Last week was full. On Sunday we went over to the adjoining state in order to see our Lyme consultant on Monday morning. It is official now, the Mid Kid has Lyme and Bart and Babesia, and also has some Rocky Mt antibodies floating around. They are also being tested for the dengue fever virus because that is beginning to show up more and more in everyone’s blood work. (I had already heard this on multiply accounts) Since their Dad has traveled in parts of the world where this virus is not rare, it is probably a good thing to test for it. Also, a mold test has been ordered for both. Molds can cause all kinds of problems and make the ones that exist worse. We are almost sure that the house the girls were living in Florida has mold in the AC unit. It was on the docket to be cleaned last winter before a decision was made to all live under one roof.
So are the girls all better yet? The proverbial question asked to Lymies. No, when one is in a chronic state of illness it takes a while to get all better. Are there some improvements? Yes. Mid Kid reports that her stomach hurts less than it did but her joints hurt worse. Also she has had several small bouts of meningitis closer together than they had been but they last for a lesser amount of time and not as severe as they were. Her fatigue level seems to be worse than it was a few months ago. I suspect that is due to the treatment. Being a in a state herx more.
The eldest has had signs of improvement. First and foremost her hair stopped falling out! The poor dear was beginning to think she was going to be completely bald by Christmas. Overall she does feel better. She has quite a bit more stamina, but it is nothing like what it used to be. She has a ways to go on that. She is still working on the baby steps to recovery. She is playing the piano at church every other week. That is a huge improvement. She had gotten so that she had completely stopped playing any of her instruments (which she loves) because she simply did not have the stamina or the of mind to hold on to what she was doing. She likewise has decided that going back to college and making her mind work will be good for her. She knows that she will not be able to breeze through things like she used to and she might have to struggle a bit more to write a paper but she felt the discipline of the work might be good for her mind.
Well, I am sure there is more to that story and trip but that was a week ago and so thus I have forgotten the rest. Except of course, Mid Kid has a wheat allergy which we already knew—not gluten but wheat as a whole. (The elder one has the gluten problem) Also, Mid Kid has a slight peanut allergy, but I had already removed peanuts from there list of foods due to the molds that grow in peanuts, so they all get one generous spoonful of organic peanut butter a week, with their Sunday dessert.
The eldest member of our tribe, my dad, seems to be failing a bit. I can’t discern exactly the details of the problem but he’s gone to reducing his caloric intake. And while he was a bit overweight, if he keeps this up he will be underweight again in no time. (Basically he is not eating very well.) We went through this back two years ago and it was from the medicine so we traded eating and medicine times around and he went back to eating. He goes to the oncologist this month so we will know more. His oncologist would rather see him heavier than lighter. Me too, it is much better to see him eating instead of pushing food away or refusing to eat.
Also, my parents have a mold issue that we are working on remediating. We cut out some of the carpet last night and if that does not help we will pull it all up and replace it. It does not help that my parents rarely ever want to open the windows and exchange the air flow or to turn on the AC to scrub the air. I have told them if they need to run the AC and the heaters at the same time it would be better than letting the air get so stifling muggy in the place. My dad is so cold-natured that they have run the heat almost all summer anyway. (Granted it has not been overly hot summer.)
The other Dad has slept a lot this past week and has had some unclear moments but on the flip side has had some very clear moments. Like this morning when breakfast was late and we all sat down to the breakfast table trying to get the rest of the family out the door for church (and with the Dad sleeping)…as soon as we all sat down he started to make a noise, so I went out and asked him if he wanted his breakfast when he declared, “ I thought you had forgotten me!” I assured him that I had not and promptly dipped his up and sat down to help him with it.
He has something a kin to a wheeze that kind of comes and goes. The hospice nurses can't discern what it is from. It does not affect his oxygen levels and he does not seem to have any problem due to it...so we are assuming it must be a muscle that contracts when he gets tense.
On other health news, I took Hubby up to the VA after hours clinic this past week with a possible fractured bone but thankfully, it turned out to be just a really bad whack to the shin bone, BTW three days later he has still not shown any color…..we are beginning to wonder if the biofilm is not broken down as much as we thought it had, umm, something to investigate and ponder in my free time. He might have broken a finger but honestly, I have not had time to converse with him since then. Oh yes, the X-ray tech at the VA was sick so we opted to not get an X-ray and Hubby didn’t mention the finger while at the clinic, so the doc didn’t look at it. Well, you all know how it is…bumps and bruises…sometimes you forget.
I got stung by a yellow jacket yesterday at the farmers market and it is still swollen and itchy. I didn’t feel well for a while, I am a bit sensitive to things that sting me….but more than likely, I will live. Probably sniffing out mold last night in my folks apartment did more damage. (I am highly sensitive to molds and musties, too.)
Well, that is the health update.