Category Archives: Update

Our God is bigger!

July 23, 2016 3:16 pm , Leave a Comment ,

Were trying to work hard around the property today so that we don’t leave for Germany for a month and return to all ten acres being taken over by weeds and it looking like a jungle…  While I was able to pull weeds for only about 10 min I was struggling with fear. Fear of taking our whole family to a foreign country and exposing everyone to harm. Fear of the world in which we live in and the unknowns that present themselves daily. Fear of health. Fear of…  You name it!  I had to quickly reel my thoughts in and remember that our God, who made Heaven and Earth…  Made everything in it…  He is soooooo much bigger than all of this. I can give Him my worries and fears, He can hold them with just his pinky finger if I’ll let it all go!  That’s the key for me at least…  Letting it go. Not picking it back up again and again, but actually leaving it at His feet!  He’s got all of this. He has our marriage. He has my kiddos. He has our travel plans next month. He has our safety. He has the doctors hands. He can handle it ALL!

Holding onto this simple truth…  I hope you are too!

Sincerely, Dani

And because I’m having to take it easy today…  I’m extremely weak and fatigued…  Look at the gorgeous and fun views I’m getting to take in…  Love each of them so much!image image image image image

Posted in: Family, God, Health, hubs, Kua'aina Ranch, Life, Live IT Out!, Lyme Disease, Marriage, Prayer, Update

Best Doctor (and staff) EVER!

July 21, 2016 10:00 pm , 1 Comment ,

It’s been a longgggg and successful week of doctors appointments and IV treatments for both of us. I had 6 total IV appointments and a doctors appointment and Cory had an appointment and two IV appointments. We’re absolutely wiped out, but everything went well and for that we are so very thankful!

I wanted to share tonight quickly about our Doctor here in town. I have had several hundred people ask where we are receiving treatment and how you could schedule a visit…  I wanted to make sure it was ok to share that info first😁  I have the go ahead, so here it is:

We feel crazy blessed and insanely thankful to have found Dr. Payson Flattery!  He is the Director at the Cebter for Integrative Medicine off of Norton Avenue here in Bend. Dr. Flattery is the most open minded, smart, investigator, and caring man we’ve ever found in the medical community…  And we’ve been looking for a VERY long time. He’s human and we all make mistakes at times, but Cory and I both feel like he has been used in huge ways already in our health. He has finally properly diagnosed, began intensive and yet gentle treatment immediately. He is not offended to support the Germany Kliniks protocols, and he had become a welcome and friendly face to see each day at his clinic!  We are so thankful for him and his incredible team…  Each one of them:  Mary, Wendy, Cindy (they each keep the office running and greet us with smiles!), Kaitlyn (she has to set each IV!), Joanna (the gentle and sweet colonic lady!), and the Doc himself!  If you’re looking for a great office with a warm staff and a doctor who will seek answers without giving up…  Give them a call!

Now, I’m going to go snuggle with my handsome hubs and call it a night!

Countdown to Germany is happening so fast…  Help us anyway you can!

Keep fighting for answers!  Keep sharing!  Keep PRAYING!

Sincerely, Dani

 

Posted in: Health, hubs, Life, Lyme Disease, Update

Hubs starts treatment…

July 18, 2016 10:48 pm , Leave a Comment ,

I’m sooooo tired, so I’ll make this short tonight. Cory and I were at the doctor shortly after 8 am today. Cory started his IV therapy today to prepare for Germany with PTC and Glutathione. imageHis IVs went well, but it was so hard to see him start this battle with me…  You know how you’d take all the hurt away from your loved ones if you could?  Well, in this case I’ve given it all to them instead. 😩  I cannot go back in time. I can’t dwell in the past. And I cannot beat myself up anymore…  Now is the time to move on and count blessings, so that’s where I’m trying to stay each moment of each and every day!

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I began my morning with Neuro Prolotherapy.  Another first for me today, and a welcomed one in hopes of eliminating my constant head, neck and shoulder pain. The doctor injected about a dozen sites with dextrose…  I could honestly feel some relief instantly. My pain is not gone, but it is a couple levels lower up there…  And I’ll take that as I’ve had my migraine for about 11 weeks now without relief.  I also started high dose vitamin c infusions today which after we finally gave up on getting my veins to cooperate for the catheter, took about 1 1/2 hours to receive. We had to forego the catheter again today as my veins collapsed three times again and I’m quite bruised for the day.image

Im having a better day than yesterday for sure, and I’m soooooo thankful!  Thank you for your prayers today, I really felt them!

Unfortunately, Cory has not been feeling so well…  Poor guy has been struggling with severe brain fog, and just all over feeling awful. He ended his day by coming down with one of his horrible migraines that he can get from time to time. He’s been in bed since early evening and in so much pain. Please pray that this passes and doesn’t keep him up all night.

