A New Chapter

So let's go back ten years in my life...

In March of 2003, I was diagnosed with a chronic condition called Crohn's Disease. After the diagnosis I started to do well with medicine to control it. The few years before that diagnosis were hard. I was sick, anemic, weak, in pain, and most days I had to be near a bathroom at all times. There were a lot of sleepless nights, pain, and weight loss. I have a mild case of this horrible disease.

I started getting tested for things in January of 2003, but after lots of blood draws, urine and stool samples, and other tests, my primary care doctor sent me for a colonoscopy. That's were I got the diagnosis of Crohn's. I was placed on a medicine that seemed to control my Crohn's.

After my one and two year check ups things seemed to be going fine and my gastroenterologist declared my Crohn's in remission. He said to just keep taking the medicine until something changes. If I start to have symptoms again we will take another look at treatment. The upside to this, no Crohn's symptoms; the down side, six pills a day for the rest of my life. Taking pills is much better than being sick all the time. Overall, things have gone well.

Fast forward to April of 2013...

I am sitting in training for a new job and I get a voicemail from the pharmacy that said to call about my prescription. On a break, I call and they inform me that the medicine I have been taking for the past ten years is no longer being manufactured, due to some non-active ingredient in the coating of the pill that is known to cause cancer in rare cases.

Needless to say, that was not a fun phone call. It left me with a lot of questions. So I called my doctor to see what we could do.

Long story short, we found out they made an HD version of the medicine I was taking that was still being manufactured. It was 3 pills a day instead of 6, but that same amount of the medicine. So my doctor prescribed that and referred me to a Gastroenterologist for a long term solution.

I met with the Doctor and he recommended we do a colonoscopy to take a look at things, and that way we would could make a better informed decision as to what to do moving forward. He was optimistic that since the medicine I had been taking was not really designed for my problem area, and was keeping my Crohn's mostly symptom free, that I might be able to stop taking the medicine all together.

That brings us to today, the day of my second colonoscopy. Most adults have no need for one of these procedures until they are in their 50's or so, and I have had two before age 35, joy.

Side Note: If you have never had a colonoscopy they are not fun. The day before, you have to fast (not eat), drink lots of water, and take super laxatives. This is a terrible combination that leaves you feeling awful. The procedure itself is not too bad (because they give you drugs that make you sleep), but the preparing is horrible. I digress...

So after my colonoscopy today, I got great news from the doctor that there were no signs of active Crohn's Disease! He said he is "cautiously optimistic that my Crohn's is completely in remission." He also said that I could stop taking my pills. YES!!!

After 10 years of taking pills everyday I get to stop! God is good and he kicked my Crohn's Disease butt (pun intended). After a 10 year journey with Crohn's Disease, I get to start a new chapter, one with without pills to take.  :-)  Please pray that my Crohn's stays in remission. Sarah and I have been praying for this ever since we found out that they stopped manufacturing the pills I was taking.

If you took the time to read this, thanks for reading my blog, and I pray that God will bless you and your family.

My First Surgery

You might already know that back in March I got braces (if not, read about it here) to start a long journey to get my underbite fixed. Today was another major step towards that.

I had a periodontal surgery today called, "Osseous Ridge Graft/ Augmentation." Basically, what that means is, I had bone added to my top jaw above my front six teeth.

They way it works is: they recess you gum, drill holes in your jaw and pack ground up bone into the holes and into the ridges between your teeth, then put a membrane down, put your gum tissue back in place, and suture it all back together. Sounds fun right? Oh and I had it all done with just local anesthetic. The surgery took just over an hour and believe or not, I drove myself home afterwards.

So you might be thinking, why did Tony need this surgery? Great question! After the surgery your own bone and gum tissue grows back in the graft area, and this gives you better bone and gum tissue and better foundation for the roots of your teeth.

I had to have this surgery because they need to move my teeth on my top jaw a lot to get them to where they are supposed to be and make my jaw fit right after I have the surgery to fix my underbite some time in the future.

