Breathe, just breathe...

Do you like my title? I always remember the movie "Ever After" where the princess (Drew Barrymore) is standing in her costume at the "Cinderella Ball" about to enter the party. I thought it was fitting given my latest series of events. However, I don't want to start this post with that story. I would much rather talk about tomorrow's holiday! Happy Easter Everyone! I wanted to first acknowledge the most amazing day that has ever took place on this earth. God performed the miraculous with the resurrection of his son. I hope that you get to spend the day celebrating with the body of Christ and with your family. Brian and I have a date with the computer to watch an Easter service broadcasted live via the internet. Thank goodness for technology! I will be so excited when we can celebrate and worship our Lord and Savior in a church building with other believers. I know that day will come! God can do it!

We have had an extremely eventful 72 hours. I am doing okay now, but it was quite scary. Before, I start that story, I wanted to share something with you that Brian and I have kind of kept silent over the last couple of weeks. Before the whole port incident, I had actually been feeling pretty good. Lyme patients often hesitate to post this because it always is so up and down, but we really think Rifampin is helping me make a turn for the better. I often blog about my struggles, so it's time I blog about our triumphs. :) A lot of my constant symptoms have drastically improved. I actually started working out (pilates and crunches). Also, my chemical sensitivities don't seem so extreme. We think that is due more to this wonderful stuff called Toxin Absorbmax. I highly recommend it if you have any detoxification issues or chemical sensitivities. It gets the toxins out of your system big time which we think is what has caused me to be less allergic. What a blessing! We hope things will turn back around soon. We are praying they will!

Okay, let me start "the story". On my last post, I had talked about the random strange fevers I had been getting. Well, I had still gotten a low grade fever Tuesday after (Day 6), so we went to go get it checked out at the Urgent Care. They took some blood and did a bacteria culture and said they would call if they found anything. We never heard, so we were in the clear. That same night, Brian and I had planned on bumping up Rifampin to the full dose. It was rough when I started on it, but for about a month now, I have had no problems with the dose I was at, so we wanted to try it. We had planned on trying it last week, but since the port issue happened, it was delayed.

So, I took the double dose Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and was completely fine. I didn't feel good, but it wasn't horrible. Now, I wasn't naive...I knew that Friday and Saturday would be the most difficult, but I was ready. I was excited because I feel it has been my key to improvement! I wanted to give you this information because at this point, we are still not sure what happened in the middle of the night and on Friday morning, but boy was it an experience I will NEVER forget.

At about 3:30am in the morning on Friday, I turned over and woke up suddenly with horrible chest pain. With every breath, it felt like I had a knife going into my lungs. It was the kind that took your breath away. I could still get enough air, but it hurt so bad. Now, I am used to chest pain. It's one of the not-so-fun symptoms of Lyme Disease and Bartonella. Every time we have gone to the ER in the past, it has always been fine, so I have learned to ignore it. I hate spending the money to have all those tests run to only have them look at you with no answers. So, I just waited for it to subside which usually happens within a little bit.

Well, this was different. I kept laying there waiting for it to go away, but it wasn't working. It was getting worse. I woke up Brian. I hated to do that because he already is so tired, but I had no idea what was happening. The knife sensation wouldn't stop. However, I am stubborn, and I didn't want to go anywhere, so I toughed it out for about 30 more minutes and finally fell asleep.

Brian left for work at around 6am, and I got up at about 9am. I felt okay when I got up. I took my meds and went to the kitchen with the intention of getting something to eat. That's when it happened. The knife sensation came back full force only this time I couldn't breathe very well. I was in agony. I still wanted to wait for it to pass, but called Brian to see what I should do. He was at work and since he had already missed two days last week, he couldn't take off. I didn't want him to because I was hoping it would just subside like it did last night. We already owe so much in hospital bills from the last two weeks, that I was dreading a bill especially when they wouldn't probably find anything.

