Quick Sunday Update

Quick Sunday Update for y’all who have been asking:
I’ve been feeling pretty sick over the past two weeks, with various returning symptoms. We have been hitting Vinny hard with Blood Ozone Therapy and I’ve had multiple Vitamin C Infusions to help boost my little immune system so She can start throwing some punches of her own!! ❗️

Unfortunately due to some clotting issues and required blood thinners, I have lost a significant amount of blood and blood tests show that I’m now severely Anemic. Our main goal this week is to get my Red Blood Cell count up to avoid needing an Emergency Blood Transfusion. ⚠️
With this, of course, I’ve been very weak, light headed, and have been battling severe headaches and nausea. I did, however, get to say goodbye to my friend Mr. PICC line this weekend and therefore can stop my Blood Thinner meds...Small Mercies! (You’re welcome for the yummy video below!)

In order to avoid the Blood Transfusion, I will need to increase my Iron intake...but getting the necessary nutrients into my body is proving difficult. I have now lost 12 lbs in under 2 weeks and have been unable to keep any kind of nutritional help down without extreme pain, even while drinking water. Lately, I’ve been lucky if I can eat one PBJ in 24 hours... but hey, who doesn’t love a good PBJ?! Can’t complain!! 🌟

 

Looking forward: I’m blessed to be able to travel to Arizona for a long Christmas get-away and was able to get into my neurologist at the Mayo Clinic!! I am now showing significant symptoms that point to having an Autonomic Nerve Disorder, which is generally a post-infectious disease.

The GOOD NEWS and EMPHASIS is that it’s usually a POST infectious disorder and therefore we’re optimistic that Vinny is on his way out the door.... He’s just left some of his belongings behind!

Here’s to another week of battling, another week of fighting the good fight and trying my hardest to keep seeing the SUNSHINE through the SNOW STORM.... literally AND figuratively!! 🌄⛅



#GettingKnockedDown999times #GettingUp1000 #SickandTiredofBeingSickandTired #TheSunComesUpTomorrow #BeingStrongIsMyOnlyChoice #OutHereGrindinnnn #WhatsNext #BYEEEEE2017

No Ordinary Love

Flashback to when I thought I loved you. And yet, today, my love grows for you still. Day by day.

You still give me butterflies with a simple look, even after nearly 4 years together.... I think from the first moment I saw you I felt some force, greater than ourselves, “pulling” me to you. Some days I’m overwhelmed with gratitude that God put you in my path for us to meet again. Because I truly 

                  believe I loved you long before 2014.

I’m so crazy stupid in love with you Rathen J. Always have been, always will be. But probably even more tomorrow than I do today and today is even greater than yesterday....

I know I can be hard to live with and the past two years have been hard, because of my health.

You’ll never truly know the depth of the guilt I feel over that... but the only thing I hope you can ALWAYS know is how much you mean to me and how much you DO for me, even within the simplest of gestures.

It’s true that we don’t have it as easy as ordinary couples, but ours is no ordinary love.

Sometimes I catch you staring at me from across the room, or you give me a subtle and private wink or smile in a crowded room, just to remind me that you love me, even after the horrible things I’ve put you through.

Ray, YOU are my LIGHT in this world right now and I can’t thank you enough!! At times I don’t feel deserving of the kind of love you give me. God is so great and knew exactly what I needed in my eternal companion. I’ll be loving you for eternity and then forever after that....

No Ordinary Love

Flashback to when I thought I loved you. And yet, today, my love grows for you still. Day by day. 

You still give me butterflies with a simple look, even after nearly 4 years together.... I think from the first moment I saw you I felt some force, greater than ourselves, “pulling” me to you. Some days I’m overwhelmed with gratitude that God put you in my path for us to meet again. Because I truly believe I loved you long before 2014. 

I’m so crazy stupid in love with you Rathen J. Always have been, always will be. But probably even more tomorrow than I do today and today is even greater than yesterday....

I know I can be hard to live with and the past two years have been hard, because of my health. 

You’ll never truly know the depth of the guilt I feel over that... but the only thing I hope you can ALWAYS know is how much you mean to me and how much you DO for me, even within the simplest of gestures. 

It’s true that we don’t have it as easy as ordinary couples, but ours is no ordinary love. 

Sometimes I catch you staring at me from across the room, or you give me a subtle and private wink or smile in a crowded room, just to remind me that you love me, even after the horrible things I’ve put you through. 

