What Happened At the Mayo Clinic

It always feels a little arrogant to apologize for not keeping everyone appraised of what is going on in our lives - I would have to assume that you are really THAT interested in the all details of our life...and though I know we are very loved, I don't assume that we are quite that interesting or important. :)

So, no apologies. It is what it is. :)

But still, I know there are people out there who wonder - what exactly happened back in May at the Mayo Clinic? How is Jonathan doing now? Do we have plans to move back to Alaska?

(Plus, I like to keep this blog up for myself. It serves as a memory-keeper of our married life. There are so many things I would forget if I didn't have a place to keep them all written down, and with all the moving we've done, online is definitely the safest place for our memories.)

SO, back in May we visited the Mayo Clinic in Florida. We really had no idea of what to expect to come out of that visit, but we prayed a lot over it and realized that, no matter what happened, we couldn't place our hope in men.

We met with a neurologist and a gastrointestinal specialist while there and received some really good opinions. The GI doctor was the most helpful. He listened to us very intently and even seriously asked for our own opinion on what was causing Jonathan's symptoms. Finally, he offered his theory - the virus Jonathan had in July/August 2014 went haywire in his system because of his weakened immune system causing full-body nerve damage, which further caused all sorts of lasting symptoms, complicated by travel, a prescribed steroid overdose, etc.

There is no (efficient or worthwhile) way to test for this to know if his theory is absolutely correct but he quoted studies done to prove that any severe illness can cause lasting nerve damage (even severe food poisoning can do the trick in some cases) and put a lot of the odd puzzle pieces together for us.

When we left his office we were pretty thoroughly but cautiously convinced. I couldn't number the times we've thought we had it all figured out before, only to find we were completely mistaken. So we took some time to consult with other doctors, and think through it all for ourselves.

In the end, we have adopted the Mayo Clinic doctor's theory. In some ways, it's been a huge relief - he doesn't have any disease causing further damage. In other ways it can be discouraging - there is no treatment for this, only time will heal him. His doctor predicted 1-2 years before he is back to "normal", though I doubt he will ever be quite as energetic or seemingly-limitless as before.

Jonathan still struggles with a lot of "invisible" symptoms. On the outside he looks perfectly normal and healthy, but he suffers from intense headaches, a persistent numbness on half of his face, muscle cramps and twitches, intestinal pain, heart palpitations and chest pain, plus a host of random, odd things that pop up, make us scratch our heads, and then disappear.

He's slowly been working up more stamina. In May, he would work 2-4 days a week and then completely crash every evening and weekend. Now, he consistently works 30 hours a week and has energy to spend playing with a little 19-month-old ball of energy in the evenings and occasionally work on a project on the weekends. Progress can seem frustratingly slow but it is happening!

As far as our future plans, we still dream of returning to Alaska some day. But that day isn't in our sights yet. Right now we are still living with parents, keeping up with doctor visits, and planning for Baby Boy #2 to join us in just a few weeks! :) :) :)