Sunday, July 22, 2007

7/22--Has it Really Been a Month?

Has it really been a month since I last posted? Hard to believe. Time flies when you are trying to have a life. And yes my children... enjoy your youth... keep the parts that make your heart light and happy ... let the ones that dragged you down go away. I have so much to say and I will categorize it so if you only looking for Lymes info you can find it quickly and miss all the family things ;-).



Lymes Disease Updates



I will save all you nice Lymes folks and force the family to suffer through the Lymes ;-). I had backed down on my medication for a while as I had a lot of obligations that I couldn't allow myself to spend too much time sleeping. That is a huge side effect for me is the tiredness and my tummy problems. Actually the only time I don't have a sleep disorder is when I am killing the Lymes. Although it has been much improved with my thyroid medicine.



The night chills specifically are another effect for me. but of course for me....chilled is a lifestyle ;-). I am the only person in the world who on 100 degree days is wearing pants. But the specific night chills that cause me to wear 5 layers of clothing and then waking up gasping for water?... those are so much less. The night chills are at night I get teeth chattering cold. Not just my normal daytime cold. I never knew that there was such a thing I just knew it happened to me.

People wonder why I don't give a damn what anyone thinks about me. I wouldn't have gotten through life if I did. I do however give a damn about how I am treated by others and how I treat others. I guess I always cared more about my own comfort then other people ;-). Because I hate being cold!!!


The sun sensitivity is in great part due to my coloring.... the serious light sensitivity, is another one that has come and gone through the years. It came with the migraines. When I think back my migraines st oped in my mid 20's or so. I did however start getting them back for a period in my late 30's but that was due to TMJ. My bite alignment was fixed and they stopped.

I started having them again when I first started the protocol they where horrible. Now I keep my sunglasses on all the time and they are fine. Without my sunglasses I would be on meds all the time. About the light sensitivity is that I have always had it to fluorescent lights. And when I was out in a cube I always wore my sun glasses. Now on the protocol I find myself back to any florescent light will give me a migraine.

In fact in the beginning we started me out to high because I had horrible side effects but I wanted it to go quickly. Patience's is one of the lessons I am here to learn. So we backed me down and worked our way up.

I am ready to bump up to the 100 mg's and will discuss with my next appointment. I have to say that I don't think I could have done what I did this past 7 months between work, home and moving mom back if I hadn't have been killing the Lymes. I haven't had a "sinus infection" since I started the protocol. However, when I work the protocol. Which means I schedule my bad days for my life not schedule my life for the protocol.

I know for 24 to 48 hours when I take my antibiotic I am going to feel like crap. Which means I need to sleep all the time, it means I really cannot eat although it is not so much that way anymore. But in the beginning it tore my stomach up. Now I have had the heliobacter (sorry Tak you will have to fix my spelling) that causes ulcers in my stomach previously. I believe that the reason I had such a hard time in the beginning is that it was really dying quickly and a lot. I have always had stomach problems off and on all my life.

This was how I found about bromine in the bread that poisons us and our stomachs. Of course I have believed for years that we have been poisoning ourselves as a country. Although eating organic and non processed is not realistic for a great deal of the population unless you have Trader Joes!!! But like everything in life if you make the best choices when you can and go crazy every now and then. We should be ok. Sorry I digress.

Sometimes I have joint pain and on the higher dosage I did have a lot. Not so much anymore. I do get cold from the Benicar and it does work as a blood pressure lowering medication because that is something I know. I will confirm it sometime at my doctors office but I know how I feel when I take it. The ringing in my ears is again now only when I come off the antibiotic feeling crappy and start to feel better. Or vise versa...I am still tracking this because it is so infrequent now!! The dizziness has always been sporadic enough that I cannot track if it is blood pressure, lymes... I usually know when it is dehydration and it hasn't been that lately.

2 of my lymes side effects of hair falling out and be hungry all the time are now gone too!! My hair still falls out a bit but not like it did before!! YAY!!! To bad it won't make it curly too ;-).

Well I am going to move on to my personal life. you are welcome to read but it might bore you to sleep...well if you are one of us sleep disordered people... then you might appreciate that ;-). I would like to reiterate that this is my experience. Cole asked me this weekend how did we know his Lymes was cured. So we went through some things and I told him I thought he was normal tired not Lymes tired. I explained to him that his parents caught it quickly so that is how it can be cured. If caught quickly.

