Getting Ready for North Carolina!

First of all, THANK YOU to all you ladies from GBC who gave me rides to and from doctor's appointments this morning.  :)  Can't say enough how thankful I am for GBC! (Anybody in the Phoenix area who needs a good church click here to check mine out!) Anyway, established care with a GYN this morning to go over possible hormone issues that could be causing the throwing up off and on for the last two years.  Left that appointment to come back when I can fast and do the blood work, came home, grabbed some lunch, traded chauffeurs and was off to see my Naturopath in Scottsdale.

Was super excited to go see him because earlier in the week I had coughed so hard that I tweaked my lower back.  He adjusted me (he originally went to chiropractic school oh so many years ago) and gave me some additional supplements to help my body through the IV antibiotic wiping out all the good stuff in my body in the process of taking care of my infection.  Fell asleep on Vivian on the drive home and am currently doing my treatments. (For those of you that don't know what that consists of: Albuterol in a nebulizer then thirty minutes of a chest percussion vest.)

My Mom will be on her way as soon as the protein shakes, bars, and other Arbonne goodies we are taking on the trip get delivered to her house in Tucson.  We have to be at the aiport at 6 AM in the morning...there are several specific things you can all be praying for:

1) Strength and energy for the trip...after my first doctor appointment this morning I was absolutely exhausted and that was only after riding in a car for 20 minutes and sitting in the office for an hour...will definitely need the Lord's grace and provision for the day long process of getting to NC tomorrow!

2) That we get through security in a timely fashion and that it really is ok for me to take my shakes and high calorie, high fat snacks with me because I need much more than airport sustenance right now!  I've lost 10 pounds in the last month through this whole thing and definitely don't have room to lose anymore.

3) Grace and strength for Jordan while I'm away.  He is loving his new job but there have been some physical tolls taken with his heart and body in lack of sleep, being in the hot sun all day on the car lot learning different parts of the business. (and not wearing sunscreen and getting lobster red....do boys ever learn to listen to their wives and actually wear sunscreen instead of having me lather him up to help the sunburn heal after the fact???) ;) He always struggles to sleep while I'm gone so please keep him in your prayers as well!

4) Wisdom for the doctors that will be seeing me.  When I coughed up blood in my mucus on June 4th my mucus was a "normal" color for me.  It was the ensuing not being able to keep anything down, needing saline, finding out my port was clotted, 2 ER's, a Bronchoscopy, and myriads of needles and blood draws and IV's (my arms literally look like a bruised pin cushion right now!!) that overwhelmed my already weakened immune system when the bacteria, Pseudomonas, decided to take over my lungs again.  The ensuing complications with finding a medication that would not have bad side effects allowed the infection to continue to proliferate. We finally found the right one and it is just now starting to take over the infection.  However, this infection was not the original culprit and we need to find what started everything and treat that.  The two possibilities at this point are:
     A) Aspergillus fungus, which I have cultured for in the past.
     B) Non-Tuburculosis Mycobacterium (NTM): You have to have special cultures done for this and there is only a handful of hospitals that have certified mycobacterologists.  They took cultures during my bronchoscopy, but even if its negative here, my ENT (Ear, Nose Throat doctor) said those cultures take 20-30 days to even grow and are extremely difficult to diagnose.  Thus, I could have a negative result here in Phoenix, but it could be a false negative.  UNC (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is certified and we should hopefully be able to come up with a good plan of action.  It could be they do cultures there and coordinate care with my doctors here, or according to the American Lung Association website San Diego has a hospital that is certified as well.  (Oh bummer, I might have to go to San Diego for medical tests and make a weekend stop at the beach!) ;)  Who wants to take me??? :)

Once again, thank you for your prayers, love, and support!!  I will try to keep you all updated as best I can while we are there. Praying, going, and trusting Him!

In His Mighty Grip,
Rachelle :)