It's December ~ My Favorite Time of the Year!

Happy December! I just love when December 1st roles around each year.  As I have mentioned before, Christmas is my favorite time of the year.  I love everything about it! Once December 1st hits, the radio starts playing Christmas music and there is a never ending stream of Christmas Hallmark movies on TV.  Of course, my husband makes a request we balance that out with football...I don't know why! :) 

We enjoyed a good time with my family at Thanksgiving.  My sister was unable to make it because of work and she was missed! The day after Thanksgiving we decorated our Christmas tree. We had to get a new fake tree this year because last year's tree was part of a mini-flood (long story, lol).  So, as with every new thing, it was a gamble as to whether or not with my chemical sensitivities we would actually be able to bring the tree inside our house.  However, I didn't have any problems.  Yay God! I would have been so sad if we wouldn't have been able to decorate this year.  We even found all of my Christmas Winnie the Poohs and were able to set them out on a ledge overlooking our living room.  I really should start putting pictures up on this blog. :) Maybe, I will before the holiday season is over.

SoMeThInG To LoOk FoR In ThE FuTuRe! -- I have decided to start making Lyme Disease awareness beaded bracelets. I am going to start with 4 designs and they will be made of Swarovski crystals and sterling silver beads. I have named the business "Hope Creations". It is my desire to help bring awareness about Lyme Disease while also doing something creative with my time while I am stuck in bed. :) A portion of the proceeds will go to "Turn the Corner Foundation" which is an organization that helps train physicians in how to diagnose and treat Lyme Disease. They are also involved at the medical research level. I am still in the process of setting up my website and getting the first set of bracelets made, but once everything is up and running, I will post here to let you know! :)

Well, as you might have noticed, I haven't blogged in awhile.  We have been working through quite a bit with my health and trying to sort through and make some tough decisions regarding treatment.  I think I blogged about reacting to the drug Flagyl.  I can no longer take that one. Then, we tried another drug called Ampicillin.  We thought I would be able to take it because I can take oral amoxicillin without any issues.  However, we were wrong and I had some major reactions during our "testing" period.  So, I have been only on IV azithromycin.  We were all set to add in oral amoxicillin this week because that seems to be a really good drug for me as far as hitting the Lyme bacteria, but on Tuesday, I got a message from my doctor to stop everything because my liver enzymes were elevated again.  Geesh...I wish my liver would cooperate!!!

Currently, I am off antibiotics until Monday and then I will get re-tested.  The azithromycin is starting to bother my hearing. It began a couple of weeks ago and I haven't said much about it to anyone but my family and husband, but it's getting to the point where it feels like I have cotton balls stuck in my ears all the time.  These types of drugs are known for affecting the hearing of some patients especially when it's administered via IV, so it looks like that one might be on it's way out the door too.  Not good...we need to be able to find some drugs that I can use that don't cause allergic reactions or bad side effects.  I am what you would call a "challenging  patient"...I am sure my doctor would agree. :)

As far as feeling well, I haven't felt the best either on the antibiotics or off of them.  I have been really tired and achy along with dealing with some cognitive issues.  The cognitive issues always ramp up when I am off antibiotics and I noticed them starting to get worse once we lost Flagyl.  Stopping antibiotics on Tuesday has definitely not helped.  My cognitive issues involve my speaking more than they do my writing.  By the evening, I struggle to complete sentences, I forget words and I do some pretty dumb things.  For example, this week, I accidentally put the ziplock bag of cooked pot roast back into the pantry instead of the freezer.  I didn't find it until 3 days later.  Now, for most people, this kind of thing might happen every once in awhile; however, you know it's Lyme when this stuff happens frequently.  It's funny and we have a good laugh about it, but it does get frustrating sometimes especially when I am trying to relay a phone conversation to Brian and he is not understanding hardly any of it. :P

We have seen small gains though and I want to make sure I comment on those.  I think the area where we have seen the most improvement is my nutrition intake. I think the IV Vitamin C and Meyer's Cocktails (IV B Vitamins) have helped a ton.

Not much else to report.  I have one final grad project due on December 12th that I have yet to begin working on.  I will start it this weekend.  I am such a procrastinator.  Brian is done with the first section of the CPA exam and should get the results sometime in January.  Now, he has moved onto working on two self-paced college classes and studying for the second portion of the CPA exam. I don't know how my husband keeps going, but he is one amazing man!

Here are some prayer requests for us:

• Please pray for us as we make some tough decisions regarding my Lyme Disease treatment.  We need to get on a better antibiotic regimen and also find a way to help my liver to detox so that my liver enzymes don't keep fluctuating so much.  Also, if you could pray for my liver enzymes to be in the normal range on Monday when we re-test, we would appreciate it.
• Please be praying for my doctor and that she would have wisdom on how to best treat my complicated case.  My body seems to never make it an easy job for anyone! :)
• Please pray that I will be able to continue to take the much needed supplements that will help support my immune system, enable me to detox and also some herbs that fight Lyme Disease.  Lyme Disease physicians are noticing that patients are responding better to treatment when antibiotics are combined with herbs that also fight the bacteria.
• Finally, please keep praying that Brian and I would have discernment about 2 decisions we are currently trying to make.  I wish I could share more right now, but we feel it's best to wait.  I promise as soon as I can, I will fill you in! Until then, we would really appreciate your prayers for wisdom and that God would guide and direct us down the path He wants us to take. 

Thanks for praying! I will try to not to gap so much like last time before I write an update.  Between sleeping, having company, feeling icky and sleeping some more, it's been difficult to keep up with everything.  I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season!

Blessings!
Dawn