In March of 2008, our youngest son started having intestinal problems. He was just turning two. He was never a great eater, but it got even worse. He started having diarrhea a lot. Although he didn't really lose weight, he dropped from around the 50th percentile for weight to about the 10th in the next few months. As his parents, we knew there was something just not right. He just didn't look well. His eyes had dark circles under them and he was pale. Meanwhile, his symptoms became worse (mainly the diarrhea.) He was now "going" almost every half hour and it was almost completely blood. I had him to the pediatrician and they ran a bunch of tests. My sister raises bulldogs and we thought maybe he had caught some parasite from the puppies. But all the test came back negative. Our pediatrician referred us to a Gastroenterologist. The appointment was for October....it was now August!/

Labor Day weekend came and things really got worse. He was miserable. He couldn't even sit down because his bottom was so sore. We had him to the pediatrician again and she suggested we take him to the emergency room at Hershey. Mostly because that would get us into the Gastroenterologist. So, we did. They called the Tuesday after Labor Day and got him in on Wednesday. The Gastroenterologist reviewed his symptoms and suggested we get a lower and upper GI. They would look for any inflammation and also take a biopsy. That was scheduled for the following week. He came through the procedure with flying colors. There was a lot of inflammation. But, because of where it was and some of the other test result, they ruled out Chrones Disease and Colitis. The only thing to do now was wait for the results of the biopsy. The Doctor called a few days later. She said there was another test she wanted to run called a sweat test (testing the level of salt in your sweat). But, I could tell she was hesitant to say more. But, after everything we were going through we needed to know. She finally told me she was really concerned that he may have Cystic Fibrosis. Needless to say we were stunned and terrified. We were unaware that CF produced those kinds of symptoms. I knew it only as a pulmonary disease. The even scarier part was, he had been on a nebulizer quite a few times in the winter time for breathing problems.

The next Sunday we took him forward for prayer at church. We had done that many times before. But, that particular Sunday after what the Dr had said, we felt we really had to stand up an renounce this diagnosis over him. We didn't tell very many people what the Dr were thinking. I think it was just too hard to even say. Plus, we felt we didn't even want to give it any power by speaking it over him. From that VERY Sunday he did not have another symptom again!! Praise Jesus. The diarrhea stopped. His appetite came back. The next Sunday before we even had a chance to share people at church were commenting on how much better he looked. We went ahead with the sweat test. We were now confident of the results. And as we thought, the results were negative! Two years later, he is a happy, healthy 4 year old who has never had another symptom!! God is GOOD!!!