But Lymes is the great imitator so people don't often test for it. There are a number of test that can be done. They are to check the CDIFF, VITAMIN D LEVELS, and Western Blot (there is only one lab in California to use for this. I don't have the name but when you read about the test on the internet you will find the name). Robbie told him that if he ever felt like he didn't feel well and wanted to be tested all he had to do was tell them and they would take him.

Life

Mom is doing GREAT!!!! She is so happy it is almost sickening. Once she gets her furniture there may be no living with her ;-). And we are all SOOOOOO HAPPY SHE IS HAPPY!!!! She is very cute with her friends and herself. She is very sweet and we had a very nice day on Saturday. We ate and shopped and shopped and ate ;-). She got a cart that I will put together this week so she can use it along the streets on her walks to shop and stuff. She got silverware holders finally and she got a laundry hamper. I got lots of new tops and she got 3 pairs of pants. I am getting skinny!!! Thank you Dr. Fishman...no not diet pills. It's the killing the lymes.

Let's see.... on the house not much to report. The took out 3 more trees to put more horrible plantings at 1500 a pop but no retaining wall. That leveled me yesterday. Now the errosion will excelerate at such a rate. I am f'd so hard it isn't funny. Oh well. The basement isn't a bad place but I am going to get a bed for down here. Maybe I can find another twin bed for cheap and move it down here. It is warm in winter and cool in summer ;-). On to a subject that doesn't wreck me... My boys.

In order by age. Jimmy and Stever will be out here very soonly YAY!!! They arrive on 8/8 (Happpy Birthday Linda Croke). Maxie just got back from Outward Bound rock climbing camp and said it was epic!! Will get more details from him tonight. He will be forced to tell it 2 nights in a row ;-). And Cole and I had a wonderful day yesterday!! We had brunch with Robbie, Mom, Di (family friend from Arizona) at my favorite place!! We went to the movies, he hung out with mom while I came home and walked the Daisy, and then we went to dinner. When we got home we made red velvet cupcakes and he did most of the work! We watched the Simpson's whose Movie comes out this week!! YAY!!! Midnight Movie at the RIO!! I didn't mean to leave Wes and Sean out. They are having a nice summer and Wes is getting ready for collage.

Speaking of the Simpson's. Cole and his friend Collin went with me to see the Kwik-E-Mart from the movie. They took 11 7-11's and turned them into Kwik-E-Mart. They were very cool and the facade's were changed. All the displays were changed, etc. It was great and I am glad we went in spite of my beltway phobia and coming back through RFK ;-).

Well that is all for now.

Take Care... Be Safe.. LU2PMBU

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Life Update---6/27/07

First it is time for Birthday Updates!! Happy Birthday Linda Lee!! She was 44 on 6/24. YAY!!! And please say your prayers that she and Shelia B get the house they want so we can all live near each other again ;-)!! We had a wonderful celebration on Sunday morning with Coffee, Birthday Muffin, and then breakfast at Woodside Deli and Ali and Sunny joined us too!! Linda looked smoking hot. She has been square dancing and you can really tell in her new outfits!! She is going to "the Cape" for 4th of July and we wish her a wonderful time!! Tell the boy's Hi from me and I cannot wait to meet them sometime.

Mom is doing well. I haven't seen her much. I was given the weekend off for good behavior and work has kicked my butt since Sunday morning so I have not done much else. She seems happy and that is a good thing. I will see her this evening (I hope) and I will also spend time with her this weekend. Robbie spent most of the weekend with her and they pretty much finished the big shopping. We need to check on when her other furniture is going to be arriving, since we are at July already. Were did the time go?

Work has been kicking my butt. I have had a phone glued to my ear f0r 41 out of 48 hours. And I cannot tell you what happened from Sunday 7:00 pm to Tuesday night because I was working most of the time. It's been a long year... and a really long two weeks. Hopefully it will settle down.

