I thought I would write an update, so that I could wish everyone a Merry Christmas at the same time! I hope that all of you were able to make it to your family's homes for the holidays. We've heard of some crazy weather conditions on the East Coast and in the Midwest. Stay safe!
Brian has finally graduated! Yay!! I am so proud of him. He graduated with a 4.0 while taking care of our household and dealing with all of my crazy Lyme Disease issues. He is quite brilliant if I do say so myself. :) He also received an academic achievement award from the University of Arizona. He is one of the top 100 graduates from the business college. That was so special, and he deserved it as he worked so hard. Brian's official start date at his accounting firm is January 11th; however, during the first week in January he will be going in periodically to do training. He is really excited at what is to come!
Starting on Wednesday, December 16th, I had another round of treatment. The treatment segment was a little worse than last time. It seems the further we get into treatment the more we are disturbing these "little bugs", okay maybe I should call them "little destructive bugs" because of how much havoc they have reaped in my body. Wednesday wasn't too bad, but Friday through Monday were a struggle. The joint pain was pretty intense at some points, and the nausea/vertigo was back with a vengeance. On Friday, I had to have my routine "safety draw". That is where I have to give blood so that they can check to make sure my body is handling the treatment. I was pretty sick when we went, and we prayed our way through as I didn't want to pass out in the process. I'm pretty sure the clinic wouldn't want that as a present this holiday season. :) Praise the Lord, I made it too the clinic and then back home to my bed without any major issues. My sensitivities to food have also really flared up. It's probably a combination of this last round of treatment, our neighbors laundry (when they do loads of laundry our house smells like a laundromat :P ), and the smokers in our apartment complex (their cigarette smoke comes right through the cracks in the doors/windows and into our apartment). It also hasn't helped that I have been getting very little sleep because I have been struggling with insomnia again, and I have had to work at 5AM as a substitute tutor to Korean students for those that are on vacation. Needless to say, all of that is a recipe for an allergy flare-up.
We are actually praying right now to see if God will open up a door for us to possibly get into a house this spring. It would be such a blessing for us in so many ways including being able to control our environment better. A lot of things would have to fall into place including finances and the perfect house with all of my sensitivities, so we are just walking to see where God will lead. If you could join us in prayer about this, we would appreciate it. Also, another prayer request would be that I could get a phone appointment with my LLMD in January. My physician is in the middle of transitioning his practice to Washington DC along with dealing with his own family issues including a daughter who has leukemia and a wife with breast cancer. Please be in prayer for that family. Every time I think about them, my heart just breaks knowing what they are having to deal with right now. My LLMD does so much good for so many people and the issues they are facing are mind boggling. As a result of everything, they are having to juggle patients' appointments and space is limited. I have called a couple times and they have been booked, but I was told I was on a list. I am hoping I will be able to talk to him in January as that was when he wanted to meet and re-evaluate my treatment plan.
Well, that is all for now. Brian and I want to wish all of you a blessed Christmas. We hope and pray that you will have joy that only our Savior can bring. May the joy of Christ's birth radiate in your lives during this Holiday season and through 2010. Know that all of you are in our thoughts and prayers! Merry Christmas!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Waiting on God's "Now"!
Happy December! I am warning you, this is a long blog post! :) I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with good food, family, and lots of laughter! Brian and I both have about a two weeks left of school so the exams and projects are winding down. The end is in sight! Well, at least for Brian it is anyways. I have about another 1 1/2 to go. :) Brian won't be walking at his graduation (it's SO expensive, I can't believe they charge that much to take a walk down an aisle and shake someone's hand, Ha!), but we will be celebrating! What an accomplishment for him to be done with his second degree. He did an amazing job in his studies while working at the same time and taking care of a lot of the household duties because I have been so sick. He is one incredible man! He is really excited to start working in January at the accounting firm.
I (Dawn) started a treatment segment the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The timing was actually a blessing because it enabled me to not have to work on Wednesday or Thursday as I usually do while I am undergoing the effects from the high doses of antibiotics. I was able to rest a lot which was good. Also, Brian was home quite a bit more on these two days which is always such a relief. My allergic reactions are so random, and the more treatment segments I go through, the more sensitive I seem to be getting. Sometimes I am more sensitive during my 5 days and sometimes after. Overall though, my first 3 to 4 days of treatment were tolerable, which was a nice change. Sunday was the most difficult to deal with because I have to add in the "evil drug". I have really felt the effects of this treatment lasting longer than the others. On top of the usual side effects, I had to deal with extreme vertigo episodes periodically through the first part of the week. There were a couple of times I didn't think I would make it to the kitchen as everything just seemed to be spinning. The bugs in my head are not liking the treatment, that is for sure. However, as I have said before, although the side effects of treatment are extremely unpleasant, at least we know we are on the right track, and that it's working to fight the infection. I am set to do my next treatment starting on December 16th. I must have counted wrong when I said it was the week of Christmas. So, I am excited about that!! It was not fun going through treatment on a holiday, which brings me to the story about our Thanksgiving. It has been quite an emotional week for us and the Lord has taught us a lot through it.
Now onto our Thanksgiving....I am going to write this next paragraph because I want to be honest, and I think it will give you a window into what we must deal with and the emotions that go with it. Some of these things may seem trivial; however, please keep in mind that this has been a long and very difficult journey emotionally. Sometimes, little things just add up before we can catch and readjust our focus. For some reason, this year's holiday, was more difficult than others have been. We have had to spend lots of holidays by ourselves since moving to Arizona; however, I think it was a culmination of certain events that day that made this one a struggle. We started the day not being able to cook a turkey like we usually do. I always have allergic reaction issues the first 3 hours of cooking a turkey and because we had to downsize in to a small apartment, we couldn't circulate the air (by opening windows) enough for me to be okay. So, we had to put a halt to that tradition until we get into a bigger place. Next came the Christmas tree. I literally wait all year to decorate a Christmas tree. I can't do much these days, but Christmas is something I always look forward to. I absolutely LOVE Christmas: Everything about it, celebrating our Savior's birth, the music, the lights, being able to give other's gifts and just the joy that seems to come with this season. Brian has a rule that we can't listen to Christmas music until Thanksgiving or I would be definitely playing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" in July. :) Anyways, back to the tree. We have had the same tree since the first year we were married. Surprisingly, it has never bothered me (of course it's fake). Well, a couple of months ago our storage unit flooded because of a faulty water heater and the damage caused our Christmas tree to get moldy. We obviously didn't discover this until we went to set it up. So to bring it into the apartment was definitely going to be a no go. Unfortunately, we can't buy a new tree because of how sensitive I am. Lately, most things that enter our apartment that are new have to detox for a couple of months outside before we can bring them in. An example of that would be new tennis shoes....Brian had to keep them outside on the porch for awhile before he could wear them in the house in order for them to "air out" or I start reacting. Crazy huh! Anyways, with those two things, along with another issue we were dealing with, on top of the constant isolation/restrictions we face because of my Lyme Disease, it just kind of hit us hard emotionally. We desperately missed our family and friends, and it was tough to get through the day. However, even as I type this out, I feel ashamed because I know that there are those that are less fortunate than us, those that are sicker, those that are poorer and those that have no hope because they do not know our Savior. Brian and I DO have many things to be thankful for. In fact, at the end of our emotional day, we sat down together and listed the things we are thankful for to gain some much needed perspective. We are truly rich in the Lord's blessing in so many ways and we need to remember that even when it's not easy to do.
I think I have mentioned before that Brian and I were reading a book called "Polishing God's Monuments" by Pastor Jim Andrews. This book addresses long-term suffering written directly from his experience with his daughter who has chemical sensitivities that far surpass anything you could ever imagine. Brian and I are nowhere close to what she and her husband have to deal with on a daily basis. However, it's such a good book to remind us when things get unbearable and when our earthly hope fades that we need to 1. Remember to focus on our eternal hope and 2. Polish our monuments (the things God has done for us).
As we came to the the last chapter, it talked about Moses's journey to free the Israelites. After Moses was commissioned by the Lord, he went to confront Pharoah. Moses was warned that Pharoah would not bend by his first request; however, Moses and Aaron quickly forgot that warning and went in with expectation of God's mighty movement only to be disappointed. Doubt came rushing in as the Israelites responded in anger because of the increasing burdens Pharoah placed on them as a result of Moses's request. What did Moses do? He did not run home and quit, he turned to God for his strength and comfort. He renewed his focus and trusted that someday God would bring a "Now" moment. This was Pastor Andrew's final concept in the book. We will all have God's "Now" moments in our life: Those times where a light comes in and the Lord seems to rush in with a miracle when we desperately need it the most. Brian and I have seen those happen during our journey. This last chapter spoke volumes to us as we were struggling over the last week. We can't lose hope and we have to have faith! It is such a good reminder to wait for those "Now" moments and look forward to them with expectation. Whether the "Now" moment of total healing from Lyme comes while I am on earth, or when I rise up to meet the Lord, we do not know; however, we do hold onto the hope that God will never stop using us for His glory whether it is through our testimony of endurance or a physical break-through.
So, as I come to a close, I encourage all of you, no matter what circumstances you are currently in or what may arise in your future, hold onto hope for God's "Now" moments and if they do not come while you are on earth, know that you will have the most glorious "Now" moment when you meet your Savior face to face in a place where you will be free from the burdens of this world. May the Lord reveal Himself to you in a new way during this Christmas season.
**I am going to add this video that I found late tonight. It's by Steven Curtis Chapman taken from his new album and the title of the song is "Our God is in Control". You will need to scroll down to the bottom of my blog and press pause on my blog music player so it doesn't interfere. As some of you might know, the Chapman family lost a young daughter to an unfortunate accident. His family's testimony and faith through it all has ministered to so many. As I listened to this video, I thought of so many of those I know that are suffering physically and emotionally because of Lyme Disease. Events on this earth may not make sense, but we need to cling to the promise that our God is truly in control!
I (Dawn) started a treatment segment the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The timing was actually a blessing because it enabled me to not have to work on Wednesday or Thursday as I usually do while I am undergoing the effects from the high doses of antibiotics. I was able to rest a lot which was good. Also, Brian was home quite a bit more on these two days which is always such a relief. My allergic reactions are so random, and the more treatment segments I go through, the more sensitive I seem to be getting. Sometimes I am more sensitive during my 5 days and sometimes after. Overall though, my first 3 to 4 days of treatment were tolerable, which was a nice change. Sunday was the most difficult to deal with because I have to add in the "evil drug". I have really felt the effects of this treatment lasting longer than the others. On top of the usual side effects, I had to deal with extreme vertigo episodes periodically through the first part of the week. There were a couple of times I didn't think I would make it to the kitchen as everything just seemed to be spinning. The bugs in my head are not liking the treatment, that is for sure. However, as I have said before, although the side effects of treatment are extremely unpleasant, at least we know we are on the right track, and that it's working to fight the infection. I am set to do my next treatment starting on December 16th. I must have counted wrong when I said it was the week of Christmas. So, I am excited about that!! It was not fun going through treatment on a holiday, which brings me to the story about our Thanksgiving. It has been quite an emotional week for us and the Lord has taught us a lot through it.
Now onto our Thanksgiving....I am going to write this next paragraph because I want to be honest, and I think it will give you a window into what we must deal with and the emotions that go with it. Some of these things may seem trivial; however, please keep in mind that this has been a long and very difficult journey emotionally. Sometimes, little things just add up before we can catch and readjust our focus. For some reason, this year's holiday, was more difficult than others have been. We have had to spend lots of holidays by ourselves since moving to Arizona; however, I think it was a culmination of certain events that day that made this one a struggle. We started the day not being able to cook a turkey like we usually do. I always have allergic reaction issues the first 3 hours of cooking a turkey and because we had to downsize in to a small apartment, we couldn't circulate the air (by opening windows) enough for me to be okay. So, we had to put a halt to that tradition until we get into a bigger place. Next came the Christmas tree. I literally wait all year to decorate a Christmas tree. I can't do much these days, but Christmas is something I always look forward to. I absolutely LOVE Christmas: Everything about it, celebrating our Savior's birth, the music, the lights, being able to give other's gifts and just the joy that seems to come with this season. Brian has a rule that we can't listen to Christmas music until Thanksgiving or I would be definitely playing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" in July. :) Anyways, back to the tree. We have had the same tree since the first year we were married. Surprisingly, it has never bothered me (of course it's fake). Well, a couple of months ago our storage unit flooded because of a faulty water heater and the damage caused our Christmas tree to get moldy. We obviously didn't discover this until we went to set it up. So to bring it into the apartment was definitely going to be a no go. Unfortunately, we can't buy a new tree because of how sensitive I am. Lately, most things that enter our apartment that are new have to detox for a couple of months outside before we can bring them in. An example of that would be new tennis shoes....Brian had to keep them outside on the porch for awhile before he could wear them in the house in order for them to "air out" or I start reacting. Crazy huh! Anyways, with those two things, along with another issue we were dealing with, on top of the constant isolation/restrictions we face because of my Lyme Disease, it just kind of hit us hard emotionally. We desperately missed our family and friends, and it was tough to get through the day. However, even as I type this out, I feel ashamed because I know that there are those that are less fortunate than us, those that are sicker, those that are poorer and those that have no hope because they do not know our Savior. Brian and I DO have many things to be thankful for. In fact, at the end of our emotional day, we sat down together and listed the things we are thankful for to gain some much needed perspective. We are truly rich in the Lord's blessing in so many ways and we need to remember that even when it's not easy to do.
I think I have mentioned before that Brian and I were reading a book called "Polishing God's Monuments" by Pastor Jim Andrews. This book addresses long-term suffering written directly from his experience with his daughter who has chemical sensitivities that far surpass anything you could ever imagine. Brian and I are nowhere close to what she and her husband have to deal with on a daily basis. However, it's such a good book to remind us when things get unbearable and when our earthly hope fades that we need to 1. Remember to focus on our eternal hope and 2. Polish our monuments (the things God has done for us).
As we came to the the last chapter, it talked about Moses's journey to free the Israelites. After Moses was commissioned by the Lord, he went to confront Pharoah. Moses was warned that Pharoah would not bend by his first request; however, Moses and Aaron quickly forgot that warning and went in with expectation of God's mighty movement only to be disappointed. Doubt came rushing in as the Israelites responded in anger because of the increasing burdens Pharoah placed on them as a result of Moses's request. What did Moses do? He did not run home and quit, he turned to God for his strength and comfort. He renewed his focus and trusted that someday God would bring a "Now" moment. This was Pastor Andrew's final concept in the book. We will all have God's "Now" moments in our life: Those times where a light comes in and the Lord seems to rush in with a miracle when we desperately need it the most. Brian and I have seen those happen during our journey. This last chapter spoke volumes to us as we were struggling over the last week. We can't lose hope and we have to have faith! It is such a good reminder to wait for those "Now" moments and look forward to them with expectation. Whether the "Now" moment of total healing from Lyme comes while I am on earth, or when I rise up to meet the Lord, we do not know; however, we do hold onto the hope that God will never stop using us for His glory whether it is through our testimony of endurance or a physical break-through.
So, as I come to a close, I encourage all of you, no matter what circumstances you are currently in or what may arise in your future, hold onto hope for God's "Now" moments and if they do not come while you are on earth, know that you will have the most glorious "Now" moment when you meet your Savior face to face in a place where you will be free from the burdens of this world. May the Lord reveal Himself to you in a new way during this Christmas season.
**I am going to add this video that I found late tonight. It's by Steven Curtis Chapman taken from his new album and the title of the song is "Our God is in Control". You will need to scroll down to the bottom of my blog and press pause on my blog music player so it doesn't interfere. As some of you might know, the Chapman family lost a young daughter to an unfortunate accident. His family's testimony and faith through it all has ministered to so many. As I listened to this video, I thought of so many of those I know that are suffering physically and emotionally because of Lyme Disease. Events on this earth may not make sense, but we need to cling to the promise that our God is truly in control!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Mid-November Update!
Hello Everyone! So, I just realized that I pretty much start off every post apologizing for not writing sooner. One of these days I am just going to have to write "on time". Not sure when that will be as next semester looks like it will get even busier than now. :)
I will give you a short update on my last round of treatment. It went from Nov. 4th until Sunday Nov. 8th. Oh good grief, I am totally late at making an update on here. Okay, to continue...the treatment segment was pretty rough. It was probably one of the hardest ones to get through. I won't list all my symptoms as I have done before, but just know that everything increased 10-fold. Brian laughs at me because right before I start my treatment segments, I always tell him that I wish Dr. J would speed up the time between dosages. However, then after I finish it, I am desperately thanking the Lord that Dr. J knows what I can handle and that he hasn't suggested doing anything even close to that. Out of all the days, Sunday was the worst. This round really kicked up my sensitivities so on top of dealing with really intense side effects, I temporarily became allergic to the world. For those of you who know how sensitive I usually am, it's hard to imagine it can get any worse, but it can! However, I use the word temporary because by about Tuesday, my system seemed to be calming down allergy-wise and I was able to eat the food that I had temporarily reacted too over the weekend. I get used to things coming and going as far as what I can tolerate, but it's never fun. I am a little apprehensive about what the future is going to look like as Dr. J does step up my treatment, but I also know that God will be protecting us every step on this journey. Brian just broke the news to me yesterday that my next treatment starts the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and also the Wednesday before Christmas! Boy is that bad timing. lol However, this year it will just be the two of us, so I will have plenty time to rest. If you could please pray that God would protect me and that my sensitivities wouldn't get worse, we would really appreciate it!
