Feeling better!!

I am feeling better!! Yay!

Praise the Lord for good health!! We take it for granted sometimes. Aside from having the flu when I was 7 months pregnant with Ian, this was the sickest I have EVER been.

One HUGE praise report is that I have my appetite back...this girl LOVES to eat!!

I really appreciate all the prayers and well wishes!

The verdict is in...

Campylobacter jejuni:

So, for those that don't know...my hubby and I went to Peru on a mission trip, June 23 - July 1st. We had an amazing trip...spent time with the people of Juliaca, Peru, ministering to them and worshiping with them! Our church, Bethlehem Baptist, is partnering with a church in Juliaca, Iglesia Bautista, to reach the people of Chupa. So, we really got to spend time with the pastor of this church and its congregation. It was great!

We flew back home on Tuesday night (we left Lima at midnight) and flew into ATL around 7:45am on Wed. morning. We then flew from ATL to CLT and landed around 1PM. My parents met us there with Ian! We were so excited to see him! He was standing at the bottom of the escalators with flowers and a card for us. It was so sweet...and I literally lost it and cried when I saw him.

We then left the airport and decided to go eat at Cracker Barrel as a group. Still feeling fine at this point.

We got home and I started feeling bad. Body aches and stomach ache. As the night went on, it got worse and worse. I woke up Thursday morning around 1 and had a fever of 102...and my stomach was killing me. I won't go into details...but let's just say...I was VERY sick for a week. Ate nothing. Drank a little gatorade. Lost 5 lbs. No appetite. No energy. Oh, did I mention how AWFUL I felt?!

It was so bad one night, that Jason called my mom in the middle of the night at 3AM. I really was ready to go to the hospital. However, I just took some medication and laid back down.

So, I called my mom back the next morning and told her I needed to come to the dr. So, she made me an appt. After seeing the dr., he prescribed me Cipro.

After 5 days of Cipro, I felt better.

Felt good for 2 days.

Then, started going downhill again. Stomach issues all over again. Abdominal cramps...the whole 9 yards!

So, I finally told my mom, I cannot take this anymore...let's do what we need to do to figure out what it is that is wreaking havoc on my digestive system.

So, we sent off a sample last Thursday...they cultured it, and we got back the results today. Heavily positive for the Campylobacter jejuni bacteria.

FINALLY, we have a name for what ails me!!!

Anyway, according to Wikipedia, it is basically food poisoning..."contaminated food is a major source of isolated infections, with incorrectly prepared meat and poultry normally the source of the bacteria". You can click on the following link for more details:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campylobacter_jejuni

I'm pretty sure that the source of this BAD BAD bacteria was a piece of chicken that I ate in Juliaca on Sunday night before we flew home. There were parts that were not quite all the way done...but I didn't realize it until I had already eaten part of it.

No big deal...just glad we now know what we were/are dealing with. As to what we are going to do from here...not sure. The jury is still out on that one. The dr. is supposed to look at the results and let me know this afternoon.

UPDATE:

The dr. is calling me in another round of Cipro. Hopefully this round will knock it out for good!

Peru

Tuesday, June 23rd, we left for Peru. We flew back on July 1st. Our team consisted of me, Jason, Joe, Leigh Anne, Kayla, and Justin from our church. There was a team from Union's New Life Baptist Church that went with us...Kevin, Robbie, Missy, Wanda, Gibby, and Shep. Leigh Anne and Kayla actually left at the end of May and were there for about a month before we arrived. Then, they flew home with us on 7/1.

It was an incredible experience! We didn't arrive in Lima on June 23rd until almost midnight. By the time we got our luggage and made it to our hotel, it was about 3am. Then, we were up early the next morning to catch a flight to Juliaca. This is where we met Leigh Anne and Kayla. I couldn't believe how much the altitude affected me. As soon as the plane depressurized, I immediately felt my heart racing from the extreme altitude. It was like something was pushing against my chest. It was so weird...but after awhile, I got used to it.

Lidman, one of the guys our church is partnering with down there, met us at the airport and drove us to our hotel in Juliaca. We stayed there a couple of days and met up with a local church there. We worshipped with them and got to know the members. We also went out into the town of Juliaca, spread the good news about our Lord, and then just had fun playing games with the locals.

We then attempted to make the ~2.5 hour drive up to a little town called Chupa. Unfortunately we were not able to make it due to a blockage in the road. However, we just turned around and came back to the town of Juliaca. Obviously, God had other plans and wanted us to continue His work in Juliaca.

Jason and I missed Ian terribly. We called home a few times...but we didn't call home everyday, because Ian would get upset and want to come to "Pewooo". It was so cold. Even though it was hot and humid at home...it was very cold and dry in Juliaca.

We left Juliaca for Lima on Sunday afternoon. We spent the day Monday and Tuesday in Lima and then flew out of Lima at midnight on Tuesday night.

It was a great trip and one I'll always remember. Here are several pics from our trip: