The Great Escape
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In the fall of 2017, we left our temporary home to escape the city in search of health. We had already left a previous "sick" home that was directly contributing to my plummeting health. I had been bedridden for 2 years, practically homebound for 4 years. I had experienced many close brushes with death, was in constant pain, and had found no answers through modern medicine. I felt confident that I would die in that home if we did not leave and find deliverence from this desolating plague. I was fearful that the move alone would kill me, and it almost did. But the healing forces of nature were astounding in my new home. The endless skies, breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, and the numerous birds and animals that come to my home, are magnificent healing energies. I am still a ways off from the finish line of this journey, but here we have all learned much about the healing power of nature. |
A Look At Living Through Chronic Illness!
How Can Something So Destructive and So Life-Altering Be Ignored?
We are one of many, many families living through one of the desolating sicknesses of the last days, chronic lyme disease. Although the numbers of us dealing with chronic illness are pandemic, the journey is often still lonely. Misinformation, miseducation, deception, fear, and chronic unrelenting pain kept us from finding answers and rescue for many years. This site is dedicated to both individuals and families, like ours, often with multiple members experiencing chronic suffering. This is a record of our experiences and what we did to find relief, escape fear, and forge ahead in our lives despite the illness. More importantly, this site is to aid in comforting those who stand in need of comfort. You are not alone! You are of great worth! Your individual recovery may be unique and require great patience and faith. But there are answers. . . .
Some of the Symptoms That We Suffered Through for Months and Sometimes Years - Some That We Still Deal With
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And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed." Romans 12:2
His Promise of Peace
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord . . . "
Isaiah 54:17 KJV
Isaiah 54:17 KJV
Leanne |
Bob |
Claire |
I now know that I have probably suffered from lyme disease since I was a child. Whenever I had a typical virus or even just a large amount of stress, it would manifest itself in flares. But it was a long and difficult journey to get a diagnosis, which is typical for most of us that suffer from this disease. By the time I received a diagnosis, I had suffered on and off with severe pain and organ failure for about 5 years. It then moved into my nervous system and became neurological lyme. Or maybe more appropriately, it was in my brain and nervous system all along, but finally revealed itself there. For a very long time, I wasn't sure that I could survive this plague. God told me otherwise. He let me know repeatedly that this was a fight I was called to fight. And He would be there to bear me up.
I grew up spending my summers at our cabin in the Colorado mountains. Ticks were a part of that experience, and my mother always had us check our bodies nightly for any signs of these tiny invaders. But no one at that point knew anything about lyme. One particular time, after a trip to the cabin, my mother found a tick engorged with blood on the top of my head after removing my swim cap. No telling how long it had been there. I was probably about 8 years old.
My first flare came just a couple of hours after having been given a school vaccine in the sixth grade. I became violently ill with severe headaches, fevers, body sweats, and chills. I was out of school for more than two weeks, and I remember my teachers telling me on my return that they wondered if I was coming back. I was that sick.
But in those days, vaccines were an accepted part of growing up. You stood in line at school, with heart pounding, waiting to get the humiliation over. Some shots administered at public schools in those days were given in the form of a gun that they held up to your arm. You stood waiting your turn, listening to some cry, and watching the terrified faces of others. And no one questioned the role of these substances in causing illness in a young body. In fact, most parents never kept track of what they were giving you.
After that day, throughout my growing up years, I had numerous severe flares. Some would land me in the hospital, and several days later I would go home with no new answers. No doctor or hospital could tell me why I had become so sick.
As an adult, while going to college and working more than one job, I had another severe flare. Too much stress. Then on my wedding day, I became ill again. This time with a very suspicious rash. The doctor told me that he suspected some form of measles. I now know it was a typical lyme rash. We canceled our ski trip and went home. I started right out by breaking in my husband to the realities of chronic illness.
Miraculously, I managed to have 6 children while continuing to have mild flares with flu-like symptoms. But then in 2006, I moved into a new home positioned very close to high-intensity power lines. In 2008, I was once again hospitalized. This time neither my husband or I was very certain that I was going home. My liver enzymes were 10 times what they should have been, and my doctor told me that he was having trouble reversing my decline or figuring out what was causing it. But I soon developed hospital pneumonia and was given IV antibiotics. I started to slowly get better and went home after a week. But, at that point, I never felt truly healthy again. My stomach always hurt, and I had constant fibromyalgia-like symptoms.
In 2011, I had another flare with severe muscle and joint pain. My liver was experiencing problems again, and one doctor diagnosed me with hepatitis C. A gastro specialist told me that diagnosis was wrong and sent me to a neurologist, suggesting that the liver problems were autoimmune. The neurologist had no answers except to prescribe antidepressants, which I would not take.
I had also been experiencing severe bleeding for a number of years. But now it was becoming uncontrollable. My mother had died from ovarian cancer. Consequently, my gynecologist recommended a full hysterectomy, especially because of the possibility of cancer. So I took his advice. Less than 1 month later, my gallbladder began to cause intense pressure and pain. No sign of stones, but a hida scan revealed that my gall bladder was only functioning at 9%. Again surgery was recommended and performed, less than 2 months after my last surgery. Lyme bacteria can invade any organ system in the body and masquerade as a number of different conditions.
September of 2013 was my date of no return. I started out with intense abdominal and bladder pain, fevers, and flu-like symptoms. I was told I had interstitial cystitis. The muscle and joint pain were unbearable, as were the headaches. I began to experience loss of balance, numbness, and tingling. Every old injury became very painful. My sciatica worsened, and my nerves burned. My skin itched, a deep fiery itch that was never quenched. My eyes and my mouth burned. My teeth felt as if they no longer fit together, and my jaws were swollen and painful. I began to have muscle knots form along my spine and in my neck and jaws. I lost so much weight that I was sitting on my bones, and almost all of my joints cracked. I could not sleep at night and was in a constant state of fight or flight. My muscles would not relax. But the most frightening symptom of all was my electrical sensitivity. Computers and cell phones would cause an intense feeling of brain drain. I began to have seizures at the mere sound of a light switch being used, and sensitive to even the mildest of perfumes and lotions. I could not use regular tissues, toothpaste, or lotions. The sensitivity was constant and unrelenting. I could find no relief from sitting, standing, or lying down. Accupuncture, massage, detox, and even just eating made me much worse. Almost nothing made me better, even a little. And most therapies made me much worse. I had almost given up hope that there was anything that would give me any quality of life.
Finally, after being diagnosed with hepatitis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, interstitial cystitis, Epstein Barr, and MS, I was given the correct diagnosis. I was sent to a doctor that had a growing number of lyme patients by an MS doctor who could accurately tell the difference between lyme and MS. Lyme disease is the great imitator of other diseases and is often misdiagnosed. My LLMD (lyme literate medical doctor), upon first meeting me, admitted that he was more than a little afraid of me. I was so highly sensitive to everything - foods, drugs, chemical odors, loud noises, supplements - that he was reluctant to worsen my symptoms instead of relieving them. On the second visit to his office, he turned to me with a book in his hand and said, "Here, read this book, and you can help me treat you." When I was first diagnosed, there were very few treatments other than antibiotic therapy, and some lyme doctors had lost their licenses for using it. Add to this the fact that lyme is not thought to exist in many states, including mine.
My husband and I felt alone and frightened. If I was to stay alive, we would have to find treatment answers on our own. Not to mention, pay for it out of pocket because few treaments are covered by medical insurance. Fast forward almost a year and 1/2, and both my husband and daughter would be diagnosed with chronic lyme disease as well. This journey for us was far from over.
At this point, we finally began to understand that we were never alone. Over the years, we had bought into a false religious system that professed to be doing the work of God. But that same system had no compassion for the sick and afflicted. Something was wrong. It was Christ all along that had been supporting and loving us. It was Christ that had kept us from not giving up. It was God, our Heavenly Father, that whispered through the Holy Spirit, we should seek deliverance to our new home. All three of us suffering from lyme came to understand that deliverance came from a personal relationship with Christ. We had been trusting in the arm of flesh. Praise God that He did not give up on us as others had. Praise God that He allowed us to learn and grow through our suffering. Praise God that He does not simply remove the suffering so we too develop compassion and love for our fellow man, and so He alone can show forth His power through His miracles. Don't get me wrong, there are many out there that are truly helping others to find their way through this battlefield. But they too are led by Him.
Although our journey is not yet over, God is responsible for helping us find answers and relief. He has helped us to move forward in our journey with the knowledge that the Holy Spirit will guide us directly to Him. As we become more like Jesus and shed the things of this world, we will receive healing. As we trust in Him, we will be gifted with peace.