The project

We're having a gallery auction. The kids are going to create one masterpiece (one per class) and we'll auction them off. The highest bidder wins. The money is going to help the Tsunami Victims in Japan. I purchased the materials for the project and gave it out on Friday. I can't wait to see each classrooms creations.

sometimes I wake up

in such a great mood. I have no idea why, but I wake up SMILING. It's such a great feeling! :}

I have a post in mind to do, but I've not had time (imagine that!) to work on it. I'm working on a really big project at work and it pretty much consumes my mind at all times. I'll share about that later because I'm really excited about it. Anyways .... got to run to work (or drive ... that's my preference since it's a good 45 minute drive).

Surviving the Raw Nose

I've seen to get over the worst part of the illness. I'm still coughing (which always lasts forever), but the thing that surprises me is the amount of mucus! Oh My Word. It just seems to be non-stopped. My nose was pure raw from the blowing. I finally had to pull out vaseline and pretty much lather it on my nose and lips after every single nose-blow.

Update

So I was pretty sick over night. Yesterday I fought to stay at work. Probably paid the price last night. I was doing pretty well, but decided on a whim to take some Night Time Delsym. Figured it would help me sleep and keep the coughing at bay over night. So I took the dose around 8pm. Around midnight, I woke up burning up. I thought that I had turned up my electric blanket so I checked it. It was OFF. Apparently I was so hot that I turned it off in my sleep. There are 10 levels on my blanket and I generally sleep with it on level 3 or 4. Sometimes hotter and sometimes cooler, but mostly 4. So I was shocked when it was OFF.

I decided to check my temperature and was a little stunned when I saw it say 100.5. I decided to wait 30 minutes to recheck and as I laid there ... I got hotter and hotter. When I rechecked it hit the 102 mark. I decided it was time to go ahead and take Tylenol. I went ahead and got a bottled water and Tylenol thinking that soon I'd be able to go back to sleep. Well by 2am, my temperature had reached a shocking 103.5. I stumbled into the kitchen to get a cool wet cloth for my body. I knew I had to take care of that fever quickly, but I can't take Motrin. Motrin makes my eyes swell up. It may help with the fever, but the last time I took Motrin I wound up at the Urgent Care getting a Steroid Shot.

I argued with myself over whether to use the Motrin or not and in the end decided that I would hold off. I continued to check. At 3:30am, it was 104.6. At this point I was pretty much out of it trying to sip water. Throughout all of this, I talked out loud to God. I knew He was with me. I knew He wouldn't give me more than I could handle. I remember asking for him to take away the fever. Somewhere around 4, I essentially passed out and woke at 5am when my alarm went off. I felt the coolness of the sweat and knew my fever broke.

Needless to say, I will be starting those antibiotics because I haven't gotten any better and all the factors my doctor said to watch out for started. I'm so glad to be alive. I'm so glad to be alive. Praise God I'm still alive.

cough cough sneeze

Because I'll have a long day of work tomorrow and because my head hadn't improved with Claritin or Zyrtec or Tylenol or any other thing and this morning was even worse, I decided to cough my way to the doctor.

I sound completely pathetic so if no one gets phone calls this week ... it's because it is down right frustrating to talk. When I left work today, I called over to my PCP to see if by chance they could squeeze in a sick visit. I was thrilled when they asked if I would be willing to see "K." "K" is the nurse practitioner that I saw before my diagnosis. She sent me here and there trying to find out what was wrong with me. Though I was frustrated with no diagnosis, I loved seeing her. She knows my "preferences." And what I mean by that is that she knows which antibiotics I prefer and she also knows that I prefer to do something else before antibiotics. So I went in today telling her about my symptoms. I knew that I didn't have an infection yet, but I also knew that within 24 to 48 hours I might.

I told her what I had tried (minus some special integrative things that she probably has never heard of) and what I thought. She investigated (looking at my ears, nose and throat) and told me that there was no infection (yet), but that she would write me a script just in case the tides turned. She also sent me on my way with 7 days worth of samples of Singulair ( I used to take it before Lyme during the seasonal times). I get to take this and hopefully it will improve. If not, then Zithromax will be my friend again. While it's not my favorite antibiotic, I know it works.

Gah! These pollinating trees are going to be the death of me. I think every bone in my face hurts. Hopefully the Singulair will work and I won't need the Z pack.

Allergy Season

I love March for one reason. It's March Madness. Basketball. UNC.

However March also makes me mad. It's the start of allergy season. So I woke up yesterday with a small sore throat and itchy eyes. Thought I'd "work through it" on my own, but this morning I woke wiht even more sore throat, irritating nose drippage and a small cough. All this tells me, I better jump on this and quick. Leucozepin, Zinc, Total B drops, Vitamin D ... to start. Then add in a Claritin and finally ... I had to add in Tylenol.

I'm hoping to be able to knock this out before it turns into an infection. Lately I've not been able to do that, but we'll see.

Madness, March Madness. One part exhilarating and the other part frustrating. Speaking of both the weather and basketball.

Is it summer yet?

I'm ready for summer because I'm ready for So You Think You Can Dance. I am wanting it so bad that I googled some dancing. And I found this:




Well this search led me to look up the artist of the song. I looked her up. I couldn't believe it.
She's actually a friend of mine. I didn't realize she was a singer/song writer. We had never talked about our careers. We had only talked about bad Doctors, Integrative Medicine, PICC Lines, Heavy Metal Poisoning and Lyme Disease. Anyways, I wanted to share with you Alisa's music.

Here's the full song called Breathing by Alisa Turner



Here is another song that I just have fallen in love with .. I can't get the tune out of my head.It's called Trouble.



Alisa is so sweet. I've seen her struggles, her troubles and she's seen what few have seen. Me at my very worst at the peak of my condition.

If you check out her music page on myspace, you can hear her music there too.

http://www.myspace.com/alisaturner/music/songs/trouble-68778538

Roller Coaster Changes

Life is funny sometimes. It wasn't too awfully long ago that I cried almost every day. Then one day, I forced myself to change. I didn't even realize how upset I was all the time until a friend pointed it out. She asked what happened to the bubbly Jennifer she used to know. Oh what a question that was. I thought and thought and realized that the bubbly Jennifer was still there, but very guarded. It was in that moment I made a choice to change back. I slowly chipped away at the bad bits and even through the worst moments of my life managed to smile through the pain. I opened up my soul, my heart, my spirit to those around me. Every day, I change just a little bit. And today as I was thinking about this, it reminded me about this song sung by Addison Road. I realized that no one is perfect, not even those that we look up to and respect. Even those that we've known for a while can do things that hurt us. So what do we do when someone we respect and look up to hurts us or someone we love? We forgive because one day ... there will be a change in the making.

Has it really been four years?

It's hard to believe that today marks the fourth year of my Lyme diagnosis. I can't believe I've been through hard core antibiotic treatment, hard core IV alternative treatment and came out the other side of the Lyme life.

I can't believe it's been four years since a doctor finally listened to me and explained to me why I had Lyme Disease and why all the testing had been wrong. I'm so blessed to be alive. Four years and a day ago, I honestly thought I was dying. And here I am, four years later, blessed to be alive. Thank you God for sending me a phenomenal doctor who thinks outside the box.

Because he thought outside of the box, I've been able to live.

Flowers courtesy of my wonderfully thoughtful husband on Valentine's Day.