More Prayers

I'm not sure I am ready to divulge all of the information I learned today, but what I would really like prayers regarding is the emergency blood work taken today. Please pray that the blood work looks remarkably better than it did in March. Please pray that March was just a fluke and that today's blood looks normal. This is in regards to the Hemoglobin & Platelet Counts. Thanks so much.

Quiet Month of August

Here are some synonyms for the word quiet:

"buttoned up, clammed up, close-mouthed, could hear a pin drop, hushed, inaudible, low-pitched, muffled, muted, noiseless, not saying boo, peaceful, quieted, reserved, secretive, silent, soft, soundless, speechless, stilled, tight-lipped, uncommunicative, unexpressed, nonspeaking, and whist."

I feel like this month, I have been reserved and uncommunicative. The bad days in August outweighed the good. That is extremely upsetting for me as I have had pretty good months since February. My husband had his appointment yesterday and we have two different views on how it went. I left feeling pretty rotten about the whole appointment and he left uplifted. Just goes to show you how different we are. Let's just make it succinct to say that he will be getting 6 IV's which will hopefully take care of a deficiency he has.

The good of the IV's will be that he *should* get more energy and it should bring up some nutritional levels that are really low. Since he's never had an IV before, our nurses should have no problems getting a vein. That will be very beneficial for him. The bad of the IV's is that we are finally *almost* out of the woods with my debts because of the things we've had to do financially. In September, he'll have 4 IV's. In October, he'll have 2 IV's and we'll both have follow ups. This doesn't include the financial burden of all new supplements for both of us. He says we'll make it and I just get really nervous and "clammed up." The other bad part is that these will take 4 hours out of his Saturdays. Fortunately my doctor's office is open on Saturdays, but who wants to spend their Saturday's at the doctors. Not to mention, these IV's are similiar to ones that I received at the beginning of my treatment. I know what they did to me and I fear they will do the same to him. I was able to be awake enough to drive home, but as soon as I got home I fell asleep for hours. They gave me tremendous headaches and he's already got those with the new medicine for Candida.

Speaking of Candida, He's already feeling the effects of Candida Treatment and he's talking about things I talked about 2 years ago. I think we found the bulk of his problem. Not Lyme, but Yeast. I won't even go to all the Cardiac problems we think (know) he has. It's too scary to think about. The good news is that he's lost many pounds of weight since his last visit. We're headed towards the right direction.

Now on to me: I have yet to start my LDN and I just get so nervous when I start new things. I need to just suck it up and take it, but the fear of the unknown has had me stalling for the last week and a half. I got one part of my blood work back and 3 of the numbers are out of range and 3 of the numbers are close to out of range. I have a fear that this means he'll want some IV work again on me. Two of us on IV's at the same time? There is NO WAY. I fear what the other blood work will show, but am grateful that they were able to show me the things that have come back.

So when do we go back?

The hubby goes back the first Saturday after Labor Day and goes for 6 Saturdays. On his 5th Saturday, I have my follow up appointment. On his 6th Saturday, I have my follow up appointment. I speculate we will both have bloods after that and then go back in 6 to 8 weeks unless we both are in need of IV's still at that point.

And PICC is a 4 letter word that I don't ever want to see again. Neither is PORT. The doctor says "IV" and those are the two four letter words that come straight to my mind. Well you might ask, "Well you've not had a PICC since February and prior to that no IV insertions since July of 08, why would it automatically mean PICC? Aren't your veins healing?" Well let me tell you a lil story.

A bit after my PICC was removed, they drew blood. You would think that after 7 months of no IV insertions or no regular blood draws that this would be a simple task. Uh no it wasn't. It was absolutely one of the worst experiences that I've had thus far. That was in February of this year. Fast Forward to August 19th. Keep in mind, I hadn't had an IV stick in over a year and I had only had blood drawn ONE time in over a year. The other times were through my PICC line.

I prepare for the blood draw by drinking LOTS of water. I see the Phlebotnist and warn her that I can be quite difficult to stick. Now in the last 3 years, I have yet to meet a Phlebotnist that could get me on the first stick. So I had high expectations of my dear friend who had never had the pleasure of drawing blood from me because only a qualified nurse can draw blood out of a PICC. She promised me it would be simple and easy and that the 13 vials of blood would be a piece of cake!