So, I hung up the phone and it went from bad to worse. The pain tripled, and I couldn't hardly breathe. I felt like I was gasping for air and only getting 1/16th into my lungs. I knew I had to get to the ER (I didn't have to think twice), but I had no one to call. Things were going in and out of focus. At one point, things were going black. It was so bad that I punched 911 into my phone, but I was dreading them coming. Can you believe that I honestly thought that I didn't want my neighbors to see the ambulance? I am dumb. I know. I think I am just gunshy after always being told they can't find anything wrong with me. I hate having all of these horrible symptoms, and then having them look at me like I am crazy. Now, that I look back and after experiencing a 10 minute horrific drive to the hospital, it was a stupid idea to drive. I won't ever do that again. Well, hopefully, this will NEVER happen again!

Anyways, the breathing issue would get really bad and then let up for about 1 minute and then get bad again. So, I thought to myself...I can make it to the hospital. Again, dumb move. Don't ever try that. Promise me!!! That was the longest 10 minutes of my life. I will fully admit I didn't drive the speed limit. I think I would have actually been relieved to get pulled over. Then a cop could have driven me the rest of the way. I still had 911 sitting ready for me to hit send. I kept watching for street signs so I could tell them where I was in the car because I wasn't sure if I would make it all the way to the hospital on my own efforts. I prayed the whole time. Thankfully, Jesus got me there. I had a friend remind me today of that song by Carrie Underwood titled "Jesus Take the Wheel". Boy, did he ever!!!

By the time, I walked up to that little window to check in, I couldn't even talk. I am not sure if the ER girl even understood what I said. Can you believe she still had me fill out that dumb little "what's wrong with you form"? Good grief, lol. Well, they didn't make me wait at all. I don't think I have ever seen the triage nurse move so fast nor have I ever gotten in so fast. I guess that is what you get when you are the crisis patient. My heart rate was off the charts and my O2 wasn't great. The EKG was normal (as usual), but that started a long day of tests. Brian still couldn't get away, and I was definitely still okay with that. I knew the Lord was with me. I know he wanted to be there, but I actually wasn't even able to tell him how bad it was until he got home (which was probably a good thing cuz he would have come). I think God showed me just how much I can do by myself. I don't think I have had to be that independent in a crisis for a long time.

Anyways, the doctor came in and said he was about 95% sure it was a blood clot in my lungs with all of my symptoms. LOVELY! I had a nuclear scan, ultrasounds, blood work, and x-rays. I was on O2 most of the time I was in the hospital, but the tubing made me break out, so I had to take breaks (only me right, lol). The longer the day went on, the more my breathing improved. I would still be extremely short of breath when I moved around, walked anywhere etc., but the pain went away and guess what...all the tests came back negative. Now, don't get me wrong, I am definitely thankful, but after my experience that morning, I was really surprised. How in the world could that be?!!! I think he was puzzled with the shape I was in when I first came in, and how it was all negative. He did say it could have been a small clot that moved through my lungs, but that once it passed, my body would dissolve it on its own. Other than that...he said he didn't know much about "Lymes" (did you notice the "s"?!!!), but to call my "Lymes" doc to see if it could be caused by the disease. You know you are in for a treat when medical personnel can't even get the name of disease right, lol. It happens all the time.

So, I was released even though I still wasn't breathing normal. However, I was glad to be out of there and to have the morning behind me. Brian came home late afternoon, and after our conversation, I could tell he was a little shook up. Neither of us have experienced a crisis like that, and hopefully, it never happens again. Could it have been a really big herx caused by upping my dose of Rifampin? Maybe, but I am desperately hoping that was not the case. I have had breathing issues before, but not the knife-like pain at the same time. So, I am thinking it wasn't, but I guess we will find out next week.

That brings me to our mega prayer request. Obviously, I need to try the Rifampin dose again, but to be honest, I am pretty scared. I might change the day I do it so Day 3 would be on Saturday when Brian was home. That usually is my worst day. I have to remember though, my goal is to get well, and like I have said before, I am willing to do whatever it takes to get there. If a half dose helped me to make so much headway, then I can only hope that a full dose will help me even more. Please just pray that God would protect my body and keep us from reliving the events of last Friday. We would appreciate it. If I don't tolerate it, we will back down on the dose. However, I am thinking this had to do with the port/blood clot incident than it did have to do with the increased drug dosage. Something that it might have also been was a drug interaction between Rifampin and another one I take. I don't know what made me check this, but when I looked it up on "interaction checker", it said moderate. I haven't had a doctor catch it. Maybe, the dose increase set it off the interaction? Who knows. I did stop taking that drug, so we shall see. We might never figure it out what happened, but I am thankful for the Lord's protection. He definitely works behind the scenes.

