Recovering from Surgery

Hey everyone!
I got my stitches out Tuesday, exactly 4 days ago. I was told I was a tough cookie, had high pain tolerance, and healed nice and fast! I'm still healing of course, but the stitches being out is better. The only thing is she warned me that usually she only takes a few out, and I need to be careful not to over-do it the next week so that I don't rip it back open :-0 so I'm sincerely taking it easy.its hard though when I've spent so much time inside! Wednesday I was not going to go to youth group, but the thing was, it was my 15th day not getting out (other than the doc.s) and I needed to relieve some of my cabin fever...... I miss the horses and riding, and skiing, and being outside in the fresh air and sun! I went to youth group and had a warm welcome! It was awesome! Thursday I was going to go to Concord, NH because a bill was being proposed to protect NH MD's from treating Lyme Disease. I wanted to go so bad but snow kept my ride home and therefore I was stranded with no ride and watching it on the news, seeing all the familiar faces of my NH lyme buddies on New England News! I was sure upset.... But god kept me home for a reason, because I'm glad i didn't over-do it! Friday I stayed home, and hung out. i watched Castaway, what a sad but interesting movie. I made up my own ending to it, so the real ending didn't appear as sad and depressing, but I won't spoil it for anyone... hehe.... Now today is Saturday and I'm missing my mini horse Miracle and wanting to see her so bad, so I'm going to try to convince my mom to take me down to see her for a little while. I'll have to take it very easy though.... But oh, it will feel so wonderful to get out and underneath the blue sky, and feel the cool weather touch me cheeks! Just breathing in the sunshine and fresh air will be a relief! Not including the smell of the barn, and touc of the horses! It's true, horses have healing elements! :-D

New Med.s

Hey everybody, stopping in to give a new update! Started the beginning of this year with a new protocol for my Lyme treatment, and I actually for the first time in 2 1/2 years either feel some side effects or herxing from these three new Antibiotics. I am on Plaquenil, Biaxin, and Amoxycillin. I have been on Biaxin and Amoxy in the past by themselves, and then was on Bactrim and Biaxin together for a little while, but Plaquenil is new, and together with the other two! I've been dealing with lots of nausea, stomach pain, sleepless nights, headaches, neck tension, some tingling and numbness in my fingers and feet, and some surface tingling on my stomach. I've also been edgy and have no concentration at all! This is all new stuff, one night I was up vomiting all night, another night I was up nauseas all night, and many nights I've gone to bed nauseas, or woke in the middle of the night nauseas for a bit. I have experienced some vertigo and dizziness. I'm still taking Carafate for the Gastric ulcer, going to see my GI MD next week.... She is not going to be happy now that i'm on THREE abx.... oh well, got to do what you have to do in order to treat this crumby Lyme Disease.

Pilonidal Cyst

Hey everyone, again...... Well Wednesday the 13th I went in for surgery. For months I have had issues with a Pilonidal Cyst. Basically, the Pilonidal glands are right above and along the tailbone. Some people have issues with these glands as they get older and grow, and the glands may become blocked and create a cyst. The cyst and glands are very painful if this happens, so with my horseback riding and different activities the only result was to remove the problem so that it won't reoccur later on. They went in, with about a 3 inch incision, and scraped out the cyst and glands. This has left me with a very painful cut, with 8 stitches, to tend to as it heals over the course of a month. Its the 6th day after the surgery right now. The 1st day afterward I got really sick from the pain med.s! The 2nd day was a little better but sore, I was finally allowed to shower and run some hot water over it. The 3rd day was yet again a little better and I was on my side the entire day. The 4th day was yet again a little better, but that night I was up throwing up pain medications. The 5th day I was tired but able to sit upright on a soft pillow, and today I am much better. I've been up walking around and sitting on a pillow all day, so its been a good and fast recovery so far! The stitches look good and are only sore. I will be able to move some more in a week or two. The surgery went well, and they did not find any infection or anything. I am on 3 antibiotics for the Lyme Disease, so the possibility of getting an infection there now is extremely slim, I should heal nice and steady!

Hiccups

One thing I've noticed over the course of my Lyme Disease sufferings, is that I will suddenly get an urgent and curious case of the hiccups every now and then. I'll go for a week or less where I get hiccups MANY times a day that will last what feels like forever, and range in severity (these weeks come often spread very far apart, up to 5 weeks apart from each other). They are very annoying and pesky, and everyone has different ways to relieve such spasms. I call it a spasm (because I know there are wide varieties of spasms caused by Lyme Disease), but really as much as I'd like to think that it's a spasm of the diaphragm (or the muscle right beneath the lungs that flexes to cause breathing) it is a much more uncontrollable and widespread motion. I was very curious about this subject, so I did some research which led me to a very interesting and informational article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-causes-hiccups
This article speaks of what causes hiccups, what is a hiccup, and gives a very detailed and helpful idea on the layout of the hiccup. Hope it helps you some!

