Everybody's Working for the Weekend...

 I do enjoy writing. But these medicines make my head hurt and it's hard to focus. I am again putting off the continuation of my story and instead writing about more recent events that are much easier to recall!


I started my new medicine on Friday - it's a cyst-buster. Not to get too complicated, Lyme disease can form protective cysts in your body (I have no clue how big - probably tiny) and it is resistant to medicines.  It just kind of hangs out in your body, hibernating, until prime conditions (illness, stress) arise for a reemergence. Unless you kill the cysts, the LD will be back again... and again...  


My doctor told me to take the new medicine either every weekend or every other weekend. When I asked him why, he said - you'll see. And I did see. Boy, did I feel terrible. I took Friday off (I have to take the meds Friday, Saturday, Sunday) because I was really nervous about the affects it would have on me. I didn't feel too awful on Friday morning, but started getting head-achy, tired and having joint pain. It got worse Friday night. Saturday I think I slept away half the day (always a nice way to pass the time when you don't feel well), had some severe joint and muscle pain, headaches, stomach upset... 
I was really hoping to make it to church on Sunday morning and prayed specifically that I'd be okay for Sunday School and the service. With the help of a couple Tylenol, I made it. Sunday afternoon/evening I still felt crappy but it didn't seem as bad - either my body started getting used to it or my plumb line for how bad I feel got readjusted. 


I'm still feeling the affects today, Tuesday... but it's gradually getting better. I am very glad that I don't have to take this medicine every weekend.


In the meantime, I've been looking up some other peoples' blogs on Lyme disease - if you're interested, take a look down the left side of my blog and look under the header "Lyme Blogs". There are so many people with similar (and way worse) stories. 


I also found a great article through one of them called The Spoon Theory. I've already sent it to a few friends - but if you've not heard of it, I highly recommend reading it. It's written by a woman who was asked by her best friend what it's like to be chronically ill. She gave a very good, visual explanation that will help you to understand a bit more of a what a loved one or friend or coworker might be going through if they deal with illness on a daily basis. Thankfully, I feel I am blessed to not deal with quite the degree of daily illness that the writer of this article expounds on. But I have had seasons of illness when I have felt exactly the way she explains it. 

I think I'll end this one with a favorite Bible verse:

Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  
~Psalm 73:25-26 

*Insert Clever Title Here*

Well, this is not a continuation of my health saga. I'll get back to that sometime soon. Unfortunately, it's been a not so great week for me and the Lyme Disease. 


Not to ruin the surprise (and what a great one it is) but I am still dealing with LD. I recently started medicine for it again, and it usually makes me feel worse instead of better. Lately, I've been really tired, mentally clouded (hence, the lack of blog posts lately), zombie-like, and I usually have a headache. 


Thankfully, I don't always feel this way when I'm on medicine. There's good days and bad days, but I seem to be in a bad week. And it's probably going to end in a bad weekend. I'm nervous about starting a new medicine that I've never been on before. I'm supposed to take it only on the weekends (every or every other weekend) because it's probably going to make me feel really awful. I already don't feel so great, and I'm not looking forward to feeling worse. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll see what happens this weekend. At least I have a lot of books from the library, a comfy bed and an understanding husband.


On another subject, I've been mentally debating if I need to alter my diet. I already eat gluten free, and I've heard it can benefit LD patients to also eat casein free (present in dairy products), sugar free and caffeine free. I don't know if I can do it. I've got gluten free down, could easily do casein free since I don't eat much dairy. Caffeine would be a little harder but doable. But sugar? I think I may have a sugar addiction. Whenever I've tried to cut it out, I find myself craving it. There are many reasons why it's bad, among them the fact that sugar supresses your immune system. 

But knowing you should do something and actually doing it are two different stories.


Anybody want to try it with me? :-)