Clockwork

I have now completed two weeks of treatment and like clockwork have a sign that my body is continuing to fight. My second herx began Saturday morning, this time my head hurt like last week but not nearly as bad, my organs also joined in on this one too. As the evening continues I am beginning to feel relief, early this morning I wasn't sure if I was herxing or just having a bad day, but I decided to take the medicine for herxing. Better safe than sorry. I believe the medicine helped the symptoms not get any worse, prayerfully we can catch every herx early on and take the medicine. 

My test results came in on my co-infections, co-infections are other areas that the spirochete (lyme bacteria) can attack in people, each person has different co-infections making symptoms and treatment different for everyone. Turns out I have three of six co-infections mine include; Mycoplasma, Babesia, and HHV6. The lyme has also affected my immune system which I already knew, now its just official,  I used to catch everything! I had my tonsils out in August because I had strep throat seven times in one winter, it is refreshing to know that the lyme is what was making me catch everything and by the end of treatment my immune system will also be up. It will be work, but it will be worth it.  

I read some beautiful verses today: 

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases; who redeems you life from the pit who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; who satisfies your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. ~Psalm 103:1-5 

I love the heart behind this verse, I think about the gift that the Lord has given us constantly how because of the sacrifice that His son made we may have life but I have never though about how we receive benefits because we are His children.  He pardons our sins, heals our pain, redeems us, crowns us, and satisfies us. How many benefits the Lord has given us! 

Although this treatment is hard on me it is growing me, my character, my strength in the Lord. I have full confidence that one day I will no longer be a slave to my body, God has given us freedom and one day we will have freedom even from ourselves. 

For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer.  ~Psalm 103:14-17 

God is aware of who we are, He created us and knows us so personally. God is a God who preforms miracles and I trust Him not only with my soul but also with my life. I trust Him that He can and will heal me wether that be one day soon or possibly not until the day I die but God knows my weaknesses and He is strong everywhere where I am weak. And if you know God you now know that I am weak in everything, I am inadequate but Christ has made me adequate. My savior, my strength, my hope, my God. 

Prayer Requests: 

*The Lord will continue to, now and for the rest of my life, use this for good

*That 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 will be my life 

*I will find all comfort in the Lord

*That I will trust the Lords perfect timing every second

*Grace to catch herx's early on

Always keep pressing brothers and sisters, 

Your sister in Christ, 

Jenna 

My First Herx

I am officially in the business of fighting lymes disease! Despite what I last wrote, with laser treatment you do herx its just not as common as on the antibiotics. 

Saturday night about halfway through church I began having excruciating pain in my head, I was really dizzy and it hurt to open my eyes, I was also nauseous. I didn't know what was going on or what to do about it and I knew I wouldn't be able to walk out of church and I didn't want to cause a disruption so I sat. After church Katelyn took me home and got me settled laying down, I had those symptoms for about twenty hours, it was once the symptoms began declining that we realized it was a herx. Next time I will be more prepared and take the medicine they gave me to shorten the timing of the herx. 

There was one thing I really enjoyed about this experience and it was a reminder that the Lord is bigger than any circumstance. I have a little journal that I carry with me all the time and in it I write comfort verses so that when I am in pain all I need to do is read through the verses in my journal. I have used it many times and have been comforted every time but it was beautiful to see an extreme version to see that no matter what circumstance we are going through the Lord is bigger than it and He will comfort us if we go to Him to be comforted. This is one of the verses in my journal, 

For we do not have a High Priest who can not sympathize with our weakness, but one who as been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. ~Hebrews 4:15-16 

If we choose to run to the Lord, He comfort us and will see us through all things. 

Prayer Requests:
*That I will find my comfort in the Lord
*Wisdom in recognizing a herx
*The Lord will continue to use this for good in my life and the lives of people around me

Treatment Week One

As you all know my parents have been researching a lot of different treatments for lymes disease and the one that looks pretty good is laser light therapy, it goes hand in hand with the water and detox machines. I started this treatment exactly one week ago the claim behind this treatment is that it will kill the lyme bacteria without the herx reactions and much faster than the antibiotics. 

I have personally met two women who have lymes and done this treatment and they have both had success though this treatment and are living pretty normal lives now. We have decided to wait to start antibiotics until after this treatment is complete, they say with the treatment we will not need the antibiotics, so we are committing thirty days to this treatment which is what they say I will need and will decide once those thirty days are over what needs to happen next. 

 By the grace of God I could handle unexplained pain and I can handle having lymes disease however I never would have guessed how hard treatment would be. I am so thankful that we serve a God who does not give us more than we can handle because I could not handle radiation or a treatment of the like. I have a baby treatment compared to radiation and it takes so much out of me. On laser days the session takes almost two hours and I have to detox after for half and hour all of which drains my energy. I never realized how much time it would take. This is a verse that has brought me a lot of comfort through the treatment sessions. 