Other than that, it's been a good weekend (ha..ha..that sounds funny when I type it after all that happened). School is winding down. Brian is studying for his last section of the CPA exam. We can see life slowing down in a couple of months! It will be nice to be able to hang out at night instead of working on homework. God has given us so much to be thankful for. We are so blessed. We have a loving Savior who gave us the precious gift of eternal life. We are seeing glimpses of healing. God is so good. It's our prayer that God would be glorified through our life. We have a long way to go, and we are constantly being challenged and molded, but we know it is for our good. We hope you have a blessed Easter with your families. We pray that God would reveal Himself to you in a new way. Talk to you soon! :)

Not common!

Hey all! This will be quick. I need to get to bed because I feel cruddy again, but I wanted to write a short update to ask you to pray. I am sure the title has you interested. Well, those of you who know me, already know that the way my body responds to things is "not common". In fact, I hear that all the time from doctors. Thankfully, in the Lyme world, I have heard it less, but it still pops up every once in awhile.

As you know, I had my port surgery last week on Wednesday. Ever since that time, I have been running low grade fevers between 99 and 100 degrees. This is VERY unusual because I don't ever run fevers. In fact, the last time I ran a fever was when I got the respiratory flu in 2003. That should give you quite a picture. Even with all of my Lyme symptoms, a low grade fever has not been one of them. In fact, most of the time my body temp hovers around 97.8 to 98.1 thanks to Lyme Disease. So, this is pretty abnormal for me.

On Friday, I was concerned because this didn't happen after I got the port in. I called the place where I had my procedure and was connected directly to one of the PA's. She said that this was "not common" after a port removal. In fact, she hadn't heard of this happening. She asked me if the site was red or inflamed and it was not (it still isn't). She suggested that maybe I just came down with something and to just watch my symptoms to see if I get a fever over 100 degrees and closer to 101 degrees. Well, I have never reached that level. I have body aches, nausea and a low grade fever off and on, but it never escalates. I am already on antibiotics, so I would think it would knock out any infection unless I am on the wrong one. Over the weekend, I just chalked it up to Lyme.

Well, now it's late Monday night and my lovely low grade fever friend is back again. This is pretty crazy. I wouldn't usually think twice of this except I just had an outpatient procedure done last week, and the timing of when it started was that evening. So, what to do?! This is not the week to have to do anything as I am slammed with homework.

So, if you could just be praying for a miracle, and that I start to feel better. It's hard to do Lyme treatment on top of this because you have no idea if it's a result of the disease or something else is going on. We would appreciate prayers for wisdom. The rest of the week, when I feel okay, I am going to be drowning in homework, so unless something major happens, I will be posting towards the beginning of next week. Thanks for the prayers! :)

God's Timing...Always Perfect!

I have always known God's timing is perfect. This phrase fits a number of different ways. When you don't get the answer you want or are looking for, you reassure yourself knowing that "God's timing" is best. When you get the best surprise of your lifetime, you celebrate the gift seeing firsthand how God's unexpected blessings were part of His plan all along. Finally, when you have scary events unfold, but in the end everything works out because of medical intervention and God's grace, you breathe a sigh of relief seeing how God orchestrated things to line up perfectly. The latter is what we experienced yesterday.

From my previous post, you know that I had my port surgery scheduled at 1:30pm yesterday. I will fully admit, the night before, I didn't get a lot of sleep. I was a little leery of turning the wrong way, moving suddenly or doing anything to dislodge a clot. However, at the same time, I had an incredible peace that God was in control and He would be my protector. I finally got to sleep around 3:00am, and didn't wake up until my alarm went off.

At around 9:00am we left for Scottsdale. It's a two hour drive, but it went pretty fast. It's always nice to spend that time with my husband talking. Neither of us have work to do or any electronic devices :), so we have great conversations. It's so refreshing. We got to the hospital around 11:30am, and I started the check in procedure.

