Hello all. It's been forever, I know. I wish I could say it's because I've been out having so much fun that time just flew by, but alas...not yet. I have really had a hard time finding good local doctors who are familiar with my condition, so when my health started to degrade about 6 or 7 months ago, problems just stacked up on themselves and I became one big medical mess. I still have abdominal pain, severe GI problems that have spanned both sides of the spectrum, and multiple other issues that come and go. I'm still unable to work, or even care for myself during the day. So, back in November, I moved up to Chandler (about a 2 hour drive) to live with my mom. I came home for a couple weeks around Christmas (which was wonderful), but knew that I needed full time help to take care of myself and the kids. So now the 3 of us are here living with my mom and stepdad for the rest of the school year. (Lew and I are still great - he just has to stay where there's a paycheck for now.) The kids are doing amazingly well with the transition, diving right in to both school and social activities. All my siblings live in the area, so now the cousins get to see each other much more often. Having all this family support is really helping me emotionally - knowing that the kids are getting the attention that I couldn't give them alone. My mom has been my rock up here, driving me to appointments, making meals, and holding my hand through all my nonsensical anxiety attacks.

We have found a much better team of doctors up here, so I feel that my care is better managed than at home in Tucson. I am headed back up to Minneapolis in mid-Feb to be seen by the team up there. Hopefully, somebody there will be able to figure out how to "fix" me. Louise told me to buy a one way ticket and the team will put together a plan on how to proceed. It may be that they send us back to Chandler for coordinated care at home, or keep me in MN for a while longer. I may need surgery to repair some hernias and remove scar tissue, but we shall see. So in the meantime, I'm just trying to get better and stronger on a day-by-day basis. I'll try to remember to update my blog so everyone knows what's going on!