I do get to work with some of the coolest people. Mike is one of them. This man has a way with computers that is magic. It is not just a platform, or a kind of hardware, or a kind of software... it seems like there isn't anything he cannot do. He works hard for his money that is for damn sure. The thought of if he were to ever leave makes me shudder. His is a mind that puts mine to shame. Plus he is wickedly funny ;-). I hope he is sleeping tonight. He is one of those of us who are sleep challenged. He makes my job easier and I thank him for all he does to help me keep my sanity while working in the most insane place and pace I have ever worked.

Speaking of work I include a link on here on the merger of the NASD and the NYSE Regulation . Suffice it to say this has us all hopping ;-). In addition to everything else we have going on. Funny that me of all people ended up to have a good job with a long tenure. That I would be so responsible, that people would look to me for guidance, support, and solutions in crisis situations.....still amazes me.

I still feel like a 20 something kid trying to figure out how to keep my laundry done, keep myself feed, and still get time to go play. To all my young finds. Enjoy your youth and freedom. One thing I don't feel like I missed out on anything, if I wanted to do something I did it. As long as I felt it was a safe thing to do in a given situation. I always trust my gut and that has kept me out of trouble even in a close call or two. Now I digress. The link on the merger is at the end.

Please say your prayers for Mychelle's brother Bill. He had back surgery yesterday and he had a rough night. He is in ICU but seems to be stabilized but he did crash last night. Say your prayers for Robbie and her foot injury. Sounds like it is not as bad as she thought which is a good thing. Please say your prayers for Mychelle and Shelia. They both have had to make some difficult choices this week and I am proud of them for their choices. So they could use your prayers for them to help them through this time of transition.

Maxie is back from work camp. He was forced to spend time with the most fundamentalist Christians. He is just like the rest of us in our family a die hard liberal so you can imagine how well this went over. SO this wasn't the most fun trip he has ever been on. I give him kudo's for going. I actually wished we had the public service requirement that is now part of the requirements. Coley seems to be doing well monster that he is ;-). I am so blessed to have these boys, all my boys and girls in my life. I love my kids with all my heart.

Katie is going to Italy soon. I am going to be forced to call Jean and Berl to get he info I need to send her some money for her trip. I hope she has a wonderful time!! I cannot believe her trip to Italy is here already! HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME MISS KATIE DID ;-)!!! LU2PMBU!!!

And I send a big shout out to my Colorado contingent!! I hope you all are doing well and sorry I couldn't talk the other day. I hope you all are enjoying your summer!!

Well I have a dog that needs walking and cats that need feeding and new tunes to dance around the neighborhood too ;-). I wish you and all you love all the best life has to offer. My you all be blessed with love, joy, peace, good health, prosperity, and much laughter.

Take Care... Be Safe... Lu2PMBU
http://www.nasd.com/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/MaryL.Schapiro/NASDW_019306

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Congrats to Cole!--6/17/07

Well Cole qualified for the Junior Olympics in kayaking today!! YAY!!! I am so proud even though I missed it. I got lost and missed it but he qualified to go to Golden Colorado for them. I am SOOO PROUD!!!!! Going forward I will go to Robbie's first and follow them. I did however make it for the medals and was the only one who heard Coles name called that he got one.

I think next year we are going to the Junior Olympics. I am planning my vacation for it now. With Mom here going out to Colorado is not a have to anymore and so there is at least 1 week of vacation a year I get back. I will go out next year for Jimmy's graduation but after that may not be back until I see Sean's. Anyhoo. I am very excited for him...he was tired as he did 2 runs. I am glad Sarah and Maggie where there to see him. They are Derick's sisters. His cousins Caroline and Harry came too. Amazing how much they have grown in the last while.

Well all of mom's boxes are unpacked!!! She has pots and pans she can use. She has a microwave/convection oven, food (YAY Trader Joes). She has a broom and dustpan. She has a printer and bedroom TV. Laundry Soap she can use to do her own laundry. A tray she can carry that is light with high sides. She has walked her butt off shopping and is ready to start shopping on-line ;-). We had a nice weekend but I am requesting the next weekend off.

Well I need to get some sleep. I hope all who read this have sweet dreams and lots of blessings and love. For all who cannot read it...LU2PMBU!!

Take Care....Be Safe...I LOVE MY FAMILY AND AM PROUD OF ALL OF YOU!!!