On the evening of November 13th, I (Merri) received a phone call from Elder Fish, the Mission Physician. I was notified that Jacob had been sick since the beginning of October and he had been to the doctor twice with no diagnosis. He told me that Jacob had been throwing up, some days feeling so bad he stayed in bed. Since they found nothing wrong, he was thinking that Jacob must be having some anxiety or depression and and we talked about ways to help him overcome that. I told him that just didn't match Jacob's personality. He has never had problems with being anxious or depressed before. Not that it couldn't surface after being away for four months, but my gut feeling was that it was not that. We ended the call and I started brainstorming how I could help Jacob. Without having the entire information of all of his symptoms and what exactly was going on, I was helpless. I wrote Jacob a long letter with a few suggestions of things I thought could help if it was anxiety or depression and sent it off in the mail. The following Monday, I wrote him an email with some questions and he wrote back telling me those were not a problem and explained a little more that he was weak and had no energy because he had been throwing up several times a day. Some days it just drained him completely and they did very little Missionary work. After more thought that week, I had an impression come to me that maybe it was a food allergy. I looked up some symptoms for gluten allergies and without having the complete information, it seemed like a possibility. I called my sister who has Celiac Disease and we talked about how she was so sick until they finally tested her for that and she changed her diet. I was feeling more confident that may be the issue. I wrote Jacob an email with a lot of that info and how to change what he was eating to try and see if that was possibly the problem. He got the email on Monday and said he'd try, but I found out later that day that it was already in the beginning stages of getting him home since he was getting worse. By Wednesday night, I received a call and we were told he would be coming home in the next few days. Thursday at 1pm, I got the call he would be landing at the Phoenix airport at 6:17. I was shocked at how quickly it all happened, but relieved that I would be able to see how he was, talk to him in person and be able to take him to the doctor and help him myself. So we met him at his gate at 6:15, hugged, (I may have cried a little) and got him home. The Stake President and our Bishop came to the house at 8pm and Jacob was honorably released from his mission. He was told that the length of a mission did not matter, only the fact that he was willing to go and served his best. I was so thankful for that and for kind and loving leaders. He told us that his Mission President had told him the same thing. He was exhausted when they left and he went to bed.
This is right before heading to the airport. He is with his Zone Leaders here.
And here he is with President & Sister Bartlett.
Friday morning after losing his breakfast, we were able to talk a little bit about trying that diet change for the time being until we could get him into the doctor. It couldn't hurt. He was really dehydrated so I went to the store and bought Smart water, since it has electrolytes in it, and peppermint tea to try and soothe his stomach a little. I told him to sip that all day and just work on replenishing his fluids for now. I left for work. Later I checked on him and he said he had been keeping most of it down. A win in my books! That evening he ate a quarter of a yam and a little turkey.
Saturday we worked on rehydration again and it is going well with that Smart water. He ate very little again today, but everything stayed down.
Sunday was the same. Drink, drink, drink and eat a little. Everything stayed down! His stomach is still hurting quite bad but his headache is less, so that at least is good. He has had a bad headache for weeks which I figure was from dehydration. He had many family members fasting for him today. We are so thankful.
Today we will work on getting an appointment with a doctor so we can figure out what's going on hopefully.
Jacob has since told us that he started feeling really terrible in September, but was ignoring it the best he could. He had barely gotten to Boise at the end of August. By the beginning of October, he started randomly throwing up and his stomach was feeling much worse. By November, he was throwing up several times a day and had no energy, but kept pushing on the best he could. It escalated downhill by the 2nd week in November and some days he would have to sit by the toilet for hours or be so exhausted he'd stay in bed. He went to two doctor appointments there and also two counseling appointments. When they couldn't figure it out and he was getting worse, that's when it was decided he should come home to get medical attention. He doesn't feel like a failure for coming home early, which is really good. He is feeling relieved that he isn't holding back his companion anymore. He is always thinking about other people. Our Stake President also told us that the reason Jacob didn't tell us he was sick was because Missionaries are told not to write home about problems or when they are ill. They want them to stay positive in their correspondence. It makes sense and Jacob was diligent in doing that for sure.
Wish us luck on figuring out the problem. Love all of you!
