A new beginning

I’m restarting my blog, y’all. I want to warn you that my writing is not as good as I would like it to be, but if I wait till I can write really well, it might be a while. I am finally in remission after dealing with Lyme disease for 18 years. I am working with an amazing functional neurologist create new pathways in my brain to replace those that were destroyed by Lyme disease and its treatment. My grammar won’t be perfect. My paragraphs may not flow, but I’m asking for the grace to be imperfect. I’ve been wanting to express my thoughts and feelings on lots of issues and short blurbs on Facebook aren’t enough. 

Life is looking up for me. I have way more energy than I used to. I can cook, clean, and even walk the dog. I can’t do all three in one day, but I can do them. I’m reading some and holding conversations. My biggest goal is to be able to attend church again. I’m really looking forward to that day. 

It’s a little embarrassing for me to start blogging knowing that my brain is still healing. I am, however, ready to step out and be vulnerable. So please take me as I am and read along.

 

Lyme Symptoms-and there's a lot of them!!

I probably should have done this post about Lyme Disease symptoms at the very beginning of treatment, but it is still valid now. It is so important to know what symptoms to look for if you have been bitten by a tick. The best option is to get 4-6 weeks of antibiotics as soon as you are bitten by a tick. Not all doctors agree with this, but it is by far the best thing to do. Not everyone who has been bitten by a tick will show symptoms. Not every bite transmits Lyme, and not everyone who has been exposed to it gets it.  *Note-I'm currently doing a detox treatment and it makes it hard to write. Please excuse mistakes!!*

The best way for a doctor to figure out if you do have Lyme's is for the doctor to use a clinical diagnosis. Many, many times the blood work will give a false negative and it can even give a false positive. So what do you do if you suspect you have it? See a doctor and have this checklist (see below) ready. It will help you communicate to your doctor what your symptoms are, and you won't forget when the doc asks you. This checklist comes from http://www.ilads.org/ (International Lyme And Associated Diseases Society). Beware, the list is long! I'll probably highlight some and then send you to the checklist in case you ever need it.

Lyme Disease Symptoms:

Persistent swollen glands

Sore throat

Fevers

Sore soles, esp. in the AM

Joint pain: Fingers, toes, ankles, wrists, knees, elbows, hips, shoulders

Joint swelling: fingers, toes, ankles, wrists, knees, elbows, hips, shoulders

Unexplained back pain

Stiffness of the joints or back

Muscle pain or cramps

Obvious muscle weakness

Twitching of the face or other muscles

Confusion, difficulty thinking

Difficulty with concentration, reading, problem absorbing new information

Word search, name block

Forgetfulness, poor short term memory, poor attention

Disorientation: getting lost, going to wrong places

Speech errors: wrong word, misspeaking

Mood swings, irritability, depression

Anxiety, panic attacks

Psychosis (hallucinations,

delusions, paranoia, bipolar)

Tremor

Seizures

Headache

Light sensitivity

Sound sensitivity

This is by no means a complete list.  These symptoms were taken from http://www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/B_guidelines_12_17_08.pdf#search=%22symptoms%22 pages 9 and 10. There, you can find the complete list.

When I first went in to be diagnosed, I think I counted 30 symptoms that I had. Over the years symptoms  come and go and even change. I have no desire to count now :-) However, it is great to have this list to refer to. I hope this post hasn't been too boring... Next post is about detoxing and I'll update how things are going around here.

allison

Two hundred and thirty days.

Two hundred and thirty days. That is how long I've been doing treatment. I hit a wall for a little bit today. I was tired and I stayed in bed for 5 1/2 hours this afternoon. I really haven't done that in a long time and my body still protested when I got up. :-) Today was my last day of treatment till we return to the doctor to get the next treatment schedule. Thankfully I can rest the next two weeks. I can't imagine what it will be like, though I do have to catch up on chicken chores. I feel like I've been fighting my chickens lately. Two broody hens that had to be broken, one chicken with a bum leg, and another with prolapse. I'm not sure whether she will make it or not. Ugh. But I'll have time to work with her tomorrow.

