Im sorry i haven't updated yet. I've had a scary evening at the clinic and we just got back to the apartment. I will definitely update tomorrow, because Im too wiped out to now from the medicine they had to give me.

Safe in Reno

We are here. We woke up around 4 this morning and we are very tired! Both of our flights were good and everything went well. They upgraded our car that we are renting here, so we have a black Jeep Liberty! It's so nice. We were expecting a small car. After we got our car, we went through the drive through of In and Out Burgers. It is such good food. Everything is fresh, never frozen! Then, we went to our apartment where I am currently. I was so worried that it would bare and not fun to be in like one of our past trips. But it's so pretty and decorated!

My mom carried all of our bags up the stairs to our apartment and now I'm fixing to unpack. The plan for today is to just hang out! Later today we are going to Barnes and Noble, and then to Whole Foods to get dinner and some other food! I'm so excited for that!! We are getting a Whole Foods in OKC, but it's not there yet.

To us it is 4:30 pm, but here it is only 2:30 pm. I'm really excited to go to bed early tonight!

Tonight at 10 pm, I have to fast until after some tests tomorrow at the clinic. It's not a big deal, I just sometimes forget that I can't eat or drink!

Here are some pictures from the day.

In Dallas. It was very foggy

Here is our apartment!

This is what you see when you come up the stairs from the garage

Kitchen

Living room

Patio

My bedroom

So last night an anonymous person dropped off a package at my house. I opened it, and look what it is!!!! It's a Nook from Barnes and Noble!!! You put books on it! You can also put games, music, and get on the Internet. I am SO excited!! That's part of the reason we are going to Barnes and Noble tonight, so that I can ask them a few questions and get a case for it so that I don't break it :) They also gave me a gift card to buy books with! Seriously, I am so amazed at how generous and thoughtful people are.

To whom ever bought this for me and delivered it, thank you SO much. It will make the long days here easier! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

I'm now going to go unpack and get ready to go to Barns and Noble and Whole Foods! I hope you are having a great day. I'll update tomorrow sometime, probably in the evening since it will be a long day!

Tomorrow is the day...

My mom and I leave for Nevada tomorrow morning at 7. Way early! And yes, we are flying. I think it's at least a 24 hour drive, which does not sound pleasant. I've finally started to pack. Would anyone like to come help me pack? I didn't think so! How am I supposed to pack for snowy weather for a month?? It's so hard!

Yesterday was such a hard day. During worship Sunday morning, I completely lost it. I had held it in until then. I don't mean just a few tears, I mean sobbing. I got up and ran out and went to the bathroom. And of course we were sitting close to the front, so I'm sure everyone saw me lose it and leave. My mom came after me, and then we finally went back into church. I was hurting so much and knew it was my last time at church for a long time. I hate goodbyes.

At church last night, they also prayed for individuals who were sick or lost loved ones and they prayed for me. I got to see most of friends yesterday, and say goodbye.

We arrive in Reno tomorrow at 11am local time. They are 2 hours behind OKC. Thankfully, I don't go to the clinic until Wednesday morning, so tomorrow we can just get settled.

I will update again when we get to Reno. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Here's a picture of some of my friends and I yesterday at church.

Q&A about upcoming trip to Nevada

Are you excited about going to Nevada?
- I don't think I would use the word excited. Of course I would rather not go at all. Who would want to go across the country to their doctor and do treatments there? I would rather not have to do this, but I have to.

What will your days look like there?
- I will go to the clinic every week day and maybe Saturdays. We will get there in the morning, and some days not leave until 6 or 7 at night. I'll explain more of the treatments when Im there.

Have you been there before?
- Yes. I have been there 4 times in the past 2 years.

Who is going with you?
-My mom. My dad and brother are coming to visit for about a week over my brother's spring break.

How long will you be there?
- I think around 4 weeks.

What do you wear at the clinic?
- I usually wear tee shirts and sweats. Since I do have a port in my chest, it's a little tricky trying not to stretch my shirts when getting my port accessed. It works a lot better if I wear a tank top under a v-neck shirt. On days that I don't do a lot at the clinic, I might wear "nice" clothes and look cute. You never know if there will be any cute boys there! Gotta look your best! Haha just kidding. Everyone there will see you so sick and looking your worst. You become family since everyone is separated from their family.

