I'm sorry that I haven't posted lately. I had a post almost written, but for now I'm just going to post a short update. I'm hanging in there. There's just a lot of things going on. I heard this song and it's perfect for right now.

Carry Me to the Cross by Kutless


"When the path is daunting
And every step exhausting
I'm not alone
I'm not alone, no, no
I feel you draw me closer
All these burdens on my shoulder
I'm not alone, I'm not alone
You pull me me from this place

Hellelujah
You carry me every day
You carry me all all the way
Hallelujah
You carry me to the
You carry me to the cross

How your love has moved me, yeah
To the foot of all your glory
I'm not alone, I'm not alone
I'm not alone

Hallelujah
You carry me every day
You carry me all all the way
Hallelujah
You carry me to the
You carry me to the cross

All of these cities you have built
And every cathedral you have filled
To all of creation you gave life with your hands
And with those hands you comfort me
You lift me up from my knees
And carry me
You carry me

Hallelujah
You carry me every day
You carry me all all the way
Hallelujah
You carry me to the
You carry me to the cross
The cross
You carry me to the
You carry me to the cross"

More about the foot baths!

Does anyone know why posts will just disappear?? The really long post about my story just disappeared..if you try to click on it at the top of my blog it says that post can't be found. I guess it's gone forever?

More about the detox foot baths! No, they do not hurt! It's a 30 minute session and most people feel better after it and do feel lighter. I will eventually get to that point, but right now it still makes me feel bad just because my body is so toxic and it stirs things up. But most people feel good! It does feel good to know that all those nasty toxins are now OUT of me!! During the treatment, you just sit there with your feet in the water. You don't feel anything coming out! You should all try it! It's $30 dollars for 30 minutes. Afterwards, you can choose to have coconut lotion rubbed on your legs and feet. It's just like the spa! Not really, but it sounds like it.

I can give you more information about the foot baths if you want! Let me know if you have more questions!

Detoxing Foot Baths

Warning- If you have a weak stomach, don't look at these pictures!

Before the treatment

After

That is what came out of my body! The pores on the bottom of your feet are the biggest in the body, so it's great to detox from.

The treatment consists of a tub, salt water, and a machine thing. The black machine attached to the cord does something with the ions in the water (I'm not exactly sure how to explain it) Through osmosis, the ions go into the body, binding to toxins, and then drawing them out through the feet into the water. The different colors that come out show where the toxins came from. Last week (which is when the pictures were taken), toxins from my joints and liver came out. I think the orange is from joints and the darker color is liver. The stuff on top is yeast. Each time you do it, toxins from different places will come out. Today a lot from my liver came out.

I get a massage first to encourage the lymph system to start working again. Right now it's pretty painful still. After the massage I go get a foot bath. I'm doing this twice a week, and then do IV fluids at home the days I don't do those treatments. I haven't been doing a lot lately. The treatments wipe me out. I love getting to see people at the clinic here! I hadn't gone there for about 2 or 3 years, but now it seems like I never left. Today these two ladies and I were having a party during our foot baths! We even got free drinks! Aka electrolytes. The foot baths can make you dehydrated, so you have to really work on drinking a lot of water.

Today I just realized that there is a machine in the water that is plugged in...how do we not get electrocuted?? Interesting thought. Good thing that's never happened!

School and treatments.

Wow. It has been an interesting week. I started the antibiotics for bronchitis a week ago yesterday. By Thursday, I started having more joint pain, fatigue, and weakness. I didn't realize that Zithromax is used to kill Lyme too. Thankfully I had meds left over from various things to help the symptoms.

All I did from Wednesday until Monday was nothing. I did a couple of IVs over the weekend. I was supposed to move back into the dorms over the weekend. I had been trying to figure what classes to take and all that, and by Monday I knew that I just couldn't do what I had planned. We decided that I would stay at home this semester and only take one class. Obviously that is a very hard decision, but I know it's the right choice. The class that I am taking is Bible with the same teacher I had last semester! It's on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Yesterday I also got signed up for another online Bible Class. Since I go to a Christian College, we are required to take a certain amount of Bible classes to graduate. This semester will add 4 hours of Bible! If I can handle those classes okay, I might take another online class from a community college and it will count towards my degree at Oklahoma Christian.

Yesterday I also moved my stuff out of the dorms. I had a car full of things to take home. My roommate and our neighbor helped me move out. They helped so much. Thankfully I had brought a lot home over the break, so I didn't have all of my stuff there since I hadn't moved back in yet. So now I am officially living off campus.