Another one of our major prayer requests is that I can start sleeping again. I have struggled with insomnia since beginning treatment, but it seems to keep getting worse. I used to be able to fall asleep by 2am, but now it's stretching out until 5am. The insomnia seems to have really taken a step in the wrong direction after this last treatment segment. Thankfully, I work in the afternoon and can sleep all morning, but I never feel rested. If this keeps up, we will be forced to rely on a medication to help. Dr. J wanted us to hold off until it was absolutely necessary because of how hard it is for me to find medication that I don't react to. So, if you could please pray that God would work in a mighty way and would help me to fall asleep A LOT sooner, we would appreciate it. I am on so much medication right now that we really don't want to have to add another to the mix.
We still have not decided whether or not we will see a doctor in CA to help with detox and other things related to Lyme, but not things Dr. J would usually work on. We have a couple of options and will probably have to make a decision in the next week or so because a trip will have to be planned for December if we decide to go. As you all know with my sensitivities, trips are kind of a nightmare for us. Plus, it's not like you make one trip and you are done with it. Consecutive trips would be a must and with Brian's new work schedule, it will not be easy for him to get away. So, we are praying to see if God wants us to make the jump or if we should just wait until I hopefully get well enough to travel. The question that we ponder is, will I get well enough to travel without seeing one of these doctors in CA? It's so important that I am able to travel sometime in the future because Dr. J wants to see me either in the spring or the summer. He will be in Washington DC by then and that is 37 hours driving. That is a really long trip for a healthy person so you can see our quandary. To give you an idea. I won't just have to be well enough to handle flying in an airplane, my sensitivities will have to be calmed down enough that I can eat food and drink water wherever we go. When we travel on our own, we have to bring all of our food, even water (we haven't found bottled water I tolerate yet). As everyone knows, there is no way an airliner is going to let me bring gallons of water and a cooler with food in it with me onto the plane. I think they would consider little old me a security risk. LOL Then there is us having to cart around our pillows, sheets, blankets (I am SO allergic to detergent that I can't even wear the gowns at a doctor's office/hospital visit), George Foreman Grill (that is what we use to cook, chicken, one of the few foods I can eat) and list goes on and on. That is why it's so hard! It would be a CRAZY day if anyone took a walk in our shoes. LOL I really wouldn't wish it on anyone! Sometimes it drives Brian and I absolutely insane and we are used to it. So, that is why a lot would have to change for me to be able to start flying places. We are definitely praying that God does a miracle in my body! We know that He can and we know that at this point, He is our only hope!
Here is a school update for us.....the semester is winding down and Brian and I are as busy as ever. Projects, assignments, tests and quizzes seem to be around every turn. Brian is SO looking forward to graduating in December. He is on his way to graduating with a 4.0 in accounting. I am SO proud of him! He will be glad to be done. He will work at the grocery store until the second week in January which is his tentative start date at his new job with KLK (an accounting firm in Tucson). Please pray for good health for Brian as he finishes. There is a lot of stuff going around at school and work.
As far as my school work goes, last week was the first week that I had a lot of trouble getting stuff done, however I did make it. Thankfully, my teachers have been wonderful to work with and they are aware that I am going through treatment. I do have a bit of leeway on assignments, but I try not to use that. I have one more semester where I have to take a class at UNK (for teacher state re-certification) and also take 6 hours at CU where I am getting my master's degree. I will be thankful to only have to take classes at one university.
Well, that is all for now! If I don't write before Thanksgiving, Brian and I want to wish all of you a blessed holiday and we hope and pray that you can share it with your loved ones!
I will give you a short update on my last round of treatment. It went from Nov. 4th until Sunday Nov. 8th. Oh good grief, I am totally late at making an update on here. Okay, to continue...the treatment segment was pretty rough. It was probably one of the hardest ones to get through. I won't list all my symptoms as I have done before, but just know that everything increased 10-fold. Brian laughs at me because right before I start my treatment segments, I always tell him that I wish Dr. J would speed up the time between dosages. However, then after I finish it, I am desperately thanking the Lord that Dr. J knows what I can handle and that he hasn't suggested doing anything even close to that. Out of all the days, Sunday was the worst. This round really kicked up my sensitivities so on top of dealing with really intense side effects, I temporarily became allergic to the world. For those of you who know how sensitive I usually am, it's hard to imagine it can get any worse, but it can! However, I use the word temporary because by about Tuesday, my system seemed to be calming down allergy-wise and I was able to eat the food that I had temporarily reacted too over the weekend. I get used to things coming and going as far as what I can tolerate, but it's never fun. I am a little apprehensive about what the future is going to look like as Dr. J does step up my treatment, but I also know that God will be protecting us every step on this journey. Brian just broke the news to me yesterday that my next treatment starts the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and also the Wednesday before Christmas! Boy is that bad timing. lol However, this year it will just be the two of us, so I will have plenty time to rest. If you could please pray that God would protect me and that my sensitivities wouldn't get worse, we would really appreciate it!
Another one of our major prayer requests is that I can start sleeping again. I have struggled with insomnia since beginning treatment, but it seems to keep getting worse. I used to be able to fall asleep by 2am, but now it's stretching out until 5am. The insomnia seems to have really taken a step in the wrong direction after this last treatment segment. Thankfully, I work in the afternoon and can sleep all morning, but I never feel rested. If this keeps up, we will be forced to rely on a medication to help. Dr. J wanted us to hold off until it was absolutely necessary because of how hard it is for me to find medication that I don't react to. So, if you could please pray that God would work in a mighty way and would help me to fall asleep A LOT sooner, we would appreciate it. I am on so much medication right now that we really don't want to have to add another to the mix.
We still have not decided whether or not we will see a doctor in CA to help with detox and other things related to Lyme, but not things Dr. J would usually work on. We have a couple of options and will probably have to make a decision in the next week or so because a trip will have to be planned for December if we decide to go. As you all know with my sensitivities, trips are kind of a nightmare for us. Plus, it's not like you make one trip and you are done with it. Consecutive trips would be a must and with Brian's new work schedule, it will not be easy for him to get away. So, we are praying to see if God wants us to make the jump or if we should just wait until I hopefully get well enough to travel. The question that we ponder is, will I get well enough to travel without seeing one of these doctors in CA? It's so important that I am able to travel sometime in the future because Dr. J wants to see me either in the spring or the summer. He will be in Washington DC by then and that is 37 hours driving. That is a really long trip for a healthy person so you can see our quandary. To give you an idea. I won't just have to be well enough to handle flying in an airplane, my sensitivities will have to be calmed down enough that I can eat food and drink water wherever we go. When we travel on our own, we have to bring all of our food, even water (we haven't found bottled water I tolerate yet). As everyone knows, there is no way an airliner is going to let me bring gallons of water and a cooler with food in it with me onto the plane. I think they would consider little old me a security risk. LOL Then there is us having to cart around our pillows, sheets, blankets (I am SO allergic to detergent that I can't even wear the gowns at a doctor's office/hospital visit), George Foreman Grill (that is what we use to cook, chicken, one of the few foods I can eat) and list goes on and on. That is why it's so hard! It would be a CRAZY day if anyone took a walk in our shoes. LOL I really wouldn't wish it on anyone! Sometimes it drives Brian and I absolutely insane and we are used to it. So, that is why a lot would have to change for me to be able to start flying places. We are definitely praying that God does a miracle in my body! We know that He can and we know that at this point, He is our only hope!
Here is a school update for us.....the semester is winding down and Brian and I are as busy as ever. Projects, assignments, tests and quizzes seem to be around every turn. Brian is SO looking forward to graduating in December. He is on his way to graduating with a 4.0 in accounting. I am SO proud of him! He will be glad to be done. He will work at the grocery store until the second week in January which is his tentative start date at his new job with KLK (an accounting firm in Tucson). Please pray for good health for Brian as he finishes. There is a lot of stuff going around at school and work.
As far as my school work goes, last week was the first week that I had a lot of trouble getting stuff done, however I did make it. Thankfully, my teachers have been wonderful to work with and they are aware that I am going through treatment. I do have a bit of leeway on assignments, but I try not to use that. I have one more semester where I have to take a class at UNK (for teacher state re-certification) and also take 6 hours at CU where I am getting my master's degree. I will be thankful to only have to take classes at one university.
Well, that is all for now! If I don't write before Thanksgiving, Brian and I want to wish all of you a blessed holiday and we hope and pray that you can share it with your loved ones!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
New job!
Hey everyone! Sorry, we haven't updated in awhile, there just hasn't been much to update and Brian and I have both been swamped with school and work. December can not get here fast enough! I (Dawn) wanted to write a quick update on the results of Brian's job interviews and also give you an update about my health and treatment this week.
To start with, Brian has accepted an offer with KLK, an accounting firm in Tucson. We were desperately praying that God would guide us to the perfect job for our family. There was a chance we were going to have to choose between Phoenix and Tucson, which would have been difficult. However, God decided for us, (Yay!) and Brian ended up not getting an offer from the firm in Phoenix. So, we are here to stay. There are many more "pros" on the side of staying in Tucson verses moving, so we are actually relieved that it worked out this way. Thanks Dad for always making us write those "pro" and "con" lists! I didn't believe you when I was young, but they are actually quite handy! lol :) Brian was given a wonderful salary and the company is really great. He likes the people he has met and also likes that it's a smaller firm of about 50. He will be working downtown, so the commute will not be too bad depending on where we end up living in the future. I am so proud and excited for him! He is really looking forward to only having to work one job and is ecstatic to be able to work as an auditor. He has discovered he really likes that line of work. His goal is to complete his 9 missing accounting hours that he needs for his CPA license this coming year and then to also take the CPA exam. He always impresses me with his ambition! I know he will be a wonderful CPA. The official start date for KLK is tentatively the second week in January. So, Brian will continue to work at Fry's until then. Praise the Lord for cheap Cobra Insurance from Fry's! Health benefits won't start until April, but we will be able to pay Cobra until then so we don't have to gap. It's SO nice to have this all ironed out. We feel so blessed that Brian got such a wonderful job offer in this economy. It's a tough market right now and competition is fierce. God is truly our provider!
Now onto a health update. Starting last week, I started having quite a lot of problems with my autonomic nervous system going crazy. It was strange because I am pretty far out from my last treatment segment. However, Lyme is so unpredictable and I also know the medication stays in your system for quite some time. My sensitivities have seem to have flared and so every day it has been an adventure as to whether I will react to what I call my "safe foods" or not. Thankfully, I haven't had any problems with my water and I have still been able to find something to eat; however, I have just not enjoyed being able to only eat about 10 items instead of 20. Oh well, I can feel blessed for things I can eat and the assurance that God will provide for all of my needs. It helps to imagine I'm eating something delicious when I am actually eating chicken for breakfast. :P We think it might have something to do with our neighbors that just moved in above us. Every time they run their dryer our entire apartment smells like the laundry isle at Wal-mart. It's terrible! We think the dryer hose empties into one shaft because as long as we run our dryer, the fumes won't come in. So that is what we have had to do, turn on our dryer whenever they use theirs. Good grief, the hoops we have to jump through, lol. I was thinking about going up and asking them when laundry day is so that I could be prepared. Ha! J/K
I have also struggled a lot with an irregular racing heart, temperature regulation (hot then cold and even chills) among other unpleasant symptoms. Plus, it's starting to be a regular occurrence of not being able to fall asleep until 2-3am. Thankfully, I don't work in the morning and can sleep in, but you don't ever feel rested when you are on that schedule. It's been kind of a tough week, but I am trying to keep my focus on God knowing that He will carry me through this. I started another treatment round today. That has made things a lot worse. It seems like the more treatment rounds I go through, the tougher they get. I have been extremely nauseous and dizzy while having to endure the bone pain and overall body aches and this is only the first day! Thankfully, I only have one more day of work and then two days off. So, that is my health update. If you could please pray that my treatment would be bearable and that my sensitivities and symptoms would subside. I have so much to do school work wise that I really can't afford to take a week off.
This brings us to our final prayer request. Both Brian and I are getting down to crunch time with our classes. I am extremely overwhelmed with all that has to be done while I seem to be getting sicker and Brian's plate is full with handling all the household responsibilities (grocery shopping etc.) while trying to finish his last semester. If you could please pray that God would multiply our time and efforts in the area of school work. Also, please pray that Brian would stay healthy. He is pretty tired with everything going on. He was able to take some time on Monday and Tuesday to rest as he was starting to get sick. So, he is better for now. Only 5 weeks to go! We can see the finish line! Thank you again for your prayers! I will update after we get done with this treatment segment to let you know how everything goes and hopefully I will be doing better! :)
Sending (((Hugs))) and prayers to all of you!!
To start with, Brian has accepted an offer with KLK, an accounting firm in Tucson. We were desperately praying that God would guide us to the perfect job for our family. There was a chance we were going to have to choose between Phoenix and Tucson, which would have been difficult. However, God decided for us, (Yay!) and Brian ended up not getting an offer from the firm in Phoenix. So, we are here to stay. There are many more "pros" on the side of staying in Tucson verses moving, so we are actually relieved that it worked out this way. Thanks Dad for always making us write those "pro" and "con" lists! I didn't believe you when I was young, but they are actually quite handy! lol :) Brian was given a wonderful salary and the company is really great. He likes the people he has met and also likes that it's a smaller firm of about 50. He will be working downtown, so the commute will not be too bad depending on where we end up living in the future. I am so proud and excited for him! He is really looking forward to only having to work one job and is ecstatic to be able to work as an auditor. He has discovered he really likes that line of work. His goal is to complete his 9 missing accounting hours that he needs for his CPA license this coming year and then to also take the CPA exam. He always impresses me with his ambition! I know he will be a wonderful CPA. The official start date for KLK is tentatively the second week in January. So, Brian will continue to work at Fry's until then. Praise the Lord for cheap Cobra Insurance from Fry's! Health benefits won't start until April, but we will be able to pay Cobra until then so we don't have to gap. It's SO nice to have this all ironed out. We feel so blessed that Brian got such a wonderful job offer in this economy. It's a tough market right now and competition is fierce. God is truly our provider!
Now onto a health update. Starting last week, I started having quite a lot of problems with my autonomic nervous system going crazy. It was strange because I am pretty far out from my last treatment segment. However, Lyme is so unpredictable and I also know the medication stays in your system for quite some time. My sensitivities have seem to have flared and so every day it has been an adventure as to whether I will react to what I call my "safe foods" or not. Thankfully, I haven't had any problems with my water and I have still been able to find something to eat; however, I have just not enjoyed being able to only eat about 10 items instead of 20. Oh well, I can feel blessed for things I can eat and the assurance that God will provide for all of my needs. It helps to imagine I'm eating something delicious when I am actually eating chicken for breakfast. :P We think it might have something to do with our neighbors that just moved in above us. Every time they run their dryer our entire apartment smells like the laundry isle at Wal-mart. It's terrible! We think the dryer hose empties into one shaft because as long as we run our dryer, the fumes won't come in. So that is what we have had to do, turn on our dryer whenever they use theirs. Good grief, the hoops we have to jump through, lol. I was thinking about going up and asking them when laundry day is so that I could be prepared. Ha! J/K
I have also struggled a lot with an irregular racing heart, temperature regulation (hot then cold and even chills) among other unpleasant symptoms. Plus, it's starting to be a regular occurrence of not being able to fall asleep until 2-3am. Thankfully, I don't work in the morning and can sleep in, but you don't ever feel rested when you are on that schedule. It's been kind of a tough week, but I am trying to keep my focus on God knowing that He will carry me through this. I started another treatment round today. That has made things a lot worse. It seems like the more treatment rounds I go through, the tougher they get. I have been extremely nauseous and dizzy while having to endure the bone pain and overall body aches and this is only the first day! Thankfully, I only have one more day of work and then two days off. So, that is my health update. If you could please pray that my treatment would be bearable and that my sensitivities and symptoms would subside. I have so much to do school work wise that I really can't afford to take a week off.
