Forward march

We'd be in terrible shape if Nana wasn't here.

The war against Lyme is bad enough as it is.


Affected body parts?


Toes: check.


Hands: check.


Head: check.


Tongue: check.


Eyes: check.


Salivary glands: check.


Et cetera.


We did return my rented wheelchair yesterday.


Onward to victory.

War

MRI results are in, and thankfully, all is clear!


I have completed Day 9 of IV treatments.  12 more to go.

The nurse comments that I'm doing better with the treatments, which I know is true.  I didn't even have to lay down today when they plugged into my port.  She praised me for facing my fear.  No better time to face your needle phobia than when you feel as bad as this and the dreaded needles promise hope of recovery.


If I wasn't so seriously sick I don't think I could cope with the IVs.  I've lost more weight with Lyme disease than I did with strep throat--and that's saying something, considering with strep I couldn't even swallow my own spit.


Fortunately our generous meal providers have been feeding me up and I'm in no danger of starvation.

Daily hospital bracelets.

 

These last few days it seems I've been moving around a little better, which indicates the medicine is kicking in at last.


The doctor called to talk to me yesterday and expressed both encouragement that we're on the right track and warning that it will be a long haul.  First the antibiotic needs to kill all the disease, in every muscle and nerve it has invaded, and then my body will need time to heal.  He said:


"You want this to be a short battle, but it's a war.  We will win the war."


I hope he's right.  I'm looking forward to victory.

Well with my soul

Lyme disease sucks.  

I haven't been able to feel my hands or feet for weeks.  I fall sprawling on the ground if I try to go up a step without holding on.  My speech is slightly slurred.  Sitting up long enough to eat a meal wears me out.  My head and neck hurt.

The cavalry is still in action so we've had dinners every night and our kids have been cared for.  

Oral antibiotics didn't touch it so we switched to the big guns--daily antibiotics administered via IV at the hospital outpatient center.  I've endured 4 days so far without improvement, so they're having me get a brain MRI as well to rule out additional problems.    

Disease may take away strength from me.  It may take away ability, activities, or life as I know it.  But it cannot take Jesus away from me.  Whether I'm cured next week, next year, or ever, my body will be gloriously whole in the life to come.  There is no tear or ailment that Jesus has not ordained for His glory and my ultimate joy.

O Lyme disease, where is your sting?

Lymey

Me:  "I'm going for a walk on the road."


Jeddy:  "Not in the park?"


Me:  "It's easier for me to balance on the hard surface."


Jeddy:  "You have trouble balancing?"


Me:  "Yes."


Jeddy:  "Cooool!  So it's like being on a bike all the time!?"


Well, yes.  Except less fun.


What Jason calls "the cavalry" has been here every day, caring for our kids, bringing meals, doing housework, while I lie on the couch.  I'm numb and weak, but so grateful for all this help.


We hope the doctor's optimism is justified and I start feeling better in the next few days.

Blessed Lyme

The blood test results weren't supposed to be in until Monday.  The doctor didn't think it would show Lyme disease.


I prayed that it would, and that we would find out early.


The doctor called me on his day off yesterday to tell me that my prayers had been answered, and it's Lyme disease.


Praise God for Lyme disease!


Unlike our other options, it's a definitive answer, and it's curable.  I've started oral antibiotics.  If they don't make me better after a week, I need to switch to daily IV antibiotics instead.  Either way, the doctor thinks it'll be cleared up.


I am so happy with this diagnosis.  Physically, I feel terrible.  But mentally, I'm so relieved.

Third opinion... and counting

I saw a third doctor yesterday regarding my numb hands and feet and extreme muscle weakness.


The steroid I started taking last week has had no effect.  I'm not in much pain but I can barely use my legs.  As the doctor put it, I tell my leg to move and it doesn't move.


Doctor #3 was much less sanguine than doctors #1 and 2.  When I said, "So, best case scenario is Lyme disease, right?," he looked at me soberly and said, "I don't think you have Lyme disease."


So now, like generation upon generation of God's people have before us, we wait.  We wait for an appointment with a neurologist.  We wait to see if insurance will approve an MRI.  We wait for blood test results.  We wait for answers that may or may not come.


Yet all I really knew a month ago, I still know now, and is all I really need to know.  The Lord of all is holding me.  He has ordained my every day and the extent of my every suffering.  In all things He is working for His glory and my joy, though the path lead through grief.


My life is in His hands, and that is enough.

Not home yet

"Though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day...looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God."   

-2 Corinthians 4:16, Hebrews 11:10

All I know is I'm not home yet

This is not where I belong

Take this world and give me Jesus

This is not where I belong

-Building 429, "Where I Belong"