One down, one to go ...

Exhaust Pipe the horse!

Great news - Solomon seems to be back to normal health!  Frank treated our well water for the Coliform Bacteria (no E. Coli) last Friday.  Saturday morning Solomon had a tummy ache for only a little while.  And nothing since!  After weeks of tummy aches every single day, and about two weeks of diarrhea every morning, he seems totally fine.  Much to his great happiness he got to eat cheese again!  (I had put him on a dairy-free, gluten-free diet last month but it didn't really help.  Nor would it if it was only the bacteria he was reacting to.) 

So yay!  Maybe one medical case solved.

Odysseus is almost all grown up!

Tabby remains a mystery overall.  But we have some more puzzle pieces to consider.  Last Friday we got the results of her fecal test back and she had no parasites, etc.  It did show that her Lysozyme level was elevated, which signifies she has internal inflammation.  Yep, knew that.

Dr. H went over what we do know.  Tabby has a lot of internal inflammation.  She has leaky gut.  She is insulin resistant.  Her adrenal glands and cortisol levels are a terrible mess.  And she struggles a lot emotionally.

He talked to her about the mind and body connection.  How staying under emotional stress will eat a person up.  How damaging it is for the body to think it needs to stay in the "fight or flight" mode.  How gratitude and positive thoughts have been proven to have healing effects on the body.  He recommended two interesting sounding books about the mind-body connection: Molecules in Motion and Biology of Belief.  He feels that what is going on inside her is all related and she is in a vicious cycle.

Exhaust Pipe seems to be one of our main photo props around here!

So we are going to stop testing for awhile and see how her body responds to supplements and food to repair her gut, fix the insulin issue, and heal her adrenals and cortisol.  Counseling for emotional help.  Getting up and moving more.  Taking short walks in the sunshine, or at least sitting outside some each day.

Honestly it was kind of deflating for me to hear all this.  I wanted a solid answer and for it to be a quick fix.  When I asked Tabby how she felt about what the doctor said, she was fine with it and answered "It makes total sense."

Tabby was happy the goats still remember her

 So Saturday afternoon, Tabby went outside with the boys and I.  The sun felt wonderful and so did the walk around, visiting with the animals, and hanging out while Solomon worked a paying job.  (He was hired to pick up a bag of pine cones to be used as decorations for an event.  He took his job so seriously and examined each pine cone carefully.  He'd be a good "quality control" inspector!)

After being outside, Tabby felt so good she showered for the first time in days.  Then that evening she cleaned up her room for the first time in months.  Sunday she went to church in the morning and then back in the evening for a teen lesson.  Monday she went to school.  She was totally exhausted in all these things but doing OK!

Yep - Exhaust Pipe again

Then this morning at 4:30 she called me.  She said the excruciating "hollow stomach pain" was back.  She threw up some.  She hurt so bad she was afraid to be alone.  So I sat with her until she was finally able to go back to sleep about 5:30.  (By the way, here is an interesting article about possible causes for hollow stomach pain.  It's not the same as being hungry!) 

When she woke up again later, she was just really sore but the hollow pain was gone.  This afternoon she had "regular" stomach pain again and was briefly nauseous. 

Man oh man. 

Hunter built and installed a radio for Kelly in her chicken coop

This is my prayer for ME in all this:

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him." - James 1:5