Journal entry by Vicky Peacock —
Dearest Family and Friends,
I have been very remiss in not writing since July of last year, and I am sorry for that! I am going to try to explain why you haven't heard from me. I am not using it as an excuse, it's just what I needed to do for me to have the strength I needed to find my way through this last year! I can't express enough to you in words how much you all mean to me, your prayers strengthened me, your words of encouragement (cards & calls) delighted me by reminding me of how blessed I have been to have you in my life, and your donations to the Go Fund Me site were humbling and made our family's life in Rochester much easier! For all of that, thank you from the bottom of my/our hearts!! A long time ago, I made a deal with God that every time I thought of a friend, it was my prayer for them. I can truthfully tell you that my list of thoughts has carried your name in prayer every single day, I am honored to know you and have you in my life! Jim has also prayed for each of you, and he gets very specific with his prayers, so we hope our prayers have somehow help to lift the times of burden in your life and enhance the times of joy! That being said, writing to all you wonderful people about my feelings for you and what you have done for us, takes me to a very vulnerable place and my heart is overcome with love, gratitude, and an overwhelming feeling of what did I ever do to deserve friends like you in my life! I pray you can understand this, but when I feel this humble, it's hard for me to find strength, and I needed every ounce of the strength that you prayed for me to receive! So, I knew that I had to persevere with my eyes straight ahead to find all of my strength to navigate this new life of mine. That means, that I carried you all in my heart and prayers, but I just couldn't write about the journey.
I am doing amazingly well, and I will be having an endoscopy to check out my duodenum for polyps. I had one done in January, but with my new "plumbing", my GI couldn't get through to the ampulla of the pancreas, so now I have a CAT scan on May 6th to make a map of the area, and on May 9th, Dr. Atiq is adding another doctor to run a balloon up in front of the scope to hopefully get through to that area. By the way, the balloon doctor is Dr. Baloun, and yes, it is pronounced Balloon!! Even my doctors keep the humor coming!! I give myself weekly B12 shots, which have really helped with my energy level, I do tire out, even though I don't want to admit it, but that will keep improving, I'm sure. I still get very hungry about every 2 hours, but never really know what I'm hungry for, which makes eating more of a job than an event. Planning a meal is work for me, since I don't really get hungry for certain things, or if I do, some times the food doesn't taste right to me. Most of the time things go fine, just takes more work to plan. Snacks remain hard for me, I'm not fond of protein, but need a lot of it for my bod to work well, so cheese, crackers, hummus and grapes have been my mainstays. Many protein shakes cap it all off. I stick with chicken and hamburger for meats. I love tofu stir fry, and strangely enough Mexican food and pizza work well for me. Pork unless shredded, is too dense for me and I haven't tried steak yet. I figured out that I can't drink ice cold water, it contracts my esophagus, which is connected to my small intestine, and won't let my food pass through. What a person doesn't learn when they have to! I can't have honey or sugar, which I do well with, except when we have a birthday in our family, and I order, my favorite, a white cake with buttercream frosting, I tend to feel a little sorry for myself then. lol I am going to water exercise three mornings a week at 9am (ugh, not a morning girl), and it's definitely a love/hate relationship. I have lost 50 pounds, so I lost a lot of muscle mass, which I see coming back since the class. I am also super happy that i didn't lose the weight as fast as many in this situation do, and that I have now maintained the same weight for 3 mos.
Jim was very ill with IBS for 4 months this winter. He really suffered with that and was totally sleep deprived. He is doing well with the IBS now, hope it stays that way for him. Two weeks ago he had a double rhizotomy (killing of two facets nerves in his spine). That part of the spine is better, but above that area is really painful right now. We are going to be walking alot this spring and summer for sure!!
Our kids and grandchildren have kept us going, and remind me to have food and water with me at all times. I'm in search of a much bigger purse let me tell ya!! Thank you, thank you for all your prayers and friendship, they mean the world to us!!
