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Stuff is a-happenin'

I'll start with the good stuff...
So in honor of Lyme Disease Awareness Month, my mother and I have been busy bees creating a website where you can get handmade bottle cap Lyme Disease Awareness necklaces, pins, and key chains!  We are all about spreading awareness!  Check out our site: LymeMargarita's Inspirations

Here is the other stuff...
I am sure I am not the only one in financial ruin due to treatment costs...ugh!  This of course causes a great deal of stress trying to figure out where the money is going to come from to pay for next week's treatment ($1000/wk).  So with great hesitation, I created a Babesia Treatment Fund webpage because it was either reach out for help from my community or claim bankruptcy.  I have the most AMAZING family and friends who have been generously donating to my fund.  If you find it in your heart to help me in my time of need, I will be forever grateful: Sarah Sinclair's Babesia Treatment Fund  Thank you and God Bless!

So, here is my "Make Margaritas" inspiration for today...
"The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others."
Solomon Ibn Gabriol

Therefore, my fellow Lymies, in this month of May...go forth and spread Lyme Disease Awareness!!!

Handy little tidbits to make the Lymelife easier

I feel like I am becoming a professional at being sick!  How pathetic is that?!  Well with all professions, there are some tricks to the trade and I want to share what I've learned from my experiences with you:

1. If you have an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, download the Pillboxie app!  It is a Godsend for all Lyme Patients!   It was developed by a nurse.  It alerts you when to take your medications so you don't have to remember!  Genius app for all us Lyme Brains!



The app lets you list all of your medications and what they look like.



Then you drag the medication in to the time slots when you take them and how many of them you take.  You can also set it for the days you take it if it is not a medication you take everyday.

2. If you have Babesia and have to take Mepron, you know how nasty it tastes!  My trick is to use a liquid syringe and shoot it in the back of my throat and then swallow it with a strong tasting juice like Cherry or Cranberry.  It works like a charm and I actually do not mind taking Mepron now.  I will warn you to NOT try to swallow it with Coke.  It made me start to hate the taste of Coke.  Juice works much better!

3. Like many of you, the Babesia causes me to suffer from severe panic attacks.  I have started doing many little things to make myself feel useful and keep my mind from wandering into the deep dark tunnel of despair.

a.) I'm sure most of you have heard about Facebook.  It can be a good thing and a bad thing.  I find it helpful and like an online support group to read the Lyme pages such as: LymeChick, Lyme Disease Awareness and Support, and Infectiously Optimistic.  They provide great information about Lyme Disease and are always there to support you with an encouraging word.  If you want to read something HILARIOUS, check out this blog by Infectiously Optimistic about Sh*t Lyme Patients Say:

Sh*t Lyme Patients Say

b.) Pinterest is my new obsession!  Check it out if you haven't already! Pinterest  So many great ideas from recipes, crafts, fashion, etc...  I have been so inspired lately to make stuff.  And I pick easy stuff so I don't get overwhelmed.  I do a little bit each day and eventually I've made something beautiful and it gives me the greatest joy and sense of accomplishment!   Here is my latest project that was inspired from Pinterest:





Candle holder made from a mason jar, scrap book paper, and ribbon.

c.) Netfilx has come to my rescue!  I never watched the show Heroes when it was on TV and the entire series is on Netflix.  I'm hooked!  My boyfriend and I watch 1-2 episodes per night.  It gives me something to look forward to everyday.  Your first month is FREE when you sign up and you can cancel before they charge you :)  Netflix FREE trial

d.) I don't know about you, but I couldn't live without music!  When I'm having one of those days when I can't get off the couch, I open my iTunes, put my favorite play list on shuffle and let the music do it's magic.  I close my eyes, relax, and concentrate on the lyrics.

I hope you have found this blog helpful!  Don't get me wrong, I still struggle everyday to have a positive attitude but the things I've listed have really made my Lymelife a little easier.  So here is my "Make Margaritas" inspiration for today (from Pinterest):



Struggle, struggle, toil & trouble!

After my last doctor's visit we decided to increase my Mepron to 2x week.  This is a good thing and a bad thing.  The good part is that hopefully I will be done with this awful disease by April, as planned.  The bad part is that I am REALLY struggling everyday now.  Lately, I have had this thought that the act of living is very difficult these days...to wake up in the morning is a battle, to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom is painful, to collect my thoughts as to what I need to accomplish that day makes me cry because I am so exhausted...you get the picture!  I am trying to think positively and have hope that this will all be over soon but the hopelessness is winning these days.  The thought of having to go back to work makes me hyperventilate because I can't imagine trying to work with the way I feel right now.  But my mom and boyfriend keep reminding me that I don't have to go to work right now so I shouldn't worry about it.  And I will only go back to work when I am ready.  But right now I can't see the light at the end of the the tunnel.  I'm lost in the twists and the turns and I feel like I keep bumping into the wall. 

I am writing this blog today because I am grasping on to that last shred of hope that this feeling will pass.  And I need a written reminder to myself that it is the increase in Mepron that is making me feel so hopeless.  The increase in Mepron and crappy feelings are a GOOD thing!  It means the end is near!  Take it one day at a time and just keep breathing.  So here is my "Make Margaritas" inspiration for today:  This saying is written on the wall of my IV treatment room  Accept each day just as it comes to you.  Do not waste your time and energy wishing for a different set of circumstances.  Instead, trust God enough to yield to His design and purposes.

Health and Intellect are the 2 Blessings of Life

When I first got diagnosed with Babesia I thought...this really sucks!  Well, Babesia just slapped me in the face and said, "You silly girl!  You ain't seen nothing yet!"  Ever since Christmas, I have taken a turn for the worse.  I seriously thought I was beginning to go crazy!  I started to become highly emotional, crying at the drop of a hat for no particular reason, and everyday it got increasingly worse.  Then I started having days where my brain just wasn't functioning.  I couldn't complete a thought, I was dizzy, I lost the ability to drive, I had a dull headache all the time, I was nauseous, and sometimes I felt completely drunk even though I had not had a drop of alcohol!  Luckily I had a doctor's appointment scheduled with my Lyme doc and she explained what was happening.  Apparently, my Babesia has reached a critical point and is beginning to die off which is causing me to have Hypoxia (deprivation of oxygen to the brain).  Therefore, I am NOT going crazy!  However, it does mean that my world has been flipped upside down.  I am no longer able to work and I have to go in for IV therapy of Zithromax and Antioxidants 2x week.  This is causing all kinds of stressors that I am not handling very well despite everything else.  With having to take unpaid medical leave for 3 months, how am I going to pay my bills?  How do the rest of you do this?  Applying for disability can take up to 2 years to get approved!!!  So many things are up in the air and not knowing where I am going to get money from is killing me slowly.  I break down crying multiple times a day over this and the frustration of not having a fully functional brain right now.  The fatigue is so extreme right now I cry because I'm so tired.  So, basically everything makes me cry right now.  I just feel like a big, fat mess!

BUT....I've defeated Lyme and I can defeat Babesia too!  So here is my "Make Margaritas" inspiration for today:
From the bitterness of disease man learns the sweetness of health.
       - Catalan Proverb
There is a lesson to be learned from illness and although I haven't quite figured out my personal lesson yet, I will be grateful for the wisdom gained! :)