Another Bump In The Road

When I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease I was having a discomfort on the left side of my stomach, right under my ribs. We put it off for so long, and there would be times it would get really bad too! Finally within the last few months we started looking into the gallbladder, which can cause pain and discomfort, and worsens after eating. The gall bladder creates another one of those chemicals to help digest food I guess, and the bile it creates is important, the only issue is it can have different issues like gall stones, and pain, and need to be removed. Not everyone needs their gall bladder removed, but we started considering IV Rocephin as my next treatment regimen and we wanted to make sure that we checked the gall bladder in full for any signs of problems before continuing down that path. We first did an ultrasound that checked the structure of all the organs and major things in the gut, including the Aorta Artery from the Heart, the whole digestive track, the Spleen, Kidneys, Ovaries, Gall Bladder, Pancreas, Liver, and so on. It came back clear, and we decided to do the next step which would check the function, instead of just the structure, of the Gall Bladder. This also after 5 weeks came back normal, and nothing was found. Then within two weeks I started going downhill. I had not even the slightest desire left in me to eat, I had no appetite, i was forcing a few bites a day if any food, and wasting lots of food, I just couldn't manage to eat even a bowl of soup! It would hurt if I did force down a lot, and I was extremely tired, and weak, and could not even horseback ride which is my passion! After 2 weeks and about 20 lb.s were lost, we started thinking Pancreatitis. The Pancreas creates enzymes to digest food and if its having problems can instead digest itself causing pain, lack of appetite, and fatigue, along with Diarrhea and dehydration. This could be serious, and the average treatment for something like that was multiple days in the hospital with IV nutrition to let your Pancreas rest. Then a few days after seeing the Doctor, and while we were waiting for the blood test for Pancreatitis to come back, i started having bad stomach pain, noticeably worsened when i ate, to the point where I would hunch over forward to help relieve it. I was nauseous, and not hungry, and tired, and in pain. I fought through but by Thursday evening was so bad I could barely breath, so I went to the ER. They did blood tests, urine tests, and a CAT scan (where you drink the contrast for 2 hours, and then get an IV and take the photos over the last hour), they even put in IV hydration for me and administered Morphine and nausea medicine. All the tests were negative for anything, and we had no clue what to do... I went home and rested, and then Friday my mom got in contact with the GI specialist to get her opinion. The GI doctor wanted me to start a medicine called Karafait that night, and take it 4 times a day over the weekend, and see if it helped any. other than that I was suppose to rest. Well i had a fever Friday evening, but still took the Karafait, and suffered through the night. Then by morning I felt a little better, still tired. By Sunday I was feeling wonderful! No pain, Nausea, nothing! it was virtually all gone! I was hungry, and thirsty and could eat without it bothering me! Like a miracle it was all better! the GI doctor explained Monday that the Karafait was probably coating a Gastric Ulcer and that's why it didn't hurt anymore. it would coat it and give me time to heal. This must be whats wrong. I have taken loads of tests we are still waiting back for, and I know I am going to be healing until the end of January at least, but I'm so glad we found what it was after two whole weeks of pain! This has been just another bump in the road in my treatment, and I will take it with ease and as Dory from Finding Nemo warns : 'Just keep swimming!'

The Ugly Truth

Hey everyone, just wondering if anyone has noticed this. First of all, we have all been in a wheelchair or done something to call attention to ourselves as sick along this journey. Has anyone noticed that you don't get stared at when you are in a wheelchair? The stereotype is to believe that everyone is looking at you and thinking your weird, oh no! The truth is, when someone see's a young girl/guy in a wheelchair, or anything close, the tend to look away, look down, walk the other direction, or even dash out of your way. Not because they think you're weird, but because they care for the sick. Anyone who did not care would giggle, or laugh, or whisper about you. Int he many experiences I've had in public with either a mask on, or a wheelchair under me, no one has ever once asked me what was wrong, or criticized me! The Ugly Truth is you do what you got to do! Believe me, riding in a wheelchair may be ugly but the truth of the matter is, we are all in it together, you are NOT alone! :-D

Lactaid Deficiency

The final test results and biopsy results came back from my endoscopy. They had said everything was fine, but know I am up against the toughest dieting challenge I think I've ever faced. After trying to reach us for days we finally have learned that the results showed I am lactaid deficient, which is very similar and parralell to lactose intollerent. I now am Lactose free with my diet and trying to fibns things like rice milk, soy cheese, and an alternative to pizza! I didn't realize even bread sometimes had milk in it, this is a big deal but is another challenge for me to beat down.

We believe from some of what we've heard that possibly this is due to the chronic antibiotics I have been on the past year. This would all make sense. If it's not that it could be caused by the Lyme or the co-infections, even possibly something that just simply developed! Hopefully it will get better soon when I see my gastro MD and she prescribes a pill with the digestive enzyme in it that i will take with any dairy food! I am going to see a nutritionist too, hope all goes well there! For now this is my latest update and as i am coming to accept it is another road block that I have to climb over in my path to recovery!