My Orthodontist was worried that I might not have enough jaw bone and gum tissue to support all the movement. So he sent me to a Periodontist to have an evaluation, to see if he thought I might need this surgery. After my Orthodontist and Periodontist consulted they decided it would be best and prevent future problems like the roots of my teeth popping out of my gums. Ouch!

The recovery is fairly simple antibiotics and a mouth wash to help the healing, along with ice for the swelling. Oh and I get narcotics for the pain. I can resume normal activity after a few days, and in a week or so they will take out the stitches.

Anyways, my first surgery of my life is in the books, and although it was minor, it was a pretty strange experience, not to mention I have ground up cadaver bone in my jaw and gums. Weird Right?

For those of you that prayed for me, thanks so much, I appreciate it!

And as always thanks for reading my blog, may God bless you and your family!

PS Here are a couple pictures, just a note they are a little graphic:

You can see some of the stitches, and the swelling where the bone was added behind my gums.

Here is a closer look than above, Sarah gaged while taking this pic, lol. 

Best Father's Day Ever!

Today is Father's Day. A day we celebrate those we call, "Dad." I had a great day!

I am grateful to have a wonderful father on this earth who has always been there for me and sacrificed for me. He is a very loving father and a great role model.

I am also grateful to have a wonderful father-in-law. FYI, I hate the term in-law, I just prefer the term family, and I call him Dad as well. He is also a wonderful man who is a great role model.

Both Dad's have done something that I truly appreciate, they have helped me understand the best Dad of all better, My Heavenly Father. Through the love of these two men I have come to better understand God as a Father who loves his children, even better. For that I am eternally grateful!

I am also grateful to be a Dad to two beautiful children! I only hope that I will be as good of a Dad and role model as my Dad and Sarah's Dad have been to us!

Now that the sappy stuff is out of the way, back to my day...

It started by Sarah allowing me to sleep in. I haven't sleep past sunrise in way too long. It was nice. When I got up Sarah made me breakfast as I watched TV and played on facebook, all while Carmen and Uriah were jumping on me saying, "Happy Father's Day!"

After breakfast we debated going to church, but we have all been battling sickness and with all the coughing we decided to stay home.

I had an outdoor soccer game at noon today, and wouldn't you know it, about five minutes into the game, I scored the games first goal! It would turn out to be the winning goal, as my team won 3-0!

After soccer, I took a shower and then watched some US Open Golf, well for a few minutes anyway, before I fell asleep.

I got to sleep in and take a nap in the same day, how glorious!!!

After our nap we gave our Dad's a call to chat with them, and tell them, "Happy Father's Day!"

Then we ate dinner. After dinner we stopped by my Dad's house to give him his Father's Day Gift.

Then came the highlight of my day.

We decided to go cheer on the Fire Fighters/ First Responders who have been fighting the Black Forest Fire.

If you didn't know (which must mean you live in a sad world with no access to any kind of media. That also begs the question, how are you reading this?), last Tuesday, June 11 a fire started in Black Forest, CO that has become the most destructive fire in the history of the State.

The fire is/ was about 5 miles north of our home and our neighborhood. The fire fighters did such a great job of holding the southern boundary containment line of the fire, that it never got closer than 5 miles from our neighborhood.

So we wanted to go say thank you to these heroes, personally.

It was awesome to be part of a large crowd (I would say at least 500 people) cheering for the fire fighters as they went to and came from fighting the fire. I teared up a couple of time as I watched the fire fighters smile and wave to the people in the crowd.

Many of them had their cell phones out and were taking videos of the people clapping, screaming, and cheering them on. The fire fighters were waving back and yelling, and honking the horns, turning on the sirens, and flashing the lights of the vehicles.

It was easily, the best parade I have ever been too!

Besides the parade of fire fighters, a couple of highlights:

There was this young boy near us cheering, "Black Forest Strong," over and over as the fire fighters vehicles passed by.