It wasn't uneventful (nothing ever is with me, lol). I did react to the saline they gave me. That always makes me laugh. Who in the world is allergic to IV saline? Meeee! :) So, I had a bright cherry red blotchy rash which always makes the nurses a bit nervous. I am pretty used to it, so I tend to play it down. However, it is kind of humorous to see them jump a little. Another little fun episode was my blood sugar dropped. I have problems with hypoglycemia if I don't eat. I hadn't eaten anything since 7:00am that morning, so right before surgery I could tell it was pretty low. I am glad I said something because when they tested it, it was LOW. Since I am allergic to juice, it was a little challenging to get it up. They ended up making an exception and letting me eat a little something since everything they could give me to raise it would make me react.

At 1:30pm, I met my surgeon. It was Physician Assistant Jessica who put my port in. This was such a God thing. She is so on top of everything. In fact, she was the one that caught that we had the wrong lidocaine. I need the one without preservatives, and although the nurse was reassuring me that it was free of the "buffer" (still don't know what that means), I questioned it. Jessica immediately knew what I was talking about and ordered the correct version from the pharmacy. She also told me that the reason why I was reacting to the saline was the preservative in it. I had no idea there were preservatives in saline. I guess it has benzyl alcohol. We'll add that to my list of preservative allergies! So, they had to order a special saline in vials that was preservative free. Never a dull moment I tell ya! It was such a miracle I got Jessica at the last minute. She is amazing. She is very good and confident, but also works with people very well. Well, she works with me really well. She told everyone to let me know what they were going to do to me at every step and to make sure to clear anything with me first before they touched me with it so that they wouldn't give me something I would react to. Such a blessing! Definitely evidence of God's perfect timing.

I asked Jessica to test my port after it was out to see how many clots were in it. She flushed it and there were 4 to 5 huge clots that came out. I heard her gasp as they shot across the table. We are SO thankful that God protected my body and that none of those dislodged before we got the port out.

I am in awe of God's wings of protection. I can look back at the past week, and see His hand in everything. I started working out a little last week, but over the weekend and on Monday, I just had no energy. I think this was the Lord as it could have caused a clot to come loose. As a Christian, I know that I limit God. I know He is all powerful and my protector, but I think that I take too much of the credit sometimes. It's times like these, that I am humbled. I see just how precious His children are to Him. I am so thankful to know that I have a heavenly Father watching out for me. I often try to run ahead of God and try to control things too much, but ultimately, I don't have control. All control belongs to Him. He knows what is best. My life is in His hands, and I wouldn't want it to be anywhere else!

My professors have been awesome. They have worked with me with all of my health issues. When this came up, they were both willing to give me more time. I think they feel bad for all that I have to face all the time. It's just such a relief to know I have their support. They want to see me succeed and are willing to do whatever it takes to get me there.

If you could please be praying for a couple of things. First, please pray for Brian. He is taking the 3rd section of the CPA exam tomorrow (Friday). Obviously, the events of the last two days have cut drastically into his review time, not to mention he is exhausted. Please pray that Brian would have clarity of mind, and that he would pass this next section. Please also be praying for continued healing from my surgery. I am pretty sore, and pretty reactive from all that I have been exposed to. So, please be praying that my body would heal as I have an extremely busy three weeks coming up.

Thank you for all of your prayers, support and encouragement. It's what helps us make it through! Love to you all! :)

Please be praying...

Well, I promised Brian I wouldn't write for a long time since I need to get to bed; however, it has been an eventful day, and we would appreciate your prayers for tomorrow! As many of you know, I have been doing IV treatment for Lyme Disease. I actually stopped towards the beginning of February, but we weren't planning on getting the IV port catheter out until this summer when things slowed down a bit for Brian and I. Well, God had a different plan! I have been going every 2 to 3 weeks to have my IV port flushed and refilled with Heparin so it doesn't clot off. Actually you can go a month, but I am always super cautious as I don't want to risk developing any blood clots. Unfortunately, even with my caution, Mr. IV port decided to misbehave.

Today, when I went to have my port flushed by the doctor, she couldn't get any blood out on the first 3 tries. Then, when she finally did get something, it was brown and the line was filled with clots. Talk about panic! Okay, anyone who knows me knows that I am not a naturally calm "take it as it comes" person. I tend to freak out a bit. :) I am sure Brian could expand on this, but I am going to keep the pc away from him. Ha! My doctor immediately tells me I need to go to the ER. She said to go to UMC which is actually the best hospital in Tucson and the one that Gabby Giffords went to when she was wounded. Brian was at work, so I had to drive the 25 minutes to the hospital by myself. This may seem like a small amount of time, but when you knowingly have blood clots in your line less than six inches from your heart, it's a bit unnerving!