This brings us to our final prayer request. Both Brian and I are getting down to crunch time with our classes. I am extremely overwhelmed with all that has to be done while I seem to be getting sicker and Brian's plate is full with handling all the household responsibilities (grocery shopping etc.) while trying to finish his last semester. If you could please pray that God would multiply our time and efforts in the area of school work. Also, please pray that Brian would stay healthy. He is pretty tired with everything going on. He was able to take some time on Monday and Tuesday to rest as he was starting to get sick. So, he is better for now. Only 5 weeks to go! We can see the finish line! Thank you again for your prayers! I will update after we get done with this treatment segment to let you know how everything goes and hopefully I will be doing better! :)
Sending (((Hugs))) and prayers to all of you!!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Job Update
Hey Everyone! Well, I am excited to tell you that on Wednesday Brian received a job offer. It's from a local accounting firm in Tucson. What a blessing! They really liked Brian and actually offered the job to him the same day he interviewed. I am so proud of him! The firm gave him two weeks to make his decision, so our deadline is November 4th. That was a blessing too because it gives Brian a chance to finish up his other second interviews and await their decisions.
On Thursday, he had an interview with a national accounting firm in Phoenix. That interview also went very well. He had a lot in common with his interviewer as she was a christian, led worship at a church, had a daughter that went to college at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and had a strong stance on the importance of leadership. Brian was able to talk about his experience and the studies he has done on that topic. This position is very competitive to obtain as we think there are about 18-25 candidates competing for only a couple of positions. They said they would be making their decision anywhere from the end of next week to the beginning of the following week. Waiting, waiting, waiting...I stink at it! :0)
We have not heard back about the last job possibility in Atlanta, however as these other opportunities have rolled in, we have started thinking that maybe at this time in our life, God is not going to move us in that direction. It's a little disappointing and it does make us wonder how we will get to my doctor, however the Lord is in control and knows all of those details. We are just praying that God will do His will in our lives wherever that may be. If you could please be praying about this job in Phoenix and that if we are supposed to go that direction, that the Lord will open up that opportunity. Both employers are wonderful, but I think at this point, Brian said he would maybe like the Grant Thornton opportunity a bit more. We shall see what the Lord does!
I want to reiterate at how proud I am of my husband. He has worked so hard for this new career. There was a time where he was working a full-time job (teaching), working a part-time job and taking 2 to 3 classes. He has also maintained a 4.0 GPA while dealing with all of the issues that go along with my illness. The sacrifices that he has to make on a daily basis and the number of things he has to juggle besides work (weekly shopping etc.) and school are enough to make anyone crazy, however he takes everything in stride and always has such a great attitude. He is such a servant! Even with everything we have had to go through in regards to my illness, he has remained a positive Christ-like leader for our family. I am so blessed to be given such a wonderful man as best friend and life partner. I love you Brian and I am so proud to be your wife!!
I don't have much of a health update except that I am still struggling with migraines at night and left over symptoms from this last round of treatment. I am unable to fall asleep before 2AM. Thankfully, my job is in the afternoon, so I have the ability to make up for the lost sleep, however I never feel rested. If you could be praying that things would subside and that sleep would come earlier, I would appreciate it!
Well, that's our update for now. We will let you know when we hear about the other job and our final decision. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
On Thursday, he had an interview with a national accounting firm in Phoenix. That interview also went very well. He had a lot in common with his interviewer as she was a christian, led worship at a church, had a daughter that went to college at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and had a strong stance on the importance of leadership. Brian was able to talk about his experience and the studies he has done on that topic. This position is very competitive to obtain as we think there are about 18-25 candidates competing for only a couple of positions. They said they would be making their decision anywhere from the end of next week to the beginning of the following week. Waiting, waiting, waiting...I stink at it! :0)
We have not heard back about the last job possibility in Atlanta, however as these other opportunities have rolled in, we have started thinking that maybe at this time in our life, God is not going to move us in that direction. It's a little disappointing and it does make us wonder how we will get to my doctor, however the Lord is in control and knows all of those details. We are just praying that God will do His will in our lives wherever that may be. If you could please be praying about this job in Phoenix and that if we are supposed to go that direction, that the Lord will open up that opportunity. Both employers are wonderful, but I think at this point, Brian said he would maybe like the Grant Thornton opportunity a bit more. We shall see what the Lord does!
I want to reiterate at how proud I am of my husband. He has worked so hard for this new career. There was a time where he was working a full-time job (teaching), working a part-time job and taking 2 to 3 classes. He has also maintained a 4.0 GPA while dealing with all of the issues that go along with my illness. The sacrifices that he has to make on a daily basis and the number of things he has to juggle besides work (weekly shopping etc.) and school are enough to make anyone crazy, however he takes everything in stride and always has such a great attitude. He is such a servant! Even with everything we have had to go through in regards to my illness, he has remained a positive Christ-like leader for our family. I am so blessed to be given such a wonderful man as best friend and life partner. I love you Brian and I am so proud to be your wife!!
I don't have much of a health update except that I am still struggling with migraines at night and left over symptoms from this last round of treatment. I am unable to fall asleep before 2AM. Thankfully, my job is in the afternoon, so I have the ability to make up for the lost sleep, however I never feel rested. If you could be praying that things would subside and that sleep would come earlier, I would appreciate it!
Well, that's our update for now. We will let you know when we hear about the other job and our final decision. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Hope in Uncertainty
Hello Everyone! It's Wednesday, whoops...I mean it's Tuesday. I get mixed up now that I am on Korean time most of the week because of my job. My week ends on US Thursday but it's Korea's Friday. So confusing! Thank goodness I have my trusty world clock/calendar on my cell phone. :)
Before I get to my update, I want to ask you guys to pray. Brian has two second interviews this week. One is tomorrow (Wednesday) and that is with a local Accounting Firm in Tucson called KLK. Well, that is their initials anyways. lol The second interview is on Thursday in Phoenix with Grant and Thornton. It looks like he was also chosen for a second interview for Pricewaterhousecoopers (crazy long name, right?) as he received a call last week from the recruiter saying she was waiting to hear back from the Atlanta office. If they don't have any openings, then hopefully he will get to interview at the Phoenix firm. We are waiting to hear on that one. Anyways, we are just leaving everything in the Lord's hands. If he wants us to go to Atlanta, then we are praying that a job will open up. However, if that opportunity does not arise then we are desperately praying that Brian will be able to get a job in Tucson or Phoenix. It's hard as we look at the future and know that we will have a HUGE income gap if the "what ifs" (that I am SO good at coming up with, lol) unfold. We are really learning what it means to give our entire future over to the Lord. We know that God will provide and we are praying that He will do so in the form of an accounting job for Brian. He has worked so hard at school and currently has a 4.0. I am so proud of him and I know without a doubt he will be an incredible employee. Please join with us in prayer that God will give Brian an offer at one of these places. Thank you in advance for being our prayer warriors!
Next, I want to thank so many of you for your kind words of encouragement that I received after my doctor's appointment. It was such a blessing and the Lord really used each one of you! I thank the Lord everyday for our friends and family also all of my dear friends that I have met who are also walking the Lyme Disease journey. We feel so blessed during times like these.
Okay, now for my treatment update. Treatment went okay this weekend. Not wonderful, but then again, I don't know if it ever will be wonderful, lol. I experienced quite a few strong herx reactions (pain in my bones and joints, dizziness, severe headaches, chills etc) and slept a lot. Every time it gets rough symptom-wise, I always tell myself that at least we know it's working!! However, I did not have the severe head pressure on Sunday that I had a couple of weeks ago. Yay!! What a blessing that was! I definitely do not ever want to feel that again! My doctor had said that I had experienced the worst as far as that reaction goes and he was right. I have been off treatment for two days now and I am still feeling quite a bit of the symptoms as the drugs stay in your system for awhile. Praise the Lord though, He is getting me through each one of my 4 hour work shifts. It's not easy, but I am making it! It's such a blessing to own a laptop and to be able to work from my bed. :0) If you could just pray that my headaches and symptoms for treatment disappear soon. Some of these headaches get to the migraine level and it's hard to work and study. Also, my allergy sensitivities to foods and my environment and also my asthma have seem to have flared up after this last treatment. If you could please pray that they would calm down soon.
If we do end up staying in Tucson or moving to Phoenix, we actually might be looking at traveling to CA to see some highly recommended specialists in the area of detox, hormones, thyroid, supplements, nutrition etc. Dr. J is amazing at aggressively treating Lyme Disease, but the other things I listed are not his specialty. It is important to get on a detox program when you are on treatment because as the Lyme bacteria is killed off it releases neurotoxins. If the toxins are not taken out of your body, you can actually become sicker. It's kind of like poison just circulating around. Anyways, I have had multiple people recommend a practice in CA that is amazing. In fact I know people who see both these doctors and Dr. J. They even have experience working with people who have chemical sensitivities. How crazy would that be...I would have doctors who are truly at opposite ends of the country. :P We are going to run into a car issue as our cars are getting old and have high mileage and we can't take them to Dr. J or the docs in CA. Renting a car is very difficult w/ my chemical sensitivities. However, I won't go into that yet because we aren't at the stage. Everything really just hinges on if and where Brian gets a job and as you can tell, we are desperately praying the "where" happens, lol.
Well, that is our update for now! Thank you again for your prayers. If we hear anything about the job stuff, I will make sure to update asap. I hope you have a great rest of the week!
Before I get to my update, I want to ask you guys to pray. Brian has two second interviews this week. One is tomorrow (Wednesday) and that is with a local Accounting Firm in Tucson called KLK. Well, that is their initials anyways. lol The second interview is on Thursday in Phoenix with Grant and Thornton. It looks like he was also chosen for a second interview for Pricewaterhousecoopers (crazy long name, right?) as he received a call last week from the recruiter saying she was waiting to hear back from the Atlanta office. If they don't have any openings, then hopefully he will get to interview at the Phoenix firm. We are waiting to hear on that one. Anyways, we are just leaving everything in the Lord's hands. If he wants us to go to Atlanta, then we are praying that a job will open up. However, if that opportunity does not arise then we are desperately praying that Brian will be able to get a job in Tucson or Phoenix. It's hard as we look at the future and know that we will have a HUGE income gap if the "what ifs" (that I am SO good at coming up with, lol) unfold. We are really learning what it means to give our entire future over to the Lord. We know that God will provide and we are praying that He will do so in the form of an accounting job for Brian. He has worked so hard at school and currently has a 4.0. I am so proud of him and I know without a doubt he will be an incredible employee. Please join with us in prayer that God will give Brian an offer at one of these places. Thank you in advance for being our prayer warriors!
Next, I want to thank so many of you for your kind words of encouragement that I received after my doctor's appointment. It was such a blessing and the Lord really used each one of you! I thank the Lord everyday for our friends and family also all of my dear friends that I have met who are also walking the Lyme Disease journey. We feel so blessed during times like these.
Okay, now for my treatment update. Treatment went okay this weekend. Not wonderful, but then again, I don't know if it ever will be wonderful, lol. I experienced quite a few strong herx reactions (pain in my bones and joints, dizziness, severe headaches, chills etc) and slept a lot. Every time it gets rough symptom-wise, I always tell myself that at least we know it's working!! However, I did not have the severe head pressure on Sunday that I had a couple of weeks ago. Yay!! What a blessing that was! I definitely do not ever want to feel that again! My doctor had said that I had experienced the worst as far as that reaction goes and he was right. I have been off treatment for two days now and I am still feeling quite a bit of the symptoms as the drugs stay in your system for awhile. Praise the Lord though, He is getting me through each one of my 4 hour work shifts. It's not easy, but I am making it! It's such a blessing to own a laptop and to be able to work from my bed. :0) If you could just pray that my headaches and symptoms for treatment disappear soon. Some of these headaches get to the migraine level and it's hard to work and study. Also, my allergy sensitivities to foods and my environment and also my asthma have seem to have flared up after this last treatment. If you could please pray that they would calm down soon.
If we do end up staying in Tucson or moving to Phoenix, we actually might be looking at traveling to CA to see some highly recommended specialists in the area of detox, hormones, thyroid, supplements, nutrition etc. Dr. J is amazing at aggressively treating Lyme Disease, but the other things I listed are not his specialty. It is important to get on a detox program when you are on treatment because as the Lyme bacteria is killed off it releases neurotoxins. If the toxins are not taken out of your body, you can actually become sicker. It's kind of like poison just circulating around. Anyways, I have had multiple people recommend a practice in CA that is amazing. In fact I know people who see both these doctors and Dr. J. They even have experience working with people who have chemical sensitivities. How crazy would that be...I would have doctors who are truly at opposite ends of the country. :P We are going to run into a car issue as our cars are getting old and have high mileage and we can't take them to Dr. J or the docs in CA. Renting a car is very difficult w/ my chemical sensitivities. However, I won't go into that yet because we aren't at the stage. Everything really just hinges on if and where Brian gets a job and as you can tell, we are desperately praying the "where" happens, lol.
Well, that is our update for now! Thank you again for your prayers. If we hear anything about the job stuff, I will make sure to update asap. I hope you have a great rest of the week!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Phone Appointment w/ Dr. J
Hello Everyone! I have intentionally not made a post until today because there just hasn't been that much to tell. That is good I think. :) My liver enzymes were in the normal range after my last treatment segment. Praise the Lord! That is so important as I go through each round. Brian's interviews went extremely well last week. I am so proud of him!!! He has one more this week and we are officially playing the waiting game. We should hopefully hear something in the next couple of weeks as to if he will be called for second interviews.
Now onto my phone appointment with Dr. Jemsek. I know a lot of you have asked me how it went and please know, I wanted to respond to each one of you personally. It's just been one of those draining days. Hopefully, I will be able to "catch up" with each of you soon! So, here is a summary of my phone appointment....
It was good to talk to Dr. Jemsek. My experience with him has been nothing less than wonderful. He is SO knowledgeable and was very patient today in explaining things to me. It's hard to do everything over the phone, but we are so thankful he is willing to do this for me as I am just too sick to travel. We started out my appointment going over my current medication and dosages. We then started talking about the "herx" reactions I had experienced. I told him about my last experience w/ the drug Flagyl and there was so much pressure in my head that I felt like my brain was swelling into my skull. The pressure feeling didn't completely disappear until 5 days later. He explained to me that it was a result of the cysts (the sac-like formation that the lyme bacteria sits in) bursting. When they burst, they release fluid made up of lypoproteins. So, the pressure I was feeling was a result of the build-up of the fluid. He did inform me that kind of reaction is to be expected, he was just shocked at how severe it was with me being on such a low dose treatment regiment.
Then he told me something that none of us really want to hear. He said I was a very sick girl and that my herx reaction to Flagyl told him a lot. I guess it's hard to tell how much the bacteria has invaded your system or what damage it has caused until you start treatment and review the reaction to it. It still is something that you don't ever really want to hear. He also said that we are in for a LONG road (years). He said that with how allergically sensitive I am and also how I have such strong herx reactions at such a low dosage treatment regiment that we are going to have to take this very slowly. He is not changing any of my antibiotics or the frequency of my dosages. He is only going to add another drug to continue to help calm my autonomic nervous system.
Another difficult piece of news that I received was that he does not know if orals will be enough to attack the Lyme that according to him "has caused so much damage" to my system. Orals just do not cross the blood-brain barrier as well as IV's do. He said there is a good chance that eventually we will have to resort to IV medication. That was a big blow as the IV treatment protocol is very tough to go through and extremely expensive. Most insurances won't cover the cost and if they do, many times they will only pay for one month. To give you an idea, I have heard that out of pocket it can cost about $4000 per month. The IV treatment usually lasts about 3 months. So, as you can see, that is why it's kind of a big blow. He did say it would be a very long way off (over a year he thinks) because I am just too sensitive to be able to tolerate an intense IV treatment protocol in my current state. We will definitely be praying that we will not have to resort to this, however, I wanted to write what I was told today.
Finally, as you know from a previous post, my doctor is moving his practice to Washington DC. He did say he would like to be able to see me more often, however he does realize how sick I am and how detrimental it would be to my body if we tried to make the trip in my current condition. Thankfully, he is willing to work with us through phone appointments. My next phone appointment will be in January. He did say he would like to try for us to shoot for an office visit in the spring, but only if I can tolerate traveling.
So, that further says to us that if possible, we need to make a move to the East Coast. Dr. Jemsek is truly an amazing physician and literally one of the best Lyme Disease doctors in the world. He takes each one of his patient's case and creates a personalized treatment plan. He has so much wisdom and has treated my case like no other doctor has. I have heard too many stories where patients visit Lyme Disease specialists and they are only one of the masses. They get stuck in a protocol in which the doctor refuses to budge or adjust anything per patient. We feel we need to move closer to Dr. Jemsek so that I can go to office visits more often. Brian has applied to a few accounting firms that have locations in Atlanta, GA. If you could please pray that a door would open at one of these firms enabling us to make the big move. Either that or that God would heal me so that I could endure a trip via airplane. My sensitivities along with some of my other autonomic nervous system reactions would need to improve quite a bit for us to consider flying.
I start my next round of treatment this Wednesday (Oct. 14th). I am a little aprehensive about my Sunday dosages of Flagyl because of my reaction last time, however Dr. Jemsek said that I probably reached the maximum reaction and doesn't think I will have such a strong response this time. I hope not!!! This will also be the first time I will be trying to work through different parts of my treatment. I would appreciate your prayers this next week.
