Good days, bad nights

Aside from Monday of this week, my treatments have really not been that bad. The morning IV's have gone swimmingly, but the evening treatments leave me feeling yucky. I just took my final antibiotic pill of the evening and I'm so thankful. I wasn't sure if I could get another one down. I'm doing my last IV treatment for two weeks and then we get to go see the doctor. I'm so excited about this! I'm actually excited about being off for two weeks, just to clarify. Tuesday and Thursday (my off days) were pretty good and I actually felt like a human being :-) The doctor believes that we will be able to get a good picture of my prognosis based on how well I do for the next two weeks. I do start a new pill next week that I have never heard of, but hopefully it won't be too bad. I'll let you know if it is.

 For the local weather report, we had a severe thunderstorm last night which left us with tons of limbs down but no downed trees, thankfully. Straight line winds preceded the storm and they were dangerous-up to 70 mph. I was convinced I was going to see one of the pecan trees in the back yard just lay on over. If the chickens in the outside pen hadn't had wire surrounding them, I'm convinced they would have blown away out of sheer stupidity. That really nice coop they have? Nope. They weren't interested in seeking shelter there.

 I have 3 laying hens who are all in need of treatment for an illness, and it is difficult to know what to do. There are no vets that really specialize in chickens, and then, really, how much is a chicken worth when it's all said and done? I've giving them baths and meds, and hopefully it will all start working. Ever wanna bathe a chicken? Just come on over and I'll put you to it. Here are the three fluffy butts and their rooster:

These meds make me so groggy. Blogging helps normally keep me awake, but I'm not sure it's working this time. I'm off to find a snack or something. Must.Stay.Awake.

Just another manic Monday

It really is "just another manic Monday." Except that I had to ask Joel if it really was Monday! That is a normal question around here these days!

It has been raining constantly around here... We had rain all spring long and never really had true spring weather. It stayed very cool. The benefit of the cool weather was that I was able to be outside a lot and our hemlock trees grew as if they had never grown before. Normally our trees will grow about an inch each spring-light green growth right on the tip of the branches. This year, our hemlocks grew 4 inches. I have lived here for 9 years and have never seen this much growth in one spring. These trees were brought from the mountains and planted here some years ago, and they are quite prized in our yard. We keep a close eye on them at all times. My husband won't even let me trim the end of one branch to clear my walking path. :-) It's okay, though, I've grown to love them too. Here are two of the hemlocks in between two of our pecan trees (also highly prized).



Just last week we weathered Tropical Storm Andrea. It was a real frog strangler. It rained sideways and frontways and backways. Today it rained just as hard, just not as long. I put my cactus out because it needed sun. Now I'm not so sure it won't drown. It's looking a little brown.

On to other news... The medicine is doing exactly what it is supposed to do in my body. It is killing the Lyme at a very fast rate. But that means that the days of feeling good are over. It is really hard to come to grips with this. I went out this weekend, but learned that now when I go out, I need my wheelchair all the time. My wonderful friend Heather supplied me with one and it is great! My awesome Sunday school class is going to be recording the lessons for me so that I can still be included and learn from the Bible. I was feeling very disconnected from church since I haven't been able to go, and this will help a ton. I've been super emotional as of late. The Lyme is in all parts of my brain-especially my frontal lobe. I cry because I feel terrible; I cry because I'm overwhelmed. Last night was the all-time low, though. I cried because one of the chickens pecked me. Looking back it is pretty funny. I'm surprised Joel held it together without laughing his head off at me. In my defense, however, it hurt really bad! This was the perpetrator:



She has a terribly sharp beak and is a proficient flier. I have three of these White-Faced Black Spanish chickens and their names are Ruby, Garnet, and Sapphire. So far, Ruby is the only one I can single out because her comb is really red. The other two look just alike.

Writing about things I love makes me super happy. But I do need your prayers now more than ever. Some days I don't remember anything about the day before. Sometimes I get so groggy during my treatments that it takes everything I have to stay awake. As the toxins build up in my body, I get very sick and spend hours in bed or on the couch. This afternoon I felt well enough to go take care of the chickens. It lasted about 20 minutes and then the fatigue hit and I couldn't move off the couch. But so it goes. I have to make it though a summer of this. Pray for me and pray for those who are taking care of me. Please donate to help us pay for the medical treatment that costs $50,000. We need more than money too. If you can help out in any way, please let us know. Leave a comment or contact me through FB or email. And if you don't do anything else, watch Duck Dynasty for me. I love me some Si!