Psalm 121: 1-3 I will lift my eyes up to the mountains from where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made the Heavens and the earth, He will not allow your foot to slip He who keeps you will not slumber. 

God is so involved in our lives it is such a beautiful thing to see, in December I had gallbladder surgery and the night before surgery I was on zero, I had no energy to get better to fight and that is when I really realized how the Lord is my strength and how He fights for us. My strength has not changed since December I am still on zero, but one month after I thought I was on zero I began having health problems again. I believe this is a great example of how the Lord knows us personally and how He will never give us something to carry that is too heavy for us even when we think it is beyond our capacity. 

To a point I am thankful that this treatment is hard because I am learning to rely on the Lord more, if it was easy my flesh would think I could do it alone but in reality I can do nothing apart from God. 

Prayer Requests: 

*That I will continue to be comforted and strengthened by the Lord

*That I will wait for the Lord to lead

*For wisdom in treatments, if this is enough

*That the Lord will use this to change my life and the life of those around me

A New Road

Yesterday was my first appointment with my lymes disease specialist (Dr. P) he is a very knowledgeable guy. Both him and his nurse have lymes disease so they personally understand what its like which is wonderful how they can relate. Our time yesterday went really well, I learned a lot about lymes that I never knew before. 

They took more blood while we were there to test it to see exactly what the lyme has done to by body so that they know exactly how to fight it but for now we know that I will be on three different antibiotics for a year and a half up to two years if everything goes as planned. He also anticipates that I should start noticing improvements in two to three months. 

Lymes Disease is a hard thing to diagnose and a hard thing to kill. When a patient begins treatment for lymes they get worse, when the medicine kills the bug it explodes leaving behind toxins which makes a patient herx. Herx to my best understanding is flu like symptoms, and increased pain in what already hurts for that patient.

My parents have been doing a lot of research and talking to many people who have the disease and have learned so much! One thing they have found to have really good success is light treatment, and another thing is positively charged water. The water we drink is negatively charged but if you positively charge it it kills toxins in your body. There are many benefits to it, my parents are buying the machine and our whole family will be drinking this water.  

 Our hope is with the extra things that we are doing my herx will not be as bad. They have also given me extra medicine for when I do herx that if you drink it will shorten the herx to about an hour. Also many patients can not handle the medicine orally and have to do IV treatments, we are praying against me having to do this and would love if you could join that prayer. 

Finding out I have lymes disease was the end of one road and the beginning of another, each road has its own twists and turns, good times and hard times. Now its time to travel the road of lyme disease treatment. There are a couple verses I am claiming for this: 

For we do not have a High Priest who can not sympathize with our weakness. But one who has been tempted in all things yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. ~Hebrews 4:15-16 

We now have this light shining in our hearts but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure, this makes it clear that our great power is from God not from ourselves. ~2 Corinthians 4:7 

I can be comforted through this battle purely by the Lord. 'He may not take all the problems away, but He will give you the grace to get through them.' (I can't remember what paster said this) Its a new beginning and I can tell you one thing... it will be good.

Prayer Requests:
*That I would daily find my comfort in the Lord
*2 Corinthians 1:3-7 would be my life
*That I will be able to stomach the medicine
*That the Lord will continue to use this for good

Medicine Oh' Medicine

I have had a pretty interesting last couple days,  my eyes started turing yellow I began having symptoms of jaundice. For those that don't know jaundice is where your liver is not working right and cant keep up with the work it needs to with causes you liver to fail. Some of the symptoms is yellow eyes, and for more severe cases your skin begins to turn yellow. I went in to the doctor and got a liver functioning test which came back normal which is good. The theory is that my liver couldn't handle the medicine I was on and I was taking so much that it couldn't keep up. I have again stopped taking my parasite medicine and am not sure what is in store and how I will finish it but the Lord knows. 

My eyes are beginning to return to their normal white color which is really nice, when your eyes are yellow everything you see has a tint of yellow, I thought I was going crazy! When my eyes began turning back to normal all my symptoms began to show up again. My abdomen pain has been consistent over the last few months along with my brain; memory loss, word confusion, and dizziness. However my joints decided to join the picture again along with my chest pain which was getting better but is more prevalent again. 

I am able to start taking my antibiotics today, I completely believe in the Lords perfect timing because if we wouldn't know that this was lymes disease I would be so much worse today than had I not been taking the supplements. He came in perfect timing, and always does. 

I saw this quote on a poster at the doctors yesterday it says, "What happens to a man is far less important than what happen within him." Amen to that! No matter what happens to my body my soul is far more important and that is not just true for me that is true for everyone. 

