" and the world will be just fine! I

t was all wonderful, until I had to go back to school for 3 days of teacher workdays. They were hard since I had to say goodbye to one of my best friends since I've been in Summerville. I'll miss Valerie, but I can assure you I'll be making a trip down to FL to visit her! She's at the top of the line on the right - this is a picture of my awesome team on Halloween.

 I love the children, I love the teachers I work with, and I absolutely love the schedule! One of the best things about my job is that I still get a summer break. Yesterday marked my first official day off! I started with a 20 minute session on the treadmill followed by an hour long Zumba class ... if you haven't done that, you should! Then my girls & I spent the day at the pool! Kristy & Ansley are the greatest!! We enjoyed our new favorite drink, the "Marion Spritzer" and floated on the best floats ever invented! I can't wait to see what else this summer has in store, especially Guatemala!

Gallbladder Woes

I'm still recovering from surgery on Tuesday. I'm doped up on pain medicine because it hurts pretty bad considering I have three incisions in my belly.  The trade-off, however, is that I'm probably not going to have all of these stomach issues anymore!! YAY!!


You see, I've been dealing with abdominal pain, nausea, and other stuff since Halloween. After a very wide gamut of tests that came back clear, they concluded that it was probably my gallbladder. The digestive center doctor was not a great one ... until he saw that I went for a second opinion ... they he became a very proactive doctor. Man I wish they could be helpful before you light a fire under their butt! Anyway, he referred me to a surgeon (who happened to be the father of a girl I grew up with). The surgeon said that he would do an exploratory laparoscopy and if he sees nothing else wrong, he would take my gallbladder out. Well, nothing else was wrong  so he did, in fact, take my gall bladder out.


He said that my gallbladder was covered with adhesions. From what I can tell (with my simple Google searching) is that adhesions are like little blisters that make your gallbladder stick to surrounding organs - like stomach and liver. When this happens, it not only causes pain, but it also could lead to infection. My gallbladder was very inflamed and if left in much longer would have probably become infected. So, timing was just right.


I'm in recovery mode now and boy do I feel loved! I had a wonderful group of people come stay with me and visit me in the hospital. I have gotten some great goodies, and I've been pampered by my wonderful husband (maybe I should fake it a little longer to keep getting his pampering ;). Anyway, I'm writing all of this in hopes to say thank you for all the prayers and gifts. Thank you for dealing with all of my complaining since October. Thank you for being there for me when I needed you!


What a great time of year to be reminded that we should be there for each other ... like Jesus was there for us on the cross! I pray that all of you out there can know that wonderful gift and appreciate it a little more like I have this week.


With love,
Kristen

I love ...

to watch the sunrise! Here it is on the Isle of Palms!

Reminds me of our Father's faithfulness ... day after day, He will be there because he has already risen!

(http://bible.cc/matthew/28-6.htm)

I have another site

It's called:

Kristen's Cookies

Go check it out! I'm now baking on the side and I'd LOVE to bake for you. I can also ship them, so don't worry if you live far away! 

Hey Family & Friends,

                We know you’re probably wondering why we are writing you a letter. Well here it is: God has called us to Guatemala. Yes, that’s a pretty big statement, so please keep reading while we explain our story. We just can’t hold it in!

                About five months ago we felt an “itch” for something new. We weren’t sure if this meant we should start a family, maybe move somewhere, or just get over the fact that our four year intervals are over. You know, four years of high school, four years of college, first four years of work; all over. So we started praying fervently for “God’s Will” in our lives. As many of you know, we’ve grown up in the church. We’ve been taught to love people no matter what, pray without ceasing, go to church every Sunday, and seek out God’s desires for our life. We aren’t claiming to be perfect, in fact we know we aren’t, but these values are what we try to live by. Recently we’ve become very involved at our church’s second campus Life Park. We’ve served in technology ministry (David of course) and with the Kids Park program (obviously Kristen). We have been involved together with youth and yet we still felt this desire for more. We asked some people to pray for us while we were doing the same. A few months later God showed us that missions might be part of His plan for our life.

“Missions” is a big word and we got nervous almost immediately! We thought that surely we’d heard wrong. We felt sure God was just trying to teach us not to take what we have for granted. So, we just reassessed our many blessings. Here we are 26/27 years old and well on our way to the “American Dream.” We have two great and stable jobs. We have two reliable cars and a perfect house. Both of which we can afford. We have two great families right around the corner. We both have a college degree & David has a masters. We have a great network of friends. What more could we want? A family of course, but the door is closed right now in that area. You know what they say: When one door closes another one opens. Well, that “itch” for more didn’t go away. It actually began to grow. We couldn’t get away from the idea of missions. So, we started looking into it. We toyed with the thought of long-term missions. You know things that would involve job changes and possible relocations to foreign countries. We found quickly that doors were closed in that area as well. We aren’t ready for that right now and don’t really know if that’s exactly what God is trying to tell us. Here, however, is the open door: a short term (one week) trip to Guatemala with our church this summer. Almost immediately we knew that this was it. This is where God is leading us. This is how we can get our feet wet to see how this word “missions” fits into God’s plan for our life together.