My parents talked to my Lyme doctor in Reno Tuesday night. This fall I've had some weird symptoms come up such as my skin hurting, swollen and painful lymph nodes, and lots of allergic reactions to things. My doctor said that everything is due to my body being too toxic. The reason that I've gotten sinus infections, the flu, and bronchitis are because my immune system can't fight anything because of all the toxins. The reason that I'm hurting so much, so weak, and just feeling crummy is because my body is overwhelmed with toxins. The fast heart rate, shakiness, fatigue, leg numbness, rashes, neuropothy are all from the built up toxins.

Today I started treatments again at a clinic here that does some of the same things that I do in Reno, such as detox foot baths and lymphatic drainage. Today I just did the detox foot bath. I know that sounds relaxing and all, but it's really not. Detoxing stirs up everything and makes you feel very sick. I know I will have to get worse before I get better.

I will write a post about the treatments I will do at this clinic later. I'm not feeling very well from today's treatment so I'll post more about it later! I'm done with the antibiotics, but they stay in my system for another week, so we're hoping once those get out of my system I will start to feel a little better and not be in as much pain. I'm also fixing to do IV fluids once home health delivers the supplies!

Great doctors appointment and bronchitis. And a mission!

I had a post op appointment yesterday. And no, you didn't miss anything! My last abdominal surgery was in September. I guess they just missed me so much and wanted to see me again! Just kidding. They want to see their patients 3 months after surgery. I was so excited to go and tell them that I don't have pain! Well, no pain in their area of speciality, meaning no abdominal pain. I saw the PA who has helped with my 2 surgeries and everything. She's great! She said, "I'm so excited to go tell the doctor! It will make him so happy!" It was a great moment!

Finally, a year and 2 abdominal surgeries later, I am abdominal pain free! For a while, I was going to see them (obgyn) every week. There were many days spent in an exam room with tears pouring down my face because we (doctor and several PAs included) didn't know what to do to stop the pain. We also talked to them several times on the phone when I was in Reno last spring.

This is the same doctor who pretty much saved my life last December (2010). Everyone else had said that my appendix was fine because the tests were normal. They said it was just a cyst. When I saw this doctor for the first time last December, he knew something was not right. Two days later I was admitted to the hospital because the pain was so bad. Then he did exploratory surgery the next week. He said that my appendix was huge and was going to burst at anytime. Along with taking my appendix out, he took out an orange sized cyst, bleeding that filled my abdomen from a ruptured cyst, and lots of endometriosis. He was shocked that there were that many things wrong at my age and that no one had caught them. We are so thankful that he went with his first instinct and did the surgery when he did. If we would have waited even another day, he said I would have been in big trouble.

Unfortunately, the cysts kept coming back so we spent from January of last year till September trying to control the cysts which ended with another surgery this past September. They've spent a lot of time with me this past year. They have always seen me bent over in pain with my arms wrapped around my stomach. But today was different! It was wonderful!

I've had a cough for 2 and a half weeks now and it was time to see a doctor about it. I asked the doctor if she would listen to my lungs yesterday, even though she's an obgyn and that's not what I was there for. I really didn't want to go to another doctor yesterday. She was so sweet and said she would! She listened to my lungs and did a few other things and said that I have bronchitis. She gave me a prescription for antibiotics and cough medicine. I started all that this afternoon, so I'm really hoping I'll start feeling better in a day or two.

There is a group called the Infectious Diseases Society of America. To get to the point, they are the ones causing all the problems for Lyme patients. Ignoring Lyme, telling physicians that it doesn't exist, denying treatment, and shutting down doctors who do treat chronic Lyme. Yesterday on their facebook page, they said, "what would you like to see from your society in the coming year?" Someone had the great idea to storm their page with comments to acknowledge Lyme, treat it, and stop messing around! So far there are over 500 posts about Lyme! It would be great if you would go to their page and write a simple comment about anything having to do with Lyme. It can be as simple as "treat Lyme" or as detailed at how you've seen Lyme affect someone. Here is the link if you would like to help!! Thank you so much!!!

http://www.facebook.com/IDSociety/posts/357764004239867

Introducing...

Squirt Jr! (aka my new IV pole)

I hope you remember Squirt Sr. who was with us for about 2 years. 

Squirt Sr. lived a very full life. He and I started our journey together in 2009 when I got my PICC line. 

We then continued our journey when I got my port. 

He got to go on walks to the mailbox, and even a walk or two halfway down the street. He got to help play the Wii too! You have to look closely, but he's on the left in this picture.

He even got to go to Florida on vacation with my Family in 2010! 

Squirt Sr. has been gone since early 2011, which is why I've had to become creative in where to hang the IV. One day the home health company just came and took Squirt Sr. away. It was a very sad day. So since early 2011, I have been without an IV pole.

