Dave and Laura's Excellent Adventures

After seeing the doctor the first time we didn't feel completely satisfied. Laura wasn't feeling better, the pain was worsening, and the pain was moving so we knew that we needed to take her in again. We took her back on Saturday. We explained that the pain was worsening, now at the bottom of her ribcage on the left side. It also seemed to get worse at night time and after she would eat a big meal.

The doctor told us that she thinks her initial diagnosis is wrong (which is always comforting to hear). We asked the doctor if it could be her gall bladder. She said that it sounds like it could be but the gall bladder is on the right side and her pain is on the left. She now thinks that it is either a ulcer, gastritis (inflammation of stomach), or Esophagitis (inflammation of esophagus). They put her on some medication for the pain and another medication to help the inflammation. So far nothing has helped at all. The pain medication isn't helping the pain at all and the inflammation medication may take some time for it to work. I just hope this is the right diagnosis this time.

I also want to say thanks for all the ideas, support, and love we have gotten from all our friends and family. It means so much to us.

Dave

I feel like this blog has only been a rant of our bad luck. We hope that it is all over but then keep finding more and more bad luck.

For about a month, Laura has been experiencing chest pains randomly. Usually they will come at night and only last a few hours. On Monday, we came home from work and Laura was experiencing pain worse than ever. The pain lasted all night. We decided to take her into Good Samaritan Outpatient Center in Downers Grove. After explaining the pain the doctor told us she would like to do some tests to make sure it wasn't her heart or a blood clot in her lungs. The doctor proceeded to to an EKG, chest x-ray, blood work, urine work, and a CAT scan. The results all came back perfectly normal. This sounds like good news but is frustrating to hear that she is experiencing pain and we can't fix it. The doctor said the best guess is something called costochondritis. It is an inflammation of the ribs. They told her to take ibuprofen and rest. We have tried waiting and seeing if the pain goes away but the pain is still there and we aren't seeing any improvement. I have been stressing really bad about this and don't know what to do...

I want to take her back in but Laura says she's fine. If the pain gets worse I will take her in asap. But we can't afford to take her in for another ibuprofen diagnosis... We have no insurance and we will be getting the bill any day now. I'm sure it is going to be huge and just canceled our trip to the Netherlands. We can barely make it right now and with each event we are falling deeper and deeper into debt.

I'm sorry if this seems like complaining to anyone but it is all the truth. We are having a rough patch and I'm just telling it how it is. No sugar coating or anything. Like i said before we are survivors but we are really getting pushed to our limit. I just hope Laura's pain goes away. I will go into debt for the rest of my life as long as my wife is safe and healthy.

Dave

Soooo much has happened since last time we wrote. I shortly worte that our car got broken into. We lost thousands of dollars worth of stuff. It was pretty scary and frustrating. At least we are safe though. We haven't written because our laptop is one of the things stolen. (Right now we are at a library using a guest pass to work on some things).

We are doing ok. We are tough but can only take so much right now. We have had so much happen that we take turns getting down about things. We are survivors though and will push through it.

On June 6th at about 3:45 A.M. we got a text from Mike saying "Don't come. When your mom arrives you will know where to go. Good Samaritan Hospital." I was so tired that I looked at it and threw the phone down. I was pissed off that Mike was texting me so late. Laura asked what it said and I said, "It didn't say anything". Lucklily Laura asked to see the phone and interpreted it for me. I guess I was so out of it that I didn't realize the text was telling me Sami, my sister, was going into labor. Once we realized what the text said we threw on clothes and made our way to the hospital. We stayed there until 11:45 AM waiting for the baby to come. Finally we had to pick my mom up from the airport. As we were driving back from the airport to the hospital Sami gave birth to Kaiden Lawrenece Porenta. Though we weren't there for the actual birth we were so excited to be a part of the experience.

That week we spent as much time as we could with my mom, Sami, and Kaiden. We tried to visit as much as possible when we weren't working. The week went by too fast and soon it was Sunday. Sunday we took Diane, Dave's mom, out into Chicago. She really wanted to go to the Shedd Aquarium. We drove out and had a great time. It was like an indoor Seaworld. The best part was the otters. Because otters are sweet!!! They had a dolphin show that was really cheezy. The coolest part was the fact that we were able to watch the dolphin show normally and under the water. Under the Aquarium they have a viewing that you can see the show from underneath. We all thought this was better than the actual show. You could watch the dolphins swim as fast as they could and then shoot out of the water. The dolphins were out of the water for so long and looked amazing under water during the show. We had so much fun with Diane.

After the show we took Diane to dinner. The morbid thing is after being at an Aquarium all day seafood sounded great. So we went to Red Lobster and ate what we watched at the aquarium... :)

Once dinner was over it was time to take Diane to the airport and say goodbye. This was tough. It was so great to have her out here. We already miss her company. It may also be the last time we see her for a while if we can go to the Netherlands. We are still hoping to go but aren't quite sure if we can afford it with all the problems that have arisen lately. Life is crazy and won't give us a break but we have eachother and can make it through anything.

~Dave~