Well, that is the summary. My appointment certainly contained quite a bit of information that was hard to swallow, but at the same time, I know that we serve a big God, a God who is able to move mountains that to us seem immovable. We are praying for God's mighty hand to move us in the direction we need to go in the area of my treatment, a job for Brian and a possible move. Until then, we are standing on his promises knowing that in Him, through Him and with Him, we can do all things through His strength alone. Thank you so much for all of your encouragement and prayers! We will update soon.
Now onto my phone appointment with Dr. Jemsek. I know a lot of you have asked me how it went and please know, I wanted to respond to each one of you personally. It's just been one of those draining days. Hopefully, I will be able to "catch up" with each of you soon! So, here is a summary of my phone appointment....
It was good to talk to Dr. Jemsek. My experience with him has been nothing less than wonderful. He is SO knowledgeable and was very patient today in explaining things to me. It's hard to do everything over the phone, but we are so thankful he is willing to do this for me as I am just too sick to travel. We started out my appointment going over my current medication and dosages. We then started talking about the "herx" reactions I had experienced. I told him about my last experience w/ the drug Flagyl and there was so much pressure in my head that I felt like my brain was swelling into my skull. The pressure feeling didn't completely disappear until 5 days later. He explained to me that it was a result of the cysts (the sac-like formation that the lyme bacteria sits in) bursting. When they burst, they release fluid made up of lypoproteins. So, the pressure I was feeling was a result of the build-up of the fluid. He did inform me that kind of reaction is to be expected, he was just shocked at how severe it was with me being on such a low dose treatment regiment.
Then he told me something that none of us really want to hear. He said I was a very sick girl and that my herx reaction to Flagyl told him a lot. I guess it's hard to tell how much the bacteria has invaded your system or what damage it has caused until you start treatment and review the reaction to it. It still is something that you don't ever really want to hear. He also said that we are in for a LONG road (years). He said that with how allergically sensitive I am and also how I have such strong herx reactions at such a low dosage treatment regiment that we are going to have to take this very slowly. He is not changing any of my antibiotics or the frequency of my dosages. He is only going to add another drug to continue to help calm my autonomic nervous system.
Another difficult piece of news that I received was that he does not know if orals will be enough to attack the Lyme that according to him "has caused so much damage" to my system. Orals just do not cross the blood-brain barrier as well as IV's do. He said there is a good chance that eventually we will have to resort to IV medication. That was a big blow as the IV treatment protocol is very tough to go through and extremely expensive. Most insurances won't cover the cost and if they do, many times they will only pay for one month. To give you an idea, I have heard that out of pocket it can cost about $4000 per month. The IV treatment usually lasts about 3 months. So, as you can see, that is why it's kind of a big blow. He did say it would be a very long way off (over a year he thinks) because I am just too sensitive to be able to tolerate an intense IV treatment protocol in my current state. We will definitely be praying that we will not have to resort to this, however, I wanted to write what I was told today.
Finally, as you know from a previous post, my doctor is moving his practice to Washington DC. He did say he would like to be able to see me more often, however he does realize how sick I am and how detrimental it would be to my body if we tried to make the trip in my current condition. Thankfully, he is willing to work with us through phone appointments. My next phone appointment will be in January. He did say he would like to try for us to shoot for an office visit in the spring, but only if I can tolerate traveling.
So, that further says to us that if possible, we need to make a move to the East Coast. Dr. Jemsek is truly an amazing physician and literally one of the best Lyme Disease doctors in the world. He takes each one of his patient's case and creates a personalized treatment plan. He has so much wisdom and has treated my case like no other doctor has. I have heard too many stories where patients visit Lyme Disease specialists and they are only one of the masses. They get stuck in a protocol in which the doctor refuses to budge or adjust anything per patient. We feel we need to move closer to Dr. Jemsek so that I can go to office visits more often. Brian has applied to a few accounting firms that have locations in Atlanta, GA. If you could please pray that a door would open at one of these firms enabling us to make the big move. Either that or that God would heal me so that I could endure a trip via airplane. My sensitivities along with some of my other autonomic nervous system reactions would need to improve quite a bit for us to consider flying.
I start my next round of treatment this Wednesday (Oct. 14th). I am a little aprehensive about my Sunday dosages of Flagyl because of my reaction last time, however Dr. Jemsek said that I probably reached the maximum reaction and doesn't think I will have such a strong response this time. I hope not!!! This will also be the first time I will be trying to work through different parts of my treatment. I would appreciate your prayers this next week.
Well, that is the summary. My appointment certainly contained quite a bit of information that was hard to swallow, but at the same time, I know that we serve a big God, a God who is able to move mountains that to us seem immovable. We are praying for God's mighty hand to move us in the direction we need to go in the area of my treatment, a job for Brian and a possible move. Until then, we are standing on his promises knowing that in Him, through Him and with Him, we can do all things through His strength alone. Thank you so much for all of your encouragement and prayers! We will update soon.
Friday, October 2, 2009
The Unknown!
Awww, the unknown...don't we all love it?! You would think with all of the things we have gone through that it would be such an easy thing to handle. Well, I guess Brian handles it really well. For myself, well it pretty much drives me crazy. LOL I just like to have a plan. Good grief, I have a spread sheet that forecasts our estimated future expenses and income. I am such a dork! God is definitely using this time to grow me in the area of trust for our future!
Most of the job application deadlines have closed and Brian received 4 interview requests out of the 9 he applied to. That is pretty good actually. Some students only received 2 or 3. This economy has definitely affected those "recently graduated" available accounting positions. Three of his interviews are next week and then one interview is the following week. We would appreciate your prayers. The competition is fierce and some of the jobs would require a move. That is huge for us as it's not very easy for us to be able to move with my illness. However, if an Atlanta position opened up for us, we would really consider the opportunity as it would get me closer to my doctor and we would be near my sis at the same time! Phoenix is another possibility for us, however that would be going in the opposite direction of my doc, so that would be a hard decision to make.
Personally, I am trying not to dwell on the "what ifs" as far as what we will do if nothing is offered. Brian seems to handle that part a bit better than me. I am so proud of him and the wonderful job he does at interviewing! He will be an incredible employee, it's just hard to get that initial foot in the door. If offers are extended after multiple rounds of interviewing, we should know by mid to end of November. God has always provided for us and we know He will come through this time also (I am working on rehersing that in my head daily!). Thank you so much for praying!
As far as a health update, I am doing much better than I was on Sunday and Monday. My last blog post was written in the morning/early afternoon and I wasn't feeling great towards the end of my treatment segment, but everything was pretty tolerable. However, after my last dose of this drug called Flagyl, I experienced a horrible herx reaction (the definition is in the link, "About Lyme", above) to the medication. My head felt so pressurized that it literally felt like my brain was being pushed through my skull. I know that is kind of a vivid picture, but I seriously can't describe it any other way. There was not pain, thank goodness, but the pressure was so bad that I had a hard time focusing and walking around. I called the nurse asap in the morning and she said it was probably brain inflammation (that is a pleasant thought) from the die-off reaction of the bacteria.
Here is a bit of education so you can understand. The Lyme bacteria is encased in a biofilm or small sac-like cell. In order for the antibiotics to work effectively, Flagyl is used to bust the biofilm open. When this happens, inflammation can occur. It is an incredible unpleasant and scary reaction (can cause seizures etc), but the nurse said as long as I can feel it decreasing and not getting worse, it's not cause for concern. She said my doctor would probably adjust medication in the future so the repeat of my severe episode doesn't happen again. The pressure slowly decreased and finally last night, I could no longer feel it. My next treatment segment will be Wednesday, October 14th, however I have a phone appointment with my doctor on October 12th. Medications and my treatment plan will be adjusted at that time. Current prayer requests would be that the symptoms of my treatment would continue to subside. I have noticed some minor cognitive issues popping up after this round, however my doctor had warned me that this might happen. Please pray that those will be kept at bay. Also, please pray that I can get some sleep at night. The more treatment I do, the worse the insomnia gets. I have become too good of friends with 2AM. Ha! Thanks for your prayers!
Finally, I did end up getting hired for the Phone English Tutoring job assisting Koreans with their conversational English. I will be working 4 to 5 hours in the afternoon/early evening, but the pay is not very good. You only get paid $2 per their 10 minute lesson. If you aren't full (which my schedule is not), then you do not make very much. It does beat having to do my old job, so I am thankful for that. We are praying hard that God will open up another part-time work at home opportunity in the future that would help me earn more consistent income for our family. If anyone knows of anything, let me know! I start on Sunday and I am a bit nervous. The training was not very extensive and you have to smash in a lot of things in 10 minutes before you can move onto the next student. I am just going to do my best for the Lord as I know that is all that matters. He will take care of the rest!
Well, that is our update for now! I can't believe it's October already. Things seem to be flying by!!! I hope you are enjoying this wonderful fall weather. You are in our prayers!! Blessings!
Most of the job application deadlines have closed and Brian received 4 interview requests out of the 9 he applied to. That is pretty good actually. Some students only received 2 or 3. This economy has definitely affected those "recently graduated" available accounting positions. Three of his interviews are next week and then one interview is the following week. We would appreciate your prayers. The competition is fierce and some of the jobs would require a move. That is huge for us as it's not very easy for us to be able to move with my illness. However, if an Atlanta position opened up for us, we would really consider the opportunity as it would get me closer to my doctor and we would be near my sis at the same time! Phoenix is another possibility for us, however that would be going in the opposite direction of my doc, so that would be a hard decision to make.
Personally, I am trying not to dwell on the "what ifs" as far as what we will do if nothing is offered. Brian seems to handle that part a bit better than me. I am so proud of him and the wonderful job he does at interviewing! He will be an incredible employee, it's just hard to get that initial foot in the door. If offers are extended after multiple rounds of interviewing, we should know by mid to end of November. God has always provided for us and we know He will come through this time also (I am working on rehersing that in my head daily!). Thank you so much for praying!
As far as a health update, I am doing much better than I was on Sunday and Monday. My last blog post was written in the morning/early afternoon and I wasn't feeling great towards the end of my treatment segment, but everything was pretty tolerable. However, after my last dose of this drug called Flagyl, I experienced a horrible herx reaction (the definition is in the link, "About Lyme", above) to the medication. My head felt so pressurized that it literally felt like my brain was being pushed through my skull. I know that is kind of a vivid picture, but I seriously can't describe it any other way. There was not pain, thank goodness, but the pressure was so bad that I had a hard time focusing and walking around. I called the nurse asap in the morning and she said it was probably brain inflammation (that is a pleasant thought) from the die-off reaction of the bacteria.
Here is a bit of education so you can understand. The Lyme bacteria is encased in a biofilm or small sac-like cell. In order for the antibiotics to work effectively, Flagyl is used to bust the biofilm open. When this happens, inflammation can occur. It is an incredible unpleasant and scary reaction (can cause seizures etc), but the nurse said as long as I can feel it decreasing and not getting worse, it's not cause for concern. She said my doctor would probably adjust medication in the future so the repeat of my severe episode doesn't happen again. The pressure slowly decreased and finally last night, I could no longer feel it. My next treatment segment will be Wednesday, October 14th, however I have a phone appointment with my doctor on October 12th. Medications and my treatment plan will be adjusted at that time. Current prayer requests would be that the symptoms of my treatment would continue to subside. I have noticed some minor cognitive issues popping up after this round, however my doctor had warned me that this might happen. Please pray that those will be kept at bay. Also, please pray that I can get some sleep at night. The more treatment I do, the worse the insomnia gets. I have become too good of friends with 2AM. Ha! Thanks for your prayers!
Finally, I did end up getting hired for the Phone English Tutoring job assisting Koreans with their conversational English. I will be working 4 to 5 hours in the afternoon/early evening, but the pay is not very good. You only get paid $2 per their 10 minute lesson. If you aren't full (which my schedule is not), then you do not make very much. It does beat having to do my old job, so I am thankful for that. We are praying hard that God will open up another part-time work at home opportunity in the future that would help me earn more consistent income for our family. If anyone knows of anything, let me know! I start on Sunday and I am a bit nervous. The training was not very extensive and you have to smash in a lot of things in 10 minutes before you can move onto the next student. I am just going to do my best for the Lord as I know that is all that matters. He will take care of the rest!
Well, that is our update for now! I can't believe it's October already. Things seem to be flying by!!! I hope you are enjoying this wonderful fall weather. You are in our prayers!! Blessings!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Last day of this med segment!
Sorry I haven't been able to write until today. I have saved until today to update, but I have to admit that today is the worst I have felt. These antibiotics are SO potent. I can feel them take affect about 1 1/2 hours after I swallow them. I dread it, but know I need to push through to get better.
Before I update you how my treatment week is going, I want to mention a couple of prayer requests. Last week, I received an e-mail forward about my LLMD, Dr. Jemsek and his family. As you know already, Dr. J is having to move his practice. No one really knows for sure as to the exact reason why, but everyone is guessing it has to do w/ the politics of Lyme disease and the fit some state's medical boards throw in regards to treatment. However, again, that is not fact, that is only my guess. Anyways, in this e-mail it said that Dr. J is facing some really difficult family issues on top of everything else. The second week in September, his wife was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and as if that isn't hard enough to deal with, one week later his 5 year old daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia. I can't imagine what that family is going through. It seems to me that they are getting attacked on all sides. We really need to surround that family with prayer and protection. Dr. Jemsek does so many wonderful things for patients all over the world.
Okay, now on to the update. We started on Wednesday. The dizziness, nausea, aches came by evening (starting to be a normal pattern). I started developing painful sores in my mouth and throat which we think was caused by the antibiotics killing off too much "good" bacteria, but weren't sure at that time. I cut out all sugar and lowered my carb intake (that's hard to do when you can only eat about 20 things) as suggested by what I read on the internet and my wonderful Lyme Disease friends through the website "Lyme Friends" (the "bad" bacteria feeds off of sugar, so if you can starve them, they will die). I also swallowed Baking Soda and it actually did the trick. Thursday morning they were gone. I did sleep very good Wednesday night which is such a change from when I am not on antibiotics. It's nice to get a break from the insomnia. I know I haven't talked about that before, but on a normal night, I sleep about 3-4 hours of the 10 hours I lay there. Lyme will do that to you and it's exhausting. I have spent most of my time in bed since Wednesday, watching movies, doing school work and talking on the phone when I am up for it.
Friday was another drug day. Praise the Lord, I made it to my lab appointment. I was a little concerned as I couldn't be up very long without feeling like I was going to pass out, however God was good and I made it through. Thank goodness those lab techies are quick! I have run a low-grade fever off and on which isn't fun, but another sign it's working. I also have been having a lot of trouble with my heart rate being elevated and beating forcefully. We know we are fighting the Lyme in my autonomic nervous system, so currently I am just pushing through. We are hoping it doesn't get too bad where we have to switch meds.
Today will be my last drug day and then two weeks off. I started reacting to the double dose of probiotics today so we are going to have to figure out something else to do. I seem to tolerate one dose fine, but the second I get a small reaction. Nothing huge or dangerous, just more annoying. Hopefully, it will go away as I adjust to the dose. Today is rough. My biggest drug day and the day where I get the most symptoms. I won't go into the crazy list, but would just appreciate your prayers today and tomorrow.
Finally, this is the big week where we find out what interviews Brian has been accepted to in regards to his job hunt. The interview process uses the University of Arizona Career Services. No news yet and one of the sign-ups starts tomorrow. That career site has had some tech issues, and one of them was a couple of hours before Brian submitted all his applications. It is showing as pending application status for all of the companies, but Brian is going to double check tomorrow to make sure everything is A-okay on their side. Please be praying that he gets selected for some of these interviews as Brian really liked some of these companies and he really needs to get an accounting job by January even in this horrible economy. We are believing God for big things and know He will provide! Please pray that God would open the doors He wants to open as far as employment opportunities.
Well, I need to go lay down and rest. Thanks for your prayers!
Before I update you how my treatment week is going, I want to mention a couple of prayer requests. Last week, I received an e-mail forward about my LLMD, Dr. Jemsek and his family. As you know already, Dr. J is having to move his practice. No one really knows for sure as to the exact reason why, but everyone is guessing it has to do w/ the politics of Lyme disease and the fit some state's medical boards throw in regards to treatment. However, again, that is not fact, that is only my guess. Anyways, in this e-mail it said that Dr. J is facing some really difficult family issues on top of everything else. The second week in September, his wife was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and as if that isn't hard enough to deal with, one week later his 5 year old daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia. I can't imagine what that family is going through. It seems to me that they are getting attacked on all sides. We really need to surround that family with prayer and protection. Dr. Jemsek does so many wonderful things for patients all over the world.
