Emma's Hashimoto's Diagnosis, Part 5



 The Visit with Nick, continued from Part 4


So Emma arrived at the Ballester's, and Nick took over as chief caretaker, a job he filled admirably.  I first wrote about this young man last July when he and Emma were in Italy together for a choir group pilgrimage.  At that point, they had carried on a long distance relationship for about six months.  It had started in Syracuse when they both attended a Christmas "jam session" that Fr. Stanich organized.  (Read about that here and here.)  Nick assures me that it was love at first sight for him.  Emma says that she didn't understand what was going on, but that he was very nice to her.  She specifically remembered him hastening to help her with her coat and that he was very polite.  They barely spent any time together in Syracuse and what they did was in a group setting.  However, Nick was convinced that Emma would make a great wife and mother, and realizing that it was going to be difficult to win her when they lived so far apart, he wasted no time.  His  parish's group returned home before Emma's departed Syracuse; he asked to be her friend on Facebook and began e-mailing her before she even got home.  I admire his "obstacles be damned, I've found what I want, and I am going after it" approach--it's so reassuring and thoroughly masculine.  He told me that aside from the Faith, Emma is his highest cause and that she is his "pearl of great price".  He has proved it over and over, especially through her illness. God bless him.  I have moms say things to me all the time about Emma being too young and that I should be glad that they are separated.  I say, "I love this young man, so steadfast and true, and I couldn't be happier and more proud that he has chosen Emma!"

This Christmas visit would not be the first time that Nick had taken care of her.  Emma was actually quite ill on the Italy pilgrimage that they both went on in June/July, and he took care of her then.  At that point we did not know that she had Hashimoto's or was gluten intolerant.  The pilgrims lived on refined carbohydrates; mealtimes were irregular, and they maintained a grueling schedule of walking almost all day, every day.   Emma began having serious blood sugar issues, near blackouts, dizziness, fatigue, and muscle weakness.  Nick took pictures of her napping in the strangest places: on a bench, leaning against a wall, etc.  Understanding what I do now about her illness, I think that she probably should have been hospitalized on the day they made the pilgrimage to the 7 basilicas of Rome, but no one, including me, knew how terribly sick she was, as she had seemed perfectly healthy until this trip.  When the details were related to me upon her return home, all I could come up with was that she was not used to going without protein.  The pilgrims would eat pastries for breakfast and then not eat lunch until late afternoon after walking all day.  And the lunch was usually more carbs, like pizza.  At home she always had lots of protein for breakfast--bacon and eggs, omelets, etc.  I couldn't figure out why the other pilgrims didn't get sick.  Emma and I decided that they were used to eating that way.  Once home, she recovered quickly, which led us to the false conclusion that it was only the lack of protein and adequate rest that had caused her problems.  It took the stress of college starting six or seven weeks after her return to cause trouble to flare anew.  There was also the emotional stress of not expecting to see Nick again until the summer of 2012.  This Christmas trip wasn't worked out until late October/early November.  By then she was having major brain issues, but I didn't know it.

So, from past experience, I knew that Nick would take good care of Emma.  Additionally, Nick's mom is on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which is the ideal diet for people with Crohn's/IBS/gluten intolerance/celiac disease.  She is the one from whom I first heard about it, months and months before I ever thought it would play any role in my life, and she is still the only person I know who is on this diet.  What is more, she is thoroughly knowledgeable about Hashimoto's.  We even read some of the same blogs, like The Healthy Skeptic.  I do not know of another family that could have been more ideally suited to take care of Emma while she was so ill.  And they're traditional Catholic.  God must surely have had a hand in this.  I mean, really, what are the chances?  (I'm sure Nick could tell me.  He's really good at statistics, among many other talents.)


The second night that Emma was there, they attended a Hilary Hahn concert in Cincinnati.

 Reunited for the first time in six months, they renewed their relationship under trying circumstances once again. At least this time, in between Emma's naps and snacks, they got to do some fun things together with a chaperon instead of a whole group of people.

The Ballester family dressed in Nativity costumes to sing Christmas carols.



Nick and Emma cooked dinner at a friend's house after watching a movie.



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 Emma usually fell asleep during morning prayers and also took a nap later in the day. The first week she really struggled with depression and cried at the thought of having to go home and leave Nick. Mrs. Ballester gave her a book on courtship to read, and she was unable to understand it. Nick said he tried to explain it to her, but her thinking just went around and around in circles.  (Within a couple of weeks of returning home, she was able to read it and understand it.)


Emma cut out and decorated almond flour gingerbread cookies that Nick's sister made with a SCD recipe.



Emma finally got to hear Nick play violin "live".  She listened to his senior recital CD most of the Fall.


She began having episodes of waking up in the middle of the night with her heart pounding so fiercely that she had to get up out of bed. This was hyperthyroidism. I was actually relieved when she told me this on the phone. For me it was the confirmation that I needed that Hashimoto's was at the bottom of all her symptoms, because it is typical that Hashimoto's goes back and forth between being hypothyroid and hyperthyroid. It made me glad that we had discontinued the thyroid hormone.   I wondered what that would have done to her when she was in a hyperthyroid stage. 

Emma could not get enough of the snow.  Nick said his family called her The Snow Baby.  She got to go sledding two times with Nick and his three brothers and loved it. 

Meanwhile, back at home, I was researching like crazy, second guessing myself, and missing Emma horribly.  We never did decorate our Christmas tree.  It stood, crazily, in the middle of the living room with multitudes of lights but nothing else, not even a star on top.  Finally, sometime between Christmas and New Year's, I had Nathaniel pull it into its customary position.  It had been blocking part of the couch for weeks.  Like Emma, I was depressed and crying, often without warning.

Cutting up at the ice rink.



Nick attends the Napping 101 Lab.


Mrs. Ballester said that the second week Emma improved, that her gluten-free diet seemed to be helping, although she was afraid that Emma would return home sad and lonely for Nick.   

Nick shaped these Nativity scene figures out of homemade marzipan.  They used them to decorate the top of Jesus' birthday cake.  You can see by Emma's eyes that she is extremely tired.

 He did his best to ensure that would happen.  He cooked her breakfast every morning and often fed it to her as she lay in the recliner.  He carried her up the hill several times when they were sledding because she was too tired to make it and would get severely out of breath.

After Midnight Mass in the basement of the new SSPX chapel in Walton, KY.

 In fact, when the Ballesters visited a family from their parish, Emma struggled to climb a tree in their back yard and said that it actually made her so sore that it was hard to walk.  This soreness lasted for several days.  Just a few months earlier she had climbed with ease and no soreness.

Nap time comes to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum.

 Emma seemed to fit right in with the Ballester family.  She got lots of teasing from the boys and enjoyed some bedtime chats with Nick's sister, whose room she shared.



On their one-year anniversary, Nick presented Emma with a promise ring.

Emma was scheduled to fly back to Houston on Sunday evening, January 2.  The security lines were so long, she called me and said that she thought she was going to miss her flight.  She sounded happy at the prospect.  Luckily, this was not the case.  Again, she miraculously made it through airport security without being touched.  Deo gratias!

And they plan to live happily ever after.  Nick will visit us this summer.  Yay!

Herb, Nathaniel, and I met her at the airport.  I finally exhaled, and it felt really good.

On the following Wednesday, Emma and I returned to Dr. Richardson to begin the next step of Dr. Kharrazian's protocol for Hashimoto's treatment, the detox diet.