High Eye Pressure, 16 Vials & Many Tears Later, There Are Still Pockets of Joy

"Christ's presence meets us in weakness and sustains us in sorrow."

-This Too Shall Last K.J Ramsey

Its been a big hard week full of pain, heartache, sickness, and also pockets of joy.

*Tuesday, April 26:

-Eye appointment @7:20AM. Doctor found that the inflammation is finally gone, PRAISE GOD!!!, but the high eye pressure continues to persist. The doctor feels with a continued medicine regime will resolve the issue. Unfortunately, there seems to be an issue with my eyes that concerns him, so he referred me to a specialist for an appointment labeled "urgent" on my charts. Of course I appreciated his honesty and determination to help me.

-After this early appointment, Dad or "Nurse Santa" helped set me up for an LR bag. As I finished the bag, I had two visitors.

-One sweet visitor was an old family friend and nurse, Mary Ann, who so kindly changed my dressing. The dressing change is always an anxiety provoking event once a week, simply because the whole process needs to be done precisely and sterilely. She did an excellent job. Following the change, I had a difficult time sitting up. My head felt really weird with a great deal of pressure and like it would just fall to the ground like a weight. It took a while for me to move around but I was able to. But after my head was just not quite right, big headache with a lot of pressure, felt sea sick, weird stuff.

-->A JOY POCKET during this time was my Aunt Joni drove up to help my Mom with things while she is healing from her hand injury to see me too. It was so nice to see her and share in some memories and laughs.

-As the night went on my head issues got much worse. Really bad weird migraine, continued pressure and pain, with a rise in nausea leading to hours of hugging the toilet. It was really tough. I couldn't get up to try to lie down in my bed, nor could I lie down on the floor because I couldn't change the position of my head. Around 2 AM I flopped over to the pallet Mom set up for me on the bathroom floor and with her only working hand rubbed my head so I could fall asleep.

*Wednesday, April 28:

-IV Antibiotic day... good times. My head still hurting, wearing sunglasses, all lights low, noises at a minimum, but moving around much better than the night before! (Again praise God.)

-Nurse Santa hooked me up. While on a drip I found out my younger brother got his first official counseling job working with teens in crisis.

-->JOY POCKET: I am so so very proud of him and all the good he is going to do to help so many lives! So proud of you David! (Who will also be graduating from grad school in a few weeks!!!)

-After my IV was completed, my parents and I were off to the eye specialist. This trip was not what I expected. It was VERY thorough, dilated my eyes for several tests and pictures of my eyes. The doctor came in to talk and essentially said thee same as my referring eye doctor had said as far as the pressure goes, but needed me to do some blood work to look into the chronic issues. Simple enough, I do blood work almost every week now.

-16 Vials later, l was fine, but surprised.

-That night a friend helping with the Fundraiser Saturday picked up somethings. Brandi has been a saint taking so much of the weight of planning the Craft Show Fundraiser, which has been a Godsend... especially with the treatment hitting and my mom burning her hand.

--> JOY POCKET: Compassion and love of someone toward me and my family to go fully above and beyond to love on us, while having her own very busy life.

-Later at night, Dad hooked me up for another IV antibiotic bag, crazy enough my eyes were significantly dilated after 11:30 PM.

-The night ended really emotionally from so much going on and other life things coming up.

*Thursday, April 29:

-LR bag day. MAJOR EXHUASTION BUUUUT doing better than last 48+ hours. (PRAISE THE LORD!)

-Also, added a new antibiotic, so we are up to 3 at this point.

-JOY POCKET: Johnny stopped by for a little visit and it truly delighted my heart. Such a perfect visit! AND he came bringing gifts! I can't wait for Dad to hang my new birdfeeder right outside my window where I sit and do treatments.

-Also, a long-time family friend, Donna, came over and spent the day helping Mom cook food for me for this weekend and our trip Sunday!

-Had a really good counseling session with my counselor while finishing up my LR bag.

-->JOY POCKET: While I did my bag today, I got to observe Dad observing the tree cutters in the neighborhood. Working for Duke Power for over half his life and has a lot of knowledge about trees and powerlines. It was all very cute and funny.

-Today I have been incredibly exhausted. Hard to keep my eyes open. I went outside to take a breather. Funny enough with all the trees being cut, I couldn't really breathe or keep my eyes open.

--> JOY POCKET: Soak in all those moments and how "the earth is vibrantly alive with God's presence, giving vivid testimony to His presence." -Jesus Calling

-Today ended with a nap... A NAP folks!

It has been extremely tough the last few days physically, mentally, and emotionally. I am so thankful for all the kind-heartedness, the love spread across the last couple days, the prayers, the check-ins, the small visits. All of these things culminate to a lot of POCKETS of JOY and I am going to keep collecting them, saving them to remember for a rainy day.

***With everything, I can still say God is still so good! so so good.***

Don't forget Craft Show Fundraiser Saturday, May 1 from 9-3pm.

#lymeisstupid #feelinglymie #lymediseasetreatment #godisgood #kindness #JOYPOCKETS #Hope.