Krisitn is home

Kristin is home from the mission field. She has been so sick even in the MTC she started to have a problem with her teeth which she ultimately had to have oral surgery for in the mission field. At the same time she developed ulcers and a hiatle hernia and was incapacitated by constant pain and other complications. It got so bad her mission president gave her the green light to call Don and me whenever she wanted to. She had tests done and they ruled out gall bladder, and pancreas trouble. She finally had an upper GI done in Virginia during which they found the stomach problems.

The Saturday before we were to fly to Mongolia, she called us early in the morning in terrible pain and crying. We had been in touch every day for the week previous and we kept thinking things would improve. On this Saturday morning I told her to call her doctor AND I called the doctor. Of course, we got an on-call doctor, an associate of the doctor who had been caring for her, who told her to take percocet over the weekend OR go to a different ER for a "second opinion" because he believed she had been misdiagnosed. I wasn't happy with his response at all. She had been sick for 5 weeks.

Her mission president told Kristin's companion that their major job was to get her well so they hadn't been getting much work done. (I can't think of anything worse than being sick or having a sick companion in the mission field.) She was given a companion from Heaven!! She was so supportive and understanding. I talked to her, Sister Stoehr, several times because I wanted to know her take on the situation. Sister Stoehr reassured me that Kristin was sick, no doubt about it.

So here we were preparing to fly to Mongolia the next day, but felt we had to do something about Kristin's situation. We went to see the MTC President but were referred to the MTC District President (equivalent to a Stake President) for some advice and direction. It was a draining day!! Ultimately the decision was made to have Kristin come home and for us to put off our flight to Mongolia for two weeks and meet her in Las Vegas. Which is what we did.

We got Kristin last Tuesday night, Aug. 24th, took her to see a stake president who released her as a missionary. She cried the entire time. It was so difficult! The next day we got her in to see a gastrologist and he put her on Nexium (Travis swears by Nexium) and told her to come back in two weeks. Over the next three days, she got somewhat better. She has been able to sleep a little better every night. Every day gets a little better. It will take time for her to feel like she doesn't have a time bomb ready to explode.

Travis believes she has exactly what he has spent the last 4 years battling. He talked to me for a least an hour from the MTC and then he talked to Kristin too and we all think they have the same problem which is overactive acid with a hiatle hernia. He told me he thought he was going to die - so did Kristin, but of course you don't die from this you just think you will. He will help her learn what, when and how to eat.

In the 7 days we've had her home, she has had 5 bad days and we have seen for ourselves that she could not function as a missionary in this condition.

There is a silver lining in this story. It seems that Don and I did not have our ESL certificate (teaching English as a second language) and would have been sent back from Mongolia had we actually flown there. According to Bro. Peterson, they wouldn't have let us out of the airport in Mongolia. So now we will fly back to Provo and attend a one-day training on Friday, Sept. 3rd, get the certification and fly out of SLC on Saturday night, Sept. 4th and arrive in Mongolia Sept. 6th, Monday morning.

We aren't sure what to expect about Kristin. She needs to get better. I am praying that OUR diagnosis is correct in which case it will take her a few months to settle down. If it turns out to be something different - like a complication due to her gastric bypass, then we'll have to take it as it comes. In the meantime, she is with family and has a doctor without the stress and responsibilities of a mission. She has applied for a 10-hour a week job at Deseret Book Store. We hope she can get it together.

We are hugely disappointed that she was not able to experience the great joy and satisfaction of serving a fulltime mission. Even though she was not feeling good, she had wonderful experiences as she shared the gospel and in the two areas she served, people were baptized! What a shame that it came to this end!! I don't understand why things happen as they do. I hope that at some point in the future we will see and understand why this all turned out this way.