Then there were the fire fighters that came into the crowd and were thanking the people there for their support. It was cool! Uriah got to fist bump a couple of them, after I shook their hands and said, Thank You!" Here is a picture:

But, by far the most heart wrenching and beautiful thing I saw was an older lady holding a sign, that said, "Thank you for saving my home!"

Being at the shift change tonight was one of the best things we have ever done as a family.

You can view some pictures I took here: PICTURES

You can view a video I took here: VIDEO

I couldn't think of a better way to end my Father's Day, then cheering on fire fighters, who have been working tirelessly to get this Black Forest Fire contained and out.

I would guess that many of them are Father's themselves and would have loved to be with their families. I pray that God will bless them for all their selfless, tireless, and hard work.

This truly was my best Father's Day yet!

PS: If you live in the area and have a chance to make it to a shift change, go do it! They are at 8AM & 8PM at Pine Creek High School

PSS: As always, thanks for reading my blog, may God bless you and your family!

My New Metal Mouth...

So...today I got braces. Well, actually I got some of the brackets to hold the wires and some separators to make space for some bands to hold brackets on my molars last week. But today, I got the rest of the brackets and the wires in the brackets.

So, now I'm officially on a several year journey to get my jaw fixed. In a year or so, I will need an oral surgery in which they cut and rearrange my jaw to a proper bite. My top jaw will be moved forward, and my bottom jaw back, and my jaw will be wired shut for six weeks after the surgery. Sounds like fun doesn't it?

But before we go on we need to go back in time...

As a kid, most of my adult teeth grew in crooked. In fact, one grew in almost sideways. My bottom jaw began to grow faster than my top jaw, so I developed an under-bite. At the advice of the dentist, my parents got me braces. Thanks Mom and Dad!

I wore braces for about seven years of my childhood, spanning from elementary to high school. They tried to fix my under-bite with some appliances and the braces, but it didn't really work. We were told that surgery would be the only way to fix it, but I didn't have to do that.

My under-bite was pretty minor at that point. But what we didn't know, was that not getting surgery assumed I was done growing, and that my under-bite didn't get worse. As you can probably guess, I continued to grow through college, and so did my under-bite. My top jaw didn't grow enough and my bottom jaw grew too much.

From then until now I had dentists ask if I had ever seen an orthodontist, and ask if my jaw hurt and such. My last dentist asked me to consult with an orthodontist in his office, so I did. He told me what I had heard since getting my braces off as a kid, that it would take surgery to fix my bite, but if I don't have pain and I can chew, it's not a big deal.

So, I planned to go through life with my under-bite. Besides, I survived the teasing of kids in junior high, high school, and college without becoming a mass murderer, and I learned how to deal with eating problems. You can imagine how fun eating an apple or corn on the cob is for me.

On October 10, 2012 I got new dentist, and seeing him for the first time changed everything.

For the first time in my life, this new dentist explained that I needed to get my bite fixed, or I might not have any teeth in 10 years, and they can't make dentures for my bite. He also informed me that my bite was destroying my teeth and that's why I had so many crowns, fillings, and root canals, despite my good oral hygiene. At least my gums are really healthy! 

On top of that, he told me the stress from my bite can cause all kinds of bone problems in my jaw that could lead to all kinds of problems and surgeries. I was shocked. I told him how I had been on other consults, and they always acted like it was no big deal. To which he said they probably didn't want to deal with an under-bite as severe as mine, because it's hard work. I had never had a dentist be so candid with me before, and more than that, he seemed to actually care.

So my new dentist asked me to go see another orthodontist in town who was one of the best in the country with helping people fix their under-bites. So I did.

The orthodontist said I definitely need to have this surgery, and confirmed everything my dentist said. So, after some fancy x-rays, bite impressions/ models, oral examinations, a treatment plan, a consult with a periodontist, a consult with an oral surgeon, a revised treatment plan, and two more office visits to the orthodontist, we are back to today. Me with a mouth full of metal and sore teeth.

