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!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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!!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Well, we made it to Atlanta late last night. I apologize for not blogging, but we were exhausted. I think this trip is quickly becoming "the trip w/ no sleep", lol. It seems to be our running theme. The second leg of our journey was very wet. It rained a ton and can I tell you that I do not miss humidity? :) Windows fogging up is something that we have not seen in a long time.
We arrived in Atlanta at about midnight and were praying that God would find us a hotel quickly as Brian was going on three hours of sleep. Well, we have the biggest praise of the trip. The hotel we had reserved over the internet actually worked! I am telling you that is the biggest miracle!!! I don't think we have ever had that happen. Usually it takes about 4 or 5 tries before we find a safe environment for me to stay in. All glory goes to the Lord for His mercies. Brian and I were talking about how we could compare this victory to the story about David and Goliath. David had 5 tiny stones and hit the giant on the first stone and victory was the Lord's! God gave us a list of 5 hotels and we got one on the first try! I love when God gives us those word pictures.
We also found some water that is working for me. It's not great as it still bothers me a little when I drink it, but nothing compared to the other stuff I was trying to drink. I can push through these symptoms. That is a big praise too!!! I am not feeling very well, but that is to be expected. We did get to sleep a long time which is a blessing since our next few days will give us very little.
We will be getting to bed early tonight and then will be getting up at 2:45AM to leave for SC for my appointment. It's four hours away from here and my appointment is at 8AM. It will be an early morning! If you could please pray that I make it through my appointment reaction-free. That would be incredible and we really need to spend as much time with the doctor as I can tolerate. We are just praying for a miracle that the environment would not bother me and the nurses and doctor will remember to not wear any cologne/perfume. I called them about four days ago and she said she would add it to my chart. I am just praying desperately they will see that before my appointment!
After my appointment, we will drive back to Atlanta and will leave the next morning (Wednesday) for our trip back home. We are still debating about just driving straight through and trade off driving to get back to Tucson. It's about 25 hours and it will just depend how sick I am. If I am still super reactive than we will want to get home as soon as possible. It sounds crazy, but we have done stuff like this before and sometimes you just do what you have to do. We are really leaning towards that option right now just to get me back to an environment that is better for my reactions. We shall see!
Thank you again for your prayers!!! They are really making a difference and it so wonderful to know we are covered in prayer as we walk this journey of faith. I will update our blog tomorrow when we get home from our appointment to let you know what Dr. J has to say. Blessings to all of you!!!!
We arrived in Atlanta at about midnight and were praying that God would find us a hotel quickly as Brian was going on three hours of sleep. Well, we have the biggest praise of the trip. The hotel we had reserved over the internet actually worked! I am telling you that is the biggest miracle!!! I don't think we have ever had that happen. Usually it takes about 4 or 5 tries before we find a safe environment for me to stay in. All glory goes to the Lord for His mercies. Brian and I were talking about how we could compare this victory to the story about David and Goliath. David had 5 tiny stones and hit the giant on the first stone and victory was the Lord's! God gave us a list of 5 hotels and we got one on the first try! I love when God gives us those word pictures.
We also found some water that is working for me. It's not great as it still bothers me a little when I drink it, but nothing compared to the other stuff I was trying to drink. I can push through these symptoms. That is a big praise too!!! I am not feeling very well, but that is to be expected. We did get to sleep a long time which is a blessing since our next few days will give us very little.
We will be getting to bed early tonight and then will be getting up at 2:45AM to leave for SC for my appointment. It's four hours away from here and my appointment is at 8AM. It will be an early morning! If you could please pray that I make it through my appointment reaction-free. That would be incredible and we really need to spend as much time with the doctor as I can tolerate. We are just praying for a miracle that the environment would not bother me and the nurses and doctor will remember to not wear any cologne/perfume. I called them about four days ago and she said she would add it to my chart. I am just praying desperately they will see that before my appointment!
After my appointment, we will drive back to Atlanta and will leave the next morning (Wednesday) for our trip back home. We are still debating about just driving straight through and trade off driving to get back to Tucson. It's about 25 hours and it will just depend how sick I am. If I am still super reactive than we will want to get home as soon as possible. It sounds crazy, but we have done stuff like this before and sometimes you just do what you have to do. We are really leaning towards that option right now just to get me back to an environment that is better for my reactions. We shall see!