Because I have passed out in the past and I knew that I had passed out on a "simple" 8 vial draw, I requested to go to my old PICC room so that I could lie down if necessary. She gets things set up and says "Oh there is a beautiful vein." I do my breathing when the lady jabs me so hard that I felt my ears pulsing. She says she got it and starts filling the tubes. The whole time I'm praying, "keep flowing blood .. keep flowing" because I know what happens every time.

The blood always stops after 3/4 of a vial and then they have to jiggle the needle to squeeze blood out of turnip and it always turns into .. "Oh I have to pull this one and try again." Uh yeah it happened again. Two of them were pulling and prodding my arm trying to get the blood to come out, but in the end they pulled the needle and were ready to start again. I told them to go on to the next easy stick and come back to me later. They left me with my heating pad and water. The RN (whom I absolutely love) came back and said she'd work on finding the right vein for the blood draw. We worked together and finally found one.

After an hour, I finally left. Now I still have a small bruise on my arm where they manhandled me to try to get blood. SO you can see why when they say IV .. I think PICC.

Chelation Challenge.

Tomorrow I have the Chelation Challenge.

I'm sure everything will come out just fine, but please pray that it goes quickly and that all my test results come back in normal range. I try to be strong and patient, but I am tired of this PICC Line and am ready for some normalcy (whatever that is).

I know it's all in God's time and I will be patient should I need to keep the PICC Line in for longer. However, it would be nice to know that the end of this PICC Line is in sight (like February maybe) and not have another kind of treatment on top of the maintenance part of Lyme Therapy.

AMT Treatment

For some reason , I scheduled my treatment on a Saturday. I could have been at a Christmas party today or even a UNC basketball game or even a Christmas Carole. Instead, I chose to give up my Saturday for this treatment.

I start the treatment 9:30 North Carolina time. It will probably end Noon and I will be out of it for the rest of the day and into tomorrow. It will make symptoms come out that I have been struggling with the past few days (coughing, sweating, ear problems, visual perception problems, and problems that I haven't had in 8 weeks .. like dizziness, drooling, difficulty swallowing, overall unwell feeling).

Please may God have mercy on my body today and that I don't have to suffer long. Also sleeping through the bad feeling is better for me so pray that I sleep through the worst part.

Thanks

I am wealthy

Keep in mind that my blogs .. are my opinions alone. They aren't meant for controversy or for people to get into an uproar. They are just what I am feeling at the very moment I am writing.

So I've been thinking about the term "wealthy" lately. It's not that odd that I would be thinking about "wealth" or "lack there of" during the Thanksgiving Holiday. It is generally the time when people are thinking about purchasing gifts for loved ones for Christmas. It is hopefully the time in which we think about the "wealth" of gifts the wise men brought for baby Jesus.

Commonly when people think of wealth, the things that come to mind are money, valuable belongings and property. People probably think of how wealthy others are to determine how wealthy they think they are. If they live in an area where everyone drives BMW's, then they probably don't feel very wealthy if they drive a Chevy Nova. If they live in an area where everyone drives a Chevy Nova, they would in all likelihood feel quite well to do if they drove a BMW.

Now let's "remove" the money aspect of wealth.

Wealth in general means an abundance of something. So if someone were to look into my cabinets, they might find a wealth of plastic cups or a wealth of needles for syringes or even a wealth of vitamins. Still those are "things" that a monetary assignment can be placed. It *cost* me to get those things. If someone were to look into my heart ... they would find a wealth of something that a monetary value can not be given. They would find an abundance of compassion, of laughter, of happiness, of friends, of memories and so much more.

So am I a wealthy person? Do I have the latest and greatest of things in my home? Compared to some that live in the area ... No I do not. Compared to others ... Yes I do. But am I wealthy? Do I have an abundance of things in my heart in which a price can not be determined? Yes I do. Can people (IE the bank) take these things from me? No they can't. I have a wealth of beautiful memories that no one can take. I have a wealth of friends, laughter, happiness, compassion and knowledge. So today ... I thank God that I am wealthy. My prayer is that all of you can be wealthy too.

Provers 19:8 (NIV)
He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who cherishes understanding prospers.

Treatment tomorrow

I have my doozy of a treatment tomorrow on 10-9-08. So pray for me. I probably won't be "with it" to blog tomorrow.

Prayers for Tricia

Tricia has been admitted to the hospital on Monday night. She has not been feeling well at least the last week or so. Her history if you don't know is that she's had a double lung transplant. She has Cystic Fibrosis and also has Lymphoma in her new lungs. She's had 4 rounds of the hard chemo (and even more before the hard stuff began) and she was going to find out how the chemo was doing. It is always difficult when Tricia gets a little cold because it can turn into a huge infection. A huge infection in her brand new lungs can be a very bad thing. ICU has already been mentioned.