I'm not sure what the point of this blog is other than to inform people who might care. Well, and to say that braces suck, but being an adult with braces really sucks! I would really covet your prayers as I continue on this adventure, because as you might guess it's not cheap and we are not sure where we will get the money for the oral surgery yet (that's the most expensive part and only partially covered by our medical insurance).

If you took the time to read this blog, thanks for caring about me! I pray that God blesses you and your family greatly!

Oh, and just for fun here's a picture of my new metal mouth:

Hey homies, check out my new grillz!!

Pharisee Syndrome or Lack of Contentment

In February, I listened to Dan Jessup from Young Life, ask this question while talking to a lot youth workers in Colorado Springs,

"Can you know Jesus, but not really know Jesus?"

What do you think?

I believe the answer is yes.

I have believed this for years. I believe that there are a lot of people who know about Jesus, but don't really have a relationship with Jesus. I believe that this is a huge problem in many churches in America today, but that's another post for another day.

Dan went on talk about how this happened with Jesus' twelve closest followers on Earth. One of them named Philip asked this of Jesus in John 14:8, "...Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."

To paraphrase Jesus' reply, He says, "Seriously Philip? Don't you know after all this time with Me, that if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father? Don't you know by now the Father and I are one?"

How is it possible that after walking around with Jesus for three years, that Philip, and most likely some of the other disciples, didn't know Jesus was God? I mean Philip would have watched countless miracles, and heard Jesus talk about this numerous times. How is this possible? How is it possible today? I mean we have the Bible and history to learn from?

It's possible, because we get caught up in doing things for Jesus and following rules, and the relationship with Jesus gets lost. I call it the Pharisee syndrome. The Pharisees were so caught up in being religious and holy, and following all the rules of the OT, that they forgot that God wanted a relationship with them.

We are usually quick to judge the Pharisees, point fingers at them, and say things like, Jesus was proving to you that He was God and you ignored it, denied it, and then you killed Him, dumb Pharisees. I know I have been guilty of this.

Dan Jessup said this and it rocked my world, "Read the New Testament like you are a Pharisee."

He said that reading the NT this way will make it come more alive, it will be more convicting, and it will create humility in your life that you never had before.

My first thought, was wow! The way Jesus talked about the Pharisees, I don't want Him to feel that way about me. But I started to think about it, I have been thinking about it, and Dan is right. Some of the passages I have read many times have been coming to life in a different way for me.

I think that if a lot of us are honest, there are times when we are a lot like the Pharisees. There are times when we get so caught up with things in life that we forget about our relationship with God, we deny it, ignore it, and we try to do things on our own.

Sure we may not be hung up on the over 600 laws of the OT, because many are not relevant today. But I will tell you this, if your life is anything like mine, life is so busy that Jesus is competing with a lot of stuff for some of your time. I believe that this is how slowly, over time, people know a lot about Jesus, but don't really know Jesus.

Dan went on to say that he believes that many people lack joy in their relationship with Christ and this contributes to people not really knowing Jesus. He said that gratefulness and generosity come from joy in Christ. When we are grateful, we don't whine, and we become more generous. Gratefulness and generosity create contentment, and the Bible teaches us to be content.

People in America do not know how to be content. I believe this was part of the Pharisees' problem as well. They could never be content with how well they were doing following the rules.

The solution to this problem of lack of contentment is that we need Jesus. We need Jesus to rule over every area of our lives. We need Jesus to completely invade every area of our lives. Only then can we know true joy, become grateful and generous people, content in our lives, and our relationship with Jesus.

How about you? Where is your contentment level? Do you need more stuff, more time, more something?

I have been working to change some priorities in my life, because I want to be filled with the joy of Christ. I want to be more generous. I want to be grateful for all that God has given me, and recognize all the blessings in my life. I want the true contentment that only Jesus can give me. Maybe you will join me on this journey?

If you took the time to read this blog, thanks! Please pray for me, and I pray that you will seek God, and allow Jesus to rule over all areas of your life, and that you will find joy and contentment in Him.

Blessings.

Oh The Depravity...

