Another Week of Adventure!

So, once again, we had another week of adventure in our household. I am not sure why we can't have a boring life. I would gladly trade with anyone who does. Our budget can't handle any more of these crises, so we are praying big time this was the last of them. I will give you an update about our week, and then we have some major prayer requests as we will be traveling to California on Thursday for a Friday appointment with my Lyme doctor.

Where to begin... First, I am going to warn you about this tidbit of news that you may or may not think this is strange. Those that have had experience with muscle testing (muscle kinesiology) are probably much more likely to be a believer than those that have not experienced it. For Brian and I, it took us awhile to believe that it was fool proof. We did a lot of blind tests with my practitioner, but soon became a full believer that God has given us tools besides western medicine tests to figure out what is wrong with our bodies. I think I have talked about this before on this blog, but once a week, I do NAET treatments. These are acupressure (kind of like acupuncture, but without the needles) allergy treatments. They really work and have been a major blessing from the Lord. God has used this to help me to basically survive over the last 4 years.

Anyways, the way that she tests to see what is wrong with my body is through muscle testing. She can find out all sorts of things like what I am allergic to, what vitamins I am low in and also what is wrong with my body (disease, illness, pain etc.). She never tells me what she is testing for and will actually do a control each time she tests. So, I never know what she is asking until after she finds out the results. We have done it with allergens where she will test a group. I know what I am allergic to, but don't tell her and she doesn't tell me until the test is done. It's been 100% accurate. When I struggling with an allergic symptom, she can figure out what it is, I take it out of my diet or get an NAET treatment and my symptoms go away. It's amazing how God has enabled our bodies to function in this manner. We serve one awesome creator.

Well, I wrote all this to say that on Monday, I went to my appointment with the intent of figuring out what happened to me last Friday when I ended up in the ER. She did a bunch of testing, and guess what she came up with...yep, a blood clot in my lungs was the cause of the pain. Scary!! She did say it passed pretty quickly which I had suspected because my pain and the horrible breathing issues only lasted a couple of hours. I think I already knew this was the cause of the incident. I am used to chest pains and breathing issues because of Lyme Disease and the lovely co-infections, but this was completely different. I haven't ever experienced anything like this. Plus, I took 3 days of Rifampin again, and it didn't effect my breathing at all. So, it looks like Mr. Bloodclot took up residence in my lungs, but thankfully didn't stay long. :)

However, even though Friday was past, I still had a rough week. I had a lot of chest pain and shortness of breath. Not the scary kind like last Friday, but a big nuisance. I couldn't walking very far without my heart rate increasing and feeling like I wasn't getting my usual amount of oxygen. I was only getting a couple of hours asleep a night also. I couldn't lay flat without feeling like it was hard to breathe. Since we are leaving this coming Thursday to travel a long distance in a car where there is nothing but desert for hundreds of miles, we thought I should probably go get it checked out.

My appointment was on Friday morning. After seeing the doctor, she was concerned that I still had a clot in my lungs. She did an O2 test while I was in the office. I had to walk around with a machine that measured my oxygen. When I sat, it was a 100%. When I got up and walked around, it was 95%. Now, that still seems like a good number, but they don't like it to go below 98%. No wonder I was short of breath! She wasn't too thrilled to see what my stats were doing. She wanted to test me for a blood clot. I can't have the Cat Scan IV Dye because I am allergic to it (surprise, surprise, lol). So, she had to send me to get a nuclear scan. This will be my 3rd one in a month. I swear I must be glowing. Plus, every time I have this test done, it's $400. You can only imagine the bills piling up. However, blood clots are not something you mess around with, so off I went to get nuked again. :)

This time, I was sent to the University Medical Center because the hospital near our house was booked. This is the best hospital in Tucson, so I didn't mind. Little did I know what was in store for me when I got there. Again, never a dull moment! My friend Candice, who has Lyme Disease, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and Dysautonomia like me, gave this adventure a clever title "Chapter 28473: The Day I Almost Went to the Morgue". That made me laugh. You will see why.

