blue skies

near Big Horn Canyon, WY

since my last post, I've had some awful, miserable days. Days where I just wanted to be knocked unconscious. Feeling like I was sinking deep into the earth, such a strange, oppressive sensation. Up all night incredibly nauseous and dry heaving. intense joint and jaw pain. Fainting, falling, and seizing. Fun times :)

BUT.

we're seeing more and more sunny, "good" days amidst the stormy days.

When I say good, I mean being able to hobble to the kitchen on my own and reheat leftovers for lunch. I'm pretty weary after that and need to rest, but can still get around. I just need to careful, because I am a delusionally optimistic ambitious girl, often doing more than I should, leading to falling, or blacking out, and generally pushing my body more than it can handle.

Still, this increase in mobility and stamina is great. I never thought I'd be so excited and proud to make my own lunch. It's been a long time. I started this post umm, 2 weeks ago, and since then we are seeing even more progress. I've been up and about more often, walking further, and more steadily. SO awesome!

Aruba, taken by Spencer

General update:

We have been back in CA as of June 26th. We love being with Spencer's Aunt and Uncle in the DC area, but it's good to be back on the west coast.

Dr. J is pleased with how I'm doing. He had me do one week of Tigecycline w/ Levaquin, then a one week break, then another week on, which I completed on Monday the 19th.

The first week of treatment was mostly horrible, save a few chunks of days that were fairly decent

The in-between (no drugs) week got better each day, but I slumped back down into severe fatigue, pain, and general yuckiness on and off leading up to the second week of treatment.

I'm trying to forget the horrible second week, which was WAY worse. But after finishing, I quickly recovered. A couple not so great days, but overall, it was a good week. I had some major balance issues for several days that resulted in me falling all over the place, but at least I didn't feel miserable on top of an inability to stay upright :)

So far this 2 week drug holiday has been a really good one. Tigecycline has proven itself to be a very powerful, helpful drug regarding killing off spirochetes, which I'm very glad of. But the constant, debilitating nausea...ugh. I'm not looking forward to another round in August. But the miserableness is FAR worth it.

Spencer finished another round of treatment first week of July. Dr. J is having him slowly increase the amount of time between each treatment round so, slowly progressing to just maintenance doses. Dr. J doesn't need to see him for 9-12 months! Spencer's been under a lot of stress since I began IV treatment and how sick I've been, hence the plateau we've seen, but Dr. J is still very optimistic that he'll continue to heal over time. And as I heal, we're seeing him improve as well. Thank You, God!

And, we are so excited! Spencer was able to get work at FOX television, as a systems installer. I don't understand a whole lot about his work, but it involves lots and lots of cables and having to move, connect and disconnect them :) This is such a blessing, as it's a good job and the timing is great, as I'm gaining more autonomy. Up until the past month, he wouldn't have been able to work, because of the level of care I needed. God is so good and gracious to provide for us.

outside of Fern Canyon, Redwood National Park

There's more I want to share, but I really need to just post something rather than wait even longer. Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement. We've still got a long ways to go, but are so glad to enjoy these sunny, blue skies along the way.