Surgery

Hello my faithful and wonderful friends. I just got the best birthday present anyone could ask for. I told you all that I was approved for surgery. The situation became complicated when one party was requesting a preventative appendectomy and the other party was unwilling to provide a secondary surgeon to be available. We were hoping basically to have two procedures done at once.  What I didn't share with you was that they were saying I may have to wait up to four months to have it done. There were several complications that made scheduling my operation very difficult to coordinate. However, the office called me today to tell me that my post-op appointment will be on May 5th and that the surgery is on the books for May 12th. (Five days after my graduation, the Lords timing is amazing.). I am still not clear on whether or not they are going to perform the appendectomy as we've been praying for. However, when I spoke to my doctor yesterday, he had mentioned that this appointment wasn't to be made until he could find a surgeon to have it removed. Being that it has been scheduled makes me believe that he has chosen a surgeon to perform the second surgery while I am in op already.
A lot of information and still many unknowns because we are working with so many different doctors it can be hard to keep everything straight. The best news is that things are still moving along at a decent pace. Even better that we may finally have an authorization for the preventative appendectomy. Thank you so much for your prayers.
Love always
Britt

Guardian Angel

I never thought I would have news so soon after writing to you. I had another doctors appointment this afternoon with an OB/GYN specialist who wanted to talk with me about my condition. (That makes four doctors appointments with Kaiser in less than two weeks, unheard of before now.) I have two wonderful things to say. These doctors have been doing a particular examination on me that is very very painful. As it turns out, I just needed to be honest with them about how much it hurt me and there is another form of the test they can do that is not painful at all. So no more bad tests! Secondly, this OB is also a surgeon and she feels as though I should have the lapriscopic surgery. The reason being is that she is fairly confident that I may have endometriosis in which she can remove the damaged tissue that is causing all of my pain. On a side note, they are also going to look at my appendix and possibly remove it just to be on the safe side of things. The request for the surgery went in today, but it is going to take about a month or so for them to be able to set it up. I really don't care. I've been in pain for fifteen long months and I highly doubt a couple more will break me. I was so surprised because it sounded to me as though they had already decided to do this surgery before I even got examined today. This means that my doctors are finally talking to each other and coming to agreement that something must be done. It is an answer to all of our prayers. While this may not be the final answer it is a step in a direction that we've not taken yet. I am so encouraged and I just wanted to share with you all the good news. Thank you so much for sticking with me through all of this.
May God Bless you and keep you always.
Love
Brittany

Encouragement

Its been a while since I talked to you friends. Mostly because I had nothing new to tell. But now I have something very encouraging to share with you. So I hope you enjoy this change of tone. I am very excited and I've been praising the Lord all afternoon. I do want to preface this with letting you know that even though today was a break through, we have a long way to go.
My Aunt Terry is very involved in the Medical world. She's superwoman and she actually runs the Sheila R. Veloz Center at Henry Mayo. She has been looking for someone who could possibly help me with my situation. Low and behold, the Lord grants answers to our prayers and my Aunt Terry sends me to an angel.

Today I met with someone outside of the Kaiser program. Expensive, but completely worth it. She was unbelievably sweet, compassionate, and on fire to get me better. The first thing she suggested I may have was chronic appendicitis. I have to share with you that my mom, grandma and I have thought it was appendicitis since about March of last year. Because there is no test, we've asked five different surgeons for the lapriscopic analysis needed to see if the appendix is bad. They have all said no without providing any further suggestions for diagnosis or even offering a reason for denying the surgery. The second thing my Angel said was that I may have endometriosis, which also requires lapriscopic analysis for diagnosis. She repeatedly said she would like me to undergo this procedure. 
Because of the system's organization, she could not give me a referral, but she can send me to another doctor who can send me to Kaiser with a referral. I have already spoken with the people who are going to get involved and the ball is rolling. Please pray that their voices be heard by Kaiser because they will most likely ignore the advice of these outside physicians. If so, my case could be dragged out for a very long time and I am in so much pain. It's also getting progressively worse. I don't want to be a burden on my family and friends anymore either. So I am encouraged. I hope you are all encouraged with me. I am so thankful for your prayers. They give me so much strength. May God bless you and Keep you always.
Love Always
Brittany <3