I head back to the doctor tomorrow morning for more IVs and then for a colonic early afternoon. We will also try to place the catheter again tomorrow…

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They looked happy here though… We snuck out quickly and got some birthday gift ideas for little Grey Everly who will turn 6 in Germany! Silly kiddos!❤️

Special prayer request for today:  kiddos need to hear some good news soon. Maybe see mom and daddy feeling good, less stressed, and able to play with them for a bit…  Even just a short time!  They have not complained, but I’m gone a lot now and they are spending so much time alone and I can see the worry on all three of their faces at times.

Sure love each of you!  Thank you for your prayers, support, and shares!  One thing I know…  God is good all the time!  ALL the time!
Psalm 27:13-14(NIV)

13 I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.

Sincerely, Dani

Posted in: Family, God, Health, hubs, Life, Lyme Disease, Prayer, Update

A Really Really Hard Night.

July 17, 2016 10:02 pm , 2 Comments ,

Tonight was a really really hard one. We made it through, but the pain overtook my body and I couldn’t handle the pain. Cory and the kiddos said they counted 12 times that I passed out and stopped breathing when the intense pain spiked. We are struggling. The kids are fearful yet strong. Cory is worn out yet loving. I hurt still, but I know that God is holding us all and carrying me through as I’m not able to walk it on my own…

Please, please pray.

Sincerely, Dani

Deuteronomy 31:8

“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Posted in: Family, God, Health, hubs, Life, Lyme Disease, Prayer, Update

A hundred stories later…

July 16, 2016 10:28 pm , Leave a Comment ,

Wow!  I knew that Lyme was all over. I knew wholeheartedly that it was here on the West Coast, and without a doubt in Bend, Oregon…  But to hear over a hundred personal stories from people in the last two days has blown my mind. Not the number itself, but the amount of people who have been so afraid to speak of it out loud. People who have expired doctor after doctor and feel hopeless.hope

Its for these people, my husband, our three kiddos, diseased friends whom I’ve met at the doctors office, and myself that I cannot stop sharing, talking, blogging, and won’t stop fighting for health, answers, and a voice for a disease that makes so many feel alone and isolated. This disease desires to break you down so much that you have no fight left in you, it drives you to severe depression, it eats at your brain, it causes aches so deep you can’t walk, impaires hearing, sight, breathing, memory, heart rhythms, causes seizures, pain like I’ve never known I could feel, and a constant migraine that grates on you so much that daily life is never the same. We have to keep fighting for funding, acknowledgement, and answers!

Please continue sharing these posts, please pray for all these people that have reached out, please help our family financially so that we can be healthy enough to make waves and fight on for all of those that cannot fight for themselves…

Sincerely, Dani

Posted in: Family, God, Health, Life, Live IT Out!, Lyme Disease, Prayer, Uncategorized, Update

Watch the News Tonight!

July 15, 2016 8:35 pm , 1 Comment ,

I didn’t post yesterday, but yet so much has happened.  Yesterday, I started my Heavy Metals Testing and Treatment.  This is supposed to onset 48 hours of flu like symptoms… but I have not felt sick like that, only severely fatigued and weak.  I also tested to see how I would handle high dose Vitamin C which I am supposed to begin this next week.

Cory’s initial test results came in and we have confirmation that he too has Chronic Lyme Disease.  He will begin intensive treatment Monday and will be at the doctor every day like me.  We knew that Lyme could be sexually transmitted and transmitted in utero as well.  We were very aware that it was quite possible that Cory and all three kiddos have Lyme and co-infections… but that was a hard afternoon for me having finality that indeed I had given this to my best friend and kiddos.  Thank God we are on the road to healing… it honestly cannot get here quickly enough and yet we have so much pre-Germany treatment to accomplish before we go too!

As soon as I got in the car to head home from the Doctors office, our local news station called me and asked if they could come out to our home and interview our family.  As much as I don’t like being in front of a video camera… this is exciting and we pray that it sheds light on this awful disease, opens physicians eyes as well as the general public that Lyme IS on the West Coast, it is here in Bend, and it can be anywhere!  We filmed yesterday evening and the story will air tonight, Friday July 15th at both 10pm and 11pm on Z21.  You can also find it after it airs on their website:  http://www.ktvz.com  (Have grace on me… I was so very nervous!)interview

And then………. the celebrating began!  Cory and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary yesterday!  I was so thankful that I didn’t feel flu-ish so we could go out to dinner while my parents watched the kiddos!  Cory and I will never forget this zany, crazy day celebrating usanniv1

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Today has been a day off of me being at doctors, and I welcomed that!  I took the kiddos to the dentist and then we went and spent some of the afternoon with their great aunts and great grandma.  We came home in time to finish off the day with a good swim and soaked up the last of the day’s sunshine!tree

Soooooo many people have reached out and let us know they are praying alongside us, you have shared our story, and many have helped financially.  All we can say is THANK YOU!  We need the help and you are each such a blessing!  Please help us share our fundraising page… Germany is around the corner!

