Tag: Lyme disease

You Can Laugh at Anything but not Everything

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Case Scenario #1

Husband helps his wife dispense a glass of water out of two-tiered water dispenser in the kitchen of some friends’ home during a New Year’s Day party.    Wife cautions her engineer husband to be careful as he tips the dispenser forward to get the water flowing.  Upper bottle suddenly becomes dislodged from the base, spilling 4 GALLONS OF WATER OVER THE WIFE AND THE FLOOR!!!  Mass chaos ensues as some scamper for towels for the floor then eventually for the wife.  Moments later I am outfitted in some cute-but-too-short sweats and socks while my jeans and warm fuzzy socks head to the dryer.  My shock at the incident lasts for hours afterward as I wasn’t feeling good in the first place.  Overall, I am glad we made it to the party and the hostess was very gracious.  I think we broke the water dispenser, though.

Case Scenario #2

Seizure attack episode ramps up then subsides as I decide to take my Epsom salt and baking soda hot bath today.  The soak was uneventful as I later drained the tub intending to take a shower and get going for the day — after all, it was already 2:30 in the afternoon!  For some reason I am immobilized and unable to get out of the tub for a long time.  My mind goes numb, I have trouble initiating more than one step of a task at a time, and I can’t seem to call or knock on something for help.  This is Chronic Lyme Disease and its complications.  Husband comes to my rescue and helps me get myself together with a little coaching from his occupational therapist wife on how to perform a tub transfer.  Flawless execution ensues.  More time passes before my coordinated movement returns and allows me to make my special diet/lunch at 6:00 p.m. or so.  I’m now very hungry and thirsty!  Food and drink revive me.  I think I’m moving a bit slower than normal, though.

So which one did you laugh at?  In the end, the second one was the most humorous for me.  Seriously!  The difference was the attitude of my husband.  An hour under the covers, recovering from a bath misadventure can be delightful between husband and wife no matter the details.  I guess it’s all a matter of perspective and I love it when Steve and I connect with the same perspective.    Maybe next time we will be “on the same page” so to speak when the water breaks loose.  This time, the bath water won, for sure.

(No honey, I’m menopausal not pregnant!  Gotcha!)

After the Wedding

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Many Christian weddings call upon the Apostle Paul’s marvelous description of love to help us know what love really looks like.  Sound familiar?

1 Corinthians 13

New International Version (NIV)

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

When you see love in action, you know that it truly exists.  While love is the hallmark of God’s gift of marriage, we know that it exists in many other relationships too.  I must write that I have seen it again today like so many days these past five years.  To see love as created by God himself, is to fully be alive.  To feel loved by another, is to know that God exists.  To love in return, is what I can do to say thank you.  To love before I see it, before I feel it, before I can give it, is to become an instrument of the Lord.  All are humbling and wonderful.

Today was a particularly difficult day.  More noxious symptoms occurred than usual and many continue at this moment.  And yet I feel no less loved than any other day from my beloved husband, Steve Horney.  He is my Jesus with skin on today and for that I am more than grateful.  I . . .   I . . .   I . . .    All I can say is thank you and I love you too!

If you were not in my life, my dear Stevers, I would have my Heavenly Husband to help me through this day.  He knows what days this has been true in my past and what days He will be my Rock in the future.  Wow.  Today I have both.  God is good.  All the time.  God is good.

Jesus is for the Wounded

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In the wee hours of Christmas morning, it is.

My body isn’t happy and my heart feels a little smaller than usual.

I wonder when this or that will change:  when the prayers will be answered?

Sadly, some did not say hello when I made it to church for the first time in a month.

Crying could be in the cards tonight, or at least a little pouting.  And what would that accomplish anyways?

I have so much goodness in my life, outside of this illness and its related difficulties.  About these I have written time and time again.

Why is it so easy to forget the blessings?  The roller coaster of life when it gets complicated too easily pushes my focus off of what is most important again and again.

Put the robe back on, take it off, no put it back on again as the sweat episode comes and goes; am I hungry or is it low grade nausea this time?  Oh yeah, the tic attacks have started again.

There is no end to this kind of thinking in my own strength.  I go on about it here only to illustrate that even as a believer in Jesus Christ, I am tempted, taunted by the darkness of this world.  Perhaps the difference between me and someone who does not believe will be what happens next.  Others may attempt to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and cheer up with positive self talk.  Still more will use a substance or dark distraction to erase the reality that can be so difficult to face.  Those comforts will be temporary and fail to something else that must replace it eventually.  Well this Christmas morning, these will not be me.  I will turn somewhere else.