Anyways, back to my story...I get to the hospital and start the check in process. Afterwords, I am told to go the basement to the nuclear radiation area. So, I go down the elevator and the doors open. Within 30 seconds of stepping off the elevator, I flush from head to toe. I am one bright red blotchy itchy rash, and I have the not-so-fun feeling like I am about to pass out. I have absolutely no idea what is causing this and haven't reacted like this to something in my environment in a LONG time. The nurse takes me back, and I get that all to familiar look of "I am not sure I want to touch you". However, I knew the test must be done, so I told her lets proceed on and I'll let them know when my body can't take it any longer.

About 15 minutes into the test, we were talking about allergies, and she mentions how she has trouble whenever she comes to work. She said that she doesn't know what it is, but guesses it might have something to do with the morgue next door. BINGO!!! I immediately knew that was the source of my issues. I am deathly allergic to formaldehyde not to mention all the other chemicals they probably use in there. So, I had my answer. It was the morgue that was giving me such a bad reaction. I made it through the test. I think what helped was that for a large part of it, I had to be hooked up to oxygen. Plus, once I got back to the area where they administer the test, they have a pretty good filtration system to filter the nuclear radiation out of the air. So, I survived. Seriously! Of all the locations that nuclear test area could have been. I told the story to my Dad, and he thought the irony was pretty funny. Ha...ha... It is pretty ironic if you think about it.

Well, thankfully, the test turned out normal. No more blood clots. Later I found out from my primary practitioner that often when port is removed because it has clotted off, that as it's pulled out, small blood clots can break off and travel into your system. So, it would make sense why this happened to me. I think I am just in awe of the Lord, and how He works behind the scenes. It turns out that one of the supplements that I have been on for 6 months to help control Candida (the bad bacteria that grows when too much of your good bacteria is killed from taking antibiotics) is a natural blood thinner. It's a protease enzyme which breaks down fibrin of cells. Fibrin is what makes up the cell wall of clots. I was dumbfounded when I realized this. I know God protects us, but to see it played out in such a real and tangible way was overwhelming. We serve an AMAZING Savior! We would have probably had a very different situation on our hands if I had not been on this supplement.

We think the shortness of breath and chest pain are just residual effects of the incident last Friday. It is slowly getting better, so we are guessing it will just take some time. We will be so glad to have these two weeks behind us; however, we are coming up on a big 3 weeks schedule-wise. Let me get to those prayer requests since this post is super long already!

• Thursday, we are leaving for San Francisco, CA for an appointment with my Lyme doctor on Friday. If you could please pray for safe travel, no allergic reactions to food or my environment (my allergies have been a lot worse lately because all of the stuff I have been exposed to and also the pollen count), and a good Lyme appointment. This is the first time we will be meeting with my Lyme doctor (I have been working with his PA and ND). Please pray that we will get all our questions answered, and that we will get a plan for the future. I am tricky since I have so many allergies to herbs, supplements and drugs, so we are really praying that he will have wisdom. Also, I have been on antibiotics for 2 years now, and we are wanting to know when we will be able to stop. We don't want to stop too soon where I will relapse, but we don't want to keep taking them for years on end because it's not good for my body.


• Please be praying for Brian. We have had a VERY stressful two weeks. It's been hard for him to find time to study, and he is really tired. He is the one who does most of the driving on our trip, so please be praying that God will give him an extra burst of energy and that his sleep would be multiplied.
  


• We just found out that Brian is going to have to go out of town for a week starting on May 16th. This is not the best timing with all that has happened with my health, how busy Brian is and also how tired he has been. It is also not great for his study schedule either. However, he has to go, so please be praying that God would protect us both.

Thank you so much for praying!! If I am not too tired Friday night, I will write a post after our appointment. However, if I am not feeling well, I will write an update as soon as I can once we get back to Tucson. Hope you have a blessed week!