Please if you read me ... please please please go see Nathan's blog and read about Tricia. Pray for Tricia. Pray for Nathan & Gwyneth and their entire family. I have had the privileged of hanging out with them on more than one occasion and they are great friends of a friend of mine.

Find Kelly Currin

I know I do not not have a huge following nor are the people that read my blog in the Granville County area of North Carolina, but if by chance you are ........ please help them find Kelly. Obviously the longer a woman is missing, the worse the outcome. The other thing you can do is pray that the family can find her.

There is a missing lady from the town I grew up in. I went to high school with her and her brother. I did not know her, but was acquaintances with her brother. Kelly was friend's with many of my friends however and still lives in the same county.

She has been missing for a month now. The facts that are known are this:

Kelly is 28 years old. She has two children and married to a man named Scott Morris. The authorities have found her car which had her keys, purse and cell phone a mile from her house shortly after her disappearance. Kelly's house was on fire and burned down the same day she disappeared. According to the authorities, Kelly has not been found in the home.

The family has offered a 30,000 dollar reward for information that leads to finding her. I saw this on a comment on WRAL's story on her.


"On behalf of the Currin family, we are requesting any and all available personnel for a continued missing person search in Granville County. We will meet at the Orange County Rescue Squad in Hillsborough at 0630 Saturday morning. We will meet at the Currin Construction company on the northwest corner of Old Weaver Trail and NC Highway 50 in Wake County just south of the Granville County line at 0700. Please pass this along to anyone and everyone that you know so we can get as large a group as possible. We have been asked about horseback and ATVs. All are necessary and greatly appreciated. Please forward this email to all those you know and any listserv you may be a part of to help gather those who can work beside us to assist the Currin Family and the Hollis Family in bringing their daughter home." by member: betty8i

Bradford Microscope

A while back (in February or march of 08), I heard about this special microscope. Someone I knew online had gone out to New Mexico and had an analysis done of her blood under this special microscope invited by a Dr. Bradford. I thought to myself it would be very cool to have this done, but knew that I'd never fly to New Mexico to have it done. So I just thought I would never have the opportunity.

In April of 08, I was very sick. I wasn't moving forward in the healing way so my doctor suggested this very weird protocol (that I explained in an earlier blog). I was struck by the name. He called it "The Bradford Protocol" invented by Dr. Bradford. I inquired was it the same Bradford as the microscope. He confirmed indeed it was. I was given a contact of a lady that actually had seen Dr. Bradford and I called her. She told me that this doctor (not Bradford, but another lady) comes to her house occasionally and sets up the Bradford Microscope. I told her I would be very interested. The problem is that it's about 2 or 3 hours from my house. So I never thought it would really be an option.

Well this past wednesday, I get notice that this lady is looking for me. I call her and she informs me that this doctor with the microscope is coming to her house on saturday. By Thursday evening, it had changed plans even more. This doctor was actually going to be coming about 45 minutes away from my house. I was thrilled. So that appointment was today. Several "fun" things happened at this appointment. First, I met another patient of my doctor. She was very nice and besides Lyme we had a lot in common. Then I met another lady that I have been talking to online for several months. I had been looking forward to meeting her, but had no idea that she would be there. :) (though I did invite her to come, I wasn't sure if she'd be able to b/c of the short notice).

I found out many interesting things today. At my regular appointment with my lyme doctor, we had discussed how we thought my issues were now Yeast and maybe Parasites. We thought perhaps we had exhausted all the Lyme issues and that we were finished with Lyme Disease. I was thrilled with this. Then I got to the Live Cell Analysis. :( I don't know whether to find what we discovered exciting b/c of all the treatment we've done my blood work could have looked worse ... or disappointing b/c I still have a lot of issues to work through.

I saw lots of interesting things in my live cell analysis. *wow* If my blood looks as bad as it did now, I hate to imagine what it looked like a few months ago.

In the wet sample, she saw Lyme Spirochetes as well as Lyme Cysts in my white blood cells. One blood cell she looked at had four or five cysts in it. They were floating everywhere and eating some of my red blood cells. While we were watching, we saw one spirochete break off one blood cell and swim towards another. We also so many spots of Yeast. She said that Lyme and Yeast were definitely a concern. We saw several bacterial blobs that looked like a bunch of spirochetes bunched together with like tentacles (she called them blebs).