Okay, now on to the update. We started on Wednesday. The dizziness, nausea, aches came by evening (starting to be a normal pattern). I started developing painful sores in my mouth and throat which we think was caused by the antibiotics killing off too much "good" bacteria, but weren't sure at that time. I cut out all sugar and lowered my carb intake (that's hard to do when you can only eat about 20 things) as suggested by what I read on the internet and my wonderful Lyme Disease friends through the website "Lyme Friends" (the "bad" bacteria feeds off of sugar, so if you can starve them, they will die). I also swallowed Baking Soda and it actually did the trick. Thursday morning they were gone. I did sleep very good Wednesday night which is such a change from when I am not on antibiotics. It's nice to get a break from the insomnia. I know I haven't talked about that before, but on a normal night, I sleep about 3-4 hours of the 10 hours I lay there. Lyme will do that to you and it's exhausting. I have spent most of my time in bed since Wednesday, watching movies, doing school work and talking on the phone when I am up for it.
Friday was another drug day. Praise the Lord, I made it to my lab appointment. I was a little concerned as I couldn't be up very long without feeling like I was going to pass out, however God was good and I made it through. Thank goodness those lab techies are quick! I have run a low-grade fever off and on which isn't fun, but another sign it's working. I also have been having a lot of trouble with my heart rate being elevated and beating forcefully. We know we are fighting the Lyme in my autonomic nervous system, so currently I am just pushing through. We are hoping it doesn't get too bad where we have to switch meds.
Today will be my last drug day and then two weeks off. I started reacting to the double dose of probiotics today so we are going to have to figure out something else to do. I seem to tolerate one dose fine, but the second I get a small reaction. Nothing huge or dangerous, just more annoying. Hopefully, it will go away as I adjust to the dose. Today is rough. My biggest drug day and the day where I get the most symptoms. I won't go into the crazy list, but would just appreciate your prayers today and tomorrow.
Finally, this is the big week where we find out what interviews Brian has been accepted to in regards to his job hunt. The interview process uses the University of Arizona Career Services. No news yet and one of the sign-ups starts tomorrow. That career site has had some tech issues, and one of them was a couple of hours before Brian submitted all his applications. It is showing as pending application status for all of the companies, but Brian is going to double check tomorrow to make sure everything is A-okay on their side. Please be praying that he gets selected for some of these interviews as Brian really liked some of these companies and he really needs to get an accounting job by January even in this horrible economy. We are believing God for big things and know He will provide! Please pray that God would open the doors He wants to open as far as employment opportunities.
Well, I need to go lay down and rest. Thanks for your prayers!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
And so it begins...
Hey all,
This will be short today. Just wanted to let you know that I got my lab results back and everything was normal. My liver enzymes were back in normal range. Yay God! So that means we can start antibiotics today. This will be our second round of treatment, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
It's been a hard week. We found out a wonderful lady who really took me in as her own when I was in Tucson for college passed away. She was very special and our thoughts and prayers are with her family these days. Also, last week we found out that my doctor is moving his practice to Washington DC. It was hard news to take as it means even a longer drive for us to see him (37 hours). We are praying that I will be well enough to fly by the next time he requires me to make an office visit. We have also considered moving to the East Coast, specifically Atlanta. My sis lives there, so we would have family. This just came up as an idea about two weeks ago before we found out my doctor was even moving farther away from us. However, if this was to happen, the Lord would definitely have to move mountains as far as a job for Brian and money to move. He has applied at the big 5 accounting firms which have offices in Atlanta. However, Brian is still applying in Tucson and it looks like there is a strong possibility a local company is wanting Brian if the logistics work out. Phoenix has also been an option, but Brian and I look at that as a last result as it takes us even farther West. As far as which we would prefer, each one of those options has pros and cons.
Finally, we have had some job changes for me. I tried to start adjusting my sleep schedule for my teaching job. I was staying up until 2 to 3AM and trying to sleep in the day, however I noticed my Lyme Disease symptoms started increasing. I was sad, as I was so excited to have the opportunity to teach again, however we felt it was best to have me resign from the position because of my health. I might still have the opportunity to teach individual students through a program called Phone English with the same company. I have been accepted for training, however I have yet to be scheduled. The hours of the job are during the day. We are just praying that God will open up this door if it's His will. It would be a great help financially.
Well, that is our update for now! We will let you know how treatment goes later in the week!
Blessings!
This will be short today. Just wanted to let you know that I got my lab results back and everything was normal. My liver enzymes were back in normal range. Yay God! So that means we can start antibiotics today. This will be our second round of treatment, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
It's been a hard week. We found out a wonderful lady who really took me in as her own when I was in Tucson for college passed away. She was very special and our thoughts and prayers are with her family these days. Also, last week we found out that my doctor is moving his practice to Washington DC. It was hard news to take as it means even a longer drive for us to see him (37 hours). We are praying that I will be well enough to fly by the next time he requires me to make an office visit. We have also considered moving to the East Coast, specifically Atlanta. My sis lives there, so we would have family. This just came up as an idea about two weeks ago before we found out my doctor was even moving farther away from us. However, if this was to happen, the Lord would definitely have to move mountains as far as a job for Brian and money to move. He has applied at the big 5 accounting firms which have offices in Atlanta. However, Brian is still applying in Tucson and it looks like there is a strong possibility a local company is wanting Brian if the logistics work out. Phoenix has also been an option, but Brian and I look at that as a last result as it takes us even farther West. As far as which we would prefer, each one of those options has pros and cons.
Finally, we have had some job changes for me. I tried to start adjusting my sleep schedule for my teaching job. I was staying up until 2 to 3AM and trying to sleep in the day, however I noticed my Lyme Disease symptoms started increasing. I was sad, as I was so excited to have the opportunity to teach again, however we felt it was best to have me resign from the position because of my health. I might still have the opportunity to teach individual students through a program called Phone English with the same company. I have been accepted for training, however I have yet to be scheduled. The hours of the job are during the day. We are just praying that God will open up this door if it's His will. It would be a great help financially.
Well, that is our update for now! We will let you know how treatment goes later in the week!
Blessings!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Hey Everyone!
Sorry there has been such a gap in posting. It's been busy for us, but I wanted to make sure I gave everyone an update. Praise the Lord my Dad is doing SO much better. He is still having IV treatment at home and they aren't sure for how long that will go, however we are so thankful his arm is healing. Yay God!
Health-wise, I (Dawn) am doing good. The farther we get away from treatment, the better I feel. Oh the irony of that. I am still sick, it's just that the Lyme Disease isn't battling with the antibiotics so my symptoms are not as severe. We haven't seen a change in my allergies or sensitivities, but then again, we have just started treatment and are on the slow track. My next treatment is next week starting on Wednesday. It will be the same dosing pattern as the last time going Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and then two weeks off again. On Oct. 12th, I have a phone appointment with my doctor. At that point, we will talk about our plan for the upcoming months.
School for me is going well. It has not been difficult to manage at all. Big news for me is that I have a job. Now it's a bit crazy, but I am willing to do everything I can to not have to go back to my old position working customer service for the credit card company. It was WAY to stressful and the pressure they put us under to meet our metrics each week was insane. Knowing that I had to start working part-time in January (that has been our plan), I have been applying to places. Well, last week I received a call offering a part-time job teaching English to Korean children (South Korea). The crazy part is it's from 10pm to 2pm my time. That sounds crazy, but actually I feel like the Lord has prepared me for that work schedule. For the last 3 to 4 months, I haven't been able to fall asleep until 2 or 3am. My schedule is flexible enough that I can sleep in until noon to make up for the lack of sleep at night. I am really excited! I love teaching. It's actually a program that the entire South Korean government is implementing and there have been 9 teachers hired so far. They told us that we will be constantly monitored by the government (nerve wracking, lol) and that this is the largest online English program implementation that any country has ever done in the world. It's fun to be a part of something so big! We had to weigh our decision as we weren't sure if I could handle one more thing on top of treatment. However, after praying about it, we decided to let me try as it is only 4 hours a night, Sun-Thurs, and I have the option of only working 3 hours. My first classes are Sunday night and I would definitely appreciate your prayers!
Brian is deep into the application/interview process for accounting jobs with our hope that he can obtain one by January. He has had one interview that went very well and he has been told he is a strong candidate. Last night he went to "Meet the Firms" and he met many recruiters who were extremely interested in Brian and his resume/experience. We are just praying God will make His will clear, especially if there has to be a move involved. We are pretty limited in what would work for us, however we don't want to limit God. The next 1 1/2 months will be extremely busy and filled with interviews. Timing is important as it will be hard for Brian to travel if I am in the middle of one of my treatment weeks. If you would please pray that God would guide and direct Brian to the perfect job and that the details would fall into place, we would appreciate it!
That is all for now. We will update towards the end of next week with how treatment is going. Hope you are having a wonderful September. I can't believe Fall is almost here!! Stay warm!!
Sorry there has been such a gap in posting. It's been busy for us, but I wanted to make sure I gave everyone an update. Praise the Lord my Dad is doing SO much better. He is still having IV treatment at home and they aren't sure for how long that will go, however we are so thankful his arm is healing. Yay God!
Health-wise, I (Dawn) am doing good. The farther we get away from treatment, the better I feel. Oh the irony of that. I am still sick, it's just that the Lyme Disease isn't battling with the antibiotics so my symptoms are not as severe. We haven't seen a change in my allergies or sensitivities, but then again, we have just started treatment and are on the slow track. My next treatment is next week starting on Wednesday. It will be the same dosing pattern as the last time going Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and then two weeks off again. On Oct. 12th, I have a phone appointment with my doctor. At that point, we will talk about our plan for the upcoming months.
School for me is going well. It has not been difficult to manage at all. Big news for me is that I have a job. Now it's a bit crazy, but I am willing to do everything I can to not have to go back to my old position working customer service for the credit card company. It was WAY to stressful and the pressure they put us under to meet our metrics each week was insane. Knowing that I had to start working part-time in January (that has been our plan), I have been applying to places. Well, last week I received a call offering a part-time job teaching English to Korean children (South Korea). The crazy part is it's from 10pm to 2pm my time. That sounds crazy, but actually I feel like the Lord has prepared me for that work schedule. For the last 3 to 4 months, I haven't been able to fall asleep until 2 or 3am. My schedule is flexible enough that I can sleep in until noon to make up for the lack of sleep at night. I am really excited! I love teaching. It's actually a program that the entire South Korean government is implementing and there have been 9 teachers hired so far. They told us that we will be constantly monitored by the government (nerve wracking, lol) and that this is the largest online English program implementation that any country has ever done in the world. It's fun to be a part of something so big! We had to weigh our decision as we weren't sure if I could handle one more thing on top of treatment. However, after praying about it, we decided to let me try as it is only 4 hours a night, Sun-Thurs, and I have the option of only working 3 hours. My first classes are Sunday night and I would definitely appreciate your prayers!
Brian is deep into the application/interview process for accounting jobs with our hope that he can obtain one by January. He has had one interview that went very well and he has been told he is a strong candidate. Last night he went to "Meet the Firms" and he met many recruiters who were extremely interested in Brian and his resume/experience. We are just praying God will make His will clear, especially if there has to be a move involved. We are pretty limited in what would work for us, however we don't want to limit God. The next 1 1/2 months will be extremely busy and filled with interviews. Timing is important as it will be hard for Brian to travel if I am in the middle of one of my treatment weeks. If you would please pray that God would guide and direct Brian to the perfect job and that the details would fall into place, we would appreciate it!
That is all for now. We will update towards the end of next week with how treatment is going. Hope you are having a wonderful September. I can't believe Fall is almost here!! Stay warm!!
Monday, September 7, 2009
UPDATE from Last Blog Post (Two weeks off but an URGENT prayer request for my family!)
I am going to leave our update about my lyme treatment below, but I am going to update you on my Dad's situation.
He is doing much better, Praise the Lord! He is being released from the hospital today. He does have to have a picc line insterted so that he can continue to receive IV antibiotics for the next 3 weeks at home. We are so thankful that the infection in his arm finally started to respond to the antibiotics. I was teasing him asking him if he was sure he didn't have Lyme Disease as I told him that he is experiencing a lot of what my friends w/ Lyme Disease have to go through (picc line, IV antibiotics etc.). I told him he needs to take those probiotics! :) They did get the results back and the staph infection he has is called MSSA. It's milder than MRSA which is the one that is resistent to antibiotic therapy. We are just so thankful that they were able to get on top of it before it went into his blood stream/organs. Yay Jesus! He is our healer!!
Below is the same update that I wrote in my last blog post...Nothing has changed for us. Going to do lab work tomorrow and then will be waiting for the results. I am going to leave the post below in case anyone hasn't seen it. We will update when we hear something from my doctor.
Now onto our update....Sunday, was our last day of taking antibiotics. This time we had to add one more. I started out the morning pretty good (that is such a relative term these days). Got up and took my first large dose of amoxicillin. I think I have mentioned before, I am also on a quite a few drugs to calm down my autonomic nervous system as that is where the Lyme Disease bacteria has taken up residence. Those drugs have helped immensely with the flushing, irregular (racing) heart and temperature regulation among other things. Since they do have a tremendous sedentary effect, I do have to space out when I take all of them. After my large dose of amoxicillin, I waited about 1 1/2 hours to take the rest of my medication. This was the first time I had done this and boy was that a mistake. My system freaked out and I was getting flushing reactions every 5 minutes. It was awful. I was SO nauseous and my heart rate was going crazy. I was hot and sweating, but I was SO chilled that I was shaking. After that reaction, there is no doubt in our mind that the drugs are fighting the Lyme bacteria. I took my other medication and it took about 2 hours before everything calmed down. I was worried it would happen again in the evening (not totally realizing that my other medication prevents it) but praise the Lord, I was able to take all of my other antibiotics (including the new one) without any trouble. I have to add a side note and say that Flagyl (the new medication I added) makes everything smell and taste like those hard candy cinnamon discs. Kind of a strange, lol. Now I am on my "drug holiday" as they call it. No more antibiotics for two weeks. Yay! I also have still not been able to be up very much w/out getting symptoms. I do okay for about 15 to 30min but then have to sit or lay down. Hopefully, that will get better in the next week. If you would just please pray that when I do my labs tomorrow, that the blood work will come back normal (kidney, liver enzymes etc.) so that we can continue with therapy in the future.
Thank you so much for your prayers. Life certainly does have it's unexpected bumps but these bumps always give us more opportunity to trust in God's provision and protection.
He is doing much better, Praise the Lord! He is being released from the hospital today. He does have to have a picc line insterted so that he can continue to receive IV antibiotics for the next 3 weeks at home. We are so thankful that the infection in his arm finally started to respond to the antibiotics. I was teasing him asking him if he was sure he didn't have Lyme Disease as I told him that he is experiencing a lot of what my friends w/ Lyme Disease have to go through (picc line, IV antibiotics etc.). I told him he needs to take those probiotics! :) They did get the results back and the staph infection he has is called MSSA. It's milder than MRSA which is the one that is resistent to antibiotic therapy. We are just so thankful that they were able to get on top of it before it went into his blood stream/organs. Yay Jesus! He is our healer!!
Below is the same update that I wrote in my last blog post...Nothing has changed for us. Going to do lab work tomorrow and then will be waiting for the results. I am going to leave the post below in case anyone hasn't seen it. We will update when we hear something from my doctor.
Now onto our update....Sunday, was our last day of taking antibiotics. This time we had to add one more. I started out the morning pretty good (that is such a relative term these days). Got up and took my first large dose of amoxicillin. I think I have mentioned before, I am also on a quite a few drugs to calm down my autonomic nervous system as that is where the Lyme Disease bacteria has taken up residence. Those drugs have helped immensely with the flushing, irregular (racing) heart and temperature regulation among other things. Since they do have a tremendous sedentary effect, I do have to space out when I take all of them. After my large dose of amoxicillin, I waited about 1 1/2 hours to take the rest of my medication. This was the first time I had done this and boy was that a mistake. My system freaked out and I was getting flushing reactions every 5 minutes. It was awful. I was SO nauseous and my heart rate was going crazy. I was hot and sweating, but I was SO chilled that I was shaking. After that reaction, there is no doubt in our mind that the drugs are fighting the Lyme bacteria. I took my other medication and it took about 2 hours before everything calmed down. I was worried it would happen again in the evening (not totally realizing that my other medication prevents it) but praise the Lord, I was able to take all of my other antibiotics (including the new one) without any trouble. I have to add a side note and say that Flagyl (the new medication I added) makes everything smell and taste like those hard candy cinnamon discs. Kind of a strange, lol. Now I am on my "drug holiday" as they call it. No more antibiotics for two weeks. Yay! I also have still not been able to be up very much w/out getting symptoms. I do okay for about 15 to 30min but then have to sit or lay down. Hopefully, that will get better in the next week. If you would just please pray that when I do my labs tomorrow, that the blood work will come back normal (kidney, liver enzymes etc.) so that we can continue with therapy in the future.
