Call On Hold - Need Prayers

We just got a call from church headquarters from a sister who apparently goes over the medical stuff with a fine-toothed comb. She found that JSL's blood pressure was high. And that my hemoglobin was low. Here's the story:

JSL has elevated blood pressure (actually up, then down) when he is getting measured in a doctor's office. (Not an unknown phenomenon - called 'white-coat syndrome'.) So they fitted him w/ a cuff and monitor for 24 hours. It pumps your arm up to about 200 every 15 minutes except at night when it's every 1 hour. He came to hate it. His bp was 141/91. His doc wanted him to go on drugs.

The church needs him to have below 140/90 three days in a row.

I don't think that will be hard at all, once he's not in a aggravating setting. Plus he's been walking or running an hour a day and that's the best way to get it down. He is definitely under stress to get us moved and this is the worst it gets. We have no intention for him to go on drugs for 1 point over the standard, esp since they don't address the root cause.

Now for me. This one is trickier and may make it so that we can't go on a mission at all, though as D says, it's just another thing to push against. (We find a lots of barriers, but we have learned just to push against them...)

Context for me: I have just been declared healthy, above average health: normal heart, everything else great too. I walk vigorously for an hour a day when it's not too hot out.

But I do have irritable bowel, managed except when aggravated by some food. One of the real aggravations for it is iron in large quantity.

And when something irritates me, it makes my intestines inflamed. And they bleed, and stop as soon as the irritating substance is out of my system. So with enough aggravation I get anemic.

Plus I've always been anemic. This walking vigorously an hour a day is done w/ low hemoglobin numbers (9.4).

The lady at the church said 'we want you healthy enough to serve'. I'm trying to tell her I am but I have to get my hemoglobin up to 12. It has never been 12.

I need to take more iron. But it is very aggravating, if I take more than a certain amount. It will make me bleed. The last time I increased my iron to overcome 'anemia' I bled enough to take me to the next lower level!

I can eat iron-rich foods, but that takes a long, long time to build up iron levels to 'normal' (which is not normal for me at all).

The way we left it is, when D has his blood pressure behaving (3 days in a row under 140 / 90) then I go get a hemoglobin, and then they will look at our papers.

It is probable that his bp will be ok 3 days from now and that my hemoglobin will never be ok.

So that's why we need prayers. We need a way to show the church that I am healthy and capable without meeting a certain standard of 'average' hemoglobin levels.

I was scheduled to get my hemoglobin done today anyway. I doubt if I've made headway in the past 6 weeks since it was measured before - it's just too soon, plus taking extra iron made me bleed. We'll see shortly.

So we are in a difficult position right now. I suppose we could just unpack and go back to life as we've known it. It's so strange to have come this far and to have an 11th hour challenge.

We will push against it and see if it's real. But don't count on a call any time soon. We need prayers and insights into what to do. Do we stop by the missionary department when we are in SLC and let them see me run up and down the stairs several times? I'll do it...

Your suggestions are welcome, and certainly prayers. Love to all...