Hannah's Latest

It has been 19 weeks today since I posted about Hannah. (http://kikarules.blogspot.com/2017/02/an-update-on-hannah.html)  People have been asking for an update and I feel confident enough to do so. I'll cut straight to the chase and then tell the story...

Hannah's knee is almost fixed (we are still in progress which is good) and also... 
she is CURED of her stomach problems!!!!!

{insert my praise and thanksgiving dance}

I had great reservations about putting that last blog posting on Facebook. I don't know why I did, but I'm sure we could have a whole conversation about that issue alone. Yet, I felt the Lord smacking the backside of my head frustrated that I hadn't followed His urging and done it earlier. What happened as a result? People reached out with love. And hope. And suggestions. It astounded me how many people out there hurt. Not only hurt, but like Hannah, hurt and didn't know why.

I want to say thank you to every single one of you who took a moment to bless us with your kindness. So many people did their own research for us, kept an eye out for others' stories who were similar, and sent ideas/articles/links. 

There was one person who led us to a doctor who single handedly properly diagnosed Hannah... Dave Cathcart. 

Now, I probably could have counted on one hand the number of conversations Dave and I have had one on one. I think that number would include times that he held the gate open for me at a swim meet and I said "Thank you". Yet, he took time out of his day to notice us. He saw a link on my FB page and he clicked it. He read my rambling. He heard our frustration and he recognized our pain. He then took the time to reach out to me to share his story and gave us the name of his doctor... his chiropractor. 

"Thank you, Dave. I appreciate the referral." is what I said to him. In my head, I was thinking "a chiropractor? Seriously? This is stomach issues, Dave. You're crazy." 

So, I did what everyone would have done... I put that info at the bottom of my list to look at later. After all, we were in the middle of other doctor appointments. I can only do so many at the same time.

Feb 13 Hannah went her knee surgeon for regular follow up. He gave no reason her knee should be hurting still. Suggested seeing a rheumatologist. Made an appointment that day.

Feb 13 Hannah began her 6 week restricted corn free diet. 
For goodness sake, this was hard. HARD. I made everything from scratch. Even homemade baking soda. I learned more about corn than I ever cared about knowing. If you need some great links to info, let me know. Did I mention this was extremely painful to do? Why is it so hard? It's in everything. Ev-er-y-thiiiiiiiing.

Feb 16 Post Op from her laparoscopic surgery.
No endometriosis. (which I knew). The doctor put her on birth control pills saying if hormones were a factor in reducing pain, then this would help the pain. All it did was completely screw up her body and gave her a totally awful other condition to work with. (she is no longer on them and has returned to normal)

March 4 Corn free diet ended (Thank you, God!). There was no issue with corn.

April 6 Rheumatologist appointment
Doctor saw no issues. Wanted an x-ray because she suspected scoliosis. X-ray taken same day. Results: no scoliosis.

Now, I'm at a dead end. I look back at my email from Dave, shrug my shoulders, and make an appointment with Dr. Rick Dietz.

This is Hannah's turning point.

Dr. Rick Dietz is a natural chiropractor. He looks at the body as a whole. He spent an hour with us at the first visit. I'm sure I drove him crazy with all my long winded words. He listened patiently, asked questions, and let Hannah's story unfold. Dietz's first instinct was that her stomach was not producing enough acid to digest the food. He said this before I even mentioned that the GI doctor had given her antacids and when she took them, she would writhe on the floor in pain. 

So, apparently there are pressure points towards the bottom of your rib cage. The right side is for stomach enzymes and the left side of for stomach acid. (It could be the opposite. I struggle keeping it straight.) He wanted to check her levels. He laid her down and all he did was touch her skin in the general areas of those pressure points and she basically levitated off the table in pain. He never even got to the actual pressure point. He gave her Zypan. This is basically a natural enzyme and acid that helps the stomach kick start the ability to produce the proper amount of acid to break down food. She was to take 1-3 pills any time she ate... even if it was just one grape. 

Then he adjusted her knee. And he adjusted her feet. And he adjusted her back. Basically, she was all out of alignment.

We ended up seeing him twice a week for a couple of weeks, then once a week, then every 2 weeks. Now we are about once a month.

Hannah can't remember the last time her stomach hurt. She still takes the pills but already doesn't need them for the small meals. Dr. Dietz is amazed at how quickly her stomach began pumping correctly. Hannah is fortunate that the acid pump being "broken" did not cause a chain reaction of other GI issues that we would have to work through. 

Hannah is trying to train this summer. After some running, and our awesome trip to Universal Studios and cruise, her knee got a big work out. There is some pain but it is thought the cause is from weak muscles surrounding her knee. Dietz can easily see the muscles are much weaker than her good knee. She is to do some exercises to strengthen it and then can get back to running. But Hannah has hope for lacrosse. For the first time, she feels good enough to play. She had a stick in her hand last week while working at a camp and came home yearning for LAX. She has hurt all her life and while we are still struggling with it, the pain is SO much less. 

Thank you, God, for Dr. Rick Dietz! He is Your hands and feet in this world.
Thank you, Lord, for Dave Cathcart! I owe him tremendously.

We are so full of hope and excitement!

Oh. And just this week Dr. Dietz did the pressure points test on Hannah. He was pushing extremely hard and Hannah was just laying there. The score of 11 on a 1-10 pain scale which she began with that first visit is now a 2. 

Praise God!