How it all began...

My story with Lyme started 16 years ago when I was 16. Somehow I managed get covered by the tiniest ticks I have ever seen while on a hiking trip in North Carolina. In order to get rid of them, I picked them off and squished them between my thumbnails like any thinking teenager would do. Nothing bad came out of that for 6 months until I got the flu. The flu triggered the dormant Lyme disease and an auto-immune disease called Sjogren's Syndrome. My mom did some research and discovered that I had Lyme disease. Except she couldn't prove it to the doctors who wanted a physical test that would say I had Lyme. They said she was crazy; they labeled her an overprotective mother; they said she had borderline Munchausen syndrome; they said Lyme did not exist in North Carolina. And still, my loving, dedicated, frustrated mom ever persisted in taking me to doctors, trying to get that diagnosis.

It took 8, read that, EIGHT years to find a doctor who would treat me. By then, Joel and I were married. The doctor wasn't even in Raleigh, so we drove west. Now, eight years later, Joel drives me north to see the doctor. I will not mention my practitioner's name on this blog for his protection, so we'll call him "Best-Doctor-Ever." I started oral antibiotics immediately. I improved, but the medicines were always hard on my stomach because of my acid reflux. I did treatment off and on and had been off for the last two years or so to give my stomach time to heal.

Eventually, I got super sick with the Lyme, and by last summer it was obvious that something had to be done. Joel, my kind and understanding husband, left the ultimate choice up to me because we both knew how terrible the treatment was going to be (you get much worse before you get better). I was approved for IV therapy done at home. We visit "Best-Doctor-Ever" once a month or once every two months. We bring new medicines home after every visit; we pay tons of money to get me better. I get therapies that insurance companies won't pay for or even touch with a ten foot pole. We were told that the treatment costs could be as low as $35,000 and as high $60,000 or $70,000. These figures only cover our medical costs (IV medications, doctors' visits, etc...) We need help from you, --our family, friends, and acquaintances. We need help from people who may not know us but may have a link to Lyme. You can't just leave the Lyme alone and expect it to go away. Why not? Because LYME DISEASE KILLS. A great resource to learn about Lyme Disease is the documentary aptly named "Under Our Skin." You can find out about the documentary on their website http://www.underourskin.com/

While I'm thankful that my Lyme has not been life threatening, I desperately need to have a better quality of life. There is a donation button below that will allow you to donate to our medical fund. Right now we are trying to raise $50,000 dollars to cover my treatment. However, the price could fluctuate based on what treatments I receive. Please, donate. If you can't donate, pray that God would lift people up to donate.

Rough Days

Today was a rough day. I was tired and sleepy (still am) and so dizzy that I feel like I've put my head on a bat and twirled around for 20 seconds. My eyes won't focus on the same thing and that drives me nuts because it makes it hard to read or use the computer. I cooked supper but it wasn't quite a success. The food was great, but the fact that I almost burned my fingers and turned on all the wrong burners despite the fact that they are labeled specifically for me was more than I could handle. It ended in tears. But Joel was there to comfort me and remind me that it is toxins in my brain making me do things like that. He got me a Coke (my love language) and assured me it would all be okay. I know it will be okay, but sometimes in the thick of things it feels like it won't. Now I'm attached to my faithful IV pole to try to get rid of some of those toxins. Here she is: Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow, but if I don't, I'm just gonna go sit outside because for some reason I'm not dizzy our there. It is my oasis, a special blessing. And even if I can't sit outside, I'll be okay because of what it says in Lamentations 3:22. "Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

My First Rooster

I thought I would introduce you today to the first rooster I raised. His name is Gus and he is a beautiful Americauna/Easter Egger rooster. I suspected that he was a rooster the day I got him. He was only 2 days old. He was twice the size of all the chicks and he was fat. Very fat. For that reason, he reminded me of Gus Gus the mouse in Cinderella. I named him Gus and decided that if he turned out to be a she, I would call him Augusta. My initial suspicion was correct... He started crowing and grew up to be a handsome, but loud, lad. Gus was a fabulous rooster, always protecting his ladies. The problem was that he was also trying to protect them from me. When he was away from the hens, he was an absolute gentleman. I would sit on the coop floor and he would stare in my eyes and let me pet him as long as I wanted to. He let me carry him around. But he gradually got more aggressive. I didn't think it was too bad, but with a central line in my chest for the IV treatment, I couldn't take a chance. After he seriously injured my other rooster who wasn't the least bit aggressive toward me, I decided to re-home him. I still wish he lived in my backyard, but I do have a great rooster named Adah and he is the sweetest roo I know. I'll introduce you to him later.

