multiple chemical sensitivity – Page 4 – Jesus is for the Wounded

Pray without ceasing

Published on December 15, 2013December 15, 2013 by Jesus is for the WoundedLeave a comment

¹⁶Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray continually, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5

The pages of my journal are color coded for quick reference to the various noxious symptoms of this ongoing illness. This system helps when making medical summary documents or answering questions during doctor appointments. It looks like every line has either blue (for headache), green (pain), orange (seizure attacks), purple (nightmares or waking terrors), or red (flu-like sickness) today. Whew! I had planned to write the hairy details directly from my journal for my blog entry today but I think that just mentioning the rainbow of wacky stuff going on is good enough. But don’t worry. I am more stable now. I slept until 5:00 p.m. today with about 1 1/2 hours awake this morning for breakfast and journaling. This is crazy stuff man.

And yet every speck of color and it’s accompanying saga are part of the Lord’s perfect plan for my life. I am sad that Steve has to endure this too. Yet as a believer, to have a wife with a serious illness is part of the Lord’s Divine plan for his life as well. How this works is such a mystery! So for me, if I am to live as Christ then I must take His Words into my heart and allow them to breathe life into my achy body each day. I must pray without ceasing, give thanks for all the goodness that continues all around me, and know that He can use everything for His glory. This is a mighty responsibility. Hope I get it right!

Will this time of illness refine me in some way? Perhaps. I know that in another time of my life, repeated trials softened the harsh edges of my personality. I learned that I have a Heavenly Husband and grew in fellowship with Him. (Oh how I wish every married woman would know the joy of having a perfect partner in life as manifest in the Lord so she could cut her earthly husband some slack a little more often!) I also witnessed the amazing provision of my King in what appeared to me as “upside down and backwards” most of the time. In the end, the pieces of my frazzled life came together perfectly. I even met my knight in shining aluminum (aka the 24-foot box truck that Steve rented to move me from Illinois to Indiana!) who has shown me love like no other person on this earth. The Lord restored the years the locusts had eaten (Joel 2:25) so to speak, and I was set to live happily ever after . . .

When there’s a major turn of events in the life of a believer, chances are there’s also a major opportunity to receive something wonderful that could not come any other way. Who changes his or her personality just because it’s Saturday? No, it usually takes a major train wreck or two for that to happen! Because the Lord has shown me His faithfulness, His heart, and blessings even in heartache, I will continue to choose to lean on Him, wait on Him for all things.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the thing which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

These colorful experiences of mine, good and bad are temporary. Thank goodness! Allow me to share with you one more passage that brings this hope home in my heart:

You, who have shown me great and severe troubles, shall revive me again, and bring me up again from the depths of the earth. You hall increase my greatness and comfort me on every side. Also with the lute I will praise You — and your faithfulness, O my God! Psalm 71

We have a Heavenly Father who promises to be with us though all of the trials of our lives and redeem them for eternal glory. Come to His throne of grace with me Gentle Reader and bring before Him all your weariness, hurts and pain. He sees them and carries them with us. And one day they will be washed away when either He comes again for His own or we join Him when our time here is through.

If you do not know Him as Lord and Savior of your life, well, you are missing out on perfect peace and so much more. I pray that you will consider following Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life. If you make that decision today, please contact me and tell me all about it. If you rededicate your love for Him, please tell me that too. After all, to reach others for Christ is the main reason why this blog is here. My time of illness and connecting with you today are part of His perfect plan for my life. They just represent more pretty colors for the threads in the tapestry of my life you might say . . .

Laughing while it’s starting to snow

Published on December 14, 2013 by Jesus is for the Wounded2 Comments

I couldn’t decide which of these was the best so here is all of them. Now take your dose of laughter, the best medicine!

Give the gift of compassion

Published on December 10, 2013December 10, 2013 by Jesus is for the WoundedLeave a comment

Know someone battling a serious illness and want to give them a meaningful and encouraging gift this Christmas? Give the gift of compassion and a copy of

Hope Beyond Lyme: The First Year

Now available from Smashwords.com and Amazon.com!