Thank you so much for your prayers. Life certainly does have it's unexpected bumps but these bumps always give us more opportunity to trust in God's provision and protection.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
A Ride in Medication Land
HI! Happy Saturday. I told Brian this morning that the days seem to be running together more and more. Maybe it's the drugs, I am not sure. lol I wanted to write you an update and I apologize for not writing sooner. It has been a crazy couple of days but God has been so good. He has kept me allergic reaction free and the symptoms that I get from the medication fighting the Lyme Disease have been tolerable. I will walk you through the last couple of days.
Wednesday was the big day! We started the large doses of antibiotics. I was SO nervous but God gave me peace and I knew this was a means to an end. I tolerated both the amoxicillin and biaxin well. My stomach handled it well too, which we were concerned about because of my issues in the last couple of weeks. Now you might think, these are just two antibiotics and how can you get sick from taking them. Well, putting about 4000mg of it in your system and then having the Lyme Disease fight back, made Wednesday and Thursday were kind of rough days. I experienced a lot of joint/bone/muscle (not sure which, just knew it hurt), headaches, nausea and dizziness. I could tell it was fighting something, that is for sure! Since I didn't take any meds on Thursday (we do every other day for 5 days), by the evening I could tolerate being up and around for about 15 to 30min.
Friday was med day again. This day was a bit better as I think my system is adjusting to the medication. I still didn't feel the greatest, but I was able to function more until the last dose of amoxicillin late in the night. This morning I woke up w/ shooting pains down my arms and legs and hurt to walk. As I make posts about our journey in the future, you will see that Lyme Disease symptoms cover a lot of categories and they are pretty random from one day to the next especially when you are fighting the disease. I am in bed as I type this just waiting for my meds (that make me sleepy and help w/ nerve pain) to kick in. No antibiotics for me today so it's a recovery day.
Tomorrow (Sunday) is our last day of antibiotics for this round. We actually have to add one more called Flagyl. This type of medication is to break the cysts that the lyme disease bacteria takes up residence in so that the antibiotics are more effective. We are not sure what to expect while we add this to the mix. I have never taken this medication before so we shall see. Then I am off for two weeks before we do the whole thing over. Tuesday, I will have to get blood drawn to check all my levels and make sure my liver enzymes are not elevated from the treatment. I have a phone appointment with my doctor on October 12th where he will probably adjust my meds and make me take the antibiotics more regularly.
We also have an update on Brian's job search. He had an interview yesterday with the Arizona Audit General and it went very well. It seems like this job is a perfect fit for him and what he would like to do. They said they would let him know in about two weeks as they have to do about 4 to 5 more interviews. We are really praying for God's will in this. It would be SO nice to get this cemented for him so that he won't have to worry about fitting interviews in with his busy schedule. He does have a school function on Sept. 17th called Meet the Firms. This is where all the accounting firms and corporate organizations come and talk to accounting students during a meet and greet time. Interviews for open positions soon follow.
So that leaves us w/ our current prayer requests. Thank you so much for all of your encouragement and prayer support. It was such a wonderful blessing to receive those messages on facebook. Please keep praying for this last round of medication. Pray that I will stay reaction free and that I will be able to tolerate it. Please also pray that when my labs come back that everything will be normal and that my liver enzymes will not be elevated. This is vitally important so that we can continue with treatment in the future. Please also be praying for Brian's job. Pray that God will guide and direct Brian as to what interviews he should accept and that He will open the door to an accounting position in Tucson after he graduates in December.
Well, that is our update for now. I will make a post early this coming week after we get done w/ our meds on Sunday. Thanks again for praying. God is using them in a mighty way!! Cont. below...
I know I have had this post up for a couple of hours, but I wanted to add this video as it spoke so much to me. This journey has been long for us and sometimes difficult spiritually as we struggle to grasp God's plan for us, however when we stop and look around at those who suffer much greater in our world today, we feel blessed in our present circumstance. Everything we do and in all our circumstances our focus needs to be "For God's Glory". It's a good reminder for us as we believe God for my healing and as we begin on this new path. I wanted to post this video as it spoke to my heart and it's a good reminder of what our true mission is until Christ returns or we are taken home to be with Him. Remember, you will have to hit pause on my music player so you won't have that playing at the same time as the video. :)
Wednesday was the big day! We started the large doses of antibiotics. I was SO nervous but God gave me peace and I knew this was a means to an end. I tolerated both the amoxicillin and biaxin well. My stomach handled it well too, which we were concerned about because of my issues in the last couple of weeks. Now you might think, these are just two antibiotics and how can you get sick from taking them. Well, putting about 4000mg of it in your system and then having the Lyme Disease fight back, made Wednesday and Thursday were kind of rough days. I experienced a lot of joint/bone/muscle (not sure which, just knew it hurt), headaches, nausea and dizziness. I could tell it was fighting something, that is for sure! Since I didn't take any meds on Thursday (we do every other day for 5 days), by the evening I could tolerate being up and around for about 15 to 30min.
Friday was med day again. This day was a bit better as I think my system is adjusting to the medication. I still didn't feel the greatest, but I was able to function more until the last dose of amoxicillin late in the night. This morning I woke up w/ shooting pains down my arms and legs and hurt to walk. As I make posts about our journey in the future, you will see that Lyme Disease symptoms cover a lot of categories and they are pretty random from one day to the next especially when you are fighting the disease. I am in bed as I type this just waiting for my meds (that make me sleepy and help w/ nerve pain) to kick in. No antibiotics for me today so it's a recovery day.
Tomorrow (Sunday) is our last day of antibiotics for this round. We actually have to add one more called Flagyl. This type of medication is to break the cysts that the lyme disease bacteria takes up residence in so that the antibiotics are more effective. We are not sure what to expect while we add this to the mix. I have never taken this medication before so we shall see. Then I am off for two weeks before we do the whole thing over. Tuesday, I will have to get blood drawn to check all my levels and make sure my liver enzymes are not elevated from the treatment. I have a phone appointment with my doctor on October 12th where he will probably adjust my meds and make me take the antibiotics more regularly.
We also have an update on Brian's job search. He had an interview yesterday with the Arizona Audit General and it went very well. It seems like this job is a perfect fit for him and what he would like to do. They said they would let him know in about two weeks as they have to do about 4 to 5 more interviews. We are really praying for God's will in this. It would be SO nice to get this cemented for him so that he won't have to worry about fitting interviews in with his busy schedule. He does have a school function on Sept. 17th called Meet the Firms. This is where all the accounting firms and corporate organizations come and talk to accounting students during a meet and greet time. Interviews for open positions soon follow.
So that leaves us w/ our current prayer requests. Thank you so much for all of your encouragement and prayer support. It was such a wonderful blessing to receive those messages on facebook. Please keep praying for this last round of medication. Pray that I will stay reaction free and that I will be able to tolerate it. Please also pray that when my labs come back that everything will be normal and that my liver enzymes will not be elevated. This is vitally important so that we can continue with treatment in the future. Please also be praying for Brian's job. Pray that God will guide and direct Brian as to what interviews he should accept and that He will open the door to an accounting position in Tucson after he graduates in December.
Well, that is our update for now. I will make a post early this coming week after we get done w/ our meds on Sunday. Thanks again for praying. God is using them in a mighty way!! Cont. below...
I know I have had this post up for a couple of hours, but I wanted to add this video as it spoke so much to me. This journey has been long for us and sometimes difficult spiritually as we struggle to grasp God's plan for us, however when we stop and look around at those who suffer much greater in our world today, we feel blessed in our present circumstance. Everything we do and in all our circumstances our focus needs to be "For God's Glory". It's a good reminder for us as we believe God for my healing and as we begin on this new path. I wanted to post this video as it spoke to my heart and it's a good reminder of what our true mission is until Christ returns or we are taken home to be with Him. Remember, you will have to hit pause on my music player so you won't have that playing at the same time as the video. :)
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Week is Here!
Hello Everyone! Thank you so much for your prayers this past week. We didn't hear anything until this morning which is why I haven't updated our blog. I just got a call from Dr. J's nurse and she said that my liver enzymes are down. Not completely at normal range, but close enough that I got the "go ahead" to start antibiotic treatment on Wednesday. YAY!!! They are going to have to monitor me very closely, so I will have to do what they call "Safety Draws" the day after my last dose of antibiotics. This will be labs to make sure my body (including my liver) is handling the antibiotics okay. So, I will be become best buddies w/ the lab technician I guess. :0)
What will our week look like? They like you to do a MWF or TTHS schedule, but because this first round we need to make sure Brian is home as much as possible therefore we are going to do the schedule Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. As you can see I will take the large doses of antibiotics every other day. My last day will be Sunday and then off to the lab on Monday afternoon. Then I rest for two weeks (basically recover) and then start it all over again. This will be the pattern until Dr. J thinks my body can handle more frequent dosages. We have a phone appointment to review my progress on October 12th w. Dr. J. By that time I will have done 2 rounds.
So, what are our prayer requests? Please pray that I can tolerate the 3 antibiotics at the large doses and that I will stay allergic reaction free! Please pray that my pain will be minimal and that I don't have too many side effects. It's going to be a tough 5 days, but we are believing God that He will get me through! Please also pray that my liver enzymes will stay low and that all my "safety" blood work will come back normal after my first round of treatment. Please also pray for peace. I do not know what to expect and the unknown of how the treatment will affect me is a bit scary. However, I know God is with me and we will get through it together!!
Also, Brian has two job possibilities that we could use your prayer for. On Friday, he is interviewing for the Arizona Auditor General. It gets tough because the other accounting firms won't be interviewing until October, so if an offer is made, we will have to make some big decisions, especially factoring in the state of the economy. Also, he has been asked to interview for an assistant manager position at his part-time job. This would give us some extra income in this fall and also a fall back plan in case Brian is unable to obtain an accounting job in Tucson right after graduation. Please pray that God's hand would guide and direct Brian on this job course he should take and that God would open the doors He wants Brian to walk-through and close the ones that are not His well.
Thank you again for all of your prayers! We will update towards the end of the week to let you know how treatment is going! Blessings!
What will our week look like? They like you to do a MWF or TTHS schedule, but because this first round we need to make sure Brian is home as much as possible therefore we are going to do the schedule Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. As you can see I will take the large doses of antibiotics every other day. My last day will be Sunday and then off to the lab on Monday afternoon. Then I rest for two weeks (basically recover) and then start it all over again. This will be the pattern until Dr. J thinks my body can handle more frequent dosages. We have a phone appointment to review my progress on October 12th w. Dr. J. By that time I will have done 2 rounds.
So, what are our prayer requests? Please pray that I can tolerate the 3 antibiotics at the large doses and that I will stay allergic reaction free! Please pray that my pain will be minimal and that I don't have too many side effects. It's going to be a tough 5 days, but we are believing God that He will get me through! Please also pray that my liver enzymes will stay low and that all my "safety" blood work will come back normal after my first round of treatment. Please also pray for peace. I do not know what to expect and the unknown of how the treatment will affect me is a bit scary. However, I know God is with me and we will get through it together!!
Also, Brian has two job possibilities that we could use your prayer for. On Friday, he is interviewing for the Arizona Auditor General. It gets tough because the other accounting firms won't be interviewing until October, so if an offer is made, we will have to make some big decisions, especially factoring in the state of the economy. Also, he has been asked to interview for an assistant manager position at his part-time job. This would give us some extra income in this fall and also a fall back plan in case Brian is unable to obtain an accounting job in Tucson right after graduation. Please pray that God's hand would guide and direct Brian on this job course he should take and that God would open the doors He wants Brian to walk-through and close the ones that are not His well.
Thank you again for all of your prayers! We will update towards the end of the week to let you know how treatment is going! Blessings!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Quick and Urgent Prayer Request
This won't be too long of a post, but I wanted to write and ask you to pray. Yesterday we got a call from my Lyme physician and he said my lab work was abnormal. He said that my liver enzymes were elevated. He had me retest yesterday and hopefully we will hear the results by the end of the week. We are praying that this is just a fluke and that they will come back normal. If not, then we will have to probably see my local doctor in Tucson and to search out the cause which might mean lots of tests.
I am unable to start antibiotics until my liver enzymes are no longer raised as long-term antibiotics can be very hard on your liver. So it looks like we might have another speed bump in our journey. If you could please pray that God would have this second test come back and that we can start antibiotics next Wednesday. That is the goal we were shooting for before we found out the latest piece of news. We will update once we hear something!
I am unable to start antibiotics until my liver enzymes are no longer raised as long-term antibiotics can be very hard on your liver. So it looks like we might have another speed bump in our journey. If you could please pray that God would have this second test come back and that we can start antibiotics next Wednesday. That is the goal we were shooting for before we found out the latest piece of news. We will update once we hear something!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Flexibility is the Key!
Hello Family and Friends. Tomorrow is Wednesday and unfortunately we will not be able to begin the antibiotics. I (Dawn) am sad as I was excited to actually start attacking this bacteria and working towards better health. However, as with many things in life and especially a long-term chronic illness, flexibility is the key.
Since last Thursday we have dealt with many medication issues. In a way, it's a miracle that I am just now dealing with this, however we were hoping that I would not have too much trouble with the medication that I must take to get well. That has not been the case these last four days. For example, there is a supplement that my physician wanted me to take and I can only tolerate 1/8 of a dose. We tried to increase the dose this evening and it did not work. I am also struggling to find a probiotic that I don't react to. We tried one yesterday and I had asthma and stomach cramping so we are off to find a new one. I did place an order w/ a company today that promotes their product is well tolerated by allergic individuals. This one you have to keep in the refrigerator in order to protect the live organisms inside each pill. That is a comforting thought! LOL I have yet to adjust to swallowing live things even if they are in a capsule. :) I am also still having stomach issues that we need to get resolved before we take antibiotics. I have a medication that will help me do that, however I need to be able to take that one also without reacting.
So all in all, after not being able to ramp up on the medication I had posted on a previous blog, trouble with some of the supplements, on top of other complications, we are unable to start antibiotics tomorrow. It's getting trickier to find a day that Brian will be home so that can be our start date as Brian is starting school on Monday and this is when things get a bit crazy schedule-wise. I think I have explained before that he must be there in case of an emergency as I will be taking such extremely high doses of multiple drugs all at once. We are disappointed and frustrated to have some set backs, but that is what is to be expected with Lyme Disease. I have talked to many of my friends who also have been diagnosed with Lyme and that seems to be a regular occurrence for them.
We would just ask for your prayers. Please pray that I am able to take the medication for my stomach and that it works! Please also pray that I can take the much needed supplements at the dosages the doctor is requesting. Finally, our biggest prayer request is that I am able to take the new probiotic. I have to find a probiotic to take that I am not allergic to in order to counteract all of the good bacteria that will be destroyed by the antibiotics. It is a must and we can't start taking the medication without it.
Well, that is where we are today. We know God will provide the right medication for us, it's just the difficult task of finding it that can be frustrating. His timing has always been perfect and it's a good reminder for us to remember his promises that his eternal plan far out weighs the circumstances we are currently facing.
Since last Thursday we have dealt with many medication issues. In a way, it's a miracle that I am just now dealing with this, however we were hoping that I would not have too much trouble with the medication that I must take to get well. That has not been the case these last four days. For example, there is a supplement that my physician wanted me to take and I can only tolerate 1/8 of a dose. We tried to increase the dose this evening and it did not work. I am also struggling to find a probiotic that I don't react to. We tried one yesterday and I had asthma and stomach cramping so we are off to find a new one. I did place an order w/ a company today that promotes their product is well tolerated by allergic individuals. This one you have to keep in the refrigerator in order to protect the live organisms inside each pill. That is a comforting thought! LOL I have yet to adjust to swallowing live things even if they are in a capsule. :) I am also still having stomach issues that we need to get resolved before we take antibiotics. I have a medication that will help me do that, however I need to be able to take that one also without reacting.
So all in all, after not being able to ramp up on the medication I had posted on a previous blog, trouble with some of the supplements, on top of other complications, we are unable to start antibiotics tomorrow. It's getting trickier to find a day that Brian will be home so that can be our start date as Brian is starting school on Monday and this is when things get a bit crazy schedule-wise. I think I have explained before that he must be there in case of an emergency as I will be taking such extremely high doses of multiple drugs all at once. We are disappointed and frustrated to have some set backs, but that is what is to be expected with Lyme Disease. I have talked to many of my friends who also have been diagnosed with Lyme and that seems to be a regular occurrence for them.
We would just ask for your prayers. Please pray that I am able to take the medication for my stomach and that it works! Please also pray that I can take the much needed supplements at the dosages the doctor is requesting. Finally, our biggest prayer request is that I am able to take the new probiotic. I have to find a probiotic to take that I am not allergic to in order to counteract all of the good bacteria that will be destroyed by the antibiotics. It is a must and we can't start taking the medication without it.