Thank you again for your prayers!!! They are really making a difference and it so wonderful to know we are covered in prayer as we walk this journey of faith. I will update our blog tomorrow when we get home from our appointment to let you know what Dr. J has to say. Blessings to all of you!!!!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Update for Satuday's driving day
Hello from TX! We are currently in Irving, TX and I honestly don't know how long this will be as it is 5:40AM and I am going on about 1 hour of sleep. It has been a rocky ride so far and we would appreciate your prayers. We ended up not being able to take the rental car as I had an allergic reaction to it. So, that delayed our start time by about 4 hours which in turn had us getting into Irving TX (our half-way point) at 2:30AM. The "losing 2 hours" is a killer w/ the time difference.
First the praise is that my outside allergens have not been that bad due to my allergy treatments we have been getting with our chiropractor. However, my system is pretty reved up with all of the other stuff I am coming to contact with on an hourly basis. In fact, it's 5:45am and I am trying to let Brian sleep as long as I can before having to leave this bed and breakfast we are staying at because the room is bothering me. I have also started having a lot of problems drinking the water that we brought. We don't know if it's the container that I put the water in or if it's just my system going crazy because of having been exposed to so many allergens. However, with either case, it's getting more difficult. If we could have everyone please pray that we find some type of water for me to drink. The water thing always seems to flare up every time my system is set off and is always such a scary thing for me. Obviously, we all know how important it is to drink water. Surprisingly, I can drink milk so I can use that in the meantime. I know it probably baffles everyone about being able to drink that but that's the Lyme Disease for you. It's super unpredictable, doesn't make sense logically and in me it causes random allergic reactions that have no rhyme or reason.
So, that would be our main and urgent prayer request. Probably the second is that we would just trust God this trip is still is His will. It's so tough when my reactions go crazy and scary for us to know that in Atlanta we will probably struggle to find somewhere safe for me to stay all the while knowing that every reaction I have makes me more sensitive, which will lead to more reactions. The place we are at right now was supposed to be good for people with chemical sensitivities but it isn't working. It's hard not to get defeated or scared. At this point, we are very tired and will have to leave this place in the next hour or so, which means driving on about 2 hours of sleep. We have about a 12 hour driving day to get to Atlanta. Please pray that God would give us an extra boost of energy as finish this leg of our journey.
We knew this trip was going to be hard, but we were hoping and praying for a miracle. God can still do that miracle and we are believing Him for it. We just need to keep walking in faith even though the easier thing to do would be to just turn around and run home. However, we want me to get well and going home would not give us the best opportunity for that to happen.
Well, I hope this update makes sense with next to no sleep! :) We will update when we get to Atlanta. Thank you for your prayers.
First the praise is that my outside allergens have not been that bad due to my allergy treatments we have been getting with our chiropractor. However, my system is pretty reved up with all of the other stuff I am coming to contact with on an hourly basis. In fact, it's 5:45am and I am trying to let Brian sleep as long as I can before having to leave this bed and breakfast we are staying at because the room is bothering me. I have also started having a lot of problems drinking the water that we brought. We don't know if it's the container that I put the water in or if it's just my system going crazy because of having been exposed to so many allergens. However, with either case, it's getting more difficult. If we could have everyone please pray that we find some type of water for me to drink. The water thing always seems to flare up every time my system is set off and is always such a scary thing for me. Obviously, we all know how important it is to drink water. Surprisingly, I can drink milk so I can use that in the meantime. I know it probably baffles everyone about being able to drink that but that's the Lyme Disease for you. It's super unpredictable, doesn't make sense logically and in me it causes random allergic reactions that have no rhyme or reason.
So, that would be our main and urgent prayer request. Probably the second is that we would just trust God this trip is still is His will. It's so tough when my reactions go crazy and scary for us to know that in Atlanta we will probably struggle to find somewhere safe for me to stay all the while knowing that every reaction I have makes me more sensitive, which will lead to more reactions. The place we are at right now was supposed to be good for people with chemical sensitivities but it isn't working. It's hard not to get defeated or scared. At this point, we are very tired and will have to leave this place in the next hour or so, which means driving on about 2 hours of sleep. We have about a 12 hour driving day to get to Atlanta. Please pray that God would give us an extra boost of energy as finish this leg of our journey.
