Progress is Progress

It is October. OCTOBER. How in the world is it October already? These past few months have gone by so fast and so incredibly slow at the same time! I guess I should start off where I left off in the last update. Shortly after my last post my dad and I made an amazing trip to Florida. We spent a lot of our time at the beach (As most know that is my favorite place in the whole world to be). To make it even better we went skydiving together as well! Saying it was "fun" is such an understatement! Skydiving is one thing that I will do several times throughout my life. It was so much more than I could have ever imagined! Seeing Key West and all its beauty from 10,000 feet was incredible. Once the parachute had been pulled we made our way slowly to the ground (but still 3,000 ft up) the instructor I was attached to asked me if I had ever touched a cloud before. Of course my answer was no but seeing as there were all these white puffy clouds around us like you see on the most beautiful days he could hear the anticipation in my voice. With one tug on the parachute we were headed straight to the edge of a cloud which I then proceeded to reach out and grab the puffiness out of the sky. To my surprise and amusement it was kind of gross. It does not feel as it looks. It was amazing to be able to "touch" the cloud but in reality I just felt like I had stuck my hand in a swimming pool in the middle of the sky. Either way I was a very very very happy girl that week not even to mention how much I loved that it was just my dad and I on a trip together.

Once we got back from Florida, life returned to its normal activities that included work and doctors appointments. Work was steadily getting harder and harder. Half of it was because of my health and the other half was because the ages of the kids at work. The new baby that had just been a newborn a few short months ago was now nine months old and crawling up a storm with a territorial 2 year old who didn't like his baby brother's new skill. Despite new challenges I stilled loved my job!

A couple weeks later Church Kamp came around and I was so happy and so sad at the same time. This year was my last year but its Kamp! You can't possibly go to Kamp and NOT have fun. Kamp is so full of activities they actually give teenagers a nap time! I love Kamp and I will miss it but I have memories that will last a life time.

After Kamp everything slowed down and we started to get back into the routine of things when another big decision was thrown at us. Lyme disease was starting to get the upper hand and my oral antibiotics were no longer doing the trick. I was NOT going to let that happen for long! So our next option was to choose between another treatment altogether or go to the next step with antibiotics which mean IVs. It was a very hard choice. I felt like everything was trial and error and we didn't really know what we needed to do. I just wanted someone to tell me how to fix it and I would do it, but unfortunately that is not how it works with Lyme. In the end, we decided that antibiotics had worked before to get me into remission so we would keep trying the antibiotics and just upgrade to IV antibiotics. Which leads me to where I am today.

On August 8th I had a power port put in. Let me tell you, its a weird thingymajiger. You can see it and feel it and its just weird. My nurse side of me thinks its pretty cool though lol. I have been on IV antibiotics for two full months and so far it is working. The pain has increased dramatically the past two weeks due to herxing BUT I HAVE MY BRAIN BACK! I can write and read and pass tests! Its progress and its amazing! I even passed a Psychology CLEP test last week! So I am pretty excited about that part of the progress. The other part not so much. Last week I hit my pain limit and to our surprise we found the PERFECT pain management doctor in Dallas. It was a total God thing. A pain doctor that knows Lyme Disease! Now that is crazy amazing! My hesitation to going to a pain doctor before was the fact that most doctors don't believe in "Chronic" Lyme disease and therefore don't believe I could possible be in as much pain as I say i'm in. So to find a doctor that I know won't blow me off as a pain killer addict is such a huge relief to me! I see this new doctor on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next week and we are starting a new kind of infusion that is supposed to lower my pain level for an extended amount of time. The fact that I may be almost pain free or have a significantly lowered pain level in a week or less makes me so hugely excited. I can't even put the extent of my excitement into words!

All in all, progress is progress and I will be happy with what I am given. Even if the infusions next week don't work there is still hope for the future. Compared to what Jesus suffered on this earth I am very happy with what I have. My pain is little compared to what he suffered for me. I can deal with whatever life throws at me as long as I have He who gives me strength. My battle has been won and I have won because God is with me and his love never fails. My battle was conquered the day Jesus died for me. I trust God's plan for me. I may not always know what that plan is but none the less his plan is ALWAYS better than anything I could have planned for myself. I am the daughter of a KING who is not moved by this world for MY GOD IS WITH ME and goes before me. I DO NOT FEAR because I AM HIS.  I have nothing to fear when the God of angel armies is on my side.




And thank you Noah for "patiently" waiting since May 28th for this post lol you are totes awesome lol *insert laughing emoji here* I will try to update it more often in the future!