Now it’s available in 9 different formats so you don’t even need an eReading device to download your copy for just $2.99! To learn more go to: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/371334 and be sure to click the “Give as a gift” link from any book page. Smashwords will email it to your loved one immediately upon purchase. If you would like it to be a surprise instead be sure to put your own email address where indicated, print it out when the order is complete and hand it to the person, well personally!

For Amazon Kindle shoppers, head to: http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Beyond-Lyme-First-Year-ebook/dp/B00G9WF1RK/ref=la_B00GAOAOI8_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386631580&sr=1-1

Discover from a fellow sojourner, my most meaningful and encouraging moments to share vignettes of understanding with your loved one battling a serious illness. There is hope and with faith in God, we will find the true meaning and source of that hope.

Thank you, Gentle Reader, for helping to make this project possible! Just Julie

Are we there yet? Part 1

Published on February 21, 2013February 21, 2013 by Jesus is for the Wounded2 Comments

When the going gets tough, many gals go buy shoes. Today I think my response will be to go buy dog food and printer cartridges. Geez! I gotta get a life, eh?

My husband says that our current living situation (living in a hotel while we remedy my allergy to our home) reads like the childrens’ book Fortunately, Unfortunately. In the book, fortunately a character gets to fly in a plane but unfortunately, the plane starts to crash. Fortunately the passenger has a parachute but unfortunately it won’t open, and so on. Yeah, this is the story of my life of late:

Fortunately, Steve had plans to go to Florida for a United States Canoe Association meeting in January but unfortunately he had to cancel due to the severity of complications of my battle with Lyme Disease.

Fortunately, I got energized after praying with our doctor and discovered I could have a few more food items but unfortunately he told me not to drive and I needed to go to the grocery store to get those items.

Fortunately, after Steve’s daughter, Christina, drove me home, I had started to feel better so I took a risk and drove myself to the store. Unfortunately I was too weak to walk well and had to hang onto the grocery cart to make it through the store and back to my truck, my home.

Fortunately, by this time I had figured out that I could stay in the house without seizure attacks and neurological collapses if I kept the windows open but unfortunately it was 20 degrees outside. So I turned up the furnace and dragged my way through cooking enough food to sustain my special diet a few days on the road. We had just cancelled a trip then reinstated it just hours before leaving town for over a week.

F: within 48 hours of leaving town I was 25% better from all symptoms! U: The home we first stayed at had a history of water damage and mold, continuing my risk for exposure, noxious symptoms, and difficulty sleeping. But the recovery process was now underway!

F: within 3 days, I was 65% better as we continued to travel. By Friday, I was grateful to be able to kayak in our two-man outrigger canoe with my Aunt Lori on a bayou off the Gulf of Mexico! From dying to living once again! U: it rained our last full day there and I had a resurgence in symptoms sleeping in the room with the windows open. F: the couch in the living room was next to a closed window and I was able to sleep about 2 hours.

F: we were able to continue our trip to see some friends at their log cabin in the woods of South Carolina for some sweet fellowship and wild boar cuisine. Hog is a menu item in my special diet and SC is the capital of hog hunters’ heaven, so to speak. U: fog rolled in the second night and kicked up the mold spores in the sleeping winter landscape triggering another setback. Oh well. We had a great visit anyways and I got another hour of sleep after we closed the windows, again.

F: I was able to reserve a hotel room back in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area so my beloved could drop me off in a clean environment for our first two nights home. This would give us some time to figure out a temporary living situation for me while we began the process of mold remediation in our home. U: I didn’t get to be with Steve again overnight until three days later. He would begin commuting back and forth from home to the hotel, transporting needed items back and forth, taking care of the dog, visiting Christina (before she left town for 3 weeks) and so on. Fatigue set in for him; stress began to mount for both of us.

