The Beginning or so I thought...

I have been deciding if I wanted to blog about how my life has changed and how I am trying to live each day to the fullest.  I know many won't care, but I feel the need to do this for myself.  So...

Let's see, where do I begin?

In August of 2012, our oldest was leaving to go to college and it was really stressful for us, being our first time of having one of our babes leave the nest.  On our trip, up to the college, I had such a horrible headache. Something I usually didn't get.  I had a small headache off and on for about 3 weeks before and usually Ibuprofen helped relieve it.  This one was so intense that nothing really was working,  not even my prescription meds.  I also noticed, I was bumping into things, dropping things, and felt like I was speaking slowly, my face felt like it was drooping on one side and lots of confusion. I constantly asked my friend if my speech was slurred or was I drooling?  I was convinced I had a brain tumor.

I went to the doctor on the Monday after.  She tested me for Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. She asked if I had been bitten recently. Since we moved to Bedford County in 1998, it has been nothing to get bitten by several ticks each year. I always looked for bulls eye rash and a fever.  I didn't have any of those signs. So, I thought nothing of the tick bites. She gave me a shot to help with the headache pain and said "I am going to start treating you for a tick illness, but I don't think you have one. If I don't, you might not be here to know the results, if it is positive."  I remember thinking "oh no, what have I got?"  I started Doxycycline  for 14 days.  Ironically, our dog Maggie was taking the same thing for ehrlichiosis, but her dose was stronger than mine.  Interesting.  My test came back borderline for RMSF, therefore a "positive."  I was retested two weeks later and it was definitely positive.  I was prescripted another 14 days of doxycycline to take.  "Doxy" is a really harsh antibiotic, that makes you very nauseous.  BTW, it was a $4 prescription then, but not anymore.  Now, its around $150 +/-.  Interesting, I wonder why?  I was retested in four weeks and my numbers had dropped a little.  That showed that my body was taking care of the RMSF and I would be ok.   So they assured me.  

In Sept./Oct., I started have a lot of palpitations and with my anxiety, I was getting afraid.  I went to my friends cardiologist to see what he said.  He was really nice and I took my friend with me to take notes of what he said.   He did an EKG and after my insistence, put a 24 hour heart monitor on me.  Everything was fine!  He explained to me how people have these all the time and for no reason.  Many people didn't even notice them. Like I could do that!

TO BE CONTINUED...