Lyme Disease Awareness Month

     The month of May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month. I love Black  History Month, but other than that I don't keep up with what awareness month it is. I can barely keep up with which month it actually is anyway. This year, however, Lyme Disease Awareness means a lot to me because I am doing IV antibiotics after having Lyme Disease for 16 years. 16 years is half of my life. I used to be able to control the Lyme with oral antiobiotc treatment every few years. In the past year or two, however, the Lyme had become so bad that it was seriously affecting my digestive system. Without a properly working digestive system, I couldn't take tons of pills (my stomach couldn't digest them), and my intestines wouldn't absorb them even if they were digested.
     Last fall, Joel and I realized that something had to be done. And I was TERRIFIED. I didn't want to do IV therapy. We knew that the insurance company wouldn't cover it and that we would have to pay for all of it ourselves, but we also knew that there weren't any other options for us. Joel let me make the decision. He was okay with whatever I chose. That was scary too. He left the choice to me because I would be the one who would deal with all the side effects the medicines would throw at me.
     It took months for me to think about whether I wanted to do the treatment or not. I was too scared to pray about it. Then, at the Christmas social for my Tuesday morning Bible study, I shared with the other women that I was too scared to even pray about. So, instead of telling me to get over my fears, they prayed for me. That one night was such a blessing for me. For just a few hours I was freed from my fears and I prayed hard, knowing that the fear would try to regain control of my life. On the 45 minute drive home, I pray that God would give me wisdom and a clear indication as to whether or not to pursue the IV therapy knowing that it would cost us tens of thousands of dollars.
    That night God's answer was clearly "Yes." I opened my Bible to read when I got home and the passage was the transfiguration of Jesus in Matthew 17. The Bible says that Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to a mountain with them. There, he was transformed-his face was radiant and clothes became pure white. In essence, he became the image of the glory of God. The disciples (like me) were terrified, but Christ was comforted them. Matthew 17:17it says: "But Jesus came and touched them. 'Get up,' he said. 'Don't be afraid.' When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus." I felt like Christ had just spoken those very words to me. I knew that if I looked only at Jesus through this crazy journey, I could make it to the other side. I didn't know how it would all happen, but when Christ speaks, you move. You are willing to do crazy things that you don't know how you will pay for. I agreed to do a treatment that would make me oh-so-sick before I ever got better. I agreed to let God handle the money for us. I agreed to let God walk us through this for his glory, because without him I just couldn't make it.
    This is the short version of what is going on. Not all posts will be doom and gloom (though today and yesterday sure felt like it). Please forgive this English minor's grammatical errors. Forgive the spelling errors. The treatment really muddles my brain, but I can explain that later. It has been humbling for me to suddenly not be able to do things that I took pride in before I started treatment. It's been humbling, but I am learning that a humble place is a great place to grow in God.  
     

Pimento Cheese

I was talking to my best friend about a week ago-this is how it went:
Crystal: "What are you doing?"
Me: "Fixin' to make pimento cheese."
Crystal: "What?"
Me: "I'm fixin' to make pimento cheese."
Crystal: "Allison, I can't understand what you are saying!"
Me: "I am going to make pi-men-to cheese."
Crystal: "What in the world is that?"

For those of you who have been deprived and have never tried pimento cheese, I thought I'd give a recipe!

First you need a block of cheddar cheese. I prefer mild, but some people prefer medium or sharp cheese. Grate it into pieces as small as you want (this is not an exact science!).


The second ingredient is diced pimentos. You will add half of the pimentos to the cheese. Make sure you drain them well.


Third, add about 1/4 cup of mayonnaise, preferably Duke's Mayonnaise.



Stir well and you have homemade pimento cheese!


Pimento cheese is best served on crackers, celery, or spread in between two pieces of white bread! It is a great snack or shower food.