Sincerely, Dani

Posted in: Family, Health, hubs, Life, Lyme Disease, Prayer, Update

Keep the HOPE!

July 12, 2016 10:48 pm , Leave a Comment ,

Today was another really, really long day, but a successful one too.   My sister had a dentist appointment scheduled for today, and was going to reschedule so I was able to hop into her spot and have the rest of my amalgam removed quite spur of the moment.  I am so thankful that it is all out and we can move onto treating heavy metals later this week.  Then we all rushed back into Bend (my dentist is an hour away), and I had to get to my other doctor appointment early to heat up my veins in hopes that they would not collapse again.  The heat helps them to expand and not go hiding away… (if I were them… I would have run away a long time ago after thousands of pokes!).  I was able to receive my Artesinate IV which targets one of the main co-infections that I have called Babesia.

Babesia feeds on the protein in iron which is called Ferretin.  We finally also got an answer to my ALWAYS crazy, scary low levels of ferretin.  This has taken years to discover.  I used to go into a clinic every 4-6 months and would get six infusions of ferretin over the course of two weeks.  This was painful and extremely costly.  I would test ok for ferretin for about 2 months and then it would quickly disappear until I was into single digits again.  When my ferretin is this low I have zero energy, my strength is lessened, and yet it also makes it very difficult to find rest or any sleep.  This can be dangerous, but now that we have an answer to what is consuming my ferretin we have to keep a close eye on my Hemoglobin and Hematecrit levels and only if they drop too low will we begin immediate injections of ferretin again.  We definitely do not want to continue feeding the babesia bacteria like we had been for so many years past.  

After the doctor… we switched our cell phone carrier so that our international rates were much more affordable for our trip ahead.  Each little step completed gets us a bit closer…  Germany is coming so very soon!

Please keep me in your prayers tomorrow as I am starting some new, intense treatments and they can always increase my “herxing” (Herxing is believed to occur when injured or dead bacteria release their endotoxins into the blood and tissues faster than the body can comfortably handle it.)  We believe it is important to begin these treatments since they will have to start them in Germany, and it will help increase my comfort level while in the hospital if we can work up to the levels that I will receive abroad.

Keeping my hope in the One who made me!

Sincerely, Dani

 

Posted in: Family, God, Health, Life, Live IT Out!, Lyme Disease, Update

A Long Day…

July 11, 2016 10:26 pm , 3 Comments ,

This is going to be a quick post tonight.  I am not feeling well, and maybe it’s because I have been at doctors appointments most of my day.  I started the day extra early, which is NEVER easy for me…  I don’t sleep until early hours of the morning, and today I had to hit the shower at 6am.  I was at the dentist for round #2 today of amalgam removal, and I will have one more appointment next week to finish up the process before we can start treatment for heavy metals. dentist

Then I had an appointment with my doctor here in Bend to set a soft catheter in my arm for the week… however, my veins were not wanting to cooperate today, so we ended up just getting two IV’s.  I will head back to the doc tomorrow morning to try the catheter again tomorrow morning! haydenshug

I then wrapped up the day with having my hair extensions put back in… what a great feeling to get all freshened up!

And…. just in case anyone forgot that today is 7-11…  we made sure to get the kiddos their annual free slurpees at 7-11.  This year Cory had to take them, because my day didn’t allow, but how cute is this crazy pic of my crazy bunch?  Man, I love them so much!slurpees

Please pray for:

No mercury poisoning symptoms tonight/ tomorrow like I had last week

That my veins are easy to set the catheter in tomorrow

Provision for all areas of life

Kiddos who feel secure and for the nightmares to end tonight

Endurance for Cory as all areas of life are tugging on him hard

Healing for my body, Cory’s body, and the kiddos bodies

There were so many blessings along the way as well…

My Uncle is my dentist!

My Aunt is my dental hygienist!

I have the greatest hairstylist/ amazing friend!

My IV drugs made it through customs in Germany and to the doctor just in time!

My parents took me to Prineville for my dentist appointment for half the day!

My sister let Grey come over and play so she was distracted and having FUN!

Soooo… in short, God is good… all the time!

I am so crazy exhausted after this day.  This is too much for me on most days now, and I am going to hit the sheets about two hours earlier than I usually do!  Good night everyone!

