Dear friends and family,
Updates here: We got transfer calls last night, and everyone in my apartment is staying! That was a surprise, I was pretty sure I would be leaving (I've been here for 6 months now and Sis Aiello is done training), or at least that I'd get a new companion, but apparently I have more to learn. My first reaction was that I'm not sure if I can do this—I love Sis Aiello but it has been a roller-coaster couple of transfers as we learn together, and my expectations were for a more-experienced missionary to help me learn. But I woke up this morning, and just felt it—it's going to be a good transfer :) (Actually, the transfer ends with pageant, so it will be doubly excellent!) I finally feel like we understand each other's personalities, and we are getting to be friends, and I guess the Lord wants to use that, which in retrospect makes sense. She is teaching me to make sauce next week. :) We also ate gelato this week... pistachio is still the best flavor. :) And we did a musical number together Wednesday night... Il Mattino Era Sereno, which is Joseph Smith's First Prayer in Italian. My pronunciation is getting good ;) The Book of Mormon has also been a huge blessing to our companionship. We are reading it together as a mission starting a couple of weeks ago. By the end of this week I think we'll be into Words of Mormon or so. Reading together has really helped to unify us.
As far as my health situation goes... so I went to the doctor last week, and she thinks I have a disease called GERD (very lady-like-sounding, I know :P). It stands for Gastro-Esophogeal Reflux Disease or something like that, and is basically just acid-reflux. You have this little valve called a sphincter in-between your esophagus and stomach, and it is normally closed except when you swallow, which keeps your stomach acid inside your stomach. But sometimes things can keep it open... a hernia, a certain type of bacteria, or even stress. And then acid can splash up into your esophagus and start eroding it away. If this erosion continues, it can turn into an ulcer. Obviously the erosion is not a really pleasant thing for your esophagus, and it can sometimes cause esophageal spasms. Because you have a lot of nerves that wrap around your chest, this can cause chest pains and/or numbness all over your upper torso, which may feel like a cardiac event even though it has nothing to do with your heart. Aaaanyway, they put me on omeprazole, which is reflux medication. I'm taking the meds daily for the next month, and then I have a follow-up visit to see if that solved the problem. I also had some blood drawn last week for a H. Pylori antibody test... H. Pylori is a bacterium that can hold that sphincter open, and it would actually be good news if the test came back positive, because there is medication to eradicate the bacteria, which would be a total cure. If that's not the problem but it is GERD, I will probably just have to take a once-a-day pill indefinitely. So overall, pretty doable either way. I'm hoping that they have found the problem and it will be fixed soon. In the meantime, I have just appreciated being able to assume it's a gastrointesinal problem so I can exercise hard again.
Gotta run... love you all! <3
Sister Schank