                We are very excited to see what God has in store for us on this trip. We are confident that there is a purpose for our taking this journey and we can’t wait to keep hearing from Him. We’ve learned that God is faithful to answer prayers. He sometimes answers “out of left field” and that’s ok. We never thought an answer to our prayers would lead to a foreign country, ever! We do, however, feel confident that this is his direction. How can we say no? We heard it explained like this: Christians have been given the command to “Go and make disciples of all nations. Matt28:19.” So what we have to figure out is whether we should support from home or actually go. In our case, we’re going.

So here’s the real reason you got a letter. We aren’t in the practice of randomly writing letters to family and friends out of the blue. Actually, we need something. We need support. First, we want to thank you for being the people in our lives that we are comfortable enough with to send this kind of letter to. In some capacity you have made an impact on us. Out of obedience to God’s calling we are hoping to make in impact on the people of Guatemala. Please consider helping us this summer. The most important way of helping is prayer. You can pray for our safety and for us to know exactly how to help out in a third world country. You can pray for the language barrier and the food differences. The second way you can support us is financially.  As you can imagine, a trip this far away will be expensive. Our trip will cost roughly $4,000.00 together. We will be taking this trip July 15-23, 2011. All monetary donations can be sent to our church and will be tax deductible. See details below.  

                Again, thanks for being someone that we feel we can share this kind of story with. Thank you for having a positive impact on our lives. And, thank you for reading all the way to the end! We love you!

                                          God Bless,

                                          David & Kristen Patrick

                            

 First Baptist Church

281 McCants Boulevard

Mount Pleasant, SC 29464

Memo Line of Check: Acts 1:8 Fund for Patrick’s

God's Blessings

Extra income ... that's not a normal term these days. We've been blessed to have some though! Here's what I think:

 I'm about as busy with cookies as David is with softball! I'm loving this hobby & my wallet is too! I've made some great 'fun-money!' God is so gracious! You see, David & I were worried about spending money (and even funding our trip) in Guatemala and how everything was going to work out. We also were a little worried about what to do when we do (eventually...) have kids. I would like to stay at home with them, but only one income is definitely going to be difficult! Don't get me wrong ... I'm not pregnant nor am I going to quit my job ... we're just glad that the Lord has blessed us with options! I've been successful with this "Cookie Thing" to the tune of great moo-lah! Don't get me wrong again ... I'm not rolling in the dough, but the cookie business is funding our fun & we are able to put great savings in the bank monthly! After stressing over buying a house, setting a "Real-People-Grown-Up" budget for the first time and facing bills, God came through! We didn't think he wouldn't, but man did he come through above what we thought might happen! We followed his direction to Guatemala. We followed his direction to set a budget. We've followed his direction with our free time. As a result ... BLESSINGS! He has a way of doing that ... blessing us beyond what we imagined. 

So, my question/challenge to you today?

What have you let go of? How did God bless you in that? If you haven't let go, are you willing to?

PS - If you've bought cookies THANK YOU! If you haven't, check it out here! Kristen's Cookies

*Disclaimer: This was in no way of guilting you into buying my cookies ... just a simple shout out to the One who is faithful to take care of me ... in more ways than you know!

Guatemala

David & I have answered God's call to spend a week in Guatemala lovign on the people there ...


we're nervous, but excited at the same time ...


please pray for us!


Some pictures from last year's trip: (courtesy of www.elizabethervinphotography.blgospot.com )

I didn't fall off the face of the earth ...

... I just got SUPER DUPER busy! So I failed at the thankful challenge, but I totally enjoyed the holidays! I've also gotten into by cookie business more seriously. You can check out my cookie blog HERE. I'll be (hopefully) updating life on this site and cookies on the new one. Hope all is well out in the blogging world. I'll try to be better about that soon. Until next time, remember to


"Taste and see that the Lord is GOOD!" Ps. 38:4

Thankful for time to update ...

November 14th: My grandmother's macaroni and; cheese recipe that my mother taught me how to make ... it made for a happy hubby while I was away for the night! This is all that's left (do you think he likes it? maybe a little?)

November 15th: Flowertown Elementary School! I know I mentioned loving my kindergarten team, but I want you to know that my school is also amazing! We're a family and that makes all the difference in the world! Come check us out here: 

November 16th: I'm thankful for movie nights with David. Sunday night we got Robin Hood from the RedBox. It was great! You should watch it ... with someone you love ... on a lazy afternoon ... tune out the world & relax ... joy!