Housekeeping
Clearing up a couple of things on this bright, crisp and cool Sunday morning that I’ve left dormant for far too long!
1 – THANK YOU DOT!! A student of mine, who was moved by my plight when she saw how devastated I was by the early demise of my Scuncii Steamer, financed the purchase of a NEW Scuncii steamer! (many of you will remember how I waxed poetic over my first one – well, this one is JUST AS GOOD!)
2 – Limerick Fibers in Gordonsville, VA is an WONDERFUL store! They have one of the most complete collections of Cascade Fibers (a real work horse of knitting, and economical, too!) and the atmosphere of the place is just wonderful. If you’re near Charlottesville, NC and would like to take a few classes or stroll into a smaller town for a nice visit to a yarn shop, check out Limerick Fibers. The owner, Lola, is such a nice person – I thoroughly enjoyed my time teaching there – the students were wonderful, the new large teaching space is fabulous!
Lyme?
On my recent drive down to VA I listened to Amy Tan’s The Opposite of Fate and thoroughly enjoyed it. Several times I had to pull over because the descriptions of her relationship with her mother were right on the money for me. An extra bonus was that her last chapter dealt entirely with her struggle with Lyme disease. Her description of the disease sounded frighteningly familiar.
In 1990 I had Lyme disease – pretty badly. I was in grad school and apparently was biten by a tick when I visited a local NJ state park historic site in a skirt and sandals. After I experienced the bullseye rash and some of the basic symptoms, I headed to the Rutgers infirmary where I had to beg them to perform the Lyme test (which took a month to get back from the state of New Jersey) It was a lyme titer test, and it was quite high. At the time I was given a short course of antibiotics, the symtoms returned, and the whole process was repeated 3 or 4 times, each time with the symptoms returning stronger and for a longer period of time.
Eventually I lost control of half of my face, which wasn’t terribly obvious unless you looked at me for a while, I tried to talk, or you noticed the drool pooling at the corner of my mouth. Lovely. Finally I was given a course of intravenous antibiotics, which seemed to do the trick, and I was able to stay awake for more than 6 hours at a time and finish my degree.
The symptoms I’ve been experiencing for the past few years echo my earlier bout with Lyme, although the brain fogginess is much more severe. Why, when I started having the joint aches, brain fogginess, exhaustion, I didn’t immediately think “Aha! Lyme Disease!” is beyond me.
As I was packing to go to VA I received an email from my cousin, Jan, asking if I’d considered Lyme disease as I’d had it before and the symptoms seemed to be exactly what I was experiencing. I tucked her comments away in the back of my poorly functioning brain – it wasn’t until I listened to Amy Tan’s book on tape that all of the pieces seemed to come together.
So now I go in search of diagnosis and treatment – me with no health insurance. I hate to say, “I hope I have this disease!” – but I hope I do! I conquered it before, perhaps this is a relapse brought on by my OC surgery several years ago and exacerbated by the mental stress in my life. Or maybe I was bit again and didn’t realize it. With the proper antibiotics I can whip this again, I’m sure!
It would be amazing to feel like my ‘old’ self again.