Well last Thursday we finally got everything set up with home health again! That is when Squirt Jr. got here! Squirt Jr. doesn't have a pump on it, which means it rolls so much better and goes a lot higher! It's so exciting!

Home health delivers a weeks worth of supplies at a time! We switched to a new company because the one we used previously was over charging us every time. The guy who delivered the supplies was so nice. He gave us all of his numbers and told us to call if we needed anything. He said it's not all about money and he really wants to help. He will deliver supplies anytime I need it. We told him about our ER experience last week and how we waited 4 hours just to get IV fluids. He said that he doesn't want that to happen again, and to call him immediately if we are out of supplies and he will do everything he can to keep me from going to the ER for fluids.

We also got new health insurance and so with this new company, it is a lot cheaper. I've been approved for 2 bags of IV fluids a week. I then decide when to do them. So I did one Friday and then yesterday (Monday). Home health delivers the IV bags, IV tubing, the needle to access my port, along with other supplies needed to access my port, and pre-drawn syringes of saline and heparin that are used to flush my port with before and after IVs. 

The IV tubing is different than the one that the previous company used. I love it!! Here are a couple of pictures. 

The dial is the best thing! Instead of just guessing at how fast the IV is dripping, or having to use a pump, you turn this dial to whatever speed you want. The numbers represent mL (milliliters), which is what the amount that fluids are measured in. A whole bag of fluids is 1000 mL. So on the dial on the tubing, the numbers start at 10 and go to 250 around the dial. You can go as slow as 10mL per hour or as fast as you want. In the picture above, I have it set at open which means the fluids run as fast as they can. That's how they do it at the hospital. When I'm at home, I usually run the fluids at 200 or 250mL per hour, so I turn the dial to 200 or 250. I love how you know exactly how fast it's going in instead of just guessing! Yesterday I ran them slower so it took me about 5 hours to get through the whole bag. If you just let it run like the hospital does, you can get through a bag in 30-45 minutes. 

Here's one more picture of Squirt Jr. 

I'm glad that Squirt Sr. is getting to rest peacefully. He was getting a little rusty and liked to be carried instead of pulled because the wheels didn't work well. I've missed him, but I know Squirt Jr. and I will have a lot of fun together! Squirt Jr. is much easier to take anywhere! Heres to lots more fun adventures while doing something that's not so fun. I think Squirt Jr. is ready for the challenge! 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a new year! There have been many blessings in 2011, but there have been many trials and a lot of suffering. Here are the best and worst things from each month in 2011.

January

• Best- Going to Winterfest in Dallas with my youth group for a weekend
• Worst- Several ER trips with more cysts

February

• Best- Surprise birthday party for me at midnight during a youth lock-in at church!
• Worst- More ER trips and more pain with cysts

March

• Best- My brother and dad got to come to Reno, Nevada while my mom and I were there at my Lyme doctor. We got to spend a weekend at Lake Tahoe with them.
• Worst- Being is so much pain from an orange size cyst while getting treatments in Reno. I had to be on so much pain medicine that I was not myself. My mom and I flew to Reno on March 8th. We just bought one way tickets. I also had to go to the ER a few days after we got there.

April 

• Best- My dad and brother surprised us and visited us again!
• Worst- More pain and another ER trip. Still getting treatments in Reno

May

• Best- Coming home from Reno on May 7th after being there for 2 long months
• Worst- Being in the ICU for several days a couple weeks after being home from Reno because of a severe medicine interaction caused by the ER. I had gone to the ER 4 days in a row before being admitted to the ICU

June

• Best- Finishing high school online, enrolling in college, and doing an article for the Oklahoma newspaper about Lyme
• Worst- Struggling with symptoms because I had to be taken off all of my medicines while in ICU. 

July

• Best- Landon being baptized and my graduation reception on the same day!
• Worst- Lots of joint and body pain

August

• Best- Starting college after being out of school for almost 3 years. Taking one class a day.
• Worst- More ER trips because of another cyst

September

• Best- Finally getting abdominal pain under control after another surgery
• Worst- Another abdominal surgery (3rd in a year) on September 19th and trying to go to school while hurting so much

October 

• Best- Spending time with friends
• Worst- Still trying to recover from surgery and go back to school

November

• Best- Getting to meet 2 new friends who also have Lyme
• Worst- Getting the flu and having to go to the ER while my parents were out of the country. Missing 2 weeks of school because of the flu

December

• Best- Finishing school for the semester
• Worst- Getting sick with another virus for a couple of weeks, which I still have. Going to the ER last week.

I love this verse and it's perfect as the new year starts. 

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." -Jeremiah 29:11-13

I pray that this year is the best one yet for all of us!