Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Lyme Disease Awareness Month!

Lyme Disease Awareness Ribbon Clip Art
Ok... I will get to posting pictures of Easter and Madilyn's "egg hunt" and our new home (once we have couches and a kitchen table), but today I want to focus on something quite close to my heart.
Within the last year my aunt was diagnosed with Lyme's disease after a very long struggle with an "unknown" disease and issues so great they thought she may have a brain tumor, or MS. All along it was Lyme's Disease. The month of May is Lyme Disease awareness month. I know it's not quite May, but I wanted to post this now before I forgot. Down here in the south, ticks are not quite as prevalent as in the northeast and midwest, but they are still here! It's spring, it's warm and they are out there!
Here's some unknown facts:

1). You are more than 10 times more likely to get Lyme Disease than West Nile Virus. Ticks are everywhere and you are most likely to be bitten in your own yard.

2). Lyme Disease has surpassed AIDS as the #1 infectious disease in the U.S.

3). Testing for Lyme Disease is UNRELIABLE. To be tested correctly you must have your blood tested through a tick borne specialty labe such as Igenex Lab in Palo Alto.

4). The average primary Md knows NOTHING about Lyme Disease even though they believe they do.

5). Lyme Disease, if not caught right after the bite can become chronic with multiple systemic (body-wide) symptoms that is extremely hard to treat and patients only hope is long term antibiotics, sometimes YEARS and hope for remission.

6). You know someone with Lyme Disease and they likely don't know it. It is the "great imitator" If you know someone with pain, back problems, knee problems, Fibro, anxiety, migraines - you know someone with Lyme. There are 100 symptoms of Lyme Disease.

7). Only Lyme literate Md's treat Lyme Disease effectively, not found in your local phone book either. Contact The Lyme Disease Association for more information Lyme doctor referral.

8). Lyme Disease enters the central nervous system almost immediately and even if "cured" you can relapse many years later.

9). The symptoms of LD are so devastating it can be completely disabling with symptoms similar to Parkinsons, Alzheimer's, MS or minor as migraines and insomnia and may be the cause of these diseases!

10). Lyme Disease may be responsible for all psychiatric illness and the number one cause of LD death is suicide.

11). Lyme Disease can kill.

These are not all necessarily approved and noted by doctors, but something to think about! The best Lyme disease treatment is still controversial! My aunt went to one of the best hospitals in the country and was told she had psychiatric problems... when she was tested properly (almost 2 years later), she was informed she had Lyme's disease. It goes unnoticed and improperly diagnosed SO often!

For more information you can go to my aunt's blog mylifeinthelymelight.blogspot.com and she has links and videos for more information.

The more people are educated, the more we can spread the word and hopefully there will be more accurate ways to test and diagnose in the future... hopefully the near future!


Thanks for listening! :)

Monday, April 11, 2011

We close on Thursday!

AAAAAAH!
I really think I am still in denial, cuz seriously... I don't think I'm as excited as I should be! I can't believe we are going to have this house!
Anyways, we get to close on Thursday at 3pm! I have my 12 week ultrasound the same day @ 10:50am, so please be praying everything goes well! We will be cleaning on Friday, and officially moving our stuff in on Saturday! Whew! SO excited! :)
I was giving Madilyn a bath the other night... seems like I had her take one every night... I was feeling so rotten the past couple of weeks that the only way I could contain her was in the bathtub ;)... so she got at least 1 a day... sometimes 2! lol! Hey, she was clean! With her eczema she hasn't had a bath that often in a while! Anywho... her hair is really starting to get long, so I took the "cliche" soap in the hair picture...
I had a hard time getting her to sit still in order to take the picture, but I got it! :)

Thanks for your prayers! We can't wait to be homeowners again!!!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Monday's Inspection

So,
On Monday we had our home inspection and the termite inspection and everything went WONDERFUL! We got a signature from the bank saying the house will not be sold to anyone else, and our agreement is good.... so we are just waiting on the lawyers to tell us exactly when they can get the paperwork together. It will be no later than the 14th of April. AAHH! I just can't wait to be in my own home again, and this one is gonna be wonderful! ;)