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