We also saw some lemon drop looking things and I don't remember what she said they were. We saw parasites in the wet sample as well as Black Fungus. There was a lot of both in the sample. She also said she saw Plaque. In the dry sample, she looked at several samples. In each of the samples, she said it was supposed to be a sea of red with a fisherman's netting of black over top. Mine had many white spots in it and the netting wasn't as prominent as it's supposed to be. She also said that there was a dark/light grey around the sample indicating that I have heavy metal toxicity.

So:
1. Parasites
2. Black Fungus
3. Lyme spirochettes and Cysts
4. Yeast
5. Plaque
6. Heavy Metal

I am worried that I have so many issues still. I saw what is in ONE DROP of my blood. If all of that was in ONE DROP .. what's in the rest? I am trying to be strong and be courageous and brave. It's very difficult.

Daniel 10:19 (Contemporary English Version)

The angel touched me a second time and said, " Don't be frightened! God thinks highly of you, and he intends this for your good, so be brave and strong." At this, I regained my strength and replied, " Please speak! You have already made me feel much better."

My Lyme Therapy

I have been in Lyme Disease treatment since the end of February 2007. For most of the time, I was doing a fairly traditional treatment using oral antibiotics and some nutritional IV treatment (which is somewhat experimental). I could list the different orals I was using, but that would just bore you. I did start off with the most traditional treatment there is with Doxycycline. This particular drug is very tough to tolerate when you have Lyme Disease. What happens is it kills parts of the bacteria and then leaves you with toxins. Those toxins make you feel very lousy. For me, it caused major nausea, vomiting and loose stools. I was on generally 3 or 4 antibiotics at a time. Lyme Disease has different "forms." and each antibiotic killed the different forms. It also targeted other tick borne illnesses too.

Well after over a year of oral antibiotics and some nutritional IV treatment, I was not getting well. In fact in some ways, I was worse than when I started treatment. There were many things that improved though. One day back in April of 08, I began to feel very sick again. I was hallucinating (sounds and visual), feeling dizzy, passing out, and other things that I am having trouble remembering. It was a very low point for me. My husband rushed me to my Lyme Physician so he could see how very badly I was feeling.

It was at this point that we all knew that we had to do something different. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. I was presented with an experimental option that my physician had just started after he had seen success with another patient. He told me to sleep on it, pray on it, research it and do whatever I had to do in order to make this decision of whether I wanted to do this treatment.

I made a phone call to this patient of his, googled until my fingers felt like they were going to fall off, but most importantly ... I dug deep within my soul and prayed like I had never prayed before. I had a decision to make and though it did not have to be immediately, I felt like I needed answers. How could I make a decision about a treatment that I couldn't even find on google? How could I decide that I wanted to place my life in the hands of a doctor that I didn't even know existed two years before? So I did what I was taught when I was little .. I opened up the red book with gold edges that had my maiden name written on the front from 1987. I opened up the Word of God, took a deep breath and prayed that my answers would be found in the depths of the Bible.

I flipped with my eyes closed ... I opened to one page and like a kid with a map .. put my finger down. I discovered this:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."- Philippians 4:6-8

I focused on the first line: "Do not be anxious about anything." I knew my answer. I had to do this treatment. I am doing what is known as the Antimicrobial Therapy. I started off going twice a week to get this treatment and then it went to once a week. Now I am going once every three weeks. The treatment is difficult. The first treatment my husband had to carry me out of the office to the car. I don't remember. I sleep for most of the day which is probably good because if I were awake I probably wouldn't feel so good.

This treatment is killing Lyme, Bartonella, Candida, and other things that I probably have that I just don't know about yet. I have had 9 treatments so far. How is it working? I will tell you that last weekend was the best weekend I have had in years. I know it is doing it's job and I just have to tough it out. Today is one of those treatments for me. I will be starting around 9am.

The nurse gets all the bags ready (3 in all) and infuses them into my PICC line. Now that I have the PICC Line (an IV that stays in my arm until I finish the treatments), life is much easier and harder at the same time. It's easier because it takes 2 hours to do the treatment. It no longer burns my arms and it goes straight to my heart. It's harder because my day to day life is much more difficult with the catheter. However in the end, it will be worth it.

Stay tuned: for PICC: the good, the bad and the ugly.