Notes from the Porch {sixteen}: California Appointment Update & Plan

Dear friends, I so appreciate y'alls patience and kindness as I have worked on getting an update together from my trip to California last week. I do not take it lightly that there are so many of you that have prayed numerous prayers, spent hours upon hours laboring on your knees for me, or that you daily are begging the Lord for complete healing. You are SUCH a blessing in this long journey. I appreciate more than words can express your kind patience as I worked through the doctors appointment and the plan for the next few months. Thank you for your gracious patience during this "processing time".

As I am sure that you can imagine (especially those of you that know me well) I was apprehensive about this trip solely because I wasn't sure what to expect. I was hoping and praying that this trip would provide some additional answers, tools for the future, and a plan and am SO thankful that the Lord answered this in full. 

Over this journey there have been numerous doctors (too many to list here!) that have played a role in this healing journey and I am incredibly grateful to them and to the team of current doctors that I have. As I mentioned in my last "Notes from the Porch" update it had become necessary to find a new doctor due to the complexity of my case.  

 {Please forgive my camera phone pictures! They are definitely not the best at all!)

I arrived in San Francisco early Sunday afternoon (March 9th) and drove by Dr. Harris' office, Pacific Frontier Medical Group, just to get a "feel" of the place and to spend time prayer walking around it. 

After I did this I went to check-in at the hotel, grab some food at Whole Foods, and drove around Redwood City and San Fran a little and then went back to the hotel for an early sleep. I was incredibly hopeful/anxious/nervous about the appointment on Monday morning and was happy that it started early in the morning. 

Without going through all of the different things that we talked about, the hours spent at the office, and the blood work that was done I would just like to share a few things about what my current plan looks like. (For security and privacy reasons I know that y'all understand why I am not sharing specifics about different medications, etc.)

(one)- One of the first things that was decided was that I needed to be tested to see if I have methyl-tetrahydrofolate reductase (or the "MTHFR" gene). If this is the case, which my doctor is pretty convinced of - then this is affecting my ability to properly "release" toxins out of the body instead of just sending them back through my bloodstream.  From what I am learning and have read,  having the "MTHFR" gene mutation is very common with those that have Lyme or Cancer, and obviously I have both. This is very crucial as methylation is the core process that occurs within our cells to help the body make its necessary chemical conversions. If you have the "MTHFR" mutation then you have a harder time getting rid of all toxins and being able to fight serious illness as the methylation process helps the body detoxify, creative a healthy immune response, and help the cells repair. I should have these results back soon and I will proceed in one of two ways. If I do have "MTHFR" I will be going through a "methylation block break" in order to correct this patter in my body. If I don't have this then I will be proceeding with antibiotics sooner.  

Some of you may be wondering why this was never tested before from previous doctors and believe me my family and I have similar questions. It is always frustrating on this journey to realize that you "should have been doing this" or you "should have gotten this test" or you "should have..." so on and so forth. One thing that I have constantly have to do is surrender this to the Lord. While I may view this as "days wasted or lost" on this journey none of this is a surprise to the Lord and what I may see as "lost days or time" He is using for His glory. I can either trust that the Lord was wrong and is in fact not God and not sovereign, or I can trust, like Joseph in the prison, Daniel in the Lions Den, Ruth in the desert following her mother-in-law, and Job in His shattered life that there is a purpose or I am choosing to state that God is in fact not sovereign and His ways are not perfect. I say to myself often when I feel discouraged with "lost days"... God is either Sovereign or He is not and I will never doubt that He is not Sovereign.

He is good dear friends. 

All of the time... even when we are heartbroken and our dreams lay at His feet in threads. 

Trust Him. 

He is Sovereign.

(two)- Due to the complexity mentioned above and my severe digestive issues my body is not ready to handle alot of antibiotics and the plan is to hopefully start IM (intramusculor shots) of an antibiotic for Lyme in approximately 4-6 weeks and to stay on that for a couple of months.  After this the next step is to travel back out to California in early September to to have a PICC Line inserted and to begin IV antibiotics. Both of these decisions are based on the knowledge that my digestive system is completely shot and can not handle any type of oral antibiotics. The hope is that after a couple of months of IV antibiotics then I would be able to start oral antibiotics. (For this trip to get the PICC Line inserted my mom would be coming out with me to California and we would be staying a week so that I can "try" different IV antibiotics and be watched to make sure that I do not have a severe allergic reaction- as I do to most drugs.) And before I receive any emails let me just say what we are all thinking- no, this does not appeal to me at all. 

(three)- The doctor was happy with all of the "little" things that I have been doing and I will be keeping up all of these things and adding in a couple of additional compounded medicines and supplements to hopefully help my gut heal as much as possible before we start any antibiotics. It is a really tough balance as we know that the Lyme is causing these issues yet it also prevents us from moving forward quickly as I would like!

(four)- In addition to the supplements and medicines I also will be adding in a couple of homeopathic items that will be helping to address my poor circulation and the adrenal failure (mentioned in Notes from the Porch {twelve}) that my body is experiencing.  I started with one of them yesterday and thankfully there is no severe reaction. 

(five)- Due to the fact that my body has become so severely sensitive to anything new my doctor has put me on a couple of medicines to try and not only heal the gut area but also "stabilize" the out of control reactions. (This is very common in Lyme Disease just so y'all are aware!) 

(six)- Along with running blood work on Lyme Disease co-infections, my doctors are also running tests on finding out if I have any mold in my body, several virus', and a variety of other things. Hopefully these tests will give us as much knowledge as possible in how to proceed for right now and in the future. Depending on these tests results I might need to fly back out to California for a check up in about a month or two. At this point we are just trying to take this one day at a time! 

(seven)- I am confident that my time at Whitaker Wellness Center last year saved my life. There is not a doubt in my mind, but at the same time as I have mentioned before it was time to get more aggressive and move forward with totally obliterating this awful disease. I am so grateful that the Lord led me to Dr. Harris and the people at Frontier Medical. It is a delight to work with a staff and a team that are experts on Lyme. 

As we wait for additional answers from the blood work and move forward with the treatment plan laid out for this next month I am reminded once again how grateful I am for a God who never abandons us and who has EVERY single step in our lives planned out for His purpose. (Psalm 138:8) This journey that seems to be lasting so long in my mind is all apart of His plan. And I pray that everyday I learn how to be a "good soldier" for the Lord in this arena. The Lord has never failed us and the Lord will never forsake us. His mercies are new every morning and in new ways I see His grace and mercy in abundance. 

An area that is very awkward for me to talk about on this blog (because I never thought I would be in this position) is on the issue of money. It has created a ton of stress for me and my family and we would beg you to continue to pray that the Lord would meet all of our needs and my medical bills and treatment costs and needs asap. I stepped out in faith for going to California and I know that this was the best decision for me health wise but because not all of the funds were there (I have only raised approximately 28% of what I needed for this trip) we are literally without any resources for the coming days. Would you please pray about this for us and pray that ALL of the financing for this past trip, current medical costs, current medical treatment, medical bills, and upcoming supplement costs and needs will be met in miraculous ways? Thank you so much. And to each of you that have given so generously and graciously throughout the last couple of years I can't express my gratitude enough to you. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. You have been an answer to prayer and a blessing to my family and to me.