Where are most people from that go to the clinic?
- Everywhere! We've seen people from almost every state, along with Europe, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Im probably forgetting some.

Where do you stay?
- At a hotel or apartment.

What is the weather like in Reno?
- Currently, it is covered with snow!

Do you have other questions? I would love to answer them!

Claustrophobic Girl + Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber

Yesterday I went for my first hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatment. It was very interesting! It's called "diving" because the pressure is like going 12 feet underwater. You have to ease in to get to full pressure, then ease out. 

Here is what the whole chamber looks like. You can see me in the window. And yes, I am claustrophobic. Was I terrified? Yes. 

You crawl in and then it zips up twice. Once inside, you put on an oxygen mask. They start the pressure and oxygen in the chamber slowly. The doctor sat right by the window so I could tell him if I was okay. As the pressure changed, my ears popped and my head hurt. It's a weird feeling! You really can't describe what it's like unless you experience it. Once at full pressure, the chamber is getting 100% oxygen. Oxygen helps heal, kill bacteria, helps pain, and so many great things. In there, I could tell that something was different. The air felt different than normal. I did take an anxiety pill before I went because I knew it would be scary in there. It was very loud, and the people outside were muted. I could hear them, but not really understand them. It reminded me of when you come out of surgery. You start waking up and you hear all these people talking, but you can't understand them and it seems quieter because you're still drugged up. That's what it seemed like to me!

Here's a picture of me in the chamber. These pictures aren't very good because of the reflection.

Here is the zipper where you crawl into the chamber.

I was doing good at the beginning. I didn't feel claustrophobic. But as time went on, the more panicked I got. I was in there for a little over an hour. He would like for me to do 90 minute sessions. I'm a little nervous about that since I could barely do an hour. I was freaking out at the end. But everything was fine.

I don't feel any different after the treatment. He said it could take several times before I see improvement. We're just trying to get me stable enough to fly to Nevada. Once I get back from Nevada, I'll most likely do more of these treatments. 

Last night right after my treatment I went to see Spring Sing at Oklahoma Christian University, which is a show done by the clubs. I had to hurry home and change before the show. I literally had less than 5 minutes at home, and I was still late to the show. I was at the doctor's office for over 3 hours just talking with the doctor, and doing the treatment. Today I've been able to hang out with my friends all day because some of them were out of school. It was really good to be able to hang out with them before I leave! 

I will update again before I leave for Nevada on Tuesday. While I'm there, I will post pictures and updates hopefully everyday. 

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Birthday celebrations- Surprise party and more!

I had such a great weekend!! I went out to eat my parents and brother on Friday night! Then, I was going to go to the lock in, and they were going to Landon's basketball game. The lock in started at 10 pm, so my friends picked me up. We got there and had worship and a lesson on praying. After that, the games started. They had huge nerf gun wars, and it was intense! My friends and I just walked around and watched everyone (we didn't want to play and embarrass everyone since we're so good you know ;) ). It was getting close to midnight, which was my scheduled prayer time. Before I went into the prayer room, my friends and I counted down until midnight and they started screaming and yelling happy birthday! It was so much fun! So after that, I went into the prayer room. I assumed everyone would keep playing games for a few more hours. I was only scheduled to be in the prayer room for 20 minutes. Of course you can stay longer though.

Apparently, right when I went into the prayer room, my family got to church, everyone ran into the high school room, and threw balloons and streamers everywhere. One of the youth ministers and interns kept coming in the prayer room and looking around, which I thought was weird. I guess they had to make sure I didn't leave or something. I also noticed that it had gotten quiet in the halls outside of the prayer room. That was odd, but I didn't think anything of it. So as our prayer time was almost over, Megan (one of the youth ministers) told everyone they had to leave the prayer room and go to the high school room to explain a game. Ok that was weird! They have never gotten people out of the prayer room for a "game". I knew something was going on, but I had no idea what.

Megan pulled me aside and asked me all these questions, trying to stall. That wasn't weird cause she's very good at asking how I am :)

We started walking to the high school room, and it was dark in there and quiet. The youth group is never quiet. I opened the door and they turned on the lights and yelled surprise! They dumped balloons on me and everything!! Then they took me on stage to play "Victoria trivia". The winner got the 2nd piece of cake. Well the game was tricky because I had to give the correct answer. You think that would be easy, but it wasn't. For example, the first question was what is her favorite color? I don't have a favorite color and it was multiple choice (my mom made the questions and answers!) so I just picked a color. It was really funny that I couldn't even answer questions about myself!

