Fibro Update & More

It's been a rough couple of weeks since I started fighting this virus or whatever it is. It's been a roller coaster ride, and it continues yet. It is so frustrating. I don't know if it's related to fibro or not. I saw my awesome chiropractor last night. He was soooo helpful! He asked all sorts of questions, we got very specific, he tested me and noted that my digestive system, respiratory system, and kidneys were all acting up! Grrrr. So he did a lot of work and helped me as much as he new to at that time. Then he gave me acupuncture, which I wasn't excited about it but I know it works for lots of other people. I'd had it twice before, but it was so much more minor. This was more intense with rubbing alcohol, and electric pulses - it was weirdddd. Afterward I noticed red splotches on my hands and asked the doctor if that was normal. He started to say yes but caught himself and at the same time I noticed what he saw... that my hands were both really starting to swell at the site where the needles were. We checked everywhere else, and that wasn't happening anywhere else except my hands (whew!). It felt and looked really weird though. He helped me with that for a bit, talked me through it in case it continued, he gave me more supplements to add to my routine, and I left about an hour and 15 minutes later after he'd first started with me. It was nice to have such attention because I was in desperate need!


Unfortunately, overnight and today it hasn't been very good. I thought I was cured last night, but then I've spent most of the day in the bathroom, even when I was out shopping. It hasn't been fun! I hate feeling so yucky, as I'm sure so many of you do. I have felt extremely drained and am having trouble keeping up with everything. I have to be careful to not get dehydrated. My husband has been so wonderful helping around the house... he's so great! And I'm so thankful.

Whenever I'm sick, the pain flareups can almost be unbearable. I've been feeling so uncomfortable, it's so frustrating. I feel useless and like a terrible wife. I don't like not being able to take care of more things. Tim is so gracious (um, most of the time), and I feel so blessed to have him in my life. But I won't pretend that it's been easy. I feel so bad for him, having to live with me being like this. Obviously it's not anything that we could have expected or planned for, and I've helped him when he's been really sick like with pleurisy (a horribly, painful illness in the chest cavity wall) and such. You know how it is... one of you gets sick and the other picks up the slack and takes care of the other... right? Well, unfortunately for Tim that's nearly an every day, all the time thing for him to have to do now. I know he's exhausted. Please pray for him and encourage him too when you think of it, okay? He needs it just as much as I do, maybe even more, since he has to step up and take care of me and the house more than we'd originally planned.

Today hasn't been the worst, but I'm certainly sick of being sick... and even sicker of having a chronic illness. I know I need to be thankful for God allowing this in my life for the learning and growing aspects of it... but right now I'm struggling even with that. I'll get past it... I just wanted to share my heart in this today. I'm praying about it; the Lord is working on me; but thanks for listening to my thoughts/feelings today.


Thanks, as always, for your prayers, encouragement, and support.

In other news, I sent the remainder of my Christmas cards out yesterday, and I finished my Christmas shopping today. I just love some of the stores near our house, such as Cabela's and LL Bean. My family is sooo into those, and just in the past year they've come to our area. It's so exciting!! :)

I'm glad to have a few things at work behind me as well. Every December, our work has a Christmas Luncheon at a nice hotel about 15 minutes away. It is always wonderful, filled with laughter, games, singing, and celebrating. It's one of my favorite things all year. For about 4 years or so, I planned the event. The past two years, that's been given to someone else but I help him with the creative side that he prefers not to do - so I order the luncheon favors to set at each place setting. It's always been little containers with chocolates. This year I tried to be more creative and come up with something better. But alas, it always comes back to the chocolates. It's just easy and it's not cheezy. So many of the other things I found were cutesy or cheezy. People don't necessarily want more food this time of the year, but I always fall short of any brighter ideas. Maybe next year I'll give myself more time to think up something really great. If you have any suggestions of something on a somewhat limited budget, let me know! Here's a picture of the containers filled with chocolates this year:

And don't even get me started on the mistake the company made! I had to scramble and find 6 extra containers at a local store to make sure we'd have enough for everyone. But the containers I was able to find in such a short time were about 5x larger than these!! So we made it look like it was on purpose, and put them up on the front table where the president of the company and his wife sat. We hoped it would look purposeful as a treat for those sitting up front. :) So it seemed to have turned out okay. Whew! I worry too much...

I always love that event, but along with packaging up our department's Christmas cards and candy (to vendors, artists, and such), I'm tired! ;) It's all good, but I also like being able to see white space on my desk and not feel quite so overwhelmed.

When I came home from shopping today, I noticed this scene in our front yard. It had gotten quite windy, and our Mary & Joseph were knocked over on their backs. Sad, really, but it just struck me funny. I had to take a picture...

And now that I'm utterly exhausted, I think it's time for bed. 'Nite all!