Sorry that it's been a while. As my last post explained, Sam and I are temporally living with my parents here in Vancouver, WA so that we can have some extra help with my health; we've been here for about six weeks now. In all honesty, Sam and I were a little weary about coming out here. As great as our parent's are, it's never grown children's ideal to move back in with their parents. Although it has been a little difficult, overall it has been a HUGE blessing. We are incredibly grateful to my parent's for their hospitality and for doing such a great job at taking care of us. The emotional load we have been bearing on our own for this past year has been relieved substantially. We literally feel a weight lifted off our shoulders.
What's better, since moving here we've noticed substantial improvements in my health. Hoo-rah! I suppose the massive stress reduction did more good than we thought it would! I haven't had a seizure in months; dizziness and falling over have basically stopped altogether; and even the tremors have occurred less and less over the past few weeks. I still get debilitatingly tired with ridiculous ease and need a lot more rest than a normal person, and concentrating is still difficult at times, but everything is so much, much better than it use to be. I finally feel like I am becoming my normal self again, which is such a joyous thing to behold.
I had an appointment with my Lyme doctor the other week. I have reached a plateau in my progress. The Lyme bacteria originates in the blood stream, but can sneak its way into other parts of my body. Up to this point, my treatment has been focusing on getting rid of all the easy-to-kill bacteria that is directly in my bloodstream, and it has succeeded! But now the challenge is to get my immune system into those crevices of my body where the Lyme bacteria is hiding and kill those tricky guys off. So we have moved on to the next phase of my treatment - pulsing. With this technique I take a larger dosage of the antibiotics all at once, and then lay off for a few days, then take a large dosage, and back off again, alternating back and forth. The idea is that this will give a big rush of the medicine into my body and give my antibodies the extra kick they need to find and fight off the Lyme. The good news about this is that it means that I am getting better! The bad news is that, as always, when I switch up my medication, it makes me pretty sick for a while before it makes me better.
Some other news:
As many of you have probably seen via social media, my husband ran the Newport Half and my parents ran the Newport Marathon the other week. Something you might not know though is that I was actually signed up to run the half marathon as well. Sam and I signed up last September to run it, but I was later instructed my doctor not to exercise anymore and couldn't do it. Honestly, this made me SUPER BUMMED! Especially come race time when there's the excitement of all the people gathering together, getting their numbers, lining up to run - the whole thrill of it. Running has always been a coping mechanism for stress and an activity I've always enjoyed. Plus, not being able to exercise at all this past year has made me put on the pounds, which doesn't help with my already low self-esteem from not being able to do anything this past year. But even though I couldn't run it, it touched me that my family made shirts and ran in honor of me. And with May being Lyme Disease Awareness Month, it really meant a lot to me. Even though I wasn't strong enough to run this time, I know I will get better, shave off the weight I've gained, and be able to run again someday.
Thanks again for the love and support. I really don't think you know how much it means to me.
Your Sick Friend,
Makenna