Anyways, I made it there and so did Brian. They were extremely busy today, so Brian and I had to wait a LONG time. In the meantime, I had been in contact with my local doctor (who I use for only regular ailments) and my Lyme doctor in San Francisco, CA. What we decided was to get my port removed as we were getting the feeling that the ER would be unwilling to do it. We ended up getting an emergency appt. tomorrow to have the port removed at the same hospital that put the port in. Yay God!

After about 4 hours, we finally met two amazing doctors. I now know why the hospital is rated so high. They were incredible. The top supervising physician came and spoke to us and said that he thought I would be okay and that no clots would dislodge from the port as long as I didn't try to flush it. Brian, being the jokester he is, informed the doctor that we don't say "think, thought, maybe, slight risk" in front of me. Ha...Ha...Mr. funny man. He is kind of right though. I know they can't say for certain that you will be okay, but blood clots are kind of one of my worst fears if I am to be totally honest. I like reassurance; however, then that doesn't let me practice the art of trusting. I know I need lots of practice trusting, and God obviously knows too! :)

So, we are home now. I have an appointment at Shea Medical Center in Scottsdale, AZ (outside of Phoenix) at 11:30am. My procedure will be at 1:30pm. If you could please be praying for us, we would appreciate it. Please pray that no clots would dislodge. Also, please pray that God would protect my body, and that I wouldn't react to anything I am exposed to. Hospital environments are always a challenge, but God has and is always faithful. I know He will be faithful tomorrow! Finally, please pray for a quick recovery. I have two very large projects for school do on Sunday, and these events have caused me to fall behind. Also, Brian is supposed to take the third section of the CPA exam on Friday and in addition he has a lot of work pressure. So, if you could be praying for both of us, we would appreciate it!!!!

All in all, I think this was the Lord's timing. We knew we needed to get this port out. It costs us monthly maintenance and it's kind of useless to be paying for it when you don't need it. Also, since this is an emergency procedure because I have blood clots, we are praying desperately that my insurance will cover it. They have been horrible lately about covering anything related to my port, but we are hoping this will be an exception. God opened up a way to have it removed quickly. It will be nice to have it gone!

Thanks for praying friends! I'll update as soon as I am up to it!

No for now...

The title of this post seems to be our life theme right now and has been for the last 5 years. There is so much we want to be doing, but it's always "no for now". I am adjusting to this. Not that I am giving up the fight, but as Christians, we should try to be content in all circumstances. Boy is that hard to type. It's even harder to do. I have just been so restless lately. So, I have had to work extra hard at keeping the right focus and trying to find some form of contentment. I have thought a lot about what true contentment looks like. Is it that you don't yearn for health or for a different stage of life? Is it liking where you are even when there is a lot of pain, hurt and frustration? Is it coming to grips that life might not ever change and being okay with that? I actually don't really know the answers to any of these questions. I have thought about them quite a bit. Maybe, it is just an act of surrender to God's will and not needing an answer to "why" we are in our current plight. I tend to use the word "why" a lot. Maybe, contentment is not letting that little word be a part of my vocabulary. I think that is probably a start and something that I need to work on big time. :) It would help me a lot of this word could be removed from the English vocabulary; however, I would probably find other clever ways to ask the same question (as I often do, lol).

I know I had written in my last blog post that I wouldn't be able to write until the weekend, but I have about 30 more minutes until I take my next set of pills, so I thought I would tell you what happened with the job.

As of last Friday, I was one of the top finalists. Earlier that day, I had written her after talking to her assistant about the position and had asked her to please give me a time frame that she wanted me to learn this 171 page document about pharmacy careers (she is a pharmacy recruiter and I would have been her assistant). I explained that over the weekend I was writing the findings part of my grad report, so I was going to be pretty busy and wanted to plan ahead. When she wrote me that night to tell me that I was one of the finalists, she never said a word about it. I thought that maybe she had decided against having me to do this before an official job offer; however, I was wrong.