We knew this trip was going to be hard, but we were hoping and praying for a miracle. God can still do that miracle and we are believing Him for it. We just need to keep walking in faith even though the easier thing to do would be to just turn around and run home. However, we want me to get well and going home would not give us the best opportunity for that to happen.
Well, I hope this update makes sense with next to no sleep! :) We will update when we get to Atlanta. Thank you for your prayers.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Let the Road Trip Begin....
So I didn't think I would have time to write before we go, but I have a few minutes to spare. In less than 36 hours we will begin our trip across the country to see Dr. Jemsek in SC. He is a expert in treating Lyme Disease and we have confidence that God is going to use him in amazing ways to fight this disease in my body. It seems surreal that the treatment journey is about to begin, but I am thrilled to start fighting this battle so we can gain some kind of normalcy (whatever that means, lol).
We have had a crazy 24 hours which has included buying a new dryer as our old one wasn't working for us and we needed clothes for our trip, and also watching streams of water come into our living room from leaking windows. LOL Always an adventure in our life. :)
I decided to re-copy the prayer requests for our trip in a shorter blog post since I tend to be long-winded on regular posts. Ha!
-Please pray that I will be able to tolerate the rental car with my sensitivities.
-Pray for safe travel.
-Pray that the hotel room in Iriving, Texas (our half-way point) and also the hotel in Atlanta, GA will work with us in order to provide the best environment for me to stay in. The one in TX is a bed and breakfast that I found that was recommended to us by other people with very bad chemical sensitivities. So that one, we think will be okay. However, the one in Atlanta is a regular hotel who said they would try not to spray any room deodorizer in our room. The windows also open. We are praying that with those two things, that it will be a safe place for me to stay. We won't know until we get there.
-Please pray for an extra measure of rest. We have broken the driving trip into two 15-hour days in order to avoid staying in more hotels than we have to, but we have lots of early mornings. Our schedule is as follows...
Saturday, July 11th-leave super early to begin driving to Irving, TX
Sunday, July 12th-leave TX in AM and arrive very late in Atlanta, GA
Monday, July 13th-rest and see my sis who lives in Atlanta
Tuesday, July 14th-Get up at 3AM to drive to Fort Mill, SC for 8:00AM appt.
Wednesday, July 15th-Leave GA in AM and drive to Irving, TX
Thursday, July 16th-Leave TX for HOME!!! :0)
-Pray for my appointment on July 14th with Dr. J. Please pray that his office (air fresheners, candles, perfumes/colognes etc.) won't bother me sensitivity-wise (I get so sick from them) and that I will be able to tolerate the 2-hour appointment. Please pray for Dr. J and that he will have wisdom on the kind of treatment plan he should develop for us and how to tackle my destroyed immune system that has caused me to be SO hyper-allergic to everything.
We will definitely post by Sunday night, if not sooner. We appreciate all of your prayers and support through this journey. Our family and friends mean the world to us!
"Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6
We have had a crazy 24 hours which has included buying a new dryer as our old one wasn't working for us and we needed clothes for our trip, and also watching streams of water come into our living room from leaking windows. LOL Always an adventure in our life. :)
I decided to re-copy the prayer requests for our trip in a shorter blog post since I tend to be long-winded on regular posts. Ha!
-Please pray that I will be able to tolerate the rental car with my sensitivities.
-Pray for safe travel.
-Pray that the hotel room in Iriving, Texas (our half-way point) and also the hotel in Atlanta, GA will work with us in order to provide the best environment for me to stay in. The one in TX is a bed and breakfast that I found that was recommended to us by other people with very bad chemical sensitivities. So that one, we think will be okay. However, the one in Atlanta is a regular hotel who said they would try not to spray any room deodorizer in our room. The windows also open. We are praying that with those two things, that it will be a safe place for me to stay. We won't know until we get there.
-Please pray for an extra measure of rest. We have broken the driving trip into two 15-hour days in order to avoid staying in more hotels than we have to, but we have lots of early mornings. Our schedule is as follows...