Well, that is where we are today. We know God will provide the right medication for us, it's just the difficult task of finding it that can be frustrating. His timing has always been perfect and it's a good reminder for us to remember his promises that his eternal plan far out weighs the circumstances we are currently facing.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
A Couple of Changes
We have made a couple of changes to this coming week because of some issues that I have had w/ medication and also Brian's work. Starting on Thursday, I developed horrible stomach pains as a result of all the different kinds of medication and supplements I am on. So, we have to get that calmed down before we start the antibiotics, which means another mecication will be on its way. I also have been having intense migraines after increasing dosages on another one of my medications. We are going to drop it back down to what it was before and hope that everything will subside. We are thankful that none of these updates have contained allergic reaction complications, but this last round of side effects have not been too fun.
Also, Brian received his schedule from work where he has only been getting scheduled about 20 hours a week and this next week he is scheduled for 36 hours. We can't do much about that, but we were hoping he would be home more as I go through this first stretch of antibiotic therapy as we know it will be tough. As a result, we are going to start this part of the treatment on Wednesay. So, I will be taking the dosages WFSu instead of MWF. If you all could definitely pray for this week and specifically those days, we would appreciate it. Please also pray for safety as I will be alone quite a bit. Brian will be home the entire first day that we do the treatment, so that will be a blessing.
We hope you are having a wonderful weekend and have a blessed Sunday!
Also, Brian received his schedule from work where he has only been getting scheduled about 20 hours a week and this next week he is scheduled for 36 hours. We can't do much about that, but we were hoping he would be home more as I go through this first stretch of antibiotic therapy as we know it will be tough. As a result, we are going to start this part of the treatment on Wednesay. So, I will be taking the dosages WFSu instead of MWF. If you all could definitely pray for this week and specifically those days, we would appreciate it. Please also pray for safety as I will be alone quite a bit. Brian will be home the entire first day that we do the treatment, so that will be a blessing.
We hope you are having a wonderful weekend and have a blessed Sunday!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
A Calming Week!
Hello! I hope you had a wonderful week as many of you have sent the kiddos back to school! Brian starts school on the 24th at the U of A and my online UNK class starts that same day. However, on Monday, the 17th, I start at the University of Colorado. I am excited to begin, but know it will be a rough week.
As many of you know, I have kind of changed around our blog layout. At the top under our heading are links now to different pages. They contain much of what was on my home page, but I was excited to get creative. :0) I have added a bit more about Lyme Disease so you can check it out!
We have had a pretty uneventful week, which has been kind of nice. The doctor gave the okay for me to stop the medication that was causing my heart to race, but we are still ramping up on dosages and supplements. Brian is still enjoying the humorous moments of me being super "out of it". The nights are the worse, so studying for me will have to be done in the day! :) The good news is that the drugs are working to calm the nervous system down and I am sleeping better! That is very important in the healing process. I have 2 more supplements to take, one being the most important which is the probiotic. We are trying that on Saturday or Sunday and it is vital I am able to take it. The large doses of antibiotics will be killing all the good bacteria while it also attacks the Lyme bacteria. The probiotic will replace the good bacteria in my system. We would appreciate your prayers that I would be able to take that pill w/out any allergic reactions.
August 17th is the big day! We start the big drugs that day. There are 3 antibiotics that I am going to take and I will be taking between 5000 and 6000mg MWF. It is going to be a tough week for my body. We would really appreciate your prayers. Please pray that I will be able to tolerate the large doses of medication and that I make it through the herx reactions. Please pray for safety and for toleration of the increase of Lyme symptoms that I will most likely experience. Please also pray that the intense treatment will not affect the number of foods I am able to eat. Thankfully, my system has calmed back down after the trip, so I am able to eat about 15-20 different foods, however it seems like whenever we throw anything new at me, my food options seem to dwindle. However, God is in control and He is our protector!! Again and again we see the Lord provide for us in so many ways. It has been an absolute miracle with how sensitive I am to chemicals and foods that I have been able to tolerate all of these new medications. God's presence has been with us every step of the way and it is wonderful to see Him work!! Our faith has really been stretched on this long journey, but we continue to grow in our trust that He truly knows what is best for us.
A little piece of news...the "Under our Skin" incredible documentary about Lyme Disease is available for pre-order as they are releasing it September 15th to the public. The trailer is under the section of my blog titled Lyme Disease (link is at the top of the page). Anyways, I would highly recommend anyone who is interested in learning more about the disease, the controversy that surrounds it and how our current health system is the cause of so much destruction to many Lyme Disease victims and their families. You can purchase the documentary through this link: Under Our Skin: An Infectious New Film .
Well, that is all for now! Brian will probably doing the updating next week because during my good moments I will need to be working on school work. Thank you again for all of your prayers!! There is a lot of unknown about next week, but we are excited to finally get started fighting this disease. Blessings to you my friends!!!
As many of you know, I have kind of changed around our blog layout. At the top under our heading are links now to different pages. They contain much of what was on my home page, but I was excited to get creative. :0) I have added a bit more about Lyme Disease so you can check it out!
We have had a pretty uneventful week, which has been kind of nice. The doctor gave the okay for me to stop the medication that was causing my heart to race, but we are still ramping up on dosages and supplements. Brian is still enjoying the humorous moments of me being super "out of it". The nights are the worse, so studying for me will have to be done in the day! :) The good news is that the drugs are working to calm the nervous system down and I am sleeping better! That is very important in the healing process. I have 2 more supplements to take, one being the most important which is the probiotic. We are trying that on Saturday or Sunday and it is vital I am able to take it. The large doses of antibiotics will be killing all the good bacteria while it also attacks the Lyme bacteria. The probiotic will replace the good bacteria in my system. We would appreciate your prayers that I would be able to take that pill w/out any allergic reactions.
August 17th is the big day! We start the big drugs that day. There are 3 antibiotics that I am going to take and I will be taking between 5000 and 6000mg MWF. It is going to be a tough week for my body. We would really appreciate your prayers. Please pray that I will be able to tolerate the large doses of medication and that I make it through the herx reactions. Please pray for safety and for toleration of the increase of Lyme symptoms that I will most likely experience. Please also pray that the intense treatment will not affect the number of foods I am able to eat. Thankfully, my system has calmed back down after the trip, so I am able to eat about 15-20 different foods, however it seems like whenever we throw anything new at me, my food options seem to dwindle. However, God is in control and He is our protector!! Again and again we see the Lord provide for us in so many ways. It has been an absolute miracle with how sensitive I am to chemicals and foods that I have been able to tolerate all of these new medications. God's presence has been with us every step of the way and it is wonderful to see Him work!! Our faith has really been stretched on this long journey, but we continue to grow in our trust that He truly knows what is best for us.
A little piece of news...the "Under our Skin" incredible documentary about Lyme Disease is available for pre-order as they are releasing it September 15th to the public. The trailer is under the section of my blog titled Lyme Disease (link is at the top of the page). Anyways, I would highly recommend anyone who is interested in learning more about the disease, the controversy that surrounds it and how our current health system is the cause of so much destruction to many Lyme Disease victims and their families. You can purchase the documentary through this link: Under Our Skin: An Infectious New Film .
Well, that is all for now! Brian will probably doing the updating next week because during my good moments I will need to be working on school work. Thank you again for all of your prayers!! There is a lot of unknown about next week, but we are excited to finally get started fighting this disease. Blessings to you my friends!!!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Happy Weekend! I hope everyone gets a chance to rest and relax this weekend! I can't believe we are a week into August. "Back to School" is coming soon! :0)
I will do non-medical as that always seems to be more fun. :) Last Friday, I (Dawn) got an e-mail letting me know I was accepted into the University of Colorado graduate program to begin working towards a Master of Arts in E-Learning Design and Implementation. I was ecstatic! I have since registered and classes will begin August 17th. I will be taking one class (six credit hours) at CU and then will also be taking one class (3 credit hours) at my alma mater, UNK. The UNK course is so that I can keep my NE teaching certificate active. I don't want to let it lapse in case some day I am able to teach in a brick and mortar classroom again, Lord willing!! We do have a prayer request for both colleges. We are in the middle of getting set-up with disability services an academic accommodation plan because of my illness. It was suggested to us to get one just in case it is needed for assignment adjustments or extensions. We have started the process, but it's a lengthy one. Please pray that my physician will respond quickly with his documentation and that it will be approved!
I just asked Brian if he wanted to update anything on the blog and he said "Nope, just plugging away." :0) He is such a trooper! I have such a wonderful husband. God has truly blessed me with such a gift. I have to brag and give you an example. Just today, as it was a rough day for me symptom-wise, he said I should put together an easy to follow cookbook so that he can cook for me when I get very ill in the coming months. How awesome is that!! He does start his last semester of school at the University of Arizona on August 24th. This will be a busy semester for him with searching for a job and interviewing on top of doing course work and working a part-time job.
Now onto the medical update...I am on my third week of medication and hanging in there. I have encountered many unpleasant side effects on these medications and just when I seem to adjust, we have to increase the dosage or add another one. I do have to praise God for a good day on Tuesday. I was able to go to Wal-mart to get school supplies for about 25min! It was nice to have a break from the dizziness, nausea, and strange nerve sensations in my face and arms. However, we added another medication yesterday and everything seems to be back along with a racing heart and flushing reactions. It is also causing my allergic reactions to food to increase. My physician is trying to calm my nervous system down, but this last medication seems to be doing the opposite and causing more problems. A call to the doctor will be in order for Monday. Please pray that my food limitations don't get dwindled down too much. I am already at a low amount of choices. I am hoping that when I stop this new drug, things will up right themselves. I still have about 3 supplements to try before we start antibiotics. I am encouraged that we have only had an issue with one medication and one supplement out of all the ones I have tried already. God is good!
Some of these drugs are quite humorous to be on as I try to communicate and end up leaving words out of sentences or can't for the life of me find a particular word that I am trying to say. Brian is getting very good at finishing my sentences for me. We tried to play boggle a day ago and I think I had 10 words and Brian had 26. That is not like me! Since Lyme for me has taken root in my autonomic nervous system, we tend to think it's more the drugs, however lyme can always affect you cognitively. We are praying that the Lord keeps the bacteria contained in the one part of my brain.
Our goal for right now is to start the tough drugs on August 17th. I added up the amount of antibiotics I will be on and per day I will be taking 5000mg. Crazy! I remember how much pain and horrible Lyme symptoms I had on 1500mg of amoxicillin. If you could begin praying for my toleration of the large antibiotic doses and a probiotic that I must take that will replace the good bacteria in my system that the drugs will destroy. Also please pray that I stay safe and reaction free. These are huge doses to have in your system and then to react to them would be very dangerous. This will begin the hard part of this journey. This will be the first time we start fighting the disease.
In the coming weeks, you will most likely hear me reference the term "herx". "The Herxheimer reaction (also known as Jarisch-Herxheimer or Herx) occurs when large quantities of toxins released into the body as bacteria (typically Spirochetal bacteria) die, due to antibiotic treatment or rapid detoxification." This definition taken out of wikipedia and the link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herx. Since Lyme bacteria is a spirochete, it causes this reaction. This "herx" is the cause of so much pain and the horrible escalation of all of the Lyme symptoms. However, it is also how you know the medication is working! So in a way, the herx reaction is a good sign, it's just hard to endure.
Well, this post is long enough. God continues to use all of you to encourage us during a time of such uncertainty. Thank you for your prayers! God is using them in mighty ways! We will update soon!!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
A Couple of Praise Reports! God is Good!
Two posts in two days...this will not happen very often, however I wanted to give you guys a couple praise updates! Brian received an e-mail today letting him know his appeal to the financial aid department for his school loan denial was approved! Yay God!! This is huge for us as it will pay for Brian's schooling for his last semester and allow us to better afford all of my medication.
Also, we had another praise today as we figured out what was causing the continuous elevated heart rate and chest pains. It was a combination of a prescription medication and a supplement. They have those drug interaction checkers but unfortunately a lot of them do not include supplement interactions. I am going to try to take the medication at opposite ends of the day to see if that will work. The supplement I am trying to take is really important as it is supposed to stabilize my mast cells (those are the cells that trigger histamine release), however if we can't get it to work we will have to find another option. God just continues to affirm over and over that we are on the right path to healing. We know the future will be rough, especially the next couple of months, but God will bring us through. All glory goes to Him and we pray that the Lord will use us to testify of His goodness again and again!
Also, I wanted to re-post the video that I added to my other post as it is an awesome picture of what Lyme Disease patients must endure and what their treating physicians must confront. This is my LLMD (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor), Dr. Joseph Jemsek, at a Lyme Disease Gala this past spring. He talks about the disease, the impact it has on society and patients and our current failing health system. He is a wonderful man and I am SO blessed to have him be my physician! To watch the video, you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the blog and click on the pause button on the music player so both won't play at the same time. :)
Enjoy!
Also, we had another praise today as we figured out what was causing the continuous elevated heart rate and chest pains. It was a combination of a prescription medication and a supplement. They have those drug interaction checkers but unfortunately a lot of them do not include supplement interactions. I am going to try to take the medication at opposite ends of the day to see if that will work. The supplement I am trying to take is really important as it is supposed to stabilize my mast cells (those are the cells that trigger histamine release), however if we can't get it to work we will have to find another option. God just continues to affirm over and over that we are on the right path to healing. We know the future will be rough, especially the next couple of months, but God will bring us through. All glory goes to Him and we pray that the Lord will use us to testify of His goodness again and again!
Also, I wanted to re-post the video that I added to my other post as it is an awesome picture of what Lyme Disease patients must endure and what their treating physicians must confront. This is my LLMD (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor), Dr. Joseph Jemsek, at a Lyme Disease Gala this past spring. He talks about the disease, the impact it has on society and patients and our current failing health system. He is a wonderful man and I am SO blessed to have him be my physician! To watch the video, you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the blog and click on the pause button on the music player so both won't play at the same time. :)
Enjoy!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Medicine, Medicine, Medicine
As I am sitting here typing this, I can see my medication filling up 1/4 of our dresser. It's amazing to me how all these drugs don't interact with eachother, or maybe they do, lol. Brian went to Target and bought me the largest pill organizer you could find as I have a bad habit of forgetting what drugs I took and when. lol Now I feel like an eighty-year-old grandma with her pill box. Ha! Brian thinks the pill box is cool as he loves to organize things. I can't say I am the same, but I am glad he is getting some joy out of this.
Praise the Lord I have not been allergic to any of the medication. This first batch we are taking are a combination of supplements and drugs to calm down my autonomic nervous system. They are supposed to help me sleep better at night and make my system not so reactive, or "jumpy" as I like to say. At the beginning the only annoying side effects were that floating head feeling, dizziness and an occasional headache. However, last night I started not sleeping well and we are having trouble with an elevated heart rate. It's lovely to be laying down resting and feel like your heart is running a marathon. The problem is we don't know what drug is causing it or if my system is just doing it's crazy thing of not following the text book response. Yay for that (that is dripping w/ sarcasm)!! I really need to be on these drugs to prepare my body for the upcoming heavy antibiotic therapy, so we are going to try to make it through. The heart rate isn't too high yet where it would be dangerous and we are praying it will stay that way. Maybe my system just needs to adjust to the drugs. We are praying that way!!
My Mom came last Tuesday and is staying with us until August 4th. It has been a blessing to have her here to help out as I am trying all the drugs and dealing with the not so pleasant side effects. We have had a good visit so far and thanks Mom for being so willing to come down to help!
Below is an excellent video in which my Lyme Disease Doctor, Dr. Joseph Jemsek, talks about Lyme Disease, patient advocacy and the errors in our current health system. He discusses the need for more patient focused care. He is wonderful and I wanted to share it with you! To watch the video, you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the blog and click on the pause button on the music player so both won't play at the same time. :)
We still have not heard whether Brian's appeal for the denial of his financial aid (because of his undergraduate credit hour total) has been approved. His advisor didn't seem to be too worried about it being denied, but we are waiting to hear from financial aid. Also, Brian's hours have been cut at work which unfortunately probably sounds familiar to many of your own experiences. We are making it, but any extra income in August would help pay more of our medical bills.
So, that leads us to our current prayer requests:
-Please pray that I (Dawn) will be able to keep tolerating the medication I am required to take and that side effects would diminish. Especially the elevated heart rate. It's exhausting to feel like your heart is running a marathon without you with no trophy at the end (lol) and then on top of it not being able to sleep at night for the same reason.
-Please pray that my (Dawn) application for graduate school would be approved at the University of Colorado for admission for the Fall of 2009. I applied late, but the school said they would do their best to get it approved for a fall start. I am excited to have something to focus on during treatment. It will be a great distraction as I battle through.
-Please continue to pray that God would provide financially for the medication and medical bills (that insurance will come through for paying most of the costs), through approving the financial aid appeal for Brian's student loans and finally for more work hours for Brian before his school begins.
-Lastly, please pray that God would continue to be our source of peace, joy, and hope. Our faith has been stretched in so many ways and we are thankful for God's mercies and his continual provision. We look forward to the future with great expectation of all that God will do!