After the game, everyone got cake and got back to playing games! My cake was a white, tall circle with real roses and flowers. It was gorgeous! It was chocolate and vanilla with strawberries and cream separating the layers. The whole cake was gone within minutes! I didn't have any because I was feeling sick, but thankfully my parents got one for Saturday at home. My family hung out for a while and then back home. It was probably 1:45 before they went home. Way past their bedtimes! Those rebels. I'm so glad they came!

This was the room after the surprise party. I'm told people video taped when I came in, so I need to get those!

I wanted to stay for a special worship and prayer time which was at 2 am. That ended around 3 am I think, and then my friends took me home. I got home and wasn't feeling good and immediately threw up. I went to sleep at 4, but didn't sleep well at all. I got out of bed at 10 am, and got sick again. I felt like I got beaten up. My whole body hurt down to my bones. That's what I get for getting home at 3 am! I took some medicine to be able to make it through the day.

My friends were coming over at 3:45 and we were going to go eat an early dinner, and then hang out at my house. I rested and got ready until they got to my house. We took pictures, and then went to eat! We had really cute waiters at dinner that sang to me. Dinner was so much fun!!

We then came back home to have cake and hang out. We spent our time wisely, playing Mad Libs and watching Youtube videos. I haven't laughed that much in so long! It was great!! Here are some pictures.

Me and Natalie

Kailey and I

Me and Hannah

The whole group!

Hannah, me, Natalie, Alex

This was my cake! Isn't it gorgeous?

It was a wonderful weekend! Thank you all so much for the sweet comments and birthday wishes. And thank you to everyone who helped with my surprise party! I have the best friends and family. I am so blessed.



Update

Well, I just wrote a whole post about the weekend with pictures and I lost it all. So I will have to re do that...

I've been on antibiotics for about a week for the possible abdominal infection. I didn't think that this antibiotic would kill the Lyme, but I was wrong. Sunday night I got so sick. I was sitting in the living room and was hit with the worst migraine you can imagine. My jaw hurt too, so talking hurt. I couldn't even move. I got fever and my body ached down to my bones. I was also nauseous. This lasted all night. When the Lyme bacteria is killed, it causes a herx reaction.

This is what Wikipedia says about a herx.

"The Herxheimer reaction (also known as Jarisch-Herxheimer or Herx) occurs when large quantities of toxins are released into the body as bacteria (typically spirochetes) die during antibiotic treatment. It is classically associated with syphilis.
Typically the death of these bacteria and the associated release of endotoxins occurs faster than the body can remove the toxins. It is manifested by fever, chills, headache, myalgia (muscle pain), and exacerbation of skin lesions. Duration in syphilis is normally only a few hours. The intensity of the reaction reflects the intensity of inflammation present.
The reaction is also seen in other diseases caused by spirochetes, such as borreliosis (Lyme disease and tick-borne relapsing fever) and leptospirosis, and in Q fever. Similar reactions have also been reported to occur in bartonellosis (including cat scratch disease),brucellosis, typhoid fever, and trichinosis.^"


When I go to Nevada, I have this every day from the treatments. They don't use antibiotics, but you get the same reaction from natural medicines as you kill the bacteria. Yesterday I felt a little better until I took the antibiotic for the day. Everything hit hard again last night. I'm hurting a lot today.

My mom and I go to my Lyme doctor in Nevada next Tuesday, March 8th. I have a week before we leave. I will be gone for several weeks. My dad and brother are going to come to Nevada on my brothers spring break. We are going to take a few days off from the clinic, and go to Lake Tahoe which is about an hour away.

Does anyone watch House? We found a doctor who is kinda like house. He actually lives in my neighborhood. He has treated a few Lyme patients, but none that are as bad as me. He would like to work with my Lyme doctor to do whatever he can here. On Thursday, I'm going to do a hyperbaric chamber at his clinic. I'll post more about that once I have done it and I'll take pictures!

I'm sure I'll be really sick tonight since it's my last dose of antibiotics. We'll see how that goes. I'll work on the post about this weekend!