So I am getting up on my soap box for this post, and speaking to fellow Christians who say silly things like this,

"Our State just made it legal to carry a tiny amount of Marijuana, our world is getting so depraved!"

or

"There are people who want to let gay people get married, our world is getting so depraved!"

or countless other similar ignorant statements.

NOTE: Now let me say this right away, I am not interested in debating whether or not legalizing weed or gay marriage is good, bad, moral, or anything else. If you want to debate these things with someone, that's great, but I WILL NOT ENGAGE WITH YOU!

What I want to address is the ignorance and harm of making a statement like this, because here's the deal, this so called depravity is not new, and it makes you seem hateful.

Please go study some history, and you will find that hundreds and even thousands of years ago there were cultures and societies that were just as, if not more depraved than ours. America or anywhere else.

Let me give you an example, first Century Rome and Roman culture. If you're not sure, that would be around the time Jesus was walking around Earth over in what we now call the "Middle East."

At any rate, here are some things you could see pretty regularly there: drugs, prostitution (male and female and at the temple or what we call church today), sexual slavery, public baths and brothels with orgies going on, rape, murder, stealing, burglaries, extortion, corrupt government leaders, oppression of other people groups, work slavery, extreme racism, women were treated like possessions not people, etc.

You see what I am getting at? First century Rome and Roman culture was extremely perverse, I would be willing to bet even more so than modern day America.
 
Here is another example, go even further back, thousands of years before Jesus' time on Earth, and read the book of Leviticus in the Bible. There are over 600 rules that God gives the Israelites, His chosen people. These are rules to live by. If you take Leviticus Chapter 18 for example. This chapter contains all kinds of sexual rules, things like don't have sex with your mom, dad, sibling, or an animal.

If people had to be told not to do these things, that means, you know...they were doing them. That's some pretty messed up or depraved stuff.

Even further back in history, do some research on why God flooded the Earth in the time of Noah. You will find that it was because people had become so depraved that they were beyond saving, so God wiped them all out.

Here is my point in all this ranting: since sin entered the world people have been doing things that are considered "immoral" or "depraved," and they always will. Even a casual reading of the Bible or study of history confirms this.

So with all that being said, here is where I take issue with statements like the ones I posted at the beginning of the blog for three major reasons:

1. It's untrue. Depravity has and will always be around until Jesus returns to fix the world.

2. It comes off as hateful to people who are gay, or smoke weed, or whatever other sin they are talking about.

3. We all sin. Most people who say stuff like that use it as way to get out of their obligation to love people the way Jesus does. They act like someone else's sin is somehow worse than theirs, because it's a different sin. Thus, they say, "those people," are going to hell, so I can't be near them. This is what the Pharisees did, and why Jesus was at such odds with them.  In the good ole USA, I see this most often directed towards the gay community. Many American Christians are very hateful towards the LGBT community and this HAS TO STOP!

In conclusion, people who don't know Jesus and need Him, don't need Christians telling them that they are causing the depravity of society. The truth of the matter is, that if society is getting more depraved, it's all of our fault. As Christians we should be known by our love, not thought of as hateful. So please, please, please, think before you speak!

Ok I'm getting off my soap box now!

If you took the time to read this blog, thanks. I hope and pray that you doing your best to live in a way that leads people towards the eternal hope, freedom, and love that Jesus provides.

Good Bye 2012

Well, I haven't written a blog post in several months, maybe I'll do better this year. I really want to try to blog once a month, but often I don't feel like I have anything funny enough or important enough to share. But as the year 2012 came to an end I am hoping that 2013 will be much better.

I had a rough go job wise in 2012 and it's beginning to take a toll on our family financially. I have been unemployed since mid-September and while trying hard for four months I haven't found a job.

Other than my job situation we had a pretty good year.  We were able to spend a lot of quality time with family different times this year, we built a beautiful house that we are loving, I got to spend a lot of time with my kiddos (due to not having a job), and I didn't break any bones.

Here is to hoping and praying the 2013 is a great year. May God bless you and your family. Thanks for reading my blog.