A JOYFUL NOISE

Today I had a follow up visit with my GI doctor, Dr. Cerefice after 7 months. Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers as I went to the GI doctor today. First off, I am still seeing my usual fellow doctor GI doctor Dr. Cerefice, but I got transferred to a different "head"/ attending doctor. His name is Dr. Powell and I found out today from his nurse that he the number ONE GI doctor in the nation! I talked to Dr. Cerefice today and told him that my medication he put me on, Domperidone seemed to work some--by that I told him I can see some difference in taking it and not taking it. Because of this, both Dr. Cerefice and Dr. Powell think that there is more to my stomach issues than gastroperesis (emptying problems with the stomach to the intestines). They believe that my stomach has muscle issues in that it does not expand and contact as it is suppose to while eating or drinking. OR it expands/contracts too late after eating/drinking (explaining pai...

I was in Chucke Cheese's with my nieces last week and watched in amazement how each kid enjoyed the rides and games..how each kid ran around the play area fought over what games to play. I noticed how my nieces listened carefully to their parents as they told their children "don't let go of my hand.....stay with me.". My mom and I decided to stay in the booth with the rest of the food and coats, etc and just observe things around us. When I told my youngest niece I was staying with "paw paw" she said to me "don't let go!". She wanted to remind me that I was "not to leave my mom"....which was a sweet gesture. Throughout the time the nieces played, mom and I observed so many kids....some less than 2 yrs old, run around the area without any parents. That is scary; especially when minutes later, we heard a scream and realized that two little girls couldn't find their caregiver anywhere. How scared those kids must have ...

About 4 weeks before Christmas, around the time I returned from my Caribbean cruise, I started to have left shoulder pain again. Remember the shoulder that had to go through 2 operations by 2 different surgeons before it was corrected? I'm not sure what spiked this pain. It was pain so awful that it would hurt to extend my arm straight to the side or even lift up a simple 2 liter bottle of soda. The pain radiated down my hands and made it numb. I wasn't happy at all. (oh, and a side note, a long with this pain, I had a horrible head a chest cold that I've finally gotten over). Also along with my shoulder pain, my stomach was flaring up (and continues to flare up) as well as my chronic pain in my back and legs. I've thought to myself "could this get any worse?". I thought about calling a friend of mine who first saw me when I came in for the shoulder evaluation; but decided that with the holidays and all I didn't want to bother him, plus I figur...