Sunday update

Last week was a difficult week. Not only was I emotionally drained from my grandfather's poor health, I had a cold. It was not pleasant. I wasn't sure if I would have the immune system to beat it, but so far so good. I took all my immune building supplements and was reminded of one special supplement that I have and took it today as well. It is a supplement that I took for to kill bacteria, but thought it might be useful for this particular strain of whatever it is that I have.

Because it does kill the Lyme bacteria as well, the potential for herxing is there. For those not in the Lyme speak, "herxing" is the effect of when the bacteria dies and creates toxins. Those toxins make you feel quite lousy and sometimes it makes you feel even worse than lousy. I fear the potential of the "herx," but I know that I need this supplement right now. When I return from the beach, I will begin a new supplement. This supplement may also create the herx reaction. I received this supplement last week, but have been terrified to take it.

It's Prima Una de Gato. (Most know it's name by: Cat's Claw) It is so strong that I have to take one drop in four ounces of water. Then increase each day until I get up to five drops. Depending on how I do, I may have to increase very slowly. Oh the other thing that I had done a couple of weeks ago was have my lab work redone. I wanted to see if I could possibly get a positive Lyme test. Through Labcorp, they have a negative, equivocal and positive results. There are no specific bands to look at .. it just gives you an overall answer. I do not know what my Labcorp results were previously, but this time I had an Equivocal result. This means that the bands weren't strong enough to be a full on positive, but there was something there so they couldn't say it was negative. I am waiting on my IgeneX test results. Those show more details on specific bands.

I can tell that stress is playing a role on how I feel physically. I have had small amounts of joint and muscle pain. I have also had a significant amount of twitching. The weather has also played a small role. It snowed the 2nd day of March, then it was hot at the end of the week and now it's cold & rainy! It has rained most of the week. Rainy weather affects my joints and muscles. It also affects my moods.

I had so much fun at Congress on Wednesday, but I was exhausted & winded at the end of a very short visit. It taught me that I am definately not at 100 percent. I received a hand written letter from Senator Rouzer from Johnston County. He is the Senator that had just read my letter prior to me walking into his office. However, he was not available so we talked with his wonderful assistant. :o)

And props to my best friend. He always seems to know exactly what I need when I am feeling down. He always seems to call when I'm feeling my lowest and knows exactly what to say or do to help me get my chin up. Props to my other friends too. You guys all rock. You have no idea how much your support and prayers have meant over the last week. The phone calls, the IM's, the emails, the comments --- you guys have a special place in my heart.

Just so it doesn't throw you off guard, I plan to take a Time Out from blogging this week. My husband and I are going to the beach on Wednesday. It will be a huge blessing to get out of town. My mother in law will be a huge blessing to us and stay out our house while we go out of town. Her staying will allow us to go out of town without worrying about our dogs or phone messages. She'll be able to hear all of our messages so if my family calls about my grandfather. We will return on Sunday. I'm sure I'll have a lot to say when I get back!

I believe I will skip Not Me Monday this week. I know I've said it before and still participated, but I have a lot of packing and cleaning to do before I leave on Wednesday.