On Sunday night, I get an e-mail pretty late that she wanted to meet and discuss the document in less than 24 hours. I was pretty blown. That is A LOT of material to learn at the last minute. Also, she sent me a long questionnaire that asked me to rate on a scale of 1 to 4 of what I am good at in the area of marketing and recruiting. Honestly, I have had no experience with like 3/4 of the line items. Needless to say, I was a little overwhelmed with the whole thing. It made me once again doubt whether this job was for me since it was so out of my realm of expertise. I have been in a job like that before, and it about killed me. I felt like I was always fighting an uphill battle. So, you can see why I had so much hesitation and kept wavering on my decision. I had been uneasy about the job until I talked to her current assistant last Friday. We totally hit it off, and with how she described the job, I knew that I could do it and would enjoy it. However, once I got this questionnaire, I was unsure once again.

On Monday morning, I went ahead and scheduled our meeting for that evening. I had an NAET appt. in the morning, so I spent my entire drive praying that God would give me direction on whether or not I should keep pursuing this job. I am definitely unhappy in my current position and making NO money (tomorrow I have 2 students and will make $4 in 3 hours...pathetic huh!!). I think that is what kept me pressing on at every turn. When I got home, I still hadn't heard a clear answer from the Lord yet, so I dove into the material. I had worked so hard to get this job up until this point. It was a pretty insane interview process. So, I pressed on. After 3 hours, I was on page 110. I only had 70 pages to go, but God made it as clear as day that this job was not for me. It wasn't like I didn't find the material interesting, I did. I just knew this job was not for me. God spoke to me on page 110. :)

So, I e-mailed her and withdrew from the process. It was really hard for me to do because work-at-home jobs are extremely hard to come by. I also knew that I was one of the top people for the position. However, as I looked at how much marketing and recruiting she wanted me to do. I knew that a job in which I would have to "sell" the business was not something I would enjoy doing on a daily basis. I think it would have been really hard for me to do because I hate forcing people or persuading people to do things. She did write me back later and said to stay in touch because she saw potential and would consider me for another position if I changed my mind or if they had a position that fit me better in the future. So, I think it would have been mine, but I have a peace that I did the right thing.

So, back to square one. I did our long-term budget tonight (always a mistake, lol), and I REALLY need to find a new job. I think I am at a point where I may not feel the best, but I can ignore my symptoms enough to work as long as I can do it from home. So, I would appreciate your prayers for my continued job search. I would love to find an administrative, teaching, training or management job that I could do virtually. I would be absolutely happy in any of those positions. However, the competition is fierce. I have applied for some customer service jobs too, but since I am 3 months from an MA degree, Brian thinks I get passed up because I am over qualified. He is sweet, but I am not sure if that's the case, lol. :)

Well, I will quit rambling. If you could just be praying that God would open a door for better employment, I would greatly appreciate it. Treatment this week is going fine. I am achy and tired, but okay. We have been trying to not turn on our AC yet. I did okay over the weekend, but my autonomic nervous system freaked out today after I started treatment. I had some pretty bad symptoms, so we realized that my body doesn't tolerate the heat as well during my treatment days. So, we will have to save money by being warmer on the weekends. Please be praying my autonomic nervous system would calm back down. It seems like once it's set off, we often go on a not-so-fun tailspin. :P It's been a rough evening, but I am hoping things will reset while I sleep. Have a great rest of the week!

Adventures in Job-land!

Hey Everyone! I decided to wait until Rifampin was out of my system a bit more before making this post. :) I have realized that it kind of messes with my emotions which is why you had the "life is terrible" post last week. Boy can medicine and Lyme do crazy things! It was kind of a stressful week as I had my first interview, and then I have had a ton of school work. Needless to say by Friday, I probably wasn't so pleasant to be around. My guess is that is putting it nicely which is why I write the posts and not Brian, ha! Lyme-wise things are pretty much the same. I have definitely stabilized on the oral azithromycin. Praise the Lord! I haven't noticed any decrease in cognitive issues, in fact, I think I have improved a bit.

