It seems like
Ian has been struggling with something health related for a long time.
Around the same time we started dating and even before he realized that
for some reason he wasn't able to work as hard as he used to work and
couldn't shear as quickly as he thought he should be able to shear.
This led to a job change and now he's driving truck.
Last Thanksgiving was when I really started to think something might be
up when Ian's legs hurt a lot when he would stand or go for walks. We
decided to talk to the chiropractor and look for orthotics for his
feet. Over the next few months he tried several different kinds of
orthotics and they seemed to work for a while but after about a month
they would wear off and not seem to be helping any more.
Within the last month Ian started getting tests done for thyroid, lyme
disease, general blood work, cardio and the list goes on. All of them
came back clear.
Somewhere in the process Ian talked to
Michael (My cousin and Ian's brother-in-law who is a doctor in the
Lancaster area) who suggested several other tests. Things kind of came
to a head the weekend Dr. Michael was here in IA for a visit and we were
able to talk to him in person. It seems Ian's symptoms don't match
anything in the 'general practitioner's' realm of knowledge. Ian has
difficulty standing because of intense pain and weakness in his legs and
it seems he's beginning to feel some of the same symptoms in his arms.
He no longer stands for a conversation but has to sit. Walking slowly
works for a bit but if he walks much, the weakness takes over and he has
to sit down again. He's most relaxed when he's sitting with his feet
up and has been resting for a while. He hasn't been able to work at all
since last week.
At this point Dr. Michael as well as our
current doctor in Des Moines, is encouraging us to go see a specialist
either with University of Iowa or Mayo to see if we can start to find
some answers. He says the symptoms are really quite odd because there
are very few things that usually go wrong with the muscles.
I
don't know that there are many other details we have to share other
than to ask that you pray for us as we face the certainty of an unknown
future, doctor's visits, tests, hospitals and many more things we can't
even begin to fathom.
Feel free to share this with others.
We're finally starting to realize this is a reality and so we've talked
to our families and a few other people but word hasn't gotten very far
yet but we long for the prayer support of many. Lift us up to the God
who truly knows all things and encourage others to as well.