Sincerely, Dani

Posted in: Family, God, Health, Life, Live IT Out!, Lyme Disease, Prayer, Update

An Open Update…

July 10, 2016 10:34 pm , 3 Comments ,

Hair… Hair… Hair…

This has been such an ongoing battle for me for about these last 8-9 years now.  My hair has never been amazing or coarse, but it was long and I had lots of it.  Almost a decade ago now my hair started falling out by the handfuls.  Although at first I suspected it was just part of having babies and it would recover eventually, this was not the case for my head.  My hair became more and more fine, it has become very brittle, thin to the point of not being able to cover up my scalp in several areas, and it has slowly broken off to up above my shoulders and above my ears in some parts too.

I know, I know… this is not the end of the world, however, I believe that God gave us hair and that it is part of the beauty we see on people’s exterior.  I also know that true beauty is on the INSIDE.  For me personally, this is a battle I have had to fight in my own heart.  I have three kiddos and two of them are daughters that I never want to view themselves in the light of their beauty being dependent on wearing makeup, having a perfect figure, wearing the most designer clothing, or what hair they may or may not have.  I also know that there have been soooooo many drastic changes in my health, emotions, appearance, and overall feeling and some of these vary greatly from day to day.  Because of these unknowns that I cannot EVER be in control of, I have been wearing extensions in my hair for the last 8-ish years off and on… mostly ON!  I have struggled with thinking it was vain.  I have had several heart to hearts with my kiddos about what beauty is, what beauty isn’t, and why I have chosen to change a part of me for the time being.  I have cried on my husbands shoulders about it more times than I can count.  For some reason, hair for me is one thing that I can be in control of with extensions and they help me still feel like a girl.  And you know what…  regardless of how I am feeling each day, if I can get out of bed just long enough to brush my hair and put it up in a ponytail or maybe go to the doctor with curls in it… I just plain feel better all over!tumblr_lx0jysav6H1r5fqbuo1_500

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I just took my extensions out tonight… I have to take them out and have them put back in about every 6 weeks or so!

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These are them… They will be re-taped in tomorrow evening!

I wanted to share this info because I’ve overheard many conversations bashing ladies for having “fake” hair.  I want to encourage people to have grace with others.  Whether you agree with something trivial like extensions, makeup, or other things that don’t really matter at the end of the day, they do not change a person’s heart, and maybe, just MAYBE they are dealing with something out of their control that you would never know and they just need a moment, a day, or a cute ponytail to feel a tiny bit better overall!

I may have extensions in my hair, it may be fake, it will never define me, but I am ok with them and am incredibly thankful for the people that donate their hair for my extensions and literally thank God for them each day that I brush or wash them… because of those women, I too can feel like a woman on the outside while striving to be more like Christ inwardly every moment for the rest of my life!

I also have to say a quick THANK YOU to the world’s greatest hairdresser, sweetest friend, and huge blessing in my life:   Jenna Ringer… you have done my hair so amazingly for soooooo many years!  I am blessed by you friend!  XO

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Posted in: God, Health, Life, Live IT Out!, Lyme Disease, Update

One Month and Counting Down…

July 9, 2016 9:23 pm , 2 Comments ,

One month till we land in Munich, Germany!  Today Cory started all of his testing for co-infections, Lyme Disease, and a full panel work up. We became bandage buddies and I finally have a partner in all these pokes…  Eeeeek!

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We also got our international drivers licenses!!!  It’s getting closer and I’m getting more nervous, but the kiddos excitement to see another country is a welcome distraction from all that we are facing in the near future!

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On one more note, after a lengthy doctors appointment this morning, we have decided to catheter my arm so that I won’t be continually poked all week, every week…  This is going to be helpful, but the reality of the severity of all of this somehow set in with just that one simple piece of news…  Please pray for peace for all of us, and that little Grey, who is at the age where she’s realizing that her mommy isn’t like lots of other little girls’ mommies is going to be seeing more and more visible signs of this disease. She is also struggling getting used to me being at the doctor every weekday…  She is crying when I leave and asking for extra cuddles and attention. The big kiddos seem all too strong until a “bad” night is upon us, and then fear sets in.  Please pray for protection over their thoughts, that their young hearts can handle the extra burdens and that they be filled with JOY in it all!  Pray that Cory is given Gods wisdom in all areas of providing for and protecting our family. Pray that he has productive days for work, enough energy to make meals, and can let down and relax/ laugh even in the mundane day in/ day out trials. 

Thank you for sharing in our Beautyfull Mess…  We treasure each one of you on this journey with us!  

Sincerely, Dani

Posted in: Family, God, Health, Life, Live IT Out!, Lyme Disease, Prayer, Update