Thank you again and again for your prayers and support.
Blessings,
Dawn
-One more thing, someone let me know that for some reason our blog was not allowing comments unless you had a specific account (gmail, AIM etc). I have changed that setting and now you can post anonymously, which doesn't mean that you can't add your name, it just means anyone can now post without the restrictions. :0)
Praise the Lord I have not been allergic to any of the medication. This first batch we are taking are a combination of supplements and drugs to calm down my autonomic nervous system. They are supposed to help me sleep better at night and make my system not so reactive, or "jumpy" as I like to say. At the beginning the only annoying side effects were that floating head feeling, dizziness and an occasional headache. However, last night I started not sleeping well and we are having trouble with an elevated heart rate. It's lovely to be laying down resting and feel like your heart is running a marathon. The problem is we don't know what drug is causing it or if my system is just doing it's crazy thing of not following the text book response. Yay for that (that is dripping w/ sarcasm)!! I really need to be on these drugs to prepare my body for the upcoming heavy antibiotic therapy, so we are going to try to make it through. The heart rate isn't too high yet where it would be dangerous and we are praying it will stay that way. Maybe my system just needs to adjust to the drugs. We are praying that way!!
My Mom came last Tuesday and is staying with us until August 4th. It has been a blessing to have her here to help out as I am trying all the drugs and dealing with the not so pleasant side effects. We have had a good visit so far and thanks Mom for being so willing to come down to help!
Below is an excellent video in which my Lyme Disease Doctor, Dr. Joseph Jemsek, talks about Lyme Disease, patient advocacy and the errors in our current health system. He discusses the need for more patient focused care. He is wonderful and I wanted to share it with you! To watch the video, you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the blog and click on the pause button on the music player so both won't play at the same time. :)
We still have not heard whether Brian's appeal for the denial of his financial aid (because of his undergraduate credit hour total) has been approved. His advisor didn't seem to be too worried about it being denied, but we are waiting to hear from financial aid. Also, Brian's hours have been cut at work which unfortunately probably sounds familiar to many of your own experiences. We are making it, but any extra income in August would help pay more of our medical bills.
So, that leads us to our current prayer requests:
-Please pray that I (Dawn) will be able to keep tolerating the medication I am required to take and that side effects would diminish. Especially the elevated heart rate. It's exhausting to feel like your heart is running a marathon without you with no trophy at the end (lol) and then on top of it not being able to sleep at night for the same reason.
-Please pray that my (Dawn) application for graduate school would be approved at the University of Colorado for admission for the Fall of 2009. I applied late, but the school said they would do their best to get it approved for a fall start. I am excited to have something to focus on during treatment. It will be a great distraction as I battle through.
-Please continue to pray that God would provide financially for the medication and medical bills (that insurance will come through for paying most of the costs), through approving the financial aid appeal for Brian's student loans and finally for more work hours for Brian before his school begins.
-Lastly, please pray that God would continue to be our source of peace, joy, and hope. Our faith has been stretched in so many ways and we are thankful for God's mercies and his continual provision. We look forward to the future with great expectation of all that God will do!
Thank you again and again for your prayers and support.
Blessings,
Dawn
-One more thing, someone let me know that for some reason our blog was not allowing comments unless you had a specific account (gmail, AIM etc). I have changed that setting and now you can post anonymously, which doesn't mean that you can't add your name, it just means anyone can now post without the restrictions. :0)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Home Sweet Home
Yay! We made it!! We did drive straight through which was 26 hours and arrived in Tucson about 4:30AM. Wouldn't recommend that as when we got to Tucson we felt like we had been run over by one of the semi's we saw on our drive, however God was good and trying to not to stay at a hotel when I am SO sensitive was the best for us. I have to admit that it will be a long time until we will step foot in a car again though. :)
As we look back over this trip, we are so amazed at God and all that He did. He protected my body the entire way, provided water when I was reacting to all kinds, gave us a hotel we could stay in the first time (that's never happened before to us), a car that performed perfectly even though it had over 100000 miles on it, and gave us a wonderful doctor who will finally be able to get me onto the path of wellness. We didn't even have to end up in the hospital which is also a miracle with how much I was exposed to on this trip! I am in awe when I step back and look at the list as I only gave you the abbreviated version. We have learned valuable things from taking this journey and what would be on top of that list is when you step out in faith, God will take care of every little detail. Seems simple enough, but this illness has caused so many problems in every area, that we are used to things exploding, not working out or having to jump through hoops at every turn.
A couple of blog's ago I posted about a book that we had been reading called "Polishing God's Monuments". It talked about tough times and when life seems to be crashing all around to look back over your life and look at the amazing things God has done where you can see how God came through for you. Seems like an easy concept, however with us going on 5 years of this illness (4 1/2 of those years not having an explanation of why I am so sick), it gets exhausting and you can easily lose focus. On this trip, God gave more monuments that I can count. He truly paved the way for our travel and my appointment and we are so thankful for his mercies!
So, now that we are home, where does that leave us? Well, in the next month I will be trying to take a lot of medication before we can even start treatment. This would be our next big prayer request. Obviously with how allergic I am (as evidence to even reacting to almost all kinds of water), it is very difficult for me to be able to take new drugs. However, this is necessary so that we can prepare my body for the antibiotic treatment to come. So, if you could all pray that God would continue to work miracles and that I would not react to the medication. My Mother is actually coming down to stay with us for a couple of weeks to help out as I adjust to all of these medications. It will be a welcomed relief for Brian as he has to shoulder so much already. Another prayer request that we would have would be that my system will calm down after this difficult trip. I have been exposed to so much that my body has reacted to, that it affects what I can eat. I am back to eating about 5 things (YUCKY!!) until my histamine system calms down. I am hoping in about a week or so with rest and low exposure to things I am allergic to, it will kick back around, however it's so unpredictable.
Finally, the last things we would ask you to pray would be that my insurance will cover the cost of all this medication. On my original post where I wrote about our first diagnosis of Lyme Disease, I wrote a couple of paragraphs on the controversy that lies with this type of diagnosis when it comes to insurances paying for treatment long-term. I won't re-type it, as you can read it in my archive section under the date of 04/03/09. Please pray for some miracle that my insurance will cover the cost of some if not all of the medication. Some of these drugs are extremely expensive (500-1000/monthly) and if we don't have insurance help us out, it will be a huge hit financially.
Well, that is our update for now. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and encouragement. It truly has impacted our lives more than words can say. I will definitely keep you updated on our treatment progress as time goes on and my goal is to post about once a week.
In Awe of God's Mercy and Grace,
Brian and Dawn
As we look back over this trip, we are so amazed at God and all that He did. He protected my body the entire way, provided water when I was reacting to all kinds, gave us a hotel we could stay in the first time (that's never happened before to us), a car that performed perfectly even though it had over 100000 miles on it, and gave us a wonderful doctor who will finally be able to get me onto the path of wellness. We didn't even have to end up in the hospital which is also a miracle with how much I was exposed to on this trip! I am in awe when I step back and look at the list as I only gave you the abbreviated version. We have learned valuable things from taking this journey and what would be on top of that list is when you step out in faith, God will take care of every little detail. Seems simple enough, but this illness has caused so many problems in every area, that we are used to things exploding, not working out or having to jump through hoops at every turn.
A couple of blog's ago I posted about a book that we had been reading called "Polishing God's Monuments". It talked about tough times and when life seems to be crashing all around to look back over your life and look at the amazing things God has done where you can see how God came through for you. Seems like an easy concept, however with us going on 5 years of this illness (4 1/2 of those years not having an explanation of why I am so sick), it gets exhausting and you can easily lose focus. On this trip, God gave more monuments that I can count. He truly paved the way for our travel and my appointment and we are so thankful for his mercies!
So, now that we are home, where does that leave us? Well, in the next month I will be trying to take a lot of medication before we can even start treatment. This would be our next big prayer request. Obviously with how allergic I am (as evidence to even reacting to almost all kinds of water), it is very difficult for me to be able to take new drugs. However, this is necessary so that we can prepare my body for the antibiotic treatment to come. So, if you could all pray that God would continue to work miracles and that I would not react to the medication. My Mother is actually coming down to stay with us for a couple of weeks to help out as I adjust to all of these medications. It will be a welcomed relief for Brian as he has to shoulder so much already. Another prayer request that we would have would be that my system will calm down after this difficult trip. I have been exposed to so much that my body has reacted to, that it affects what I can eat. I am back to eating about 5 things (YUCKY!!) until my histamine system calms down. I am hoping in about a week or so with rest and low exposure to things I am allergic to, it will kick back around, however it's so unpredictable.
Finally, the last things we would ask you to pray would be that my insurance will cover the cost of all this medication. On my original post where I wrote about our first diagnosis of Lyme Disease, I wrote a couple of paragraphs on the controversy that lies with this type of diagnosis when it comes to insurances paying for treatment long-term. I won't re-type it, as you can read it in my archive section under the date of 04/03/09. Please pray for some miracle that my insurance will cover the cost of some if not all of the medication. Some of these drugs are extremely expensive (500-1000/monthly) and if we don't have insurance help us out, it will be a huge hit financially.
Well, that is our update for now. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and encouragement. It truly has impacted our lives more than words can say. I will definitely keep you updated on our treatment progress as time goes on and my goal is to post about once a week.
In Awe of God's Mercy and Grace,
Brian and Dawn
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The Appointment!
Hi all! We just got back after spending 8 more hours in the car. I actually think by the time we are done with this trip we will have spent almost 75 hours in the car in less than a week. That is way too stinking much if you ask me! :0)
Our appointment went well, but let me first catch you up to the appointment time. We got up at 2:20AM because we didn't know what the traffic would be like once we hit Charolotte, NC. The roads actually take you up to Charolotte and than back down to Fort Mill, SC. Seems to me that they need to build another road that cuts across, but oh well. lol We started our 4 1/2 hour drive to Fort Mill, SC at about 2:45AM. No one is on the highways at that time...hmmm...wonder why? LOL! We saw God's hand in us staying in Atlanta as once we hit SC, I started having asthma and allergies. There must be different vegetation than there is in Atlanta, so it was a huge blessing that God had us stay in GA and only go to SC on the day of our appointment. We got to our appointment about 30 minutes early and then we didn't see the doctor until about 30 minutes after that. Oh the dreaded wait time!
On this trip we have seen God answer one prayer request after another. It has been amazing to see God so powerfully work right before our eyes. Not that we didn't believe Him for it, but it's exciting to be a part of it! The office itself didn't bother me at all. Yay!! The nurse had NO perfume on and there were no air freshners or anything that triggered my allergies. The doctor had something on, but he was far enough away from me during my appointment that I was able to handle being in the same room for 2 hours w/ him. That usually doesn't happen either. Usually my tolerence level is about 30min. max, however once again I feel like God's protective shield was on me.
The doctor was very thorough, which we appreciated. He took an indepth history and asked me a gazillion questions. We were really impressed w/ his attention to detail. He did the examination and then we had it confirmed once again, that I did have Lyme Disease looking at all of my symptoms and my tests. He said that Lyme can manifest in a number of ways, but for me specifically the bacteria from the disease has invaded and "took up residence", as he would say, in my autonomic nervous system. That is the part that controls your heart rate (explains why mine is rapid and unsteady), your chemical releases (explains why I have problems w/ flushing), your temperature (explains why my basal temp is unusual low and then why I get hot so easy), the flight/fight response (explains why I struggle w/ high anxiety) and also tells your immune system whether to react to chemcials/allergic triggers (0bviously my "reacting mechanism" is on high alert and reacts to everything).
He said in other words, the back of my brain is fried (not un-reversible though, thank goodness!). So we will be starting a treatment protocol when we get back. He is going to do my treatment very slowly. The first part is to stablize my brain and sleep through a variety of medications to prepare my system to receive the tough treatment. That will take about a month. Then we will start on the heavy antibiotics. Thankfully, at this point he said he didn't think I would have to do IV antibiotics which is a big praise for us! I will take strong doses of medication for 1 week and then rest for 2 and start the process all over again. He said he wants to give my body time to recover. The seven days seem small, but the medication is strong and the Lyme symptons really flare-up during those days. "Lymies" really welcome the break from the meds.
Finally, the biggest praise of all, he said that because my case was unusual, as most people are not as sensitive as I am, he said we could do most of my appointments by phone. God is so good!! It will not only take the stress off of my body having to travel, it will also help us financially. He did tell us that he doesn't usually do this for patients as he even has some that come from Europe and require follow-ups every couple months, however since I won't be on IV and travel is SO difficult for us, he said there is not a need right now . Praise the Lord!!! That is such an incredible gift.
We are really tired, but we feel so blessed to be given the opportunity to meet this famous doctor and even more blessed to see God's hand in every step of our journey. We are going to sleep awhile at our hotel in Atlanta, but then will probably leave super early in the morning to start our journey home to Tucson. We have decided to not stop half-way and just drive straight through the 25 hours as I am just too reactive to try to find another hotel to stay in. We will trade off driving so we can catch some shut-eye.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragment. The Lord has used it to help us keep going when things have been tough. We are so grateful for each one of you and it has truly made a difference. We will post when we get home! We hope you are having a wonderful week and know that our thoughts and prayers are with each of you!!
Our appointment went well, but let me first catch you up to the appointment time. We got up at 2:20AM because we didn't know what the traffic would be like once we hit Charolotte, NC. The roads actually take you up to Charolotte and than back down to Fort Mill, SC. Seems to me that they need to build another road that cuts across, but oh well. lol We started our 4 1/2 hour drive to Fort Mill, SC at about 2:45AM. No one is on the highways at that time...hmmm...wonder why? LOL! We saw God's hand in us staying in Atlanta as once we hit SC, I started having asthma and allergies. There must be different vegetation than there is in Atlanta, so it was a huge blessing that God had us stay in GA and only go to SC on the day of our appointment. We got to our appointment about 30 minutes early and then we didn't see the doctor until about 30 minutes after that. Oh the dreaded wait time!
On this trip we have seen God answer one prayer request after another. It has been amazing to see God so powerfully work right before our eyes. Not that we didn't believe Him for it, but it's exciting to be a part of it! The office itself didn't bother me at all. Yay!! The nurse had NO perfume on and there were no air freshners or anything that triggered my allergies. The doctor had something on, but he was far enough away from me during my appointment that I was able to handle being in the same room for 2 hours w/ him. That usually doesn't happen either. Usually my tolerence level is about 30min. max, however once again I feel like God's protective shield was on me.
The doctor was very thorough, which we appreciated. He took an indepth history and asked me a gazillion questions. We were really impressed w/ his attention to detail. He did the examination and then we had it confirmed once again, that I did have Lyme Disease looking at all of my symptoms and my tests. He said that Lyme can manifest in a number of ways, but for me specifically the bacteria from the disease has invaded and "took up residence", as he would say, in my autonomic nervous system. That is the part that controls your heart rate (explains why mine is rapid and unsteady), your chemical releases (explains why I have problems w/ flushing), your temperature (explains why my basal temp is unusual low and then why I get hot so easy), the flight/fight response (explains why I struggle w/ high anxiety) and also tells your immune system whether to react to chemcials/allergic triggers (0bviously my "reacting mechanism" is on high alert and reacts to everything).
He said in other words, the back of my brain is fried (not un-reversible though, thank goodness!). So we will be starting a treatment protocol when we get back. He is going to do my treatment very slowly. The first part is to stablize my brain and sleep through a variety of medications to prepare my system to receive the tough treatment. That will take about a month. Then we will start on the heavy antibiotics. Thankfully, at this point he said he didn't think I would have to do IV antibiotics which is a big praise for us! I will take strong doses of medication for 1 week and then rest for 2 and start the process all over again. He said he wants to give my body time to recover. The seven days seem small, but the medication is strong and the Lyme symptons really flare-up during those days. "Lymies" really welcome the break from the meds.
Finally, the biggest praise of all, he said that because my case was unusual, as most people are not as sensitive as I am, he said we could do most of my appointments by phone. God is so good!! It will not only take the stress off of my body having to travel, it will also help us financially. He did tell us that he doesn't usually do this for patients as he even has some that come from Europe and require follow-ups every couple months, however since I won't be on IV and travel is SO difficult for us, he said there is not a need right now . Praise the Lord!!! That is such an incredible gift.
We are really tired, but we feel so blessed to be given the opportunity to meet this famous doctor and even more blessed to see God's hand in every step of our journey. We are going to sleep awhile at our hotel in Atlanta, but then will probably leave super early in the morning to start our journey home to Tucson. We have decided to not stop half-way and just drive straight through the 25 hours as I am just too reactive to try to find another hotel to stay in. We will trade off driving so we can catch some shut-eye.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragment. The Lord has used it to help us keep going when things have been tough. We are so grateful for each one of you and it has truly made a difference. We will post when we get home! We hope you are having a wonderful week and know that our thoughts and prayers are with each of you!!
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