Saturday, July 11th-leave super early to begin driving to Irving, TX
Sunday, July 12th-leave TX in AM and arrive very late in Atlanta, GA
Monday, July 13th-rest and see my sis who lives in Atlanta
Tuesday, July 14th-Get up at 3AM to drive to Fort Mill, SC for 8:00AM appt.
Wednesday, July 15th-Leave GA in AM and drive to Irving, TX
Thursday, July 16th-Leave TX for HOME!!! :0)
-Pray for my appointment on July 14th with Dr. J. Please pray that his office (air fresheners, candles, perfumes/colognes etc.) won't bother me sensitivity-wise (I get so sick from them) and that I will be able to tolerate the 2-hour appointment. Please pray for Dr. J and that he will have wisdom on the kind of treatment plan he should develop for us and how to tackle my destroyed immune system that has caused me to be SO hyper-allergic to everything.
We will definitely post by Sunday night, if not sooner. We appreciate all of your prayers and support through this journey. Our family and friends mean the world to us!
"Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you." Deuteronomy 31:6
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
4 days and counting
Four days until we begin our journey to SC to see Dr. J, a wonderful Lyme Disease specialist. Over the past few months it has been encouraging to hear how great this physician is as many of my friends that I have met through online Lyme Disease support groups are traveling to see him. It confirms again and again why we chose to see this specialist even though the journey itself will be difficult and definitely not convenient.
We have had some praises! I am adjusting to the apartment and it seems to not be bothering me as much anymore. Yay God! I have been doing chiropractor acupressure (kind of like acupuncture but w/out all the needles, lol) treatments for my allergies and those seem to be working to lessen the intensity of my allergic reactions. I am SO thankful that God is using that. Who would have thought a non-western medicine approach would be so beneficial. We thank the Lord so much that he led us to her and that her treatments are giving me somewhat of a relief.
Brian is looking forward to a vacation even though most of it will be spent driving in the car, lol. His bookkeeping job is going well at his grocery store and he is adjusting to the strange sleep schedule. They are impressed with how quick he has picked up on all of the details but I wouldn't have expected anything less. He is such a hard worker and is very talented.
Grad school update... I will be submitting my application for graduate school to the University of Colorado on July 20th. It's a very lengthy admission process as I have had to track down former professors and other professionals to be references and write numerous essays. I was told by my enrollment advisor that she will try to push my application through for review for fall admission, but she can't promise anything since I am past the application deadline. I am just so excited that I found this program and that they would even consider me for the fall. I would love to start in the fall of 2009, so if you guys could pray that everything will go through, that would be awesome! If not, I can start in the spring, I just hate waiting, lol.
We had kind of a glitch in Brian's financial aid for his last semester at the U of A. Apparently, since he already has an undergraduate degree, he hit the maximum number of credit hours allowed for financial aid this past semester. We were counting on that money to help us afford his schooling. He met with his academic advisor today and they put together an appeal. His advisor said they should be able to get it approved, but we won't know anything for about a month. If you could just pray that it would go through and that we would be allowed to take financial aid out for his final semester. We know God will provide and we are trusting in Him to work this out.
Now onto our big trip. Brian and I will make sure to update everyone through this blog periodically on our journey. We have some really major prayer requests as we start out:
-Please pray that I will be able to tolerate the new rental car with my sensitivities.
-Pray for safe travel.
-Pray that the hotel room in Iriving, Texas (our half-way point) and also the hotel in Atlanta, GA will work with us in order to provide the best environment for me to stay on. The one in TX is a bed and breakfast that I found that was recommended to us by other people with very bad chemical sensitivities. So that one, we think will be okay. However, the one in Atlanta is a regular hotel who said they would try not to spray any room deodorizer for 3 days before I come in our room. The windows also open. We are praying that with those two things, that it will be a safe place for me to stay. We never know until we get there.
-Please pray for an extra measure of rest. We have broken the driving trip into two 15-hour days in order to avoid staying in more hotels than we have to but we have lots of early mornings Our schedule is as follows...
Saturday, July 11th-leave super early to begin driving to Irving, TX
Sunday, July 12th-leave TX in AM and arrive very late in Atlanta, GA
Monday, July 13th-rest and see my sis who lives in Atlanta
Tuesday, July 14th-Get up at 3am to drive to Fort Mill, SC for 8:00am appt.
