Sometimes the road is tough....

Well, I am not done with my treatment segment, but I thought I would update mainly to ask for prayer. Let me back up and give you a run down since my last post. First, I want to say thank you for everyone who shared my video through e-mail and facebook. Almost 600 people have looked at the video which means that 600 more people know about Lyme Disease and the devastating effects it has on so many lives. Praise the Lord! Currently, there is a group in California who has recruited Hollywood celebrities to develop Public Service Announcements to help spread awareness(you can access their blog about their progress under the tab "Friend's Blogs" and it's titled Lymenaide). That is so exciting! They will be sending them all over the country, but they need local contacts for cities. I did the city of Tucson. It took me about 30 minutes to get them the information they need. If you are interested, leave a comment w/ your e-mail or contact me and I can help you help them!

Now, back to my update...One week ago Tuesday, we started our first treatment segment where we do two weeks of treatment right in a row. This is the first time that we have done this as my old protocol would only have me do one week of treatment and then take two weeks off. This new protocol has me take a different antibiotic, 2 days of what I call the "evil" drug and then I do two weeks of treatment with only one week off. Well, it's been rough. I have had a lot of pain (joint and bone), nausea, muscle twitching and the "Air Hunger" that I wrote about last week. Just a reminder, "Air Hunger" is caused by the co-infection Babesia. Basically, that infection invades your red blood cells and depletes the oxygen. So, you feel like you can't get enough air. It gets pretty rough sometimes, but thankfully the episodes don't last for long. Another symptom that was very intense this past Tuesday was severe numbness and tingling in my face, hands, arm, tongue, lips etc. Along with it, I had trouble swallowing. It lasted for a couple of hours and then went away. Lyme symptoms seem to rotate in and if you can just stick it out, they will usually rotate out. However, while they are there, it's pretty rough and scary to go through and you never know how long they will last (hours/days).

At the same time, my multiple chemical sensitivities have become worse. That is kind of disappointing for us. I have a lot of friends who have responded to the drug Zithromycin and actually their sensitivities decreased. However, for me, it's doing the opposite. I am not sure if it's Zith causing it or the increase in Flagyl (the "evil" drug) or it's just the fact that my system has been so severely invaded by the bacteria that it's fighting back and getting angry. I tend to think the last idea is the reason. Whenever you start fighting the bacteria, it releases neurotoxins, so that is why you have such an increase in your symptoms. Obviously, the drugs I am taking are hitting me hard and it's probably hitting the correct strand that has made me so sick. So, an increase in symptoms is not a surprise, but we were hoping that we would have the opposite response.

As I am going through all of these symptoms, I am trying to work part-time (from my home of course) and also complete the most difficult course in my graduate degree (at least I hope this is the most difficult course!!!). To give you an idea...I spent 36 hours creating a 45 page paper. That is one small piece of this class and I have so many projects and papers to do while also learning different software programs and creating an Educational Training Website. So, I am guessing you can conclude that I am just plain overwhelmed. It's so tough to work on all this while experiencing the horrible symptoms above. Praise the Lord He is carrying me through. By His grace is the only way I am making it right now!

I want to say a special thanks to my husband. He just serves and serves and never complains. I have been very sick lately and that on top of my graduate class has left me pretty much useless for anything else. He just picks up where I stop. He has done the laundry, cleaning, cooking and has stayed up with me as I go through the scary symptoms and also when I need to wait to take my medicine late at night. He is such a blessing and works so hard! God truly blessed me with a gift when He selected him to be my husband. I love you Brian!!

So, that is our update. I have two more days of drugs to get through. I also still have a list of supplements that I need to add, but I haven't been able to yet because I am too sick to get to my NAET practitioner to be treated for them before I take them (we do chiropractor allergy treatments to anything I take, and so far it has worked wonderfully-I don't react to the pills which is a miracle!). We would just ask for some prayer. Please pray that these intense symptoms would subside and that my body would handle these last two days of treatment. Also, please pray that I would be well enough to get to my much needed appointments. We would also ask for prayer that I can make it through this graduate class, and that I would be able to learn what I need to learn and complete what I need to complete. I will be so thankful when July 31st comes (that's the end of my class)!! :)

Thank you for your prayers! We will update soon!!
Blessings!