The Best Presents Often Come In Ugly Wrapping Paper.

I have finished my first week of antibiotic treatment and it has not been too bad. I am quite tired and achy, but it is just a little more than what I have been living with for a long time.  Antibiotics are on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, two times a day and alternate days are IV fluids.  Right now I have my pump running and I use a small backpack to carry it around for three hours. I wish I could go to the Old Beach Farmer's Market this morning, but I doubt I am supposed to drive while hooked up to an IV.  Instead I played fetch with Sydney and enjoyed the cool wet grass under my bare feet.

Yesterday I had to get out of the house for a bit.  I stopped by the Second Yard to say "thank you" to a friend.  About a month ago I was on the fence about getting IV treatment for Lyme.  The medications I have been on had mitigated some of the symptoms so maybe IV treatment was a little extreme.  When I mentioned Lyme, my friend BJ told me she" knew all about Lyme".  The way that she said it was so deeply felt that I pressed her a little to tell me about it.  She told me about her brother who lived in Northern Virginia.  He was very athletic and a PE teacher.  He felt sick one day and went a cardiologist for a workup.  They could not find anything, so they sent him home.  The next day while teaching a class, he collapsed and died.  When they did an autopsy, they found out he had Lyme and it had attacked his heart. The pain she felt was still so fresh three years later it broke my heart for her.

The day after seeing BJ, I went to my Garden Club meeting even though I was having a bad day. I love my Garden Club Girls.  In one group of ladies, I have friends, sisters, mothers and grandmothers.  Since I lost Mom and Grandma when I was 40, these ladies, who are so accomplished, caring, civic minded, and share a love of flowers and gardening, fill a tremendous hole in my life. That day I had an overwhelming feeling of fatigue and was experiencing tremors not just in my hands, but in my whole body as well.  One of our members came up to me before the meeting and showed me her tick bite. She stated she did not have time to go to the doctor, but  I made her promise me she would go.

While sitting on the steps during the meeting the tremors had increased and my feet turned purple.  My friend Terri and I chair the Conservation Committee, and we decided that part of our report would be to explain the importance of using a bug repellant with DEET every time they are out in the garden to prevent tick bites, and to get prompt and adequate treatment if they did get a tick bite. As I stood before our Club with my notes in hand, I explained to them what Lyme has done to me: heart damage, dementia, tremors...At this point my tremors escalated and were uncontrollable.  The more I tried to control them, the worse they became. They were so intense, it reminded me my Grandmother's worst episodes with Parkinson's.  My "sister/friend", Terri, hugged and consoled me until the tremors subsided to a fine hum.. Terri's deep faith and selfless love helped restore me that morning. Later, during a committee meeting that I was "leading" I do not think I said anything comprehensible.

I could no longer deny the extent of my illness.

Now, one week into treatment, although I know things will get worse before they get better, I see the many blessing and gifts I have already received: a loving and caring family, a loving God who puts people in your path to show you what you need to do, gifts of food, friendship, and flowers, and hope for recovery.  The best presents often come in ugly wrapping paper.