Wednesday, July 15th-Leave GA in AM and drive to Irving, TX
Thursday, July 16th-Leave TX for HOME!!! :0)
-Pray for my appointment on July 14th with Dr. J. Please pray that his office will not bother me sensitivity-wise and that I will be able to tolerate the 2-hour appointment. Please pray for Dr. J and that he will have wisdom on the kind of treatment plan he should develop for us.
Well, that is all I can think of right now. We look at this trip and there are so many things that seem like huge mountains for us to climb, however we know that God will be with us every step of the way as our protector, our provider and our source of peace. Thank you for your prayer support. We will update you for sure by Sunday once we hit Atlanta, maybe sooner! :)
We have had some praises! I am adjusting to the apartment and it seems to not be bothering me as much anymore. Yay God! I have been doing chiropractor acupressure (kind of like acupuncture but w/out all the needles, lol) treatments for my allergies and those seem to be working to lessen the intensity of my allergic reactions. I am SO thankful that God is using that. Who would have thought a non-western medicine approach would be so beneficial. We thank the Lord so much that he led us to her and that her treatments are giving me somewhat of a relief.
Brian is looking forward to a vacation even though most of it will be spent driving in the car, lol. His bookkeeping job is going well at his grocery store and he is adjusting to the strange sleep schedule. They are impressed with how quick he has picked up on all of the details but I wouldn't have expected anything less. He is such a hard worker and is very talented.
Grad school update... I will be submitting my application for graduate school to the University of Colorado on July 20th. It's a very lengthy admission process as I have had to track down former professors and other professionals to be references and write numerous essays. I was told by my enrollment advisor that she will try to push my application through for review for fall admission, but she can't promise anything since I am past the application deadline. I am just so excited that I found this program and that they would even consider me for the fall. I would love to start in the fall of 2009, so if you guys could pray that everything will go through, that would be awesome! If not, I can start in the spring, I just hate waiting, lol.
We had kind of a glitch in Brian's financial aid for his last semester at the U of A. Apparently, since he already has an undergraduate degree, he hit the maximum number of credit hours allowed for financial aid this past semester. We were counting on that money to help us afford his schooling. He met with his academic advisor today and they put together an appeal. His advisor said they should be able to get it approved, but we won't know anything for about a month. If you could just pray that it would go through and that we would be allowed to take financial aid out for his final semester. We know God will provide and we are trusting in Him to work this out.
Now onto our big trip. Brian and I will make sure to update everyone through this blog periodically on our journey. We have some really major prayer requests as we start out:
-Please pray that I will be able to tolerate the new rental car with my sensitivities.
-Pray for safe travel.
-Pray that the hotel room in Iriving, Texas (our half-way point) and also the hotel in Atlanta, GA will work with us in order to provide the best environment for me to stay on. The one in TX is a bed and breakfast that I found that was recommended to us by other people with very bad chemical sensitivities. So that one, we think will be okay. However, the one in Atlanta is a regular hotel who said they would try not to spray any room deodorizer for 3 days before I come in our room. The windows also open. We are praying that with those two things, that it will be a safe place for me to stay. We never know until we get there.
-Please pray for an extra measure of rest. We have broken the driving trip into two 15-hour days in order to avoid staying in more hotels than we have to but we have lots of early mornings Our schedule is as follows...
Saturday, July 11th-leave super early to begin driving to Irving, TX
Sunday, July 12th-leave TX in AM and arrive very late in Atlanta, GA
Monday, July 13th-rest and see my sis who lives in Atlanta
Tuesday, July 14th-Get up at 3am to drive to Fort Mill, SC for 8:00am appt.
Wednesday, July 15th-Leave GA in AM and drive to Irving, TX
Thursday, July 16th-Leave TX for HOME!!! :0)
-Pray for my appointment on July 14th with Dr. J. Please pray that his office will not bother me sensitivity-wise and that I will be able to tolerate the 2-hour appointment. Please pray for Dr. J and that he will have wisdom on the kind of treatment plan he should develop for us.
Well, that is all I can think of right now. We look at this trip and there are so many things that seem like huge mountains for us to climb, however we know that God will be with us every step of the way as our protector, our provider and our source of peace. Thank you for your prayer support. We will update you for sure by Sunday once we hit Atlanta, maybe sooner! :)
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