F: some dear friends offered me a lovely room-with-private-bath and generous kitchen privileges so I moved in. U: I had a few hours to kill in the afternoon between the time when a CPR class ended and they would be home. All my earthly possessions to carry me through this time was in the bed of my truck or king cab. The outside temperature was zero. I simply couldn’t get warm and had no where to go. I was beyond exhaustion, frustration, exasperation. I went to a coffee shop to warm part of me then the library to use the computer and kill some time, cry a little.

F: The lady of the house I was to move into called and offered an earlier time to move in and I was delighted! This couple provided a place for me to stay 5 years ago when I was dating Steve; so many happy memories from that time. U: as soon as I saw them, instead of relief, I began to cry and could not stop. The stress of my nomad life and uncertain future overwhelmed me. Their love provided the safe place to let it all out . . .

F: I had the best nap ever soon after I moved in. U: at 4:30 the next morning I had low grade seizure attacks that would not cease. I got up and prepared a snack and sat at the kitchen table for awhile, hoping our friends would wake up and help me sort this out. What went wrong? We never really figured it out. They had successfully resolved a water damage situation 9-10 years earlier and had “iron bacteria” in their water. What was going on?

F: since I had not reacted to the hotel, I made a reservation and went back for 2 more days of respite. U x 2: the room temperature vacillated, finally dipping to 58 degrees on a frigid winter night. The maintenance guy was gracious to attempt a repair however a wire fried when he tested the system spewing smoke into the room. F: we were able to open the windows to air out the room and he brought a space heater to warm up part of the room. U x 2: the smoke smell was never fully eliminated and I woke up with marked seizure attacks at 2:00 a.m. We called the office and relocated to another room just to sleep, in sub-zero weather. More attacks followed in the freshly cleaned, highly chemically-scented room. What now?

F: a sweet family and friends offered for me to stay with them. I packed up again and divided myself between various available spaces in the home for my luggage, food, supplements, and so on. I had definitely gotten my routine down by now, made dinner and enjoyed visiting with them and their daughter. She is such a cutie and playing with her was a great distraction from the events of late. U: seizure attacks returned as I awakened the next morning. Guess I wasn’t meant to sleep in my cocoon in the gun room after all. But I just couldn’t bear to move again. Tried sleeping on the couch the next night and it didn’t go so well. My hips hurt so badly I had difficulty walking. Sigh. I really enjoyed staying with them!

F x 2: The very first room I’d stayed at in the hotel (where I did fine) was available so I moved back the next afternoon. Some dear friends gave us a generous gift to help cover some of the hotel expenses, taking off the time-pressure, stabilizing my situation, so we could start focusing on remediating the house. U: almost every time a large item, number of items, or new smell was introduced into the studio room of the hotel, I would have a setback. Multiple chemical sensitivity had set in and limits the progress.

F: By this point I’D HAD A 60-HOUR INTERVAL, 72-HOUR INTERVAL, 60-HOUR INTERVAL, AND A FEW 48- HOUR INTERVALS without severe symptoms to date. Praise the Lord for these, His provision, some sweet times in the hotel room with my “married man” and reuniting with my dog whom we brought to the room as well. Puppy therapy rocks! The healing process can also be rocky. It is now here!

Stay tuned for Part 2: The Fortunately, Unfortunately story of our home remediation. This too has been a rocky process with some sweet possibilities as I write this. Without my faith in Christ, I would be lost right now. As it turns out, I’ve been displaced due to extreme circumstances twice before in my life. I have seen the Lord, “restore the years the locusts have eaten.” (Joel 2:25) I will choose to “trust the Lord and lean not on my own understanding” for the promise that “he will direct (my) paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) I will, “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Pillippians 3:14)

Someone once said that life is either a wild ride or nothing at all. I think I’ve got one of those kinds of lives! And we aren’t even “there yet.” Hang on with me, k? :J