I just finished writing the most difficult section of my graduate research project. It was the part where I had to pull all my collected data together and report my findings. Seems pretty simple, but it was actually really hard. I didn't realize I had collected so much data, until I went to write the report and condense it into an 11 page document. The final paper is due in 2 weeks, and then I will be posting it on my project blog. It will be great to have this project done! Then, I have one more big project and two papers in my other class, and this semester will finally come to a close. I can see the end in sight! After that, I have about a month break, and then I have my final class of the degree. I will graduate in August. I can't believe I am almost done with my graduate degree! So exciting!

This past week, I interviewed for a recruiter assistant/office admin position with a pharmaceutical recruiting company. This is a virtual job, so I can do it out of my home. I know it's not in my area as far as education and e-learning, but the qualifications she is looking for really match up with my work experience. She does want to expand her training program, so there is a possibility I would be able to use my degree eventually. I have to say that this whole journey with this job opportunity has been an adventure. For my initial resume submission, I had to answer three essay questions. Then, once I passed that stage, I had to fill out a profile form. This form ended up being 9 pages typed (single-spaced). No Joke!!! Brian kept asking me why in the world I was going through all of this for a part-time job. He told me his auditing application wasn't even this extensive. I don't know what made me press on, but I submitted that on Monday. Then, on Tuesday, I found out I passed the next stage and moved onto my interview which was Wednesday night.

The interview was quite interesting. I definitely don't have direct experience with recruiting and the pharmacy industry, so there were questions that I couldn't answer. I don't think I have ever been in an interview before where I honestly couldn't answer about 4 to 5 questions. So, at the end of the interview, I mentioned my knowledge gap and asked her how she would train me. I think that kind of surprised her. That was me being assertive. :) After I got off the call, I told Brian that I didn't think this was for me. The knowledge gap was kind of overwhelming, and I felt like the interviewer had high expectations of what I should know on day one if I was going to get this job. I am always pretty realistic about my abilities, so I wrote her an e-mail and told her I didn't think it was a good fit. She wrote me back and asked me to reconsider. I was pretty shocked! She told me that her current assistant didn't have a recruiter or pharmacy background either. In addition, she wanted me to talk to her current assistant to get a better idea if I would like the position. So, I called her assistant and absolutely loved her! After talking to her, I realized that this job was something I would be able to do, and for the first time I REALLY wanted it. Before, I was okay either way, but that phone call definitely made me want the position.

The owner had some more interviews the rest of the week, so she said she would know more after they were done. Friday evening, I got an e-mail saying I was one of the top finalists. I heard from a couple people that she was calling my references. So, that's where I stand. It's been a bit crazy from the beginning, but I think I would be really good at this job. It starts out as a part-time position, but eventually moves to full-time as I learn the position and if I perform well. So, if you could just be praying that God's will would be done, I would appreciate it. I would love the opportunity to earn more for my family each month. I would also love to be able to use my degree in some capacity and to be able to work and help people. However, I want to make sure that this is God's idea and not my own. I have also applied for two positions at a company that I am very interested in, but I haven't heard anything for now. It's waiting time! I am SOOOO not good at this. :P I will hopefully find out something soon!

Now onto my wonderful husband! I have to brag a bit. :) He passed the second section of the CPA exam. Whoohoo!! We found out on Friday. He scored another 85 which is amazing. Most people barely pass the CPA exam, but not my husband. He is super smart! I am so proud of him! I am in awe of how well he does with everything he is balancing. He has to run the entire household. He is also working on finishing a college class along with studying for the CPA exam. AMAZING! His work is going extremely well too. He just found out that another auditor is leaving, so that means he is going to be taking over a lot of his auditing jobs. He will be acting as the Senior! We are hoping an official promotion will come this summer. We shall see what God does! Brian ~ I love you! I am so proud of how well you are doing even with all of our life pressures! You are an incredible husband, and I thank the Lord every day for you! <3

Well, that is it for now. I just booked our hotel for our San Francisco trip in May. I am super excited to go and actually meet my doctor. It will be nice to meet with him instead of working with the PA and ND. They are nice, but the doctor has so much knowledge and wisdom. I am excited to hear what he thinks our next step should be! School is kind of crazy for the next few weeks, so I probably won't have a chance to update until next weekend. However, I promise to let you know what happened with the job. :) Please pray! It would be an awesome opportunity! I hope you have a great week! Blessings!