Prayer requests:
*Wisdom in taking medicine
      -That my body will accept the antibiotics
      -That my liver will be able to handle the medicine
*That I would meet people who are suffering physically that have no hope
*That timing would be perfect for my appointment with my lymes doctor

-We changed our doctor, we are no longer going to be going to the doctor in Columbia but rather a doctor in Grinnell. This doctor is closer and has a really good track record. However our appt. with him is at the end of the month so please pray for endurance that I can last that long or the opportunity to jump in on a cancelled appointment

Thank you saints,
keep pressing.

Supplements

I have been taking supplements for lymes disease for almost a week now and have already noticed many improvements. I have not started antibiotics which is how you begin to kill the disease but have been taking supplements to help monitor the inflammation. 

Since taking the supplements I have noticed my hips hurt less which is the major joint that has caused me problems the last two months, my organs hurt less, and I have been getting great sleep! For as long as I can remember I haven't had good sleep, I would always lay in bed for an hour or two before sleeping and wake up tired and it has been like that for so long that I thought it was normal. Come to find out it's not normal but its one of the lymes symptoms. Since beginning the supplements I have had amazing sleep, I don't stay up for hours, I fall asleep right away and actually wake up before my alarm clock! 

I am still having some memory problems and word confusion but my roommate has a good theory that because they were the last symptom maybe they will be the last to go, I guess we will wait and find out. 

2 Corinthians 4:16-17 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. 

I was reminded of this verse today and have been thinking about how every single person dies, how every minute we live we are one minute closer to death. One day every one of our bodies will decay, our bodies will give out on us and let us down as we age but that is the process of life. It is beautiful to be reminded that although our bodies are decaying because of Christ our hearts and souls are being renewed constantly. People can look at my body and see pain, weakness, illness but when people look at my heart they can see the renewal that only Jesus can bring. 

In the process of treatment I have seen many good changes in my health and am excited to see how the rest of treatment goes but it is always good for me to remember that the renewal of my soul is a much greater gift from God than the renewal of my body. 

On Wednesday I am headed to Columbia Missouri for my first doctor appointment with the lymes disease specialist.  Please be praying for the appointment. 

Other prayer requests:
*I am done with parasite medicine on monday! Please pray for endurance to the end of it
*That my memory would not be a hinderance to the gospel
*That the Lord will continue to refine me through this process
*Praise: I have lymes disease

A Diagnosis

Where to begin! So much has happened this week it is hard for me to grasp! I am going to give you a preview of what my life was like before a much needed gift from the Lord. 

As you all know I have been sick a lot in my life and every time I have another bad spell I lose so much more energy to fight. When I went in for gallbladder surgery in December I had nothing to fight with, I look back at that time and I have full confidence the only way I lived through it was the strength of God. 

Not even a month after surgery I was having pain again. My hope is not in tests and doctors but I was losing heart with every negative test and every new symptom that I would ever live another day without pain. I had come to an understanding this could be my life but every negative it become a higher and higher chance of a daily physically painful future. I was exhausted, exhausted and I wasn't even the one fighting. I am reminded daily that God fights for me and that he is my strength. I have nothing to give Him, He is the one who supplies all my needs. 

Then came one of my favorite days on earth, the day before my birthday March 28th my doctor called and my test results were in. I want to tell you I prayed for two weeks that my hope would not be in this test and as we were on the phone what went through my mind was no matter what God is still God, He has not left his throne. No matter if my world feels like its crashed He is the one that holds me up.

 The news came and it was positive! POSITIVE!!! For the first time in my life I have a diagnosis to this pain that has been causing havoc for almost six years! 

I have lymes disease! Props to the fifteen or so people who guessed I had it and thanks to mom and dad for fighting doctors to test me for it. Lymes disease is an inflammatory disease that if not caught right away can cause your body a lot of problems; organs, joints, brain function and more. The longer you have it the harder it is to treat and the longer you have to be on medicine. I am not quite sure on treatment procedure I will be doing but will keep you all informed as I know.  

I have continued to learn about how the Lord daily gives us the things we need for that day and I truly believe that I needed a positive test. It was good for me to have a diagnosis that day, if the test had been negative I would be back at zero. Not too many people rejoice when they find out they have a disease but let me tell you that was and still is a time of rejoicing for me. 

Through these six years I have had a lot of bad days, physically speaking, but I truly would not change one of those days. I was tested for lymes five years ago and it came back negative and I praise God for that, you see if I wouldn't have been sick I would not be saved today. Only when my world was taken away did I realize that Jesus was my world. That makes it all worth it. One day I will have a perfect body, that day is not today but I am thankful for the opportunity to begin treatment and begin taking steps so I will no longer have to serve my body instead of my God.