Fall seems to have come on quite suddenly and I definitely don't look forward to putting on 4 layers just to do my chicken chores... But I do look forward to be able to do them without sweating profusely!! And oh, the fair! When a chill hits the air and the leave start turning and falling, I start to dream of the fair. Fun filled days full of delicious food and sweet animals to look at. Those two things are what I love! I have found quite a few gluten-free foods that I can eat at the fair. This year I really want a dill pickle. Those full size ones that they sell for something like 50 cents. Oh, they are so good! Fudge, nachos, roasted corn, pickles, kettle corn, ice cream, apple cider, and Al's fries. I'm a happy girl when the fair comes to town and it's less than a month away. In the past five years I've been to the fair once in a walking boot (broken foot), once in a wheelchair, and once on a mobility scooter (really broken foot). This year I am going most likely by wheelchair, but I am definitely going! And I'm going twice. Never less than twice.

The first week of this medicine cycle I had a lot of bad herxes and I needed someone with me every day. Joel, my mom, and my aunt normally handle this, but I thought they needed a break. So I called my Mema who came for 3 days. It was so wonderful to have her here. We talked and talked; she graciously cooked and even indulged me when I asked for fried chicken livers! She brought Peso, her Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix. He kept things lively for sure! But I was really glad she brought him. Overall, having a small yapping dog went well :-)

So here's to two hundred and thirty days of treatment and to the fair! There are hard things in life and fun things in life. Even when you feel like you've hit a wall, there is always something to look forward to!

September 6: National Read A Book Day

I've been wanting to a post on books since I've had a short break from the last 2 months of treatment. My word, they were hard! I couldn't have done it without my family who really kept me going when I really wanted to quit. Thankfully the doctor has pulled back my treatment so that it will take longer but not be so harsh. I am so thankful for that! I'm working on detoxing and regaining energy, but neither of them are easy. My animals are the perfect diversion-especially the chickens. Annie the dog and Obi-Wan the cat will take a nap with me, but Jasper the crazy kitty just gets into everything possible and then I get tired from chasing him around. Poor thing doesn't come in a lot because of that, but I don't think he has put 2 and 2 together. Jasper has a habit of eating things he's not supposed to (like shower curtains and fabric)so we have to be super alert when he's in. Craziness!!!

On to my favorite topic... Books! I really have a problem with acquiring books, but at least I do buy them at thrift stores and antique shops where they are 50 cents to $1.50. I have a ridiculous amount of books in the living room, and no, none of them are on a book shelf. Here they are in no particular order:

A NEW SELECTED POEMS by Galway Kinnell
 "STAND BACK," SAID THE ELEPHANT, "I'M GOING TO SNEEZE!" by Patricia Thomas 
LITTLE TOOT by Hardie Gramatky
Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
The Fabric & Yarn Dyer's Handbook by Tracy Kendall
THE FEDERALIST PAPERS by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison -edited by Richard Beeman
ESSAYS Old and New -edited by Robert U. Jameson
STORM OF SWORDS by George R.R. Martin
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
LINCOLN SPEECHES edited by Richard Beeman
BARNES'S PRIMARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES from the AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
THE SOUND AND THE FURY/AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
HALF BROKE HORSES by Jeannette Walls
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE by Dee Brown
KNOW YOUR CHICKENS by Jack Byard
Southwestern Pottery: Anasazi to Zuni by Allan Hayes and John Blom
Storey's Guide to RAISING CHICKENS by Gail Damerow
my Bible
CAST of CHARACTERS by Max Lucado
THE HEAVENLY MAN: the remarkable true story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun -with Paul Hattaway OF MICE AND MEN by John Steinbeck
ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card
THE EARTH MOVED: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms by Amy Stewart
another Bible
Jesus Today by Sarah Young
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
FARM CITY: THE EDUCATION OF AN URBAN FARMER by Novella Carpenter
Bound Feet and Western Dress by Pang-Mei Natasha Chang
CHERRY AMES CLINIC NURSE by Julie Tatham
CHERRY AMES AT SPENCER by Julie Tatham
CHERRY AMES SENIOR NURSE by Helen Wells
and... and an untold amount of chicken magazines.