But wait, can a baby born in a filthy village to a teenage girl and out of wedlock possibly comfort me in my anguish?  Even if He spoke wise words, did countless miracles, and 500 people testified that he rose from the dead, does that have anything to do with me tonight?  What if His life, death, and resurrection were perfectly predicted 500 or so years earlier without the benefit of the internet, does that mean anything for me or for you either?  And if He was part of God, the three persons of the one entity that is “God,” does that mean that He had anything to do with me being created?  So if He did create me, did He have really some purpose or plan for my life that included allowing me to get Lyme Disease?

Guess what?  The answers are yes.  Jesus is for the “wounded.”  Jesus is for this wounded woman who doesn’t feel so hot.  Jesus is for those who do good and those who do not.   Jesus is for those who think they are good but can never really be good enough because of our shared human condition:  we are all flawed by sin.  Jesus is for the sinner and those affected by sin in this fallen, imperfect world.  Jesus is the answer now and always.  And when I lift my eyes from my limited life and fix them on He Who is infinite, seek His forgiveness, claim that He is Lord, my eternal life comes into view.  This trial of illness will give way to an eternity in heaven with Him:  and there will be no more pain, weeping, or sorrow.  Yeah God!  How do I know this?  He promised it in His Word!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. (John 1:1-3)

The answers are all in the Bible and the Bible is God, one and the same.  How does that work?  Finding the answer to that begins in a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Creator of all people, places, things, events, and spiritual entities.    Some go to His Word first.  Some cry out to Him before realizing Who is out there listening and waiting for them with perfect love.  Some find Him through a person who knows Him and draws a bridge to the heart of Christ by his or her actions, tenderness, words.  In the end, we can all find Him if we but seek Him.  Don’t stop with that spiritual friend or influence either.  He, she, or it will fail us at some point.  Trust God to be perfect; just love people (spoken first by my former Pastor, Bill Hybels).  Jesus will not, never, ever fail us.  Jesus is for the wounded.  He “knows” the cries of our hearts as He was also wounded physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually too.  He does care about our sorrows.  He came to save us from the consequences of the sin of this world.   If all this wasn’t true, He would have never left the heaven realms to be born into this world only to die a tortuous death on a cross.  Would you leave paradise for me?  Er, no.

Tonight my heart is transformed by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2).  Thank you Jesus for coming to save me (Luke 19:10).  Thank you for watching over me (Psalm121:5) and ensuring that the trials will not be wasted (Jeremiah 29:11).  Thank you for caring about me (1 Peter 5:7) and taking care of my true needs (Luke 12:22-30).  Thank you for Your gift of salvation and eternity with You (John 3:16).  One day I know that I will be well, whole, and rejoicing in Your presence!  (Psalm 30)

Merry Christmas indeed.

Maybe I don’t want to go to bed

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peanutschristmascure74045_10151380532502386_87513810_nMaybe I don’t want to go to bed tonight.

If I go to bed, I might have seizure attacks and that is not fun.

If I go to bed and get up in time to do my morning treatment, I won’t have enough time to take a post-treatment nap before an appointment at noon.  Then I’ll probably want to rest after the appointment so my schedule is going to be messed up anyways.

But what if I stay up and get hungry again?  I don’t have enough protein already prepared to satisfy my hunger because this diet is just too weird.  For instance, I thought the son-of-the-owner-whose-been-cutting-meat-and-cheese-his-whole-life was going to laugh when I asked if they sold wild hog meat.  He smiled and said it was illegal to sell it in Indiana, just like it’s illegal to sell deer meat (aka venison).  Geez.  Wild hog on Amazon?  Yup, that’s what my Electrodiagnostic Naturopath told me to do.  She’s ordered alligator online before due to food allergies.  Alligator?

Is anyone else laughing in addition to me?  GEEZ!

So we had Cornish hens for Thanksgiving and I think there’s going to be a repeat menu of the little chickies for Christmas.  But for tomorrow, I’m a little stumped as to what to eat.  I guess I’m going to have to negotiate the pre-Christmas grocery store mania tomorrow after my after-appointment, post-treatment nap.  Could be fun, actually.  It will make me take a walk since I’ll have to park so far away from the store to get a parking spot!  Could be good.

Then again, maybe I will go to bed now.  Thanks for the chat.  It’s like I’m talking to Linus of the Peanuts comic strip.  And if I was talking to Snoopy, I know he’d understand too . . .  Goodnight.  :J