Ray, YOU are my LIGHT in this world right now and I can’t thank you enough!! At times I don’t feel deserving of the kind of love you give me. God is so great and knew exactly what I needed in my eternal companion. I’ll be loving you for eternity and then forever after that.... 

Sheila’s Ode

Her cherry red paint job is only as red as the blood that pumps through our heart as we push down the gas pedal, all the way to the floor, just to get rolling along. After the surgery, her fixed power steering only endeared us more. More than just a way of transportation, Sheila was and always will be a fighter-and a lover. In the immortalized words of Billy Joel "And she'll take what you give her as long as it's free. Yeah, she steals like a thief but she's always a woman to me."






Credit Given and Written:

Adam Smith, September 8, 2017

God’s Timing

When everything seems like it's falling apart, that's when God is putting things back together, just the way he wants it.


This is where we start our comeback. I will spend no more time asking God why doors have been closed... because I'll be too busy praising God for doors that are about to open.


And so it was... that she, having waited long and endured patiently, realized and obtained what God had promised. - Hebrews 6:15


If it doesn't open, it's not a door. God's timing is perfect.






Written: April 19, 2017

God's Timing

When everything seems like it's falling apart, that's when God is putting things back together, just the way he wants it.

This is where we start our comeback. I will spend no more time asking God why doors have been closed... because I'll be too busy praising God for doors that are about to open.

"And so it was... that she, having waited long and endured patiently, realized and obtained what God had promised." - Hebrews 6:15

If it doesn't open, it's not a door. God's timing is perfect. 

A Glimpse of Death

Sooo, I have experienced my first and VERY HOPEFULLY my LAST “Air Embolism.”

Definition of Air Embolism:
An air embolism is a blood vessel blockage caused by one or more bubbles of air or other gases in the circulatory system. Very painful while going through the lungs. Divers can also suffer from a form of air embolism that is commonly referred to as “The Bends.”

While getting treatment today, I was doing my Ozone therapy first, where they take blood out and mix it with O3 (Ozone) and put it back in through a vacuum pressured bottle. Viruses cannot live WITH oxygen, and therefore we hope to kill Vinny the Virus! Treatments have been great and I’ve felt very optimistic about really eliminating this virus from my body indefinitely.

Today, however, I had dozed off and while doing so, the nurses momentarily turned their backs at the same time my treatment was completed. The whole bottle was empty of blood, but Ozone and Oxygen remained in the bottle, and therefore was being vacuum pumped straight into my heart and lungs through my PICC line.

As I said, I had dozed off for just a few minutes and the next thing I know is the excruciating pain and the innate inability to breathe. With each heartbeat, I could FEEL and HEAR my heart make a “squish squish” “squish, squish” sound. (The only way I can describe the feeling and the sound pounding in my ears is the same sort of sound you’d hear when you blow out your pipes during the winter or when the water pump lifts from your pond when you're irrigating with pipes? #CountryGirlProbs LOL).

I could feel it in my chest and throat immediately and woke up to hard sharp pains in my chest and the horrible sound, along with not being able to take more than about a 10% breath. I truly thought I was having a heart attack or my lungs had collapsed.

I looked at my bottle/tube and my blood was completely emptied from the bottle, but the vacuum pressure was still pumping straight Ozone into my PICC line, that leads directly into my heart. I starting yelling (as best as I could with lack of oxygen) and I’ve never felt a more intense amount of pain or fear in my life.

My lungs began to seize from having Ozone pushed into them and I started dry heaving because my oxygen was cut off and my chest was tightening. At this point, I was straining for even a single breath. The nurses were running everywhere to get the oxygen machine and a puke bucket. Hahah (“I had em runnin!” As my Grandma Lil would say.)

I was close to passing out from the lack of oxygen in my system and from the horrible pain in my chest. My heart /chest felt tight and heavy and I could physically feel my lungs and heart pumping.

They kept asking if I was OK and I’m like “Um.... no. I’m NOT ok!”
Thankfully, after about 30 min, I could then take a deep breathe with only moderate levels of pain. I still have oxygen on and a heated sand bag on my chest/ribs to help me breathe the Ozone out of my lungs.

My chest still feels very tight and like 1000lbs is sitting on it. My throat is extremely hoarse and dry, and is hurting from all of the dry heaving and from the lack of oxygen to my lungs.... Even trying to just swallow water, I begin to dry heave again.... but I’m settling down and am already very very fatigued.





Today will be a long day but again.... I WAS KNOCKED DOWN (a lot), BUT I GOT UP 10!!!



BOOM LETS GOOOOOO!!!