Lyme Disease

Hi friends!

I appreciate your prayers for my mom and ask that you would continue praying for her. Her illness is pretty serious. A blood test last week came back positive for Lyme Disease. Her doctor has also mentioned he may want to have a spinal tap done this week to test for encephalitis. It is a known complication of Lyme Disease and since she has been sick for so long he would like to test for it. I spent Saturday and Sunday with her at her home. I never knew how serious Lyme Disease can be. She literally can not sit at her kitchen table and sort through her mail without her heart rate increasing, having trouble catching her breath, etc. I drove up and spent the weekend helping her out around the house. I am so thankful my aunts & her friends are there to take her to her doctor appointments and drop by to check on her. My mom told me that she feels like she has aged about 20 or more years in the past month. It is heartbreaking to see her so sick.

Finding out first hand how serious Lyme Disease is I caution you all to be diligent about checking yourselves when you have spent time outside. You can avoid some ticks by using a bug repellent that contains deet. Not all ticks transmit Lyme Disease, but I certainly wouldn't know a deer tick from a western black legged tick, so I encourage you to call your doctor if you get any kind of tick bite. If you would like to read more about Lyme Disease, here is some good info: eMedicineHealth

Thanks again for your prayers!

On a funny note, while I was in Lowell I was able to see Frankie for a little while. Here is one of our conversations:

F: How big is Sheba now?
S: Well, how much do you weigh?
F: I'm 65 pounds.
S: Ok, well she is more than two of you.
F: How much is 2 of me?
S: Get a piece of paper and let's find out.
(I had him write 65+65 on a piece of paper)
F: Aunt Stephanie, this is NOT 1st grade math!!!

We worked out the math together and he caught on to carrying very quickly. Frankie was impressed that Sheba is now "two of him plus 10." :)