35+ books on my living room floor.
I have a SERIOUS, SERIOUS problem.
I'm currently reading 8 of them.
Oh.My.Word.

herxing

It's the middle of the night, and I'm awake. I'm taking a medicine for my Lyme this week that is actually an anti-malarial drug. It kills off the spirochetes and the cysts. How do I know? Because my legs won't stop shaking and jerking and I can't even focus on the computer screen. I'm pretty much typing blind and letting spell check do the rest. My pupils are dilated like I've been to the eye doctor. No matter how much light is in a room, my pupils are taking in huge amounts of light. Days and nights like these are no fun and horrible. No sleep plus crazy things happening to you makes for one tired Allison the next day. I have one more dose of this medicine and I could not be more thankful. Right now the jerking has moved from my legs down to my feet. I think I'm gonna turn my movie back on, cause there will be no sleeping with these crazy jerking feet.

It's easy to go silent

In Blog-land it's easy to go silent if you are busy, if things are difficult, or even if you just don't feel like sharing. I think that lately it has been a little of all these things. The medicines haven't been so bad this month, but the detox has. Joel and I both have noticed that in general I have more energy. I feel a little more like a normal person. I still can't leave the house by myself, but that doesn't bother me so long as I get to Chick-fil-A every week or so. I love their fries!! There are always chickens to take care of, cats and a dog to love on, and well, to be honest, there's always Facebook. Can I claim that it keeps me in touch with the rest of the world?

Detoxification is really important during Lyme disease treatment. When you kill off the spirochetes (the bacteria that makes you sick) and the cysts that they build around themselves for protection, the side effect is that they release terrible toxins into your body. I've never handled this well; my body just doesn't detox easily. I know that there are lots of ways to detox, but the ones suggested by my doctor are Epsom salt baths, green tea, burbur drops, and lactated ringers. Most of the time all of these methods are gentle, easy ways to clear your body of toxins. However, last week after two of the lactated ringers that I did, I had spells of confusion and short term memory loss. Both symptoms went away within hours, but it was scary. Joel called the doctor and they said that this was not unusual at this stage of treatment. I just finished four straight days of IV antibiotics tonight and I'm doing my first ringer in days. I hope that it doesn't cause confusion and short term memory loss, but I'm sure the phrase "better out than in" applies to toxins as well.

In other news, we let the barn chickens free range most of the day yesterday. Joel was home with me to supervise my medicine taking in case I had anything unusual come along. After my meds, I had to drag all of the young chickens out of the barn and into the yard. As soon as I put them on the ground, they looked down and realized there was green stuff and bugs to eat. They stayed out till 8 when we had to herd them back into the barn. Hopefully next time they will go in and out of their own accord. I thought I'd post some pictures so that you can see how happy they were. I loved watching them run around and eat their fill, dust bathe, or just sit in the shade and relax. They're so cute. The picture quality is terrible because all I had was my phone, but they are cute anyway.

Here is Eugenia Price sitting on the hull of an old lawnmower. I love this picture!!

My flock.

Chicken happiness!

I'll be selling eggs soon. I get about 9 eggs a day right now but that still leaves 14 chickens who need to start laying. It's getting more exciting every day!

Please continue to help us with this medical treatment.

Hope

I was really scared about doing my medicines today. Lots of pills this morning and 2 IV bags tonight. The second IV made me incredibly sick in DC when the doctor tested it on me. Tonight, however, I have had no problems except for a little bit of wobbly head. Let me just say, God gives hope and he does not hold back. Joel reminded me that the treatment could get much harder as the week goes on, and he is right. But tonight gave me hope, and sometimes that is all you need. The song I heard in my head this evening is one that we sang in the small church I grew up in. I absolutely love hymns and the hope and comfort that they give.

To God Be the Glory
To God be the glory, great things He has done;
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,
And opened the life gate that all may go in.

Refrain

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things He has done.

O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
To every believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

Refrain

Great things He has taught us, great things He has done,
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
But purer, and higher, and greater will be
Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.

Refrain

Because hope always comes at just the right time.