A New Page...

...and hopefully a new me!

I say that pretty non-chalantly now.  But Sunday night I sort of had an "identity crisis".  I told Chad I felt so strange.  Like I had such a changed life ahead of me.   But I have since realized that God has allowed this to happen and He is ready for some change in me.  Everyone knows me as the baker.  I love to make "sweeties" and have even sold them!  It's something I have always enjoyed doing.  But with my latest diet change due to health issues, I feel like that's on hold right now.  And it's going to be ok!  It's not even like we ate much of what I baked!  It was always for someone else.  My boys would beg me to make them cinnamon rolls instead of making them for someone else!

And so here is my story...

It all started late summer of last year.  I had a little bit on my plate...homeschool was starting, co-op was starting and I was teaching for the first month, we were beginning Financial Peace at our house each Wednesday (so I had to have my house all cleaned up each Wednesday!) and we were starting First Place with our church group.  So yeah, a little going on = some stress.  I had what I thought was a UTI so I went to my Gyn.  They checked my urine and didn't see anything.  Then I went back again because I just knew something was going on...thought maybe a kidney infection or something.  I just didn't feel good!  They told me that is what I had and prescribed me some antibiotics.  After talking to them later, I found out that I had some unknown substance but they gave me the AB's based on my symptoms.  I was a little irritated at that.  Then came headaches and nausea.  I had serious headaches and the nausea every day for 2 weeks.  I never have headaches like this.  So I went to see my family physican.  He wanted to rule out anything real serious, so we had bloodwork and a CT scan preformed.  Of course, everything was normal.  (and yes, I did have a brain in there!)  He prescribed me some meds for migraines.  I wasn't convinced that this was it, so I talked to him and he suggested maybe I should see my Gyn about my hormones.  By this time, I was feeling pretty terrible all over...pain, feeling like I had the flu or that a truck had ran over me, some hair loss, more.  She thought it sounded like Lupus, so she ran some more tests.  I had a positive ANA test.  That is for auto-immune diseases such as Lupus.  She referred me to a rheumatologist who could not get me in for months.  I had to see him.  So my dear friend's husband did a doctor to doctor favor and got me in.  Just before the appointment I reached to wash my back and found this awful feeling rash.  I never have rashes, of any kind.  I just stood in the shower and bawled just sure that I had Lupus.  It's not life-threatening or anything.  Just lifestyle changes that I didn't think I could handle.  Like not being in the sun...and having 3 young boys!?!?!

The rheum doc took a lot more blood to run tests for lupus and other auto-immune diseases, as well as checking a whole lot more.  That all came back ok, so he diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia after I aced the "tender point test".  At this point, I just knew that is what I had.  After all, my brother has it.  Now he has gone through a lot more than me.  He paved the road...well I didn't want to take that same road.  I knew what was in front of me...what meds they would try to put me on, including anti-depressants that I flat out refused to take!

Ok, this is getting way too lengthy.  I will continue my story on a later post!