Love Always,
Vicky & Jim
I have been very remiss in not writing since July of last year, and I am sorry for that! I am going to try to explain why you haven't heard from me. I am not using it as an excuse, it's just what I needed to do for me to have the strength I needed to find my way through this last year! I can't express enough to you in words how much you all mean to me, your prayers strengthened me, your words of encouragement (cards & calls) delighted me by reminding me of how blessed I have been to have you in my life, and your donations to the Go Fund Me site were humbling and made our family's life in Rochester much easier! For all of that, thank you from the bottom of my/our hearts!! A long time ago, I made a deal with God that every time I thought of a friend, it was my prayer for them. I can truthfully tell you that my list of thoughts has carried your name in prayer every single day, I am honored to know you and have you in my life! Jim has also prayed for each of you, and he gets very specific with his prayers, so we hope our prayers have somehow help to lift the times of burden in your life and enhance the times of joy! That being said, writing to all you wonderful people about my feelings for you and what you have done for us, takes me to a very vulnerable place and my heart is overcome with love, gratitude, and an overwhelming feeling of what did I ever do to deserve friends like you in my life! I pray you can understand this, but when I feel this humble, it's hard for me to find strength, and I needed every ounce of the strength that you prayed for me to receive! So, I knew that I had to persevere with my eyes straight ahead to find all of my strength to navigate this new life of mine. That means, that I carried you all in my heart and prayers, but I just couldn't write about the journey.
I am doing amazingly well, and I will be having an endoscopy to check out my duodenum for polyps. I had one done in January, but with my new "plumbing", my GI couldn't get through to the ampulla of the pancreas, so now I have a CAT scan on May 6th to make a map of the area, and on May 9th, Dr. Atiq is adding another doctor to run a balloon up in front of the scope to hopefully get through to that area. By the way, the balloon doctor is Dr. Baloun, and yes, it is pronounced Balloon!! Even my doctors keep the humor coming!! I give myself weekly B12 shots, which have really helped with my energy level, I do tire out, even though I don't want to admit it, but that will keep improving, I'm sure. I still get very hungry about every 2 hours, but never really know what I'm hungry for, which makes eating more of a job than an event. Planning a meal is work for me, since I don't really get hungry for certain things, or if I do, some times the food doesn't taste right to me. Most of the time things go fine, just takes more work to plan. Snacks remain hard for me, I'm not fond of protein, but need a lot of it for my bod to work well, so cheese, crackers, hummus and grapes have been my mainstays. Many protein shakes cap it all off. I stick with chicken and hamburger for meats. I love tofu stir fry, and strangely enough Mexican food and pizza work well for me. Pork unless shredded, is too dense for me and I haven't tried steak yet. I figured out that I can't drink ice cold water, it contracts my esophagus, which is connected to my small intestine, and won't let my food pass through. What a person doesn't learn when they have to! I can't have honey or sugar, which I do well with, except when we have a birthday in our family, and I order, my favorite, a white cake with buttercream frosting, I tend to feel a little sorry for myself then. lol I am going to water exercise three mornings a week at 9am (ugh, not a morning girl), and it's definitely a love/hate relationship. I have lost 50 pounds, so I lost a lot of muscle mass, which I see coming back since the class. I am also super happy that i didn't lose the weight as fast as many in this situation do, and that I have now maintained the same weight for 3 mos.
Jim was very ill with IBS for 4 months this winter. He really suffered with that and was totally sleep deprived. He is doing well with the IBS now, hope it stays that way for him. Two weeks ago he had a double rhizotomy (killing of two facets nerves in his spine). That part of the spine is better, but above that area is really painful right now. We are going to be walking alot this spring and summer for sure!!
Our kids and grandchildren have kept us going, and remind me to have food and water with me at all times. I'm in search of a much bigger purse let me tell ya!! Thank you, thank you for all your prayers and friendship, they mean the world to us!!
Love Always,
Vicky & Jim
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