Yay, it's true... we've finally gotten rid of Giardia in our household. We've been so busy, that I haven't had time to write about our 'experience'... because you just-can't-make-this-stuff-up and the story is kinda complicated.
There's lots of twists and turns to this story that includes lost stool samples, a lab catching on fire, researching the wrong parasite, and the list goes on . . but long story short... We got rid of giardia -- Praise God! But, we waited almost 4 months for a 'treatment' plan from the Infectious Disease specialist, were given a course of medicine -- 2 kinds -- retested, received another POSITIVE result and then waited several weeks for a phone call that NEVER CAME.
After receiving no return calls from our referring pediatrician or the ID doctor for 2 weeks, I contacted Johns Hopkins Infectious Disease to schedule a second opinion. Hopkins quickly agreed that we needed to get Faith to them ASAP, but I first needed to gather her records. I drove directly to the Infectious Disease Dr's central records department to obtain her records. To my surprise, her medical records only consisted of 5 pages. . . no clinical notes, etc.... just a 3-page referral letter from our referring pediatrician, and 2 lab results . . . one from March and one from June.
My eye's quickly scanned the lab result from June, which read,
"NO GIARDIA OR CRYPTOSPORIDIUM PRESENT - NEGATIVE"
**!! What?? Are you serious. I didn't know if I should celebrate or be really angry! After a few frantic calls, it was discovered that the nurse who gave the results to me, accidentally read the MARCH lab results, not the JUNE results. I am so thankful that I decided to gather and review her records on my own. Her referring pediatrician was going to retreat her again with the same meds (for another $300 and 2 weeks) . . . because he was literally out of ideas and
maybe this time it would work (I'd heard that before!!).
But, bottom line -- the girls are BOTH Giardia free -- It only took 16 months, 9 treatments, 7 different medicines, and lots of patience and prayer.
The thing is, I was so confident that the treatment worked because I had a feeling of calmness every time I prayed about it -- it was a sense of "don't worry about it .. I got it covered..." So you can imagine my devastation when we received the positive results. God and I had it out. I stewed for a couple of weeks -- teetering between trusting the doctors to come up with another plan or jumping ship and starting the process over again with a whole new set of doctors. Once I talked to Hopkins and they requested Faith's records, I was still irritated because I was starting the process all over again. I could have had them all transferred as they suggested, but something in me urged me to go get the records my self. I'm glad I did -- and then I felt horrible for doubting what I already knew deep down in my heart . . . I'm sure if God was a god of
"I told you so's" He would have used that opportunity to "tell me so" ... but He's not and for that I am grateful.
I cast